Finally! The #911 Porsche 911 RSR Team won its first race of the year at Road Atlanta with drivers Nick Tandy, Fred Makowiecki, and Matt Campbell.
This is usually the last race of the year and one that I very much enjoy. I like the track and being with Porsche and the team, but unfortunately due to Covid-19, I decided to skip this race and instead go to the last race of the year, at Sebring.
It is with great sadness that this last race of the year, at Sebring and a 12 hour race, will be the last race for the Porsche manufacturers’ team.
But let us celebrate the great endurance race, the Petit Le Mans 6 hours. The Porsche team had been working very hard to get this win after several mistakes and little problems that led up to not making the podium several times this year.
The team swapped the lead with the BMW, depending when the teams had pit stops. It was Fred Makowiecki that was driving the last stint, following the BMW for many laps, when the BMW had to make an unscheduled pit stop with 30 minutes left to the race. That presented the lead to Fred Makowiecki.
With minutes left in the race, the #912 Porsche, with Laurens Vanthoor, had a collision, bringing out a full course yellow flag. The #912 finished the race but was down two laps and ended up behind the safety car, finishing 6th.
That put Porsche in third place after nine of the eleven races for the GTLM Manufacturers’ Championship.
In GTD, with the FIA GT3 regulated teams, the Porsche 911 GT3R of Wright Motorsports with Patrick Long, Ryan Hardwick and Jan Heylen took the flag in fourth place and the Pfaff Motorsports team with Lars Kern, Dennis Olsen and Canadian Zacharie Robichon came in fifth. After six hours in the GTD class, the top seven fastest cars were within one lap of each other.
Wright Motorsports has accomplished some great finishes as the season has gone on and we’ll be watching them complete the season and maybe podium in the last two races. Next up is November 1st at Laguna Seca and then November 14th at Sebring for the 12 hours of Sebring.
