Porsche Motorsport Weekly Event Notes: Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Porsche Profile.
Event Story Lines.
Kingdom of the North. Porsche Customer Teams Travel to Canada for SRO Championships.
Three major SRO championships travel north to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) to continue the season-long GT3 and GT4 class battles in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, May 17 – 19. Five Porsche 911 GT3 R customer race cars will fight for victory in Rounds 5 and 6 of the Blancpain GT World Challenge America championship for GT3 cars while a total of eight Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport racers will contest either the GT4 America Sprint or SprintX races.

Blancpain GT World Challenge America.
The pair of 90-minute GT World Challenge America races are among the most hotly contested events in the world of auto racing. Alegra Motorsports fields the No. 22 Porsche 911 GT3 R for Porsche Young Driver Academy graduates Daniel Morad (Canada) and Michael De Quesada (Tampa, Florida) and the No. 24 for veteran Porsche pilots Wolf Henzler (Germany) and Marco Holzer (Germany). Kevan Millstein and Alex Barron enter their third weekend of SRO competition in the No. 38 prepared by K2R Motorsports. Wright Motorsports looks for victory lane with a pair of the rear-engine machines with Porsche factory driver Patrick Long (Manhattan Beach, California) and Porsche Selected Driver Scott Hargrove (Canada) in the No. 58 Porsche Consulting/Pfaff Porsche 911 GT3 R. Anthony Imperato (Brooklyn, New York) and Porsche Young Professional Dennis Olsen (Norway) are partnered again this weekend in the No. 91 brought north by Wright.

The No. 58 pairing boasts a long history of success at the 2.459-mile circuit north of Toronto. Of Long’s four CTMP victories, two were earned during his first series event with Wright Motorsports in 2016. While it’s still a trip across the country for Hargrove, the track formerly known as Mosport International Raceway is familiar territory as the Vancouver-native holds nine victories driving Porsche cars at the Canadian road course.

GT4 Sprint.
The road-car based GT4 class will have four races at CTMP with two each of the 50-minute Sprint Championship and the 60-minute SprintX Championship. Porsche will be represented by four customer teams and their 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport race cars on track in Rounds 4 and 5 of the Sprint series. GMG Racing will have Jason Bell back in the No. 2 machine for the third time this season. Park Place Motorsports is a proven winner in both SRO and IMSA competition in 2019 with Allan Brynjolfsson in its No. 7 neon yellow Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport while TRG brings the No. 66 for Atlanta’s Spencer Pumpelly. The veteran Porsche combination has already stood on the top step of the Sprint podium this year. BGB Motorsports has entered Canadian Thomas Collinwood in the No. 169 for Saturday and Sunday’s races. The Sprint series is a single-driver format.

GT4 SprintX.
The 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport is also the customer Porsche in the 60-minute SprintX championship races at CTMP. Rounds 5 and 6 of the two-driver “endurance” series will see four more 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport race cars. TRG has Sean Gibbons and Derek DeBoer in the No. 17 while the pairing of previous race winners Matt Travis and Jason Hart will split driving chores in the No. 47 of NOLASPORT. Thomas Collinwood will team with John Tecce in the No. 69 BGB Motorsports car for the SprintX races on Saturday and Sunday. Park Place Motorsports’ Allan Brynjolfsson will also have a busy weekend driving all four GT4 races. The American will add Trent Hindman to the lineup in the No. 77 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport. 

Patrick Long, Driver, No. 58 Wright Motorsports Pfaff Porsche/Porsche Consulting Porsche 911 GT3 R.
"CTMP is a track that stands entirely on its own compared to other North American tracks. It's very quick, treacherous and challenging to get the car dialed in. When you have success there it gives you an extra kick of confidence because it's that tough. We haven't been the strongest car on the straights and CTMP has a lot of high speed sections. We’ll have our work cut out for us, but if you look our previous results with Wright Motorsports, we’ve always come out strong so we go in with confidence.”

"Having Pfaff Porsche on the car for a Toronto home race is a special thing. I've worked with Pfaff in the past when I lived in Toronto. It's a great group that's hugely successful on a global level with their car sales. I'm sure they will bring an extra home court advantage to cheer us on and we look forward to that.”

Scott Hargrove, Driver, No. 58 Wright Motorsports Pfaff Porsche/Porsche Consulting Porsche 911 GT3 R.
"Canadian Tire Motorsport Park feels like a home track to me, even at over 4000km away from my home in Vancouver. I’ve always really enjoyed tackling the high-speed elevation changes and I’m confident that we’ll carry over the positive momentum that we built at VIR. It’s also great to have Pfaff Porsche join us for the event as they are a leader in developing the Canadian motorsports community."

Anthony Imperato, Driver, No. 91 Wright Motorsports Henry Rifles Porsche 911 GT3 R.
“I’m really looking forward to getting back to it at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. This is my first time going to CTMP, but I’m confident that we will have a fast Porsche and hoping for some strong results”

Dennis Olsen, Driver, No. 91 Wright Motorsports Henry Rifles Porsche 911 GT3 R.
"I'm looking forward to joining Anthony again in the SRO America championship. Unlike COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is a new track for me. I'm sure we will be up to speed very quickly and as always, I feel very confident racing with Wright Motorsports. Hopefully we will be able to collect a lot of valuable points for the championship and continue the great momentum that we’ve built over the last two rounds.”

Perfect Partners. Wright Motorsports Partners with Pfaff Porsche.
This Victoria Day weekend SRO event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) will see Wright Motorsports welcome Pfaff Porsche on board as a partner of Patrick Long (Manhattan Beach, California) and Canadian Scott Hargrove’s No. 58 Porsche 911 GT3 R. Pfaff is one of the largest growing Porsche dealerships in North America.

John Wright, Team Principal, Wright Motorsports.
"We're very pleased to welcome Pfaff Porsche on board for the Toronto event. It will be great to have an extra boost of morale, with their personnel and clients on the ground. What Pfaff Porsche has done with their car sales speaks for itself and partnerships like these capitalize on the shared values between Porsche entities.”

917 at 50. Porsche Museum Presents the Success Story of the Iconic 917 Race Car.
One of the most prominent racing cars in Porsche motor racing history is celebrating its 50th birthday this year: the Porsche 917. The Porsche Museum is honoring the golden anniversary of the racing icon from May 14 to September 15, 2019 as part of a comprehensive special exhibition entitled “50 Years of the Porsche 917 – Colors of Speed”. 14 individual exhibits – including ten different 917 models, representing a combined 7,490 horsepower – will be on display.

917- 001. Restored to its Original 1969 Condition.
The Group 4 sports car, which was developed to secure an overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the World Championship for Makes, was manufactured in 1969. It was the first of the initial 25 vehicles required for homologation, making the car legal to compete in international competition. The “Number One” 917 marks the start of the previously unprecedented success story of the 917-racing car, and is the highlight of the special exhibition. For more than a year, museum mechanics, former technicians and engineers from Zuffenhausen and Weissach, the Porsche AG historic archive, as well as partner companies, have worked on restoring this first 917. It is now in exactly the same condition as it was on  March 12, 1969, when it was presented to the world at the Geneva Motor Show.

917 short-tail. The Le Mans Winners of 1970 and 1971.
Two further highlights of the special exhibition are the 24 Hours of Le Mans 24 winners from 1970 and 1971. In 1970, Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood drove the 917 KH (short-tail) with car number 23, in the now world-famous red-white Salzburg Design, to the first of 19 overall wins for Porsche at the Circuit de la Sarthe. The following year, Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep managed to repeat this success. Covering a distance of 3,315 miles (5,335 kilometers) with an average speed of 138.1 mph (222.3 km/h), they set two records that were unbeaten for 39 years.

A Detailed Look at the Fascinating Technology of the Porsche 917. Alongside the seven other 917 models – including the 917 PA Spyder, which became a test car with 16-cylinder engine – as well as long-tail and turbo versions, the exhibition also provides an in-depth look into the technology behind the versatile 917. The fine art of the twelve-cylinder engine designed by Hans Mezger is illustrated by numerous small exhibits such as crankshafts, piston and cylinder sleeve sets, camshafts and turbochargers. Fiberglass components from the restoration phase of the 917- 001 demonstrate the high standard of body construction at the time.

A road-going Porsche 911 Turbo shows how racing technology has made its way into series production with components such as the turbocharger and the brake system. With this model, the turbo technology previously used with success in the 917/10 and 917/30 made the transition into a Porsche production sports car in 1974. A short time later – for the 1978 model year – the 911 Turbo also benefited from a brake system which had previously been developed for the 917 in a very similar form. Like in the race car, the fixed brake calipers were manufactured from light alloy material and had four pistons.

The 917 as an Inspiration for Porsche Engineers and Designers.
Two further exhibits demonstrate the extent to which the 917 has also remained in the minds of Porsche engineers and designers across the decades. In 1970, a 25 percent studio model was created, from one of the draft designs generated during the development of the 917/20 “Pink Pig”. This model was further developed by the team under Anatole "Tony" Lapine, the Head of Design at the time. They turned it into a visionary future vehicle which even had a computer unit in addition to its streamlined body.

More than 40 years later, the designers once again picked up the theme of the 917 – this time in the form of a concept study from 2013 with the title “917 Living Legend”. The Porsche Museum is presenting the study to the public for the first time as part of this special exhibition. This full-size clay model was created when  Porsche returned to the LMP1 prototype class of endurance racing in 2014 with the 919 Hybrid  A small team of designers, aerodynamic experts, package specialists, chassis and drive technicians designed this tribute to the legendary 917 “Salzburg design” in just six months.

The Porsche Museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. All relevant information can be found at www.porsche.de/museum.