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Strong Porsche contingent on the time-honoured circuit

Stuttgart. The American Grand-Am Series takes off on Friday on the Watkins Glen International into its first 200 mile race. After the six hour race in June, this is the popular race series’ second visit to the time-honoured circuit in the US State New York. Porsche works driver Timo Bernhard says: “With its many fast corners and its roller coaster characteristic, this circuit has everything that makes a race track difficult and interesting.”

Still within reach of the title with an 18-point gap to the leader, Timo Bernhard and his teammate Romain Dumas (France) hold high hopes for the Watkins Glen race. The race runs over just 200 miles (the classic Grand-Am distance is 250 miles) and will be contested on the shorter 3.94 kilometre version of the track. In June, the pair secured third place in the prototype class with Penske Racing’s #12 Porsche Riley. After Millville, this was their second podium result in what is proving to be a trying season marked by many regulation changes for the Porsche-powered sports prototypes. In the manufacturers’ championship, Porsche occupies second position.

Brumos Racing fields two Porsche Riley. The successful customer team from Florida took off into the season with a victory at the famous Daytona 24 hour race. Since this success, David Donohue (USA) and Darren Law (USA) have not achieved another podium result with the #58 vehicle. In Birmingham they held the lead early on in the race, but their hopes of winning were dashed when an opponent ran into the rear of the car. “If we could just finish a race without experiencing problems,” said Darren Law confidently, “we could manage a top placing.” This also applies to the second Brumos-Porsche with the starting number 59, shared by Joao Barbosa (Portugal) and JC France (USA).

In a considerably more comfortable position than their prototype colleagues are Dirk Werner (Germany) and Leh Keen (USA). Driving the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of Farnbacher Loles Racing they have already notched up four GT class victories so far this season and hold a clear lead, as does Porsche in the manufacturers’ classification. Recently in Birmingham they were unable to continue their usual top performance and had to settle for fifth. This, however, was not a major setback. “For us it’s of course more important to win the title than to collect more race victories, so for this reason we try to keep the risk of retirement as low as possible,” said Dirk Werner explaining the strategy for the rest of the season.

Manning the second Porsche 911 GT3 Cup is Porsche junior driver Marco Holzer (Germany) and Eric Lux (USA). The TRG team reinforces the strong Porsche armada in the GT class with three 911 GT3 Cup, one of the most successful race cars in the Grand-Am Series.

The race in Watkins Glen takes off on Friday, 7 August, at 18.30 hours local time (00.30 hours CEST) and runs over 200 miles.


Facts and Figures

This is the Grand-Am Series

In the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series twelve races are contested in the USA and Canada. A traditional highlight of the season is the 24 Hours of Daytona. Most races run over a distance of 250 miles. The grid is made up of two different vehicle categories: Daytona Prototypes and GT vehicles. With one exception, both categories race together but are separately classified.

Daytona Prototypes (DP): Special manufacturers, like Riley, supply the vehicle chassis. To ensure equal chances for all, large manufacturers are not permitted to enter their own team, but may supply engines. Two Porsche teams, Penske Racing and Brumos Racing, compete with the Porsche 3.99-litre six-cylinder fitted in a Riley chassis. In the Daytona Prototype specification, the engine delivers ca. 510 hp. Minimum weight of the vehicle is 1,021 kilograms.

Grand Touring (GT): The GT class is similar to the FIA GT3 class, where the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup is one of the most successful contenders. Equality of chances is attained through tyre size, rev limitations and weight. Minimum weight is between 1,043 and 1,270 kilograms.

A balanced starter field ensures thrilling racing with tough fights for positions and many overtaking manoeuvres. Porsche has won the GT championship seven times in nine years, most recently in 2007 with Dirk Werner at the wheel of a Farnbacher Loles Racing 911 GT3 Cup, and with this is one of the most successful manufacturers in the Grand-Am Series. Porsche works driver Joerg Bergmeister claimed the Prototype class title in 2006.