Porsche heads to the final round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) with a very clear goal: The sports car manufacturer from Stuttgart is eager to defend its titles at the nine-hour race in Kyalami. The customer squads GPX Racing and Dinamic Motorsport will each field a 500+hp Porsche 911 GT3 R in the Pro-category at the South African racetrack close to Johannesburg. In the Pro-Am class, the Hack Racing team campaigns the identical model of the GT3 racer from Weissach.

Porsche still has three irons in the fire in its bid for overall victory as the 24-hour classic at Spa-Francorchamps heads into the final quarter of the race. Rowe Racing’s No. 98 Porsche 911 GT3 R is currently in second place after 18 hours. The two reigning IMSA champions Earl Bamber from New Zealand and Laurens Vanthoor from Belgium share the cockpit of the car with their works driver teammate Nick Tandy. The British racing driver had at times taken the lead after strong stints during the night.

Porsche’s customer teams are lying in promising positions after the first four hours of the endurance race at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. In the early stages of the 24-hour class in the Ardennes, last year’s winner Michael Christensen from Denmark, Austria’s Richard Lietz and Frenchman Kévin Estre have made particularly impressive progress. After the first four stints, their No. 47 Porsche 911 GT3 R fielded by the KCMG squad has advanced to third place. The gap to the leader is just 4.8 seconds.

Porsche customer teams have secured solid starting positions for the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. In the Super Pole, a shootout over two flying laps of the 20 fastest cars from the qualifying, the Porsche Young Professional Thomas Preining was fastest at the wheel of a 911 GT3 R. The 22-year-old Austrian lapped the 7.004-kilometre Ardennes circuit in 2:32.990 minutes and takes up tomorrow’s race from the sixth grid spot in the No. 40 vehicle of GPX Racing. Preining shares the cockpit of the 500+hp GT3 racer with the French works driver Romain Dumas and Louis Delétraz from Belgium.

Porsche’s customer teams showed excellent form during qualifying for the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. At the rainy session in Belgium, seven 911 GT3 R made it into the Super Pole. The 20 fastest vehicles from today’s qualification will take part in Friday’s final shootout for the top grid spots, which begins at 6:20 pm (CEST). […]

GPX Racing made the ideal start to its bid for back-to-back wins at the Total 24 Hours of Spa by recording the fastest time during this week’s official test days with its #12 Porsche.