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Porsche 911 RSR, Porsche North America

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Porsche 911 RSR, Porsche North America
, Tudor United SportsCar Championship, round 10 in Austin, USA, Preview
Austin: Factory squad campaigns three Porsche 911 RSR

The Porsche North America works team fields a third Porsche 911 RSR for the first time this season at the Tudor United SportsCar Championship round in Austin/Texas on 20 September. Along with the 911 RSR run by the US customer squad Falken Tire, a total of four 470 hp GT Weissach racers based of the seventh generation of the iconic 911 sports car will compete on the Circuit of the Americas. With just two rounds left on this season’s calendar of the new series that is contested in the USA and Canada, Porsche narrowly leads the manufacturer’s classification in the hard-fought GTLM class ahead of Chevrolet, SRT, BMW and Ferrari.

In the #911 Porsche 911 RSR, the Daytona winners Nick Tandy (Great Britain) and Richard Lietz (Austria) join forces with Jörg Bergmeister (Germany) to tackle the last race in the lead up to Petit Le Mans on 4 October as the season finale on the storied Road Atlanta circuit. Whether Richard Lietz will contest the Austin round depends on how well he has recovered from his accident during a practice session in Alton/USA at the end of August. Sharing driving duties in the number 912 Porsche 911 RSR are Michael Christensen (Denmark) and Patrick Long (USA), the winners of the 12-hour classic at Sebring. Contesting the Tudor United SportsCar Championship together for the first time are Frenchmen Frédéric Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet in the cockpit of Porsche North America’s third 911 RSR (#910). The Falken Tire outfit is banking on its regular pilots Wolf Henzler (Germany) and Bryan Sellers (USA), who recently scored their best result of the season with second in Alton.

“The fight for the championship in the GTLM class remains exciting to the very end. This speaks volumes for the excellence of this new race series. Even in its first season, the series has enthralled fans with some great motor racing and has fulfilled all expectations,” says Porsche’s Head of Motorsport Hartmut Kristen. “By fielding a third 911 RSR with Porsche North America in Austin we want to maintain our good title chances as leaders of the manufacturer’s classification.”

A particularly heavy workload awaits Porsche works drivers Nick Tandy, Richard Lietz, Jörg Bergmeister, Frédéric Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet at the race weekend in the Texas capital: On the same day straight after the round of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship, they will all tackle the six-hour race on the demanding Grand Prix circuit as part of the Sports Car World Endurance Championship WEC. As at previous WEC races this season, Porsche Team Manthey runs a pair of 911 RSR.

The Tudor United SportsCar Championship race starts on Saturday, 20 September, at 12.35 hrs local time (19.35 hrs CEST) and runs over 2:45 hours. The race is broadcast live in the Internet on www.imsa.com. The WEC race takes off at 17.00 hrs local time (24.00 hrs CEST) and can be watched live on Eurosport.



All reports on the previous season can be found in our archive.