Not only were the eyes of Texas upon the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) today, the entire sports car racing world witnessed a GT Le Mans (GTLM) class battle that will see the inaugural TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Manufacturer title fight go to the last race of the season. A third place finish by the No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR helped the German marque retain the point lead in the class for road car-based racecars. However, with Dodge’s Viper taking the Lone Star Le Mans race victory, the fight for manufacturer honors in the mostly factory-entered category will go to the final race, the 17th annual Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta on October 4. Porsche won the 1,000-mile event in 2013 and has won two of the three endurance races held thus far in North America this year.
The No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR led the way for the three factory-entered cars based on the iconic rear-engine sports car. Started in third-position, Michael Christensen (Denmark) drove the first one-hour and 45-minutes of the race. The Dane turned the wheel over to Patrick Long (Playa del Rey, California) for the final hour. The United States’ only Porsche factory driver fought through the hot and humid conditions of the Austin, Texas summer to finish third following the tandem of Dodge Viper SRT across the finish line.
Patrick said, “We had a very clean pit stop and I put my head down and tried to close the gap to the Viper. After the issues for the [number] 911 we took a safe approach to get to the finish. This came down to the manufacturer’s championship and we have to be there at the end. We were able to salvage some good points today.”