Preview
At the previous three races, the GTLM-sports car from Weissach was well on course to score its first class win of the year in North America, only to have bad luck strike every time. The race on the storied circuit near the town of Braselton runs over six hours and is regarded as a critical rehearsal for the classic Petit Le Mans event, which is held at the same venue in October. In the GTD category, the Wright Motorsports customer team fields a Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Road Atlanta, just outside the capital of the US state of Georgia, holds special significance for Porsche. The 4.088-kilometre racetrack is the home turf of the factory squad. Porsche North America has its headquarters in Atlanta. In recent years, the Porsche GT Team has celebrated great successes at the fast circuit with its 12 turns. At the so-called Petit Le Mans, the traditional 10-hour race contested at Road Atlanta, the sports car manufacturer from Stuttgart has notched up a total of 20 class wins. In 2015, the Porsche 911 RSR scored a sensational overall victory in the rain – beating all prototypes.
Last year at Road Atlanta, the Porsche GT Team put in a strong performance with a pair of vehicles decked out in the Coca-Cola livery and made a clean sweep of all IMSA championship titles. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the upcoming six-hour race has been added to the calendar as a substitute for the Watkins Glen round and therefore counts towards the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup. This series includes the endurance classics at Daytona and Sebring as well as both Road Atlanta races. The series returns to the track in America’s south for Petit Le Mans.
The Porsche GT Team drivers
Works drivers Earl Bamber from New Zealand and Belgium’s Laurens Vanthoor share driving duties in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR. After five rounds, the reigning GTLM-champions rank second in the drivers’ championship. Britain’s Nick Tandy and Frenchman Frédéric Makowiecki helm the sister car with the starting number 911. The 2015 outright Le Mans winner from Bedford in the UK was one of the crew to clinch victory at Petit Le Mans five years ago. Back then, Tandy shared the winning car with his works driver teammates Patrick Pilet from France and Austrian Richard Lietz. In the manufacturer’s classification, Porsche heads to round six ranking third, 14 points behind the leader.
The customer team
In the GTD category for vehicles complying with the FIA GT3 regulations, Wright Motorsports fields an Porsche 911 GT3 R. The cockpit of the No. 16 car is crewed by the American works driver Patrick Long and his compatriot Ryan Hardwick. Since Hardwick comes from the city of Atlanta, the upcoming event is a home race for the talented hobby driver. In the overall classification, the Porsche customer team Wright Motorsports currently lies in fifth place.
Comments prior to the race
Pascal Zurlinden (Director Factory Motorsport): “Although we’ve experienced bad luck at the last three races, we’re heading to Road Atlanta feeling highly motivated. I’m absolutely sure that we’ll soon achieve results that reflect the hard work of the team and drivers in the IMSA series, as well as the strengths of the Porsche 911 RSR. We’ll do everything within our power to finally bring home the first win of the season at the long-distance race at Road Atlanta and to gain some essential ground in the championship.”
Steffen Höllwarth (Head of Operations IMSA Championship): “Everything continues at high revs. We’re feeling galvanised and we’re really looking forward to the long six-hour distance. We’ve always been particularly strong at such endurance races, and Road Atlanta is one of the venues where Porsche has been very successful in the past. In the last three races, we weren’t able to get the points that matched our efforts, unfortunately. But one thing is certain: the performance of the new Porsche 911 RSR is extremely good. We’re always good for a win with this car. And that won’t change at Road Atlanta. From now on, it’s important that we reduce the gap to the top by achieving maximum success.”
Nick Tandy (Porsche 911 RSR #911): “This race at Road Atlanta has a few new elements. For the first time, we’re driving over six hours and there are only two of us sharing driving duties. That’ll be interesting. I really hope that everything goes smoothly this time – then nothing can stand in the way of a win. The event is especially important because, over this weekend, all of the teams want to prepare for Petit Le Mans, which is held in October.”
Live streaming of the race
Round six of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Road Atlanta takes off on Saturday, 5 September, at 23:35 local time (17:35 CEST). The race over six hours can be viewed outside the USA and Canada on www.imsa.com.
The schedule (local time, CEST: -6 hours)
Friday, 4 September
10.00 – 11:00 a.m. – Free practice 1
14:25 – 15:40 – Free practice 2
18:35 – 18:50 – Qualifying GTD
19:00 – 19:15 – Qualifying GTLM
Saturday, 22 August
11:35 – 17:35 – Race
The Porsche 911 RSR
The Porsche 911 RSR (2019 model year) celebrated its debut in the IMSA SportsCar Championship at the 24 Hours of Daytona in January. Compared to its extremely successful predecessor model, the Weissach engineers made improvements to the car, most notably in areas such as drivability, efficiency, ergonomics and serviceability. About 95 per cent of all components are new. The 911 RSR is powered by a 4.2-litre, six-cylinder boxer engine.
This is the IMSA SportsCar Championship
The IMSA SportsCar Championship was founded in the USA and Canada in 2013 after the merger of the American Le Mans Series and the Grand-Am Series. A year later the new sports car race series, which is organised by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), was contested for the first time. Sports prototypes and sports cars start in four different classes: GTLM (GT Le Mans), GTD (GT Daytona), Dpi (Daytona Prototype international) and LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype 2). The new Porsche 911 RSR is fielded in the GTLM class, and the Porsche 911 GT3 R contests the GTD class.