The Porsche customer team Wright Motorsports achieved an excellent starting position in qualifying for the 12-hour race at Sebring. Jan Heylen qualified in second place in the GTD class at the wheel of the Porsche 911 GT3 R behind the Lamborgnini of Grasser Racing but after a telemetry violation was found Wright motorsports where promoted to pole after the Lamborghinis declassification. In tomorrow's race, the Belgian will share the cockpit of the over 500 hp GT3 vehicle from Weissach with the American works driver Patrick Long and his compatriot Trent Hindman. The team from the US state of Ohio clinched a class win in the 2020 season finale in the same place. In the GTLM class, the American Cooper MacNeil drove the WeatherTech Racing team's Porsche 911 RSR to fifth position. The experienced amateur driver shares the number 79 with the works drivers Matt Campbell from Australia and Mathieu Jaminet from France.

The qualifying of the GTD class, in which amateurs and professionals take turns in the cockpits, was held for the first time according to a new, two-part mode. In the first 15 minutes the gentleman drivers drove for the starting position, in the second run the professional drivers went on the hunt for points. In the faster GTLM category, both starting positions and points were determined in a single session.

The Pfaff Motorsports team had bad luck in the first part of the qualification. During his first attack, Canadian Zacharie Robichon braked himself in an optimal starting position when approaching Turn 10 and was then unable to go further due to weak tires. Car number 9 will start the race from 13th place in the GTD class, but still scored the most points of all Porsche customer teams in the second qualifying segment. Works driver Laurens Vanthoor set the second fastest lap time and thus an important 32 championship points. The two Porsche 911 GT3 Rs from the Hardpoint EBM team start from positions ten and eleven in the endurance race in Florida.

Quotes on qualifying
Sebastian Golz (Project Manager Porsche 911 GT3 R):“Jan Heylen in the Wright Motorsports car and our works driver Laurens Vanthoor at the wheel of the Pfaff Motorsports vehicle have performed extremely well. The two of them made optimal use of the potential of the Porsche 911 GT3 R and achieved a great starting position as well as important points. Overall, we're going into race day very optimistically. The preparations for the endurance classic went very cleanly and consistently during the training sessions. We expect a strong performance from our customer cars. ”

Jan Heylen (Porsche 911 GT3 R # 16):“Second on the grid is good, but I'm still a bit disappointed. I was in first place for a long time. In the end, just 0.067 seconds were missing from pole position in our class - that's really just a touch. It would certainly have been more possible, but I didn't have the opportunity to adjust to fresh tires in practice. I lacked the experience. But that's complaining at the highest level. We are now looking forward to the race. ”

Cooper MacNeil (Porsche 911 RSR # 79):“It was a clean qualifying for me. I caught a nice gap on the track and was able to do my laps without any traffic. Our focus during the training sessions was always on preparing for the race. The pace of a fast lap doesn't matter at all in a twelve-hour run. We are well prepared for the big race and are going into the classic in Sebring with great self-confidence. "

Laurens Vanthoor (Porsche 911 GT3 R # 9):“My colleague Zach had two brake problems on his qualifying laps. Before I started in the second section, we reset the car in the hope that everything would work again. That was the case. I was able to really go to the limit on my laps and score important points with second place. It really doesn't matter that we start the race from last place. The world looks completely different again in the twelve-hour race. ”

Result GTLM class
1. Garcia / Taylor / Catsburg (E / USA / NL), Corvette # 3, 1: 54.910 minutes
2. Milner / Tandy / Sims (USA / GB / GB), Corvette # 4, 1: 54.944 minutes
3. Eng / de Phillippi / Spengler (A / USA / CDN), BMW # 25, 1: 55.062 minutes
5. MacNeil / Campbell / Jaminet (USA / AUS / F), Porsche 911 RSR # 79, 1: 56.119 minutes

Result GTD class
1st Simpson / Perrera / Zimmermann (ZA / F / D), Lamborghini # 19, 2: 00.010 minutes
2nd Long / Hindman / Heylen (USA / USA / B), Porsche 911 GT3 R # 16, 2nd : 00.077 minutes
3. Telitz / Hawksworth / Kirkwood (USA / GB / USA), Lexus # 14, 2: 00.504 minutes
10. Nielsen / Legge / Beatriz (DK / GB / BR), Porsche 911 GT3 R # 88, 2: 02.613 minutes
11. Ferriol / Bamber / Estep (USA / NZ / USA), Porsche 911 GT3 R # 99, 2: 03.144 minutes
13. Robichon / Vanthoor / Kern (CDN / B / D), Porsche 911 GT3 R # 9, 2: 29.063 minutes

The 12-hour race in Sebring starts on Saturday at 10:10 a.m. local time (3:10 p.m. CET). Outside the USA and Canada, the run will be broadcast live over the entire distance on www.imsa.com. Live timing is available at scoring.imsa.com.