LAKEVILLE, Conn., (July 17, 2021) — Wright Motorsports braved sweltering temperatures and stifling humidity this weekend at Lime Rock Park, leaving the Northeast Grand Prix with a hefty points pull to go towards their Michelin Pilot Challenge championship endeavor. Lightning cut short the two-hour, 40-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship sprint race, disappointing drivers and teams alike, eager to earn valuable championship points.
“It’s definitely disappointing that the red flag ate so much into the IMSA race,” said Team Owner John Wright. “However, I’m still proud of our team, on both programs. The WeatherTech guys had a strong car to finish that race, and the Michelin Pilot Challenge group had an awesome race to finish third and get that top spot in the championship standings. Great job all around.”
After a less than ideal qualifying session on Friday, the team put together a strong strategy to allow for the No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3 R to work its way up through the field. The entire GTD field drove into turn one after the green flag, resulting in the No. 16 getting shuffled back several positions. Avoiding any contact, driver Trent Hindman kept his head down as the field spread out. The Porsche came alive in Hindman’s second stint, and the young racer and was able to climb back up to eighth before a weather-related full-course caution. The clouds rolled in over Lime Rock Park, and with one hour, ten minutes remaining on the clock, the race was red-flagged for lightning in the area. The race did not resume, and with the eighth-place finish, Wright Motorsports unofficially maintains their fifth-place standing in the GTD class team points.
Driver Quotes | No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3 R
Patrick Long
Incidents aside, I’ve never had a race where I wasn’t able to get in. it’s unfortunate we didn’t get to run the final stint. We worked hard this week, and we were certainly hopeful that the final stint was going to come our way. I appreciate our partners and wish we could have put on a better show for our fans. Sometimes Mother Nature has another plan.
Trent Hindman
Big thanks to the Wright Motorsports crew. We showed a lot of speed in our Porsche 911 GT3 R this weekend. I’m not sure what happened in qualifying and our first stint. We need to investigate a little bit. Our first stint was dictated by a lack of pace in qualifying, and as soon as we got into the second stint in the race, the car just came alive. There are some things we can investigate and the sliver lining is that we did everything correctly and in the right direction. Something outside of our control dictated our result today. We have lots of positives coming out Lime Rock and going into Road America.