Motorsport News August 7, 2018 No
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Motorsport News August 7, 2018 No. 55/18 Dear Journalist: Early each week, Porsche Cars North America will provide a weekend summary or pre- race event notes package, covering the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Pirelli World Challenge (PWC), the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) or other areas of interest from the world of Porsche Motorsport. Please utilize this resource as needed, and do not hesitate to contact us for additional information. - Porsche Cars North America Motorsports Public Relations Team Porsche Motorsports Weekly Event Notes: Tuesday, August 7, 2018 This Week. • Wright for Road America. Porsche Customer Wins IMSA GTD; Factory GT Team Finishes Fourth. • First Three Titles. Porsche in Hunt for GTX Titles with Christensen and Hargrove in Pirelli World Challenge. • Peak TV. “Porsche Challenge at Pike’s Peak” to Premier on Velocity. Upcoming Porsche Race Events. Pirelli World Challenge. Event: SprintX Championship Finale: Grand Prix of Utah, Utah Motorsports Campus Dateline: Tooele, Utah Date: Friday – Sunday, August 10 – 12, 2018 Track Length: 3.048-miles, 24-turn Race Duration: 2, 60-minutes Public Relations Department 1 of 12 Public Relations Department Motorsport Communications Product Communications Dave Engelman David Burkhalter Phone +1.770.290.3617 Phone +1.770.290.3511 [email protected] [email protected] Motorsport News August 7, 2018 No. 55/18 Class: GT-X (Porsche 911 GT3 R) GTS-X (Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR) Round: GT-X. 9 and 10 of 10 GTS-X. 9 and 10 of 10 Next Round: Sprint Championship Finale: GP of Watkins Glen, Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, New York, August 31 – September 1, 2018 Porsche Profile. Event Story Lines. Wright for Road America. Porsche Customer Wins IMSA GTD; Factory GT Team Finishes Fourth. Wright Motorsports secured the first GTD class win of 2018 for the Porsche 911 GT3 R at round eight of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on Sunday, August 5. The customer program, with Porsche factory driver Patrick Long (Manhattan Beach, California) and Porsche Selected Driver Christina Nielsen (Denmark), celebrated its first victory from the class pole position. The Porsche GT Team challenged throughout the two-hour, 40-minute event with its pair of factory 911 RSR, eventually closing the race at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin’s Road America in fourth and fifth-place in the all- factory GTLM class. Long and Nielsen put in a flawless drive in their Porsche 911 GT3 R. The pair had already posted pole position during Saturday’s qualifying on the 4.048-mile circuit. With an immaculate drive on Sunday, they achieved their maiden victory in the highly Public Relations Department 2 of 12 Public Relations Department Motorsport Communications Product Communications Dave Engelman David Burkhalter Phone +1.770.290.3617 Phone +1.770.290.3511 [email protected] [email protected] Motorsport News August 7, 2018 No. 55/18 competitive class. This marks the 542nd Porsche win in the 49-year history of IMSA. Competing for Park Place Motorsports, Patrick Lindsey (Santa Barbara, California) and Porsche factory driver Jörg Bergmeister (Germany) were eliminated from contention after being pushed wide on course and making race-ending contact with the wall. For Porsche fans, the race at Elkhart Lake turned into an emotional rollercoaster ride. New Zealander Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) scored fourth-place in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR after a turbulent race. The sister car with drivers Nick Tandy (Great Britain) and Patrick Pilet (France) took the flag in fifth-place. Grid positions four and eight for the “works” cars initially dampened expectations, however thanks to a perfect strategy during the early stage of the race, starting driver Tandy moved into the lead of the GTLM field. The UK race driver remained at the front until an hour before the finish. After a close duel with a pursuing vehicle, the No. 911 car was handed a drive-through penalty. The 2018 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring- winning effort ultimately reached the finish line in position five. Vanthoor and Bamber also treated spectators to some gripping race action. Taking off from fourth on the grid, Vanthoor fell back as far as eighth place with the No. 912 car over the course of the race. However, despite a number of caution phases, the two worked their way up through the GTLM ranks and missed out on a podium spot. Round nine of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will be held at the VIRginia Raceway (VIR) on August 17 - 19. The weekend at the Alton, Virginia-area track will be the second GT car-only IMSA race of the season. Public Relations Department 3 of 12 Public Relations Department Motorsport Communications Product Communications Dave Engelman David Burkhalter Phone +1.770.290.3617 Phone +1.770.290.3511 [email protected] [email protected] Motorsport News August 7, 2018 No. 55/18 Pascal Zurlinden, Director GT Factory Motorsport. “That was a tough race for the team. We knew that the track characteristics with its long straights would make it difficult for us here. We really struggled in the qualifying, but we made up for this in the race with a perfect strategy and optimal pit stops for our number 911 car. But then we were handed a drive-through penalty and we went backwards from that point on. In two weeks we’ll be in Virginia, where we’ll attack again. Congratulations to our customer team Wright Motorsports on winning the GTD class.” Patrick Long, Driver, No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R. “We’ve waited a long time for this, so it definitely makes it sweeter. Coming off of a disappointing run two weeks ago, we all banded together as a team to make this happen. The focus and motivation in the atmosphere was the highest it’s been all season and that says a lot about the organization. The race itself had a lot more yellows than we expected, which that always makes you nervous because you’re thinking about how the strategy should be. Fortunately, everyone just kept their cool and hit their marks. The car was phenomenal. I honestly don’t remember having a car that had that perfect of a balance in a long, long time, so I have to give credit to the whole organization on the setup and speed. We’ll try to carry this to VIR.” Christina Nielsen, Driver, No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time and everything finally came together this weekend. A race track is a living creature; everything changes with different conditions and different weather. You may have information from the year before, but you can never guarantee that it's going to be that good. This was a testament to the team and how well they did. Patrick did a great job putting it on pole, the car was amazing to Public Relations Department 4 of 12 Public Relations Department Motorsport Communications Product Communications Dave Engelman David Burkhalter Phone +1.770.290.3617 Phone +1.770.290.3511 [email protected] [email protected] Motorsport News August 7, 2018 No. 55/18 drive, the strategy, the pit stops- everything was perfect. The fact that our first podium ended up being a victory was just, perfection." Earl Bamber, Driver, No. 912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR. “We ended up on fourth-place. We simply couldn’t do any more. To be honest, we were lucky that the others experienced problems. When we arrived here our expectations weren’t that high, because it’s a tricky circuit for our car and tires. We’ve had several strong performances that we haven’t managed to turn into victories. Now let’s see how it goes in Virginia.” Laurens Vanthoor, Driver, No. 912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR. “All in all, it was a difficult race. We encountered some critical situations with other vehicles out on the track. That’s what I call tough racing. Fourth in qualifying was okay, but unfortunately we lacked enough speed in the race.” Nick Tandy, Driver, No. 911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR. “In terms of strategy we were very well sorted. And everything else worked perfectly. I was just a little surprised by the penalty from the race director. Of course you have to accept such a drive-through penalty, which is what we did, but it meant we had to bury our dreams of a top podium finish.” Patrick Pilet, Driver, No. 911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR. “The team did a great job. The strategy was definitely the right one and our pit stops were also extremely good today. Then out of the blue we received a drive-through penalty for contact with another vehicle. That’s frustrating. We hope it’ll be better at the next race in Virginia.” Public Relations Department 5 of 12 Public Relations Department Motorsport Communications Product Communications Dave Engelman David Burkhalter Phone +1.770.290.3617 Phone +1.770.290.3511 [email protected] [email protected] Motorsport News August 7, 2018 No. 55/18 First Three Titles. Porsche in Hunt for GTX Titles with Christensen and Hargrove in Pirelli World Challenge. The Pirelli World Challenge (PWC) will decide its first three champions of 2018 this weekend at the Grand Prix of Utah. The SprintX Championship – twin, 60-minute races with two-driver pairings – will run rounds 9 and 10 at the Utah Motorsports Campus in Tooele to decide the SprintX Driver, Team and Manufacturer titles for North America’s premier sprint-format GT car championship.