Farewell: Porsche 911 GT3 R Type 991.2

09/22/2022

"Nowhere beats the heart so kindly as beneath the tartan plaid!" – William Edmondstoune Aytoun

The Porsche 911 GT3 R race car, which will be replaced in 2023 with the newest iteration based on the type 992 platform, has proven an impressive racing machine since its 2019 Rolex 24 At Daytona debut. In that time, Porsche customer teams have compiled 14 victories and nine championships in the IMSA GTD and GTD Pro classes. Seven of those wins have occurred in 2022 with five GTD Pro class wins from the Pfaff Motorsports stable: Rolex 24 At Daytona, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Lime Rock Park, VIRginia International Raceway. Two GTD class wins have come from under the Wright Motorsports banner: Rolex 24 At Daytona and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports, Porsche 911 GT3 R, Daytona, 2022, PCNA — Pfaff Motorsports team celebrates 2022 Daytona 24 GTD Pro victory

Entering the 25th Anniversary Petit Le Mans scheduled for October 1, Porsche privateers are not only in the fight for the race win in the GTD Pro and GTD classes with the Porsche 911 GT3 R race car but also for the championship titles in both classes.

Three 510 hp Porsche 911 GT3 R race cars are entered for the season-finale on the 2.54-mile, 12-turn Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. In the GTD Pro class, Pfaff Motorsports brings the No. 9 “Plaid Porsche” while the No. 16 Wright Motorsports machine and the No. 99 Hardpoint Porsche are entered in the Pro-Am style GTD class at the Braselton, Georgia-area race track.

Those three teams – Pfaff, Wright and Hardpoint – have accumulated all of the IMSA championships the Porsche 911 GT3 R, type 991.2, has earned since its premiere. In 2019, Zach Robichon (Canada) racing for Pfaff Motorsports with a one-off at Park Place Motorsports, brought the first title to the naturally aspirated, flat-six powered Porsche taking the WeatherTech Sprint Cup Driver title while helping Porsche earn the Manufacturer crown for the non-endurance races.

Pfaff then added three GTD titles in 2021 (Driver, Team and Manufacturer) while Wright took another three WeatherTech Endurance Championships (Driver, Team and Manufacturer) last year as well. Rob Ferriol raced the Hardpoint machine to the Bob Akin Award in the final moments of the 2021 season for a seventh 2021 IMSA WeatherTech title for Porsche.

As the results prove, Pfaff Motorsports has been the most successful of the IMSA teams competing with the current generation Porsche 911 GT3 R race car.

Pfaff Motorsports, Porsche 911 GT3 R, Road America, 2021, PCNA

“Our 991.2 GT3 R, chassis 05, has been a very special car for us as we had virtually all of our ‘firsts’ in IMSA with it,” reflected Steve Bortolotti, Pfaff Motorsports Team Manager. “I was never one to have an emotional attachment to inanimate objects, however, I am proud to know that we will be hanging on to this car for the foreseeable future. The pedigree it has amassed is incredible, and I’m proud of the job both our staff and Porsche have done to keep a chassis with over 55,000 racing kilometers (34, 175 miles) on it still running in tip-top shape at the sharp end of an extremely competitive field. Hopefully we can send it off with a twelfth IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory.”

In 2018, the team announced at the Petit Le Mans it would move into the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship the following year with Porsche. Pfaff debuted in the GTD class of the Championship in 2019 at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Since that first season, the team has utilized the same Porsche 911 GT3 R to compete. Over the four seasons the car has been eligible to race in the GTD and now GTD Pro class, the “Plaid Porsche” has compiled 11 career wins and five pole positions entering the car’s final race before retirement, the 25th Annual Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.