The two American Porsche customer teams Wright Motorsports and Park Place Motorsports have achieved respectable starting positions for the eight-hour race at Laguna Seca. Matt Campbell (Australia) posted the fifth quickest time at the pole shootout in the 500+hp Porsche 911 GT3 R with the starting number 912. In the identical No. 911 car, Porsche Young Professional Mathieu Jaminet (France) achieved eight place.
At the end of the 15-minute fight, Campbell was a mere two-tenths of a second shy of securing a spot on the front grid row for round two of the Intercontinental GT Challenge season. The young Australian shares the cockpit of the 911 GT3 R fielded by Wright Motorsports with works driver Dirk Werner (Germany) and Porsche Young Professional Dennis Olsen (Norway). In early February, the trio won the twelve-hour race at Bathurst (Australia).
When the pole shootout began, Jaminet waited in the pits for a chance to get the best free run possible on the 3.601-kilometre circuit. At the qualifying in the morning, the Frenchman had posted the fastest lap time of the entire field, but was unable to make the most of the good conditions during his fast laps in the shootout. Jaminet shares driving duties in the Porsche 911 GT3 R run by Park Place Motorsport with works drivers Romain Dumas (France) and Sven Müller (Germany).
The eight-hour race at Laguna Seca gets underway on Saturday, 30 March at 8:30 hrs local time (16:30 CET). The race can be viewed live on the Internet at http://www.intercontinentalgtchallenge.com.
Qualifying quotes
Fritz Enzinger (Vice President Motorsport): “I’m impressed with the professionalism of our two local teams. The standards are enormously high, the procedures flow and the collaboration between the two crews is great. The squads are heading into the race on Saturday with the best prerequisites.”
Sebastian Golz (Project Manager 911 GT3 R): “Our performance was strong in this morning’s qualifying but we couldn’t quite match this in the shootout. However, we’re still looking good with positions five and eight. Our entire preparation during practice was geared towards and a fast and consistent speed over long distances. We’re strong in this discipline, and the car is reliable. We want to make full use of these strengths in the race.”
Mathieu Jaminet (Porsche 911 GT3 R #911): “It was difficult. The car didn’t quite run as well as it did in this morning’s qualifying. I simply didn’t get the tyres to within the ideal temperature window. On my two flying laps I tried everything but I couldn’t do more. It’s a long-distance race, so the starting position isn’t so important. I know we’ll be really good over the distance.”
Matt Campbell (Porsche 911 GT3 R #912): “I’m satisfied because our performance in the final qualifying was really decent. Perhaps more would have been possible, but fifth on the grid is okay. Our car will be strong in the race. We saw this in the practice during our long runs. We want to finish at the front, just like we did in Bathurst.”
Qualifying result
1. Farnbacher/van der Zande/Baguette, Honda NSX GT3 #30, 1:23.156 minutes
2. Chiyo/Buncombe/Burdon, Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 #35, 1:23.342 minutes
3. Vanthoor/Vervisch/Haase, Audi R8 LMS GT3 #10, 1:23.420 minutes
5. Werner/Olsen/Campbell, Porsche 911 GT3 R #912, 1:23.528 minutes
8. Dumas/Müller/Jaminet, Porsche 911 GT3 R #911, 1:23.627 minutes
Source. Porsche
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