The Porsche GT Team swept the top two steps of the podium in its final outing in the GTLM class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Meanwhile, Wright Motorsports also earned its first win of the year in the season-finale at Sebring International Raceway on Saturday, November 14. In the dramatic twelve-hour race in Sebring, Florida, Britain’s Nick Tandy, Frédéric Makowiecki (France) and Earl Bamber (New Zealand) scored the victory with the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR-19. Bamber added double to his trophy case by also clinching second-place in the No. 912 sister car he shared with Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) and Neel Jani (Switzerland). In the GTD class, the customer program of Wright Motorsports took the first win of the year for the Porsche 911 GT3 R on the historic Sebring International Raceway circuit with North America’s only Porsche factory driver Patrick Long (Manhattan Beach, California), Ryan Hardwick (Atlanta, Georgia) and Jan Heylen (Belgium) behind the wheel of the No. 16.
The wins represent the 73rd and 74th class victories at Sebring, extending the German marque’s manufacturers victory record at the track. Porsche also holds the overall record with 18 race wins.
In an eventful twelve-hour race, the decision in the GTLM class went down to the final 15 minutes of the race. After the last of nine yellow flags slowed the field, Tandy had moved himself into the slipstream of the leading BMW. Shortly after the last restart, the frontrunner sustained tire damage in the aftermath of a collision between several GTD class cars. Tandy snatched the lead in his ca. 515 hp Porsche 911 RSR race car and held it through the checkered flag. For the British racer and his teammate Makowiecki, this was the third victory in a row at the esteemed Sebring endurance classic. It was also the third-straight win to close-out the 2020 IMSA season for the Porsche GT Team. Tandy/Makowiecki won at Petit Le Mans and Bamber/Vanthoor at the penultimate round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Bamber, who drove stints in both works cars at the season finale, crossed the finish line in second-place in the No. 912, just 9.025 seconds behind Tandy. The Porsche factory squad concluded the last season with the 911 RSR in the GTLM class third in the championship.
There was a huge celebration in the pits of the Porsche privateer team Wright Motorsports as well. Long, Hardwick and Heylen brought the 500+hp Porsche 911 GT3 R racer across the finish line in first-place. Despite a broken shock absorber, and an unplanned change of the brakes, the John Wright-led customer team maintained their composure in the fierce competition of the Pro-Am style class to take their first win of the season. The Batavia, Ohio-based operation wrapped-up the championship in second-place, just two points shy of the title.
Shortly before the race, the works team bid the loyal fans of the factory Porsche 911 RSR program farewell with a special “Thank You”. Five GTLM Porsche race cars ranging across the 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020 seasons turned three parade laps decked-out in the much-loved liveries of Brumos Racing, Mobil1, Coca-Cola, an early corporate livery and the special “Thank You” farewell wrap used by the Porsche GT Team in this year’s race. To the delight of spectators, the drivers Laurens Vanthoor, Frédéric Makowiecki, Patrick Long, Jonathan Bennett and Cooper MacNeil performed full-throttle burn-outs on the frontstraight of the 3.74-mile, 17-turn race circuit. On Wednesday evening, Pascal Zurlinden (Director Factory Motorsport) and Head of Operations Steffen Höllwarth thanked all employees of the Core autosport squad at an emotional team event.
Source/Photos: Porsche
