Sixteen (16) Porsches come to Sebring, Florida for IMSA’s open test at Sebring International Raceway on February 20 – 23. Testing on the bumpy 17-turn track has been ongoing for many teams but this is the first official IMSA-sanctioned test for all these classes in preparation for the March 17 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. The Porsche GT Team has entered both factory 911 RSRs in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTLM class for the test. Wright Motorsports and Park Place Motorsports will bring their Porsche 911 GT3 Rs for the WeatherTech GTD class test. BGB Motorsports will learn the bumps of the 3.74-mile road course with its Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC) portion of the week. Eleven 911 GT3 Cup cars will have their first taste of 2018 activity when testing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars for IMSA’s two one-make series: ten in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama and a single Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama entry.
The top GT class, GT Le Mans (GTLM), has both the No. 911 and No. 912 entered for testing at Sebring. Frenchmen Patrick Pilet and Frédéric Makowiecki will split time in the No. 911 while their sister car will have Nick Tandy (Great Britain) and Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) sharing the seat of the No. 912. Tandy, the overall 24 Hours of Le Mans winner in 2015, is moonlighting in the No. 912 being a regular full-season pilot in the No. 911.
After an incident early in the Rolex 24 at Daytona hampered the new-to-GT Daytona (GTD) class team, Wright Motorsports looks to get their season on solid footing beginning with this test. Porsche factory driver Patrick Long (Manhattan Beach, California) and his full-season teammate Porsche Select driver Christina Nielsen (Denmark) lead the way in the No. 58 with Porsche Young Professional Mathieu Jaminet (France) and 2016 Porsche Cup winner Robert Renauer (Germany) sharing testing duties. Park Place Motorsports will use Porsche factory driver and past Sebring winner Jörg Bergmeister (Germany) to fine-tune the No. 73 with Patrick Lindsey (Santa Barbara, California) and Timothy Pappas (Boston, Massachusetts).
Rookie driver Dylan Murry (Atlanta, Georgia) has been tapped for a number of Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC) races in the BGB Motorsports Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR in 2018. The 17 year-old Murry ran his first laps in the mid-engine car based on the road-going Porsche Cayman at Daytona International Speedway with his father, veteran Porsche racer David Murry. The younger Murry will share the No. 38 with James Cox (Nokomis, Florida) at the test.
The 911 GT3 Cup cars will be first on-track starting on Tuesday, February 20. The USA and Canada series will be combined with three total sessions ending at 1:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The CTSCC cars will also have their first laps on Tuesday; their third and final three-hour session will be from 2:00 – 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The WeatherTech Series will start the first of its five sessions at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday running until 1:00 p.m. The second session runs from 2:00 – 6:00 p.m. The third test allows for night laps from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. The fourth and fifth test sessions will be on Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. respectively.
Porsche Entries at Sebring International Raceway.
A total of 16 Porsche Motorsport-built race cars across four series – the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama and the IMSA Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama – are entered to test at Sebring International Raceway this week.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Total Car Count: Four (4) Porsche entries will race in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship in the Sebring “open test”.
GTLM Class – Two (2) Porsche 911 RSR.
No. 911 Porsche GT Team Patrick Pilet (France)/Frédéric Makowiecki (France)
No. 912 Porsche GT Team Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium)/ Nick Tandy (Great Britain)/
GTD Class – Two (2) Porsche 911 GT3 R.
No. 58 Wright Motorsports Patrick Long (Manhattan Beach, California)/ Christina Nielsen (Denmark)/ Mathieu Jaminet (France)/ Robert Renauer (Germany)
No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Jörg Bergmeister (Germany)/ Patrick Lindsey (Santa Barbara, California)/ Tim Pappas (Boston, Massachusetts)
IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge.
Total Car Count: One (1) Porsche Motorsport-produced entry will be competing in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge “open test” at Sebring International Raceway.
Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR
No. 38 BGB Motorsports Dylan Murry (Atlanta, Georgia)/ James Cox (Nokomis, Florida)
IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama.
Total Car Count: Ten (10) Porsche Motorsport-produced entries will be competing in the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama “open test” at Sebring International Raceway.
IMSA Ultra 94 GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama.
Total Car Count: One (1) Porsche Motorsport-produced entry will be competing in the IMSA Ultra 94 GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama “open test” at Sebring International Raceway.
Source. Porsche
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