PorscheSport victorious at Virtual Charity Race in an emotional rollercoaster

The PorscheSport Team completed the iRace for Movember in spectacular fashion. As the chequered flag dropped, the 919 Hybrid driven by Mike Epps and Peter Mackay claimed overall victory, with the GT teams claiming first and second. Ryan Parkins, Matt Dorrington and Josh Camm took up the six-hour race on the Le Mans Circuit from pole position and crossed the finish line in first place. The sister GT car driven by Carl Sharkey, Paul Riga and Luke Holroyd starting from the back of the grid after a poor qualifying, fought through the field in the stages to claim third position in class.

Mike Epps, in his first outing for PorscheSport put in a fantastic effort in the first few hours of the race. A battle with Indy Autosport White entertained fans as Epps and Lochie Brown traded places. After an unfortunate reconnect for Brown, the PorscheSport 919 looked very much in the driving seat. With the driver swap and Peter Mackay now at the wheel, it looked like the position was cemented after a steady drive from the rookie. On the final lap the race lead was thrown wide open as a mistake by Mackay by missing the pit entry, resulting in a 40 second stop and go penalty. With the overall race lead now up for grabs, it looked all lost as Epps took back over and was involved in a huge incident. A spinning LMP2 on turn one had Epps with nowhere to go as he faced a prototype rolling in the opposite direction. With a long tow back to the pits, it again looked over for the prototype team, but more drama and some fantastic lap times by Mike Epps resulted in an overall victory.

Meanwhile the GT field was a light to flag dominance for the #911 PorscheSport team. A fantastic qualifying session from Josh Camm placed the car on pole. It was a drama free race as Camm, Ryan Parkins and Matt Dorrington put on a perfect performance to take the class win by more than three minutes. The #11 sister car had to fight their way through the field as track limits ruined any chances of a qualifying lap. Starting from the back of the grid, Carl Sharkey drove a faultless double stint to bring the the second of the PorscheSport GT cars near the front of the order. After handing the car over to Luke Holroyd, the two sister cars were now first and second. Heading into the final 40 minutes, the second place PorscheSport car chose to pit early after slight contact with the wall in Porsche Curves. With Quantum Racing now handed second place, with a pitstop to make, the final stages became a spectacular race for the second podium spot.

"Considering there were only three LMP1 cars that had all the making of a proper Le Mans race. At one point I was practically in orbit as an LMP2 car that had spun backwards at the first chicane, I had nowhere to go and that cost us over five minutes for the tow back to the pit lane. Luckily we were able to get out without too much of a gap on the leaders, unfortunately Lochie Brown ran into issues which was a huge shame. He was really quick and big respect to him for the race, we had a good battle for the fastest lap at the end of the race. It's been really good fun and I really enjoyed the racing. It was a fantastic experience to run with my teammate Peter Mackay and play out a Pro-Am strategy in the race." - Mike Epps

"First and foremost we would like to congratulate the organisers for holding this special event and raising a fantastic amount of money for the Movember charity. We're really happy with the results, the team was superb today. The whole team came together and put on a fantastic race for all the fans via the Apex TV YouTube Channel, the broadcast was spectacular" - Luke Holroyd

"We were really lucky at the start, Josh Camm put the Porsche on pole and did a fantastic job to pull away at the start. Matt Dorrington jumped in the car and kept the consistent times up in the middle stint and we were actually able to run fifteen lap stints and we gained alot of time there." - Ryan Parkins

You can watch the race replay here.