MotorSports: Porsche Factory And Customer Teams Have Successful Daytona Test
The 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season got off to a successful start for Porsche Motorsport factory and customer programs with the annual ROAR Before the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway, January 3 – 5. At the end of three days of testing and qualifying sessions for both the factory-entered Porsche 911 RSR-19 and customer-prepared Porsche 911 GT3 R race cars, all left the Florida test with a positive outlook for the upcoming Rolex 24 At Daytona on January 25 – 26.
The focus of the weekend – which featured seven test sessions and a 15-minute qualifying session for both the GTLM factory cars and GTD Pro-Am style customer class – was twofold with the Porsche 911 RSR-19 making its North American competition debut and the sophomore 911 GT3 R race car entered with new team and driver combinations. While learning was paramount, qualifying – held Saturday for the GTD class and Sunday for GTLM – helped to lock-in pit lane location for the race itself. A good spot on pit lane can help maximize efficiency during green flag stops – which come approximately every hour under green flag conditions. While an all-out sprint for two trips around the clock, pit strategy plays a vital role in the success of any Daytona-winning program.
By virtue of a qualifying time of one-minute, 42.686-seconds set by Nick Tandy (Great Britain), he and co-drivers Frédéric Makowiecki (France) and Matt Campbell (Australia), will have second-choice of pit stalls in the GTLM class for the Porsche GT Team. Tandy was a narrow 1,000th of a second off the fastest time of the session in the No. 911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR-19. Defending series’ champion Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) qualified the No. 912 he shares with fellow champion Earl Bamber (New Zealand) and Mathieu Jaminet (France), fifth-place in class with a 1:42.903. This was the North American competition debut for the 510-hp Porsche race car that features an evolutionary update to its revolutionary predecessor, which captured the IMSA GTLM Manufacturer, Team and Driver Championships in 2019. The entire GTLM field was separated by less than 0.5-seconds over the 3.56 mile (5.73 km), 12-turn sports car layout.
