Porsche’s customer teams head to the six-hour race of the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship at Watkins Glen with high expectations.
In a final sprint over 37 minutes, the team from the US state of Ohio finished in eighth place, directly behind the car of the Porsche customer team Pfaff Motorsports. After a gripping final phase, Hardpoint EBM finished tenth in the GTD class with its Porsche 911 GT3 R. In the GTLM class, the Porsche 911 RSR fielded by WeatherTech Racing had to retire from the six-hour race after just three laps.
“Watkins Glen has once again shown just how quickly the tide can turn in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship,” concludes Sebastian Golz, Project Manager Porsche 911 GT3 R. “Wright Motorsports delivered a very strong performance and took maximum points for the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup after three hours in the lead, but in the final hour, a safety car phase reshuffled everything. Different strategies as well as the unlucky timing of the safety car deployment pushed the competition to the front. For us, it was then a case of damage control and to keep all three 911 GT3 R in the top ten.”
In sunny conditions and temperatures of around 30 degrees Celsius, Trent Hindman was the first to take the limelight at the wheel of the No. 16 car. Driving for Wright Motorsports, the American had taken up the race from the second grid spot. He quickly snatched the GTD-class lead and successfully fended off all overtaking attempts during his two stints. Belgium’s Jan Heylen also defended the lead spot and handed the car off to works driver Patrick Long about two hours before the end of the race. Due to a different strategy, the American fell back to second place and was on a steady course for a podium finish. However, the fourth and final full-course yellow shattered the podium dream.
Porsche Newsroom
