Tag: Porsche Penske Motorsports

Porsche takes Watkins Glen pole on points as rain truncates qualifying

Heavy rain that begin just as the LMP2 and LMP3 cars went out to set the grid scuttled qualifying for all the prototype classes, which will all be set based on points. The No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy will …

Heavy rain that begin just as the LMP2 and LMP3 cars went out to set the grid scuttled qualifying for all the prototype classes, which will all be set based on points. The No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy will start on pole for tomorrow’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, with the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims and Jack Aitken alongside.

“It’s a culmination of the last five, six months of work actually,” said Tandy, who was slated to qualify the No. 7. “Of course, everybody wants to run in qualifying. In a six hour race, especially, it’s not the most important part of the weekend and we all know this, but it’s a chance for … it’s a different type of competition, and it carries points for the championship, so everybody wants to compete. But honestly, when I saw the cars going off in the in the LMP session before, and saw the forecast that was likely coming and has come, I wasn’t excited to go out there because the the level of risk for something going wrong is is massive. With prototype machinery, if the plank hydroplanes on water, this can happen even before the tires do, so it’s a very treacherous set of conditions.”

The second row will have the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06 with Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque inside and the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais outside.

The cancellation of qualifying was likely met with big disappointment by several teams, notably the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura team, for whom Colin Braun had set the fast time in both sessions and had also been quick in wet conditions during yesterday’s first free practice. The BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8s had starred as well in the morning practice session, turning the second and third-quickest fast laps.

Rain had actually hit just before GTD and GTD PRO went out for qualifying, but only in one section of the track from the top of the Esses headed to the Inner Loop, affecting the brake zone for the chicane. It dried as the session progressed, and Loris Spinelli turned several consecutive quick laps, eventually setting a new lap record and claiming the overall GT pole as well as the Motul Pole Award for GTD in the No. 78 Forte Racing Powered by USRT Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo22 he’ll share with Misha Goikhberg and Patrick Liddy. Spinelli’s 1m44.430s lap was 0.069s better than the outright GTD track record, set by Jack Hawksworth for Lexus in 2018.

“Just in the last three laps the brake point in the Bus Stop was (becoming) dry,” said Spinelli. “When the team said to me that I was missing the pole position, I was trying to push really hard at that point, because I knew that I was going really easy there, so just brake a bit later. In free practice we drove just for a couple laps due to (a red flag and rain), but we are not in the best shape so far with the setup. But I really appreciate the effort of the team this weekend, and I think for the race we could have a good result.”

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Meanwhile, Daniel Serra claimed the first IMSA pole for the Ferrari 296 GT3 by setting fast time for GTD PRO and will start alongside Spinelli in the No. 62 Risi Competizione machine after turning a lap at 1m44.829s.

“Qualifying was quite tricky. The track was completely dry, just arriving on Bus Stop was completely wet,” Serra explained. “So it was more about how much risk you take on the braking in the Bus Stop than the rest of the track. The car was really great to drive. It’s always nice to qualify and I love it and especially on this track that is really high speed.”

It will be another Lamborghini on the inside of the second row, with Jordan Pepper driving the GTD PRO No. 63 Iron Lynx Huracán to second in the class. Aaron Telitz, quickest in this morning’s session, qualified the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 second in GTD and fourth overall to start outside the second row. His 1m45.203s lap was 0.773s off Spinelli’s blistering time.

Jack Hawksworth took third in GTD PRO and fifth overall with a 1m45.297s lap in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus. GTD cars took the next two sports, Doriane Pin marking the Iron Dames’ best qualifying effort to date with a 1m45.325 in the No. 83 Lamborghini. She was followed by Madison Snow in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3, 0.109s back. Jules Gounon (No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG) and Jordan Taylor (No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R) make up the all-GTD PRO fifth row.

The three manufacturers that made up the first six places in GT qualifying all received Balance of Performance breaks prior to the weekend. The Ferrari (30kg) and Lamborghini (20kg) both lost weight, while the Lexus received a larger restrictor.

Most of the LMP2 and LMP3 cars never made a lap as rain started just as the green flag waved for the session, with the majority of cars on slicks. Some tried to make it around to set a time, while many headed straight back into the pits with hopes that officials would allow a tire change. But on their first full lap, several cars crashed in Turn 7 where the water was deepest, bringing out the red flag. First Ari Balogh in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier LMP3 slid off, then Ben Keating in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 slid into him. Keating’s car was then hit by the No. 17 AWA Duqueine LMP3 driven by Anthony Mantella. All three drivers were checked and released by medical personnel.

With the grid set on points, Steven Thomas becomes the polesitter for LMP2 in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA, with Keating alongside. Gar Robinson, by virtue of Riley Motorsports winning the only points-paying race so far, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, starts on the LMP3 pole in the No. 74 Ligier, with the No. 13 AWA Duqueine of Orey Fidani, Matthew Bell and Lars Kern alongside.

Up Next: A 20-minute warm-up session at 8 a.m. ahead of the 10:40 a.m. race start.

RESULTS

Penske Porsche tops first IMSA practice at Laguna Seca

Acura and Porsche battled for bragging rights in the first practice session of the Motul Course de Monterey for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The two Penske Porsche Motorsports 963s and the two Acura ARX-06s traded fast laps and ended …

Acura and Porsche battled for bragging rights in the first practice session of the Motul Course de Monterey for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The two Penske Porsche Motorsports 963s and the two Acura ARX-06s traded fast laps and ended up alternating at the top of the time sheet.

Matt Campbell posted the fast time of 1m16.703s, good for an average speed of 105.04mph around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn road WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Colin Braun was second in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura, 0.316s off Campbell’s best. Mathieu Jaminet was third at 1m17.115s in the No. 6 PPM 963, and Ricky Taylor completed the sequence in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura.

Pipo Derani was the best of the rest in the No. 31 Cadillac Racing by Action Express Racing V-Series.R, followed by the two BMWs. The top eight GTP cars were within a second.

Two of the GTP cars didn’t get much running in the session. Sebastien Bourdais crashed the No. 01 Cadillac in Turn 6, getting loose under braking as the right side tires of the V-Series.R ran over the freshly painted curbing. He caught the car, but too late, and it nosed into the tires, bringing out the first of two red flags during the session. The Ganassi crew quickly had the car in the garage and began work, the car possibly needing a new floor.

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JDC-Miller Motorsports’ new Porsche 963 spent most of the session on jackstands in the pits, only doing single out-in laps, until the end. Mike Rockenfeller finally completed some consecutive laps in the final 10 minutes, with a best of 1m19.563s.

The LMP2 cars, making their first appearance since Sebring, were nearly in the same second as the fastest GTP time, Louis Deletraz taking the top spot for Tower Motorsports in the No. 8 ORECA at 1m17.897s. Deletraz put half a second on the rest of the field, Ben Hanley turning a 1m18.439s in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA, 0.121s ahead of Ryan Dalziel in the No. 18 Era Motorsports entry.

Frankie Montecalvo topped all the GTD cars with a 1m24.796 (95.01mph) in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. GTD cars took the top three spots before the first GTD PRO car, the No. 14 Lexus in the hands of Ben Barnicoat with a 1m25.020s lap.

Seb Priaulx was second in GTD in the No. 80 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, 0.086s shy of Montecalvo, followed by Russell Ward in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG. Katherine Legge (No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22) and Bill Auberlen (No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M4) competed the top five in GTD.

Ross Gunn was the second-quickest in GTD PRO, putting the No. 23 Heart of Racing 11th overall among the GT cars at 1m25.391s. Jules Gounon was third in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG, followed by Klaus Bachler in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche. The No. 3 Corvette got limited running as the crew worked on a gearbox issue.

Several drivers used the new asphalt shoulder past the curbing at the exit of Turn 5 to a fault, losing lap times due to exceeding track limits. Cars in every class, seven in total, went wide in the spot, putting all four wheels over the white line at the edge of track.

UP NEXT: A 1h45m split-group practice session at 8:55am PT.

RESULTS

Porsche’s global GTP program brings parts supply challenges

Supporting customer GTP teams has presented Porsche with markedly different challenges than it’s been accustomed to with traditional GT3 customer outfits. Ongoing work to produce enough cars and spares as its three-car Le Mans effort looms only …

Supporting customer GTP teams has presented Porsche with markedly different challenges than it’s been accustomed to with traditional GT3 customer outfits. Ongoing work to produce enough cars and spares as its three-car Le Mans effort looms only serves to add more complexity.

“It’s certainly a big difference because the car is much more complicated,” Urs Kuratle, Porsche Motorsports’ Director of Factory Racing explained. “As you can see, there is a lot of equipment and especially a lot of software to take care of. The customer support program is much more difficult than in a GT car. Certain things are the same, but to set up the support program and to bring the team up to speed — that’s a big focus.”

JDC-Miller Motorsports — Porsche’s newest partner — is entering this weekend’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round with hardly anything in reserve.

“What I hear is zero (spares),” driver Mike Rockenfeller explained. “Maybe we have a few, but honestly I feel there is not much, and I think Jota was in the same situation at Spa. You have to start going at a certain point, otherwise we wouldn’t be here, and in six months still saying, ‘Oh, there are no parts; we cannot race; we need more time.’ I think we just go and see what happens.”

Incidents in the opening round of the IMSA championship have placed the whole global operation on the back foot.

“As we are racing in both (IMSA and the WEC) in parallel, we have to have spare parts on both sides of the ocean and that’s a big effort. We need a lot, a lot, of spare parts,” Kuratle said. “In the first few races we had quite a lot of contact on track as well, so we lost quite a lot of bodywork and parts there. It’s a big effort for us to have it all up to speed.”

Kuratle told to RACER that the three Porsche 963 chassis that Porsche Penske Motorsports will use at Le Mans will be the two World Endurance Championship chassis combined with one from the IMSA side.

Jaminet, Porsche take IMSA tire gamble in Long Beach and win

A bold strategy by Porsche Penske Motorsports that saw both 963s complete the 100-minute Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on a single set of tires, combined with a pit stop issue for the polesitting Wayne Taylor Racing, left the No. 6 963 of Mathieu …

A bold strategy by Porsche Penske Motorsports that saw both 963s complete the 100-minute Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on a single set of tires, combined with a pit stop issue for the polesitting Wayne Taylor Racing, left the No. 6 963 of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy with the marque’s first overall victory in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship since the days of the RS Spyder — the last win for Porsche and Penske coming at Petit Le Mans in 2008.

The team occupied the third step of the podium as well, with Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 sandwiching the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 of Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly in second. The victory left Tandy and Jaminet in the championship lead by a single point over Action Express Racing’s Alexander Sims and Pipo Derani.

“To get the win and a double podium is massive, you know, huge,” said Tandy. “The effort that has gone in across the globe to get these Porsche Penske 963s out and racing has been enormous. The season hasn’t started as we’d hoped – the competition is tough but it hasn’t gone as we’d hoped, it’s no secret. So to get get a result, get some trophies, get some points, it’s amazing and a testament all the hard work that has gone in from everyone.”

Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat converted their pole position for the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 into a GTD PRO victory, and Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers used a stellar pit stop to take the lead in GTD and their third Long Beach victory in a row for Paul Miller Racing in the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3.

For the second year running, Sebastien Bourdais was his own worst enemy, but unlike last year, there was no coming back from this one. Getting a bad start and forced over the left side of the track, he went deep into the braking zone for Turn 1, lost the rear end and nosed the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R into the wall on driver’s left. The incident left him parked in Turn 1, along with Tom Blomqvist’s No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06.

Blomqvist had turned into Turn 1 only to find the nose of the No. 25 BMW driven by Nick Yelloly on his inside, and while the contact was light, it was enough to turn him around and he stalled the car. With two GTPs parked in Turn 1, a full-course caution was called. Blomqvist got going again, a lap down, while the Cadillac was pushed into the runoff, unable to get restarted.

In the ensuing chaos of the first-turn incident, Tandy put the No. 6 Porsche into second. When the race resumed, polesitter Filipe Albuquerque put a gap on the field while Tandy and Yelloly battled behind. The Action Express Racing squad rolled the dice by bringing Alexander Sims in very early and putting Pipo Derani into the No. 31 Cadillac, likely counting on another yellow, but it was a gamble that didn’t pay off.

Cautions are nothing unusual at Long Beach, but the one that AXR and everybody else was expecting didn’t come. WTR was the first to pull the trigger on a green-flag pit stop, bringing Albuquerque in at 42 minutes into the race. But after the tires were changed and the energy replenished, the door of the No. 10 Acura remained open as Taylor had difficulty getting the gearbox to cooperate. WTR lost more than 10 seconds in the pits, setting up the drama for the rest of the race.

Having already considered the no-tire strategy and seeing WTR lose time in the pits, PPM decided to go with the single-set plan, replenishing the energy and changing drivers, but leaving the already hot tires on the car. The GTP cars have struggled to get heat into fresh tires, and that seemed particularly troublesome at Long Beach. The gamble was that the time gained after the pit stop would offset the lap time drop-off at the end of the race.

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After the pit stop cycle, the order was Jaminet in the No. 6, Campbell in the No. 7, Derani – who had not yet pitted a second time – De Phillipi in the No, 25 BMW and Taylor. The hard racing began with a bit more than 20 minutes left. De Phillipi made a move inside Campbell, but ended up in the runoff; however, he continued with no contact in fourth behind Taylor. Taylor would spend the next 15 minutes on Campbell’s tail, trying several moves that failed until he juked to the outside heading toward Turn 8 before diving back to the inside and taking the apex away from the Porsche. Taylor’s pass slowed Campbell enough that De Phillippi passed him as well.

Taylor was now on the hunt for the lead. With only a couple of minutes left, Jaminet started having flashbacks to Sebring — when Albuquerque’s attack ended up with two wrecked Porsches and an Acura — as Taylor went on the attack. Taylor pushed the Acura inside Jaminet’s now-skating Porsche in Turn 1, but it was too optimistic and Taylor couldn’t make the corner, planting the Acura in the tire wall at the exit.

“I kind of saw it coming. He had fresher tires and I got caught up in traffic the lap before so with two to go it only made sense that he went for it,” said Jaminet. “I braked already late and I just saw, OK, he is going and I was like, ‘If he makes it stop, I’ll be impressed.’ I just saw him lock up and went straight in the fence. At that point, I just try to stop as much as I can and go through for the inside. So yeah, at the end we were lucky here, especially after Sebring — it was tough end of the race for for the team. So yeah, nice to end it that way and bring home the win.”

The race ended under caution, putting play to any idea De Phillippi had of mounting his own attack on the leading Porsche. Still, given the way the BMW program began at Daytona, to get a second-place finish with an honest shot at a win was an achievement.

“I’m very proud of this result as a team,” declared De Phillippi. “Nick has never been here. So that’s already … not to say a disadvantage, because he’s very talented; but obviously, having experience at a track pays off. He drove a brilliant first stint, and it was clear that we had the pace. We kind of we went longer than everybody else to give us some time to see what they’re doing with tires.

“And at the end, it looked like everybody was kind of staying pretty calm, cool and collected, which wasn’t the normal Long Beach. It looked like it was maybe going to go all green, so we opted to go for four tires, after the Porsches didn’t take any. We knew they would most likely cycle ahead of us after the out-laps, but we were hoping to try to have better tires underneath at the end — which we did, we had the pace.”

BMW getting the victory in GTD with Snow and Sellers was a nice add-on to the prototype podium finish. After Snow had minor contact to begin qualifying and ended up starting third, it looked like a three-peat was unlikely for the team, especially with Marco Sorensen putting the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage on pole ahead of three GTD PRO cars. But Snow immediately moved the car into second at the start.

“Going into the race, I thought, ‘OK, second is not only where I want to be able to bring the car into, but that’s probably the best shot, that is probably where we’re going to finish if everything goes perfect,” Snow said. “Not just that (Sorensen) outqualified me, but the fact that there were all the PRO cars between everybody, that was the big deal. And so off the start for me, you know, I got into second, and then there was all the GTD PRO cars and I sit there, like, ‘Well, maybe I can pass one, but I’m sure as hell not going to pass the whole GTD PRO field.”

But with the GTD PRO cars and Paul Miller racing all leapfrogging the Heart of Racing Aston in the pit stops, the first bit of hard work was done for the team. Then Sellers had to hold off Roman De Angelis. He was helped with that when Bill Aubleren in the No. 97 Turner Motorsports BMW came out of the pits, a lap down after serving a penalty, in between the Sellers and De Angelis, where he would remain for the race.

“Having that buffer is massive,” said Sellers. “I think that if he wasn’t there, we actually had a bit more pace that that we could have drawn out of the car and pushed a little bit harder; but the reality was with him there that I could conserve a little bit more, be a little bit more cautious and not be on the ragged edge as much. So I think if anything, it gave me just the ability to control the race in our favor a little bit more.”

Sorensen and De Angelis ended up second, with Aaron Telitz and Frankie Montecalvo third in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus.

Hawksworth had put the No. 14 Lexus on the GTD PRO pole, but Sorensen outqualified him. He made quick work of Sorensen at the start, and that was pretty much it for the No. 14 team, as Hawksworth seamlessly handed off to Barnicoat who then cruised almost effortlessly to victory.

“It was a perfect weekend for us really, one of the best-executed races I’ve been a part of,” said Hawksworth. “We obviously we had the pole in GTD PRO, but we were outside of the GT field overall, so it was good that we were able to clear Sorensen off the start. From there on, really, the Vasser Sullivan Lexus GT3 was really hooked up.

“There were a couple of moments in the race, both for me and Ben, where (lapped) cars would come out and they would kind of get in front of you, and it’s so hard to pass around here so they did have an effect on the race and made it a little bit difficult to manage. But overall I’ve got nothing but good things to say. The car has been great all weekend, the 100 Thieves livery looked awesome, the team did an amazing pit stop middle of the race, and Ben drove is drove his ass off there at the end to bring home a victory for us. So a perfect weekend and I couldn’t be more happy with it.”

All three winners in today’s race assumed the championship lead in their respective classes. Vasser Sullivan leads GTD PRO by 73 points over Daytona winner WeatherTech Racing, and Paul Miller Racing has a 99-point advantage over Heart of Racing in GTD.

RESULTS

INSIGHT: BMW, Porsche chart GTP progress at Sebring

The dramatic ending of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring notwithstanding, it was clear that both Porsche and BMW had made great strides in their GTP programs since Daytona. Porsche Penske Motorsports was in position to have two cars on the podium, …

The dramatic ending of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring notwithstanding, it was clear that both Porsche and BMW had made great strides in their GTP programs since Daytona. Porsche Penske Motorsports was in position to have two cars on the podium, and possibly win, before the nasty crash in the chaos of Sebring traffic that took out both PPM Porsche 963s as well as the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06, giving the No. 31 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R prepared by Action Express Racing a clear path to victory.

So while in two races so far, it’s been the manufacturers that have the most recent IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship experience — Cadillac and Acura — that have taken victories, Porsche and BMW are catching up quickly.

“I didn’t expect to be in such a position at the end of the race, when we look at our race today,” said Jaminet, who was leading in the No. 6 Porsche when the lead pack of GTPs came upon a pack of GT traffic that led to the pileup. “We had so much setback and bad luck with our 6 crew and even the 7, we lacked some pace in the day when it’s hot. But to be there at the end, and the car works…. Thanks to the boys, too, for the work because we went completely different on setup, and we were targeting to be fast in the night. This is exactly what happened. And then in the end, they gave me the tools. We had a good last stop and everything was perfect.”

The fruits of testing showed in the performance of the Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963s, even if their final results were disappointing. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images

Porsche had done a lot of testing, including a 36-hour test at Sebring. But testing isn’t racing, and all the teams came away from the Rolex 24 At Daytona armed with a lot of valuable data. That data was applied to further testing at Sebring.

“We looked at Daytona, what happened,” said Matt Campbell, driver of the No. 7 963 with Felipe Nasr and Michael Christensen. “And we actually were able to run those same paths during the testing here in February. So these things we are able to learn and acknowledge and fix for this race. So I think this was probably one of the key aspects going into this this weekend, especially after our 36-hour endurance test.”

Porsche and Penske also had the benefit of running the WEC 1000 Miles of Sebring the day before, further adding to the information stores.

“We regroup, we believe in our work,” said Jaminet, mutedly celebrating a third-place finish with Dane Cameron and Nick Tandy. “We make steps all the time, on systems, on setups — it’s still a new car, so we are still discovering quite a lot of things as we go. We got the data, for example, of the WEC race. So it allowed us to react for today on the setup and I think in the end, we made the right call. We just need to keep to keep the same way of working, believe in ourselves believe in the team believe in the process.”

Thomas Laudenbach, head of Porsche motorsports, says there isn’t one thing he can credit for the strides Porsche Penske Motorsports made, except to say it was a lot of hard work. And while he won’t really celebrate until there’s a Porsche victory, he’s happy with the progress so far.

“For sure we made improvements to Daytona,” Laudenbach declared. “Obviously, we did work in the meantime. I still would say there is a long way to go. Positive side, clearly, we didn’t have any reliability issues, which was good. If you have one or two races without such a problem, it’s probably too early to say everything is solved. But that’s that’s definitely a positive sign and a positive direction.

“Looking at the qualifying, looking at the lap time, we still have to improve our performance. The good thing is here in IMSA you can fight for the victory. The format brings you back, even if you make mistakes, and I think it was all in all — probably not talking about the accident at the end, with the bad end on our side — it was great motorsport, and it was it was really great endurance racing. And I think that’s what we have to take with us. Sleep over the night, repair the cars and carry on.”

Steady progress, and lucky break near the end enabled the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 to grab second in the 12 Hours. Jake Galstad/Lumen

Porsche has already cemented its legacy in the world of endurance sports car racing, from GTs to prototypes. BMW, on the other hand, has been in and out of the sport as a manufacturer, it’s last top-level prototype being the V12 LMR that earned BMW it’s only overall victory at Le Mans in 1999. Getting the latest start among the LMDh manufacturers, they’ve been behind the curve with the M Hybrid V8 the whole way. While the second-place finish for the No. 25 with Connor De Phillippi, Nick Yelloly and Sheldon van der Linde took a lot of luck, the BMW M Team RLL crew had the car there to capitalize on that luck.

“We just had to look back at our philosophy in Daytona, what our weaknesses were, and we had to switch to a different philosophy that would help fix those things,” said de Phillippi. “I think we solved probably two of our five main limiting factors. We probably have another, I would say, three solid ones that we need to we need to hone in on, especially going to another bumpy circuit like Long Beach coming up. That was one of our weaknesses here, the bumps, especially on traction on the exits of the corners. That’s going to be something that we need to dial in for Long Beach and really focus on if we want to be fighting for another podium.”

At Daytona, both of the BMWs hit trouble early with the hybrid systems, although the team soldiered on and were both running at the finish. That running, when there was practically zero chance for a good result, was valuable.

“There’s been a lot of work communicating, and of course on the simulator,” explained Yelloly. “I think we’ve done probably a couple of weeks in there between all of the drivers trying to get get our software working as we wanted to. Obviously it’s new to everyone, but particularly new to us — we haven’t run a prototype car. So we want to get it all working in conjunction perfectly. And I feel like we have already taken a good step forward, but there’s still a lot to improve. And also Daytona, we got a hell of a lot of data, which we hadn’t got in all the tests beforehand. So obviously the boys and girls were able to crawl through all the data, piece things together and come here for the test a couple of weeks ago and make already a small step forwards. Then when we got here we made another step towards the pack. It’s really quite a promising moving forward.”

Both teams and manufacturers have some momentum to carry them forward to Long Beach. A good result there, however, is going to be a challenge given the opposition’s experience on the street circuit. But just like the two previous races, there will be a mass of information gathered, and a lot of things to carry forward as the focus shifts to sprint races for a while

Crashed Porsches will be ready for the Twelve Hours, teams report

The final practice session and qualifying for tomorrow’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring saw several crashed cars, but indications are that most of the damage was not severe in all three cases, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, the cars will …

The final practice session and qualifying for tomorrow’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring saw several crashed cars, but indications are that most of the damage was not severe in all three cases, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, the cars will be on the grid tomorrow.

The Porsche Penske Motorsports crew has stripped the No. 7 963 that Matt Campbell crashed in Turn 1 during qualifying, and was preparing to replace the gearbox and rear suspension assembly with a new one, at a relaxed pace. That procedure may have happened anyway to prepare for the Twelve Hours. Otherwise Porsche reports the damage was limited to bodywork, and the car will be ready to go for tomorrow’s race.

The No. 9 GTD PRO Pfaff Motorsports 911 GT3 R sustained a little more damage in Klaus Bachler’s qualifying crash in Turn 1, the team having to replace two corners and a steering rack, plus some bodywork, but team manager Steve Bortolotti reports that there shouldn’t be any problem getting the car ready, and it shouldn’t even be a late night for the crew.

“We don’t believe we’ll have any issue being on the grid for tomorrow’s race,” he said. “Luckily Klaus is OK — it was quite the hit. But the car took it amazingly well, so that was very encouraging. And the team had all the spares ready, built up already. I’m very proud of how prepared they were to put the car back together in a very quick amount of time. We’ve just got to repair some carbon and get get some things situated better. But we should have no reason why we shouldn’t be on the grid tomorrow. It’s not the way you want to qualify but we won in 2021 from last on the grid, so hopefully we can repeat this here.”

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Bortolotti says the biggest hurdle may be securing a new firebottle, the fire system having been set off at some point in the crash and recovery. However, the team believes they’ve located one reasonably close by.

The No. 91 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3 R that Kay van Berlo spun into the tires at Turn 17 last night was quickly repaired by the crew and made it out for the warmup and qualifying this morning. Alan Metni qualified the car 15th in GTD.