This past weekend was a special one for Porsche motorsport fans. Not only was it a race filled weekend including IMSA, ALMS and WEC at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX, Porsche used the race weekend as their venue to announce a two car factory supported GT team in the USCR for 2014. We were in Texas for the race and will have a full report of our time and more pictures coming soon. For now, enjoy more than 100+ pictures and a full race report from Porsche’s activities in the ALMS and WEC. Remember, with out new gallery you can easily scroll through the pictures in either direction. When you’re done viewing the pictures simply hit the “x” in the top left corner to return to the post.
Porsche’s Pictures from the ALMS
Porsche’s AlMS Race Report
Damien Faulkner (Ireland), driving the #66 TRG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup GTC class racer, took the wheel for the final stint from starting pilot Ben Keating (Port Lavaca, Tex.) and staged an epic battle with Sean Edwards (Great Britain) before scoring TRG’s first win of the year. Edwards’ co-driver, Henrique Cisneros (Miami) led from the first lap of the race in the #30 NGT Porsche, with Edwards maintaining first place until the final part of the race.
“Ben [Keating] started the car and ran a great stint, giving me a perfect car with great track position. We planned our strategy around no yellow flags, and that turned out to be the case. I caught Edwards a couple of times, but he’s a tough competitor. Fortunately, I finally got by him near the end,” said Faulkner.
Keating, who scored his first-ever ALMS win, had more than 60 guests from his hometown of Port Lacava, Tex., and made the most of the week at COTA.
“Our car was fast both for qualifying and the race. I thought it was great when Damien earned the pole, but winning the race was gratifying for both the drivers and the TRG team,” said Keating.
Finishing third was the Dempsey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of Andy Lally (Dacula, Ga.)/Patrick Dempsey (Malibu) – the team’s second ALMS podium.
“The challenge here is that you always feel like you are in traffic,” said Dempsey. “I had a good start but then lost a lot of positions in traffic. It just got us out of position but our strategist, Lars Giersing, made a good call early on. We had some difficulty with the pit stop but in the end we finally just had some luck come our way, which was very nice.”
The Alex Job Racing Porsche experienced mechanical issues, however drivers Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.)/Jeroen Bleekemolen (Monaco) maintained their first place position in the championship points chase by virtue of their sixth place finish.
Porsches In The GT Class
In the GT class, the three Porsche 911 GT3 RSR entries finished a tough day in Austin with the #17 Team Falken Tire entry driven by Wolf Henzler (Germany) and Bryan Sellers (Brasleton, Ga.) taking the checkered flag in seventh. Bryce Miller (Summit, N.J.) and Marco Holzer (Germany) drove the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Porsche to ninth while the CORE autosport #06 was raced to tenth by Patrick Long (Playa del Rey, Calif.) and Colin Braun (Ovalo, Texas).
The next round of the ALMS championship season will take place at Virginia International Raceway on October 5th.
GT Class Results
1. #3 Jan Magnussen / Roskilde, Denmark; Antonio Garcia / Barcelona, Spain; Corvette C6 ZR1 – 78 laps
2. #93 Jonathan Bomarito/Monterey, CA; Kuno Wittmer /Montreal, QC; SRT Motorsports Viper GTS-R – 78 laps
3. #56 Dirk Müller/Tägerwilen, CH; Jonathan Edwards/Louisville, KY.; BMW Z4 GTE – 78 laps
4. #55 Bill Auberlen/Redondo Beach, CA; Joey Hand, Sacramento, CA; BMW Z4 GTE – 77 laps
5. #91 Mark Goossens/Geel, Belgium; Dominik Farnbacher/Ansbach, Germany; SRT Motorsports Viper GTS-R – 77 laps
6. #62 Matteo Malucelli (Italy); Olivier Beretta (Monaco), Feraari F458 Italia –77 laps
7. #17 Wolf Henzler/Nürtingen, Germany/Bryan Sellers /Braselton, GA; Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3 RSR – 76 laps
8. #23 Townsend Bell, San Luis Obispo, Calif./Leh Keen/Charleston, SC.; Ferrari F458 Italia – 75 laps
9. #48 Bryce Miller/Summit, NJ; Marco Holzer/Bobingen, Germany; Paul Miller Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR – 57 laps
10. #06 Patrick Long/ Playa del Rey, CA; Colin Braun/Ovalo, TX – 53 laps
11. #4 Oliver Gavin /Northhamptonshire, England; Tommy Milner / Leesburg, VA; Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 – 26 laps
GTC Class Results
1. #66 Damien Faulkner/Mouille, IE, Ben Keating, Port Lavaca, TX, TRG – 72 laps
2. #30 Sean Edwards/Monte Carlo, Monaco; Henrique Cisneros, Miami, Fla. – 72 laps
3. #27 Patrick Dempsey/Malibu, CA; Andy Lally, Atlanta, GA; Dempsey Racing – 72 laps
4. #11 Jan Heylen/Tampa, FL, Mike Hedlund/Woodside, CA, JDX Racing – 72 laps
5. #45 Nelson Canache Jr./Caracas, Venezuela; Spencer Pumpelly / Atlanta, GA; Flying Lizard Motorsports – 72 laps
6. #22 Jeroen Bleekemolen/Monte Carlo, Monaco, Cooper MacNeil/Hindsdale, IL, Alex Job Racing – 71 laps
7. #44 Seth Neiman/San Francisco, CA; Dion von Moltke/Coral Gables, FL; Flying Lizard Motorsports – 71 laps
GTC Class Driver Points’ Standings
Jeroen Bleekemolen/Cooper MacNeil, Alex Job Racing, 115 points
Spencer Pumpelly/Nelson Canache, Jr., Flying Lizard Motorsports, 111
Henrique Cisneros, NGT, 105
Porsche’s Pictures from the WEC
Porsche’s WEC Race Report
After clinching fourth place in the GTE-Pro class n the sports car World Endurance Championship WEC, Porsche works drivers Marc Lieb (Germany) and Richard Lietz (Austria) still have good chances to win the World Endurance Cup for GT drivers. They are now just three points back in the championship.
Richard Lietz (#92): “Our pit crew did a great job today. We were incredibly quick in changing the tyres. Unfortunately we couldn’t drive any double stints like many of our opponents. That cost us a great deal of time. On top of that, we simply lacked the engine power on the straights due to the balance of power classification of our 911 RSR.”
In the second 911 RSR fielded by Porsche AG Team Manthey, their works driver colleagues Joerg Bergmeister (Germany) and Patrick Pilet (France) took the flag in fifth place.
Joerg Bergmeister (#91): “I was able to match the pace early on. But after our problem during refuelling, our race was practically decided. Still, we managed to earn some championship points.”
The first WEC race on the new Formula 1 circuit near the Texan capital began less than promising for Porsche. At the first pit stop with the number 91 Porsche 911 RSR, with which Joerg Bergmeister had headed into the race from the first GT grid row after a strong qualifying performance, a small amount of residual fuel that had spilled while refuelling ignited. The flames were quickly extinguished, but Patrick Pilet rejoined the race four laps down. In the 911 RSR with the starting number 92, Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz were at times on course for a podium result, but after a spirited fight had to settle for a thankless fourth place.
The Porsche customer team IMSA Performance Matmut, however, scored a podium spot in the GTE-Am class: Frenchmen Jean-Karl Vernay and Raymond Narac claimed third with the 911 GT3 RSR. Fifth position went to Christian Ried (Germany) and his Italian teammates Gianluca Roda and Paolo Ruberti at the wheel of Proton Competition’s 911 from last year.
Hartmut Kristen, Porsche Head of Motorsport: “Our drivers and teams put in a strong performance today. After the early incident at the pit stop the result is a fairly acceptable and we are still within striking distance of the championship front-runners. Both cars again proved to be very reliable. But like after Sao Paulo, we’ll now do a performance analysis and sit down with the WEC organisers because we still believe there are some shortfalls in the balance of performance classification of the 911 RSR.”
Round six of the sports car World Endurance Championship WEC is held on 20 October in Fuji/Japan.
GTE-Pro Class Race Results
1. Senna/Makowiecki (BRA/F), Aston Martin Vantage, 167 laps
2. Bruni/Fisichella (I/I), Ferrari F458 Italia, 167
3. Kobayashi/Vilander (J/SF), Ferrari F458 Italia, 167
4. Lieb/Lietz (D/A), Porsche 911 RSR, 167
5. Bergmeister/Pilet (D/F), Porsche 911 RSR, 163
GTE-Am Class
1. Hall/Campbell-Walter (GB/GB), Aston Martin Vantage, 165 laps
2. Poulsen/Nygaard/Thiim (DK/DK/DK), Aston Martin Vantage, 165
3. Narac/Vernay (F/F), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 165
4. Potolicchio/Aguas/Malucelli (I/P/I), Ferrari F458 Italia, 164
5. Ried/Roda/Ruberti (D/I/I), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 163
6. Bornhauser/Canal/Rees (F/F/BRA), Chevrolet Corvette, 163
Points Standings After 5 of 8 Races
World Cup for Manufacturers GTE
1. Ferrari, 182 points
2. Aston Martin, 170
3. Porsche, 163
World Endurance Cup for GT drivers
1. Giancarlo Fisichella, Gianmaria Bruni (Ferrari), 99 points
2. Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz (Porsche), 96
3. Darren Turner, Stefan Mücke (Aston Martin), 86
4. Romain Dumas (Porsche), 72
Kamui Kobayashi (Ferrari), 72
Toni Vilander (Ferrari), 72
5. Bruno Senna (Aston Martin), 71
7. Joerg Bergmeister, Patrick Pilet (Porsche), 59
FIA Endurance Trophy for GTE-Am drivers
1. Jamie Campbell-Walter, Stuart Hall (Aston Martin), 95 points
2. Jean-Karl Vernay, Raymond Narac (Porsche), 91
3. Rui Aguas, Vicente Potolicchio (Ferrari), 79
5. Christophe Bourret (Porsche), 68
7. Christian Ried, Paolo Ruberti, Gianluca Roda (Porsche), 57
FIA Endurance Trophy for GTE-Pro teams
1. AF Corse (Ferrari), 99 points
2. Porsche AG Team Manthey (Porsche), 99
3. Aston Martin Racing (Aston Martin), 89
FIA Endurance Trophy for GTE-Am teams
1. Aston Martin Racing (Aston Martin), 99 points
2. IMSA Performance Matmut (Porsche), 91
2. 8 Star Motorsports (Ferrari), 87
5. Proton Competition (Porsche), 65
Other Porsche Blog Posts You Will Enjoy
Porsche’s Pictures and Results in the ALMS Grand Prix of Baltimore
Porsche & CORE autosport Announce 2-Car Factory-Supported USCR 991 RSR Team for 2014
Watch a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Being Built in Timelapse