Tudor United SportsCar Championship: Porsche 911 RSR at Road America

Tudor United SportsCar Championship, round 7 at Elkhart Lake/USA
Earl Bamber plants Porsche 911 RSR on pole at Road America
Stuttgart. After notching up victories at Watkins Glen and Bowmanville, the Porsche 911 RSR was again the fastest GT vehicle in qualifying on the storied Road America race circuit. At the wheel of the 470 hp winning racer from Weissach, which is based on the seventh generation of the iconic 911 sports car, Porsche works driver Earl Bamber (New Zealand) clinched pole position for the seventh round of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship on Sunday. For the Le Mans winner, who contests the GTLM class sharing the cockpit of the 911 RSR fielded by the Porsche North America works squad with his teammate Jörg Bergmeister (Germany), this was his first ever GT qualifying session as a Porsche works driver. His top time was the fastest GTLM lap ever driven at Road America and handed Porsche the third pole position of the season. 

At the wheel of the 911 RSR campaigned by the Falken Tire customer team, Porsche factory pilot Wolf Henzler (Germany), who won the Watkins Glen round with Bryan Sellers (USA), posted the seventh quickest time. With the second 911 RSR run by Porsche North America, Patrick Pilet (France) managed just one timed lap on the 6.514-kilometre race track in Elkhart Lake in the US state of Wisconsin before he was sidelined with power loss. Together with Le Mans winner Nick Tandy (Great Britain), he secured victory recently at the Canadian round in Bowmanville. 

Pole position also went to Porsche in the GTD class: Patrick Lindsey (USA) from Park Place Motorsports posted the top qualifying time in the Porsche 911 GT America which he shares with his compatriot Spencer Pumpelly.

Quotes after the qualifying
Marco Ujhasi, Overall Project Manager GT Works Motorsport: “Well, this is definitely a perfect starting position for the race. Earl’s lap was simply sensational. Testing on this demanding circuit has paid off. Thanks as well to our partner Michelin. Together, everything came together perfectly for this qualifying and Earl put the icing on the cake.”
Earl Bamber (Porsche 911 RSR #912): “Everything worked just right in this qualifying. The team put a great car on the track for me. Quite frankly I was rather nervous before my first ever qualifying session as a Porsche works driver. But my fastest lap was perfect. The race tomorrow will definitely be exciting because our rivals are right behind us. But we’ll do our utmost to continue the winning streak for Porsche.”

The race on Sunday takes off at 14.05 hrs local time (21.05 hrs CEST) and runs over 2:40 hours. It will be broadcast on the Internet under www.imsa.com.


Qualifying result
GTLM class
1. Bamber/Bergmeister (NZ/D), Porsche 911 RSR, 2:02.384 minutes
2. Magnussen/Garcia (DK/E), Chevrolet Corvette, + 0.224 seconds
3. Kaffer/Fisichella (D/I), Ferrari F458 Italia, + 0.363
4. Edwards/Luhr (USA/D), BMW Z4 GTE, + 0.973
5. Gavin/Milner (GB/USA), Chevrolet Corvette, + 1.363
6. Auberlen/Werner (USA/D), BMW Z4 GTE, + 1.388
7. Henzler/Sellers (D/USA), Porsche 911 RSR, + 1.506
8. Pilet/Tandy (F/GB), Porsche 911 RSR, + 9.921

GTD class
1. Lindsey/Pumpelly (USA/USA), Porsche 911 GT America, 2:09.370 minutes
2. Keating/Bleekemolen (USA/NL), Dodge Viper SRT, + 0.118 seconds
3. Nielsen/Wittmer (DK/CDN), Aston Martin Vantage, + 0.577