Motorsport News April 29, 2019 No. 34/19 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, SRO Blancpain GT World Challenge America, 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 Motorsport Weekly Event Notes: Monday, April 29, 2019 This Week. • Defending Ohio. Porsche GT Team Looks to Repeat at Mid-Ohio. • Match Point. Porsche Sets Sights on World Championship in Belgium. • Porsche Podiums. 911 GT3 R Customers Capture SRO GT Podiums at VIR. • All In The Family. Black Swan Helps Wright Motorsports to Porsche Podium. • Road and Race. Kelly-Moss Remains Benchmark Team in IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge. Porsche Profile. Event Story Lines. Defending Ohio. Porsche GT Team Looks to Repeat at Mid-Ohio. Earl Bamber (New Zealand) and Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) scored their first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race win together in the No. 912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR a year ago at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. They earned their second career victory at the most recent race in Long Beach, California. That success, paired with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring GTLM class win of Patrick Public Relations Department 1 of 18 Motorsport Communications Dave Engelman Phone +1.770.290.3617 [email protected] Motorsport News April 29, 2019 No. 34/19 Pilet (France) and Nick Tandy (Great Britain) in the No. 911 car, places the Porsche factory operation in the lead of the manufacturers’ and drivers’ championship. The two- car Porsche 911 RSR team returns to the Lexington, Ohio-area race track May 3 – 5 to defend the 2018 class win. Following the 24-hour race at Daytona, and victories in the 12-hour Sebring and 100- minutes at Long Beach, the IMSA Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio is the first event of the year at the standard two-hour and 40-minute run time. Porsche has fought to three consecutive GTLM class pole positions and two wins in a row. As a result, Pilet and Tandy currently rank second in the drivers’ classification. The sister car driven by Bamber and Vanthoor leads the championship after winning the Long Beach street race. While the GTD class was absent from the previous round on the West Coast, the Porsche 911 GT3 R returns to the competition on the 2.258-mile, 13-turn natural terrain road course in central Ohio. Two customer teams bring the rear-engine 911 GT3 R to the third-race in the Pro-Am class season. First-year Canadian team Pfaff Motorsports enters the No. 9 driven by Porsche Selected Driver Scott Hargrove (Canada) and 2018 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama champion Zach Robichon (Canada). The familiar Park Place Motorsports No. 73 has a driver change for the weekend. With Team Principal/Driver Patrick Lindsey (Santa Barbara, California) in Belgium for the penultimate race of the 2018/2019 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season at Spa-Francorchamps, Porsche veteran Marco Seefried (Austria) will share the car with Porsche factory ace Patrick Long (Manhattan Beach, California). Public Relations Department 2 of 18 Motorsport Communications Dave Engelman Phone +1.770.290.3617 [email protected] Motorsport News April 29, 2019 No. 34/19 Pascal Zurlinden, Director GT Factory Motorsport. “Of course we want to continue our good run from the past weeks. The competition among the manufacturers in the GTLM class is fierce. We recently gave an impressive demonstration of just how strong the combination of our squads and the Porsche 911 RSR is. We were victorious over long distances and at the sprint race. Now we’re travelling to Mid-Ohio as last year’s winners – and that gives us even more confidence. We aim to maintain our front spot in the championship and hopefully extend our lead.” Steffen Höllwarth, Program Manager IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. “After our wins at Sebring and Long Beach we’re travelling to the Mid-Ohio race feeling very motivated. This racetrack presents us with new challenges. The course is a real mixed bag with many tight turns and long straights. It requires mechanic grip and the setup must be a good compromise between a lot of downforce and enough top speed. Our victory last year underlined that the Porsche 911 RSR is well suited to the track. Although we’ve been victorious at the previous races, we’ve always had the potential to bring home podium results with both cars. I hope we can do this in Mid-Ohio.” Sebastian Golz, Project Manager, Porsche 911 GT3 R. “The Mid-Ohio track is not only rich in tradition but is also really challenging. The layout allows different racing lines in some places, but the lap-time differences are not significant. The key to success is a strong qualifying result because this narrow circuit doesn’t offer many over-taking opportunities. If you start up the front you can control the race. We want our customer teams’ two Porsche 911 GT3 R cars to be in this promising position.” Public Relations Department 3 of 18 Motorsport Communications Dave Engelman Phone +1.770.290.3617 [email protected] Motorsport News April 29, 2019 No. 34/19 Patrick Pilet, Driver, No. 911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR. “The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course has a very special character. It has lots of different types of asphalt and the transition between them can often be tricky. We were very fast there last year with both cars. We qualified on the front grid row and our colleagues in the sister car scored victory in the race. I’m confident that we’ll be strong again this year.” Nick Tandy, Driver, No. 911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR. “Last year was my first time on this racetrack and I was instantly impressed. Mid-Ohio is a truly classic circuit for sports cars in a typical American style. I really like that. The track surface changes several times per lap, and so does the grip. We have to work intensively on the setup and keep an eye on the weather at all times. It rains quite often in early May around the Lexington area. We have to be prepared for it.” Earl Bamber, Driver, No. 912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR. “There’s definitely no lack of motivation and excitement. We’re tackling Mid-Ohio as last year’s winners and have won the previous round at Long Beach. We now bring this momentum and these successes to the upcoming race. It’ll be important to notch up another victory there, because afterwards the IMSA series will take a long break in the lead-up to the Le Mans 24-hour race. We’re determined to travel to France as the series leaders and then continue the season in North America as the frontrunners.” Laurens Vanthoor, Driver, No. 912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR. “If you’ve won last year with the same car on the same track then obviously it’s wonderful to return to the venue. For us in the number 912 Porsche 911 RSR there’s also the lingering pleasure of our Long Beach victory. Still, the Mid-Ohio race will be no Public Relations Department 4 of 18 Motorsport Communications Dave Engelman Phone +1.770.290.3617 [email protected] Motorsport News April 29, 2019 No. 34/19 walk in the park. The racetrack is challenging because many lines lack grip. We have to do our utmost to be at the front again.” Match Point. Porsche Sets Sights on World Championship in Belgium. Porsche reaches a match point at the seventh round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on May 4. The factory squad has the opportunity to take home the LMGTE-Pro class manufacturers’ title at the penultimate round of the 2018/2019 WEC “Super Season”. Two of the ca. 510 hp Porsche 911 RSR will go against vehicles from Aston Martin, BMW, Ford and Ferrari. The six-hour race marks the second visit to the Belgian venue in the current WEC season. It was here that the Super Season began a year ago. At that event, the two works cars finished in second and fourth-position. The 4.35-mile racetrack near the German border has a long tradition. During its rich history in sports car racing and Formula One, fans have been treated to many gripping and spectacular races. The “Ardennes rollercoaster”, as the Circuit de Spa- Francorchamps is often called due to its wildly undulating layout, includes 21 corners. Fast turns such as Eau Rouge and Blanchimont are as famous as the tight La Source hairpin. Winners of the most recent race on the WEC schedule, the 1,000-miles of Sebring in Florida, Gianmaria Bruni (Italy) and Richard Lietz (Austria) tackle the race in the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR. After seven of this season’s eight rounds, the pair ranks second in the drivers’ classification. Only their brand colleagues Kévin Estre (France) and Michael Christensen (Denmark) are in a better position in the identical vehicle with the Public Relations Department 5 of 18 Motorsport Communications Dave Engelman Phone +1.770.290.3617 [email protected] Motorsport News April 29, 2019 No. 34/19 starting number 92. The winners of the 2018 Le Mans 24-hour race and the six-hour event at Fuji, Japan hold a championship lead of 25 points over their colleagues.