Nick Tandy is leading a contingent of Porsche 911 RSRs by qualifying fifth for today’s Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase at Long Beach in the No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR. He was followed closely by his Porsche works program teammate, Michael Christensen, in the No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR. The 15-minute qualifying session set the grid for the third round of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship at the street course known as North America’s Monaco. Team Porsche North America has won the two opening rounds of the season.
As has been the case so far this season in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class, the grid of primarily factory run cars was extremely close. Tandy’s time of one-minute, 18.574 was less than 7/10ths off the pole winning time of the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R. Tandy turned his quickest time on the last lap in the car he shares with Austrian Richard Lietz. Christensen, who is making his debut on the temporary circuit in Southern California co-driving with Patrick Long (Play Del Rey, Calif.), turned a 1:18.675 despite only limited practice time leading up to qualifying.
Due to the size restrictions of pit lane and the paddock here at the temporary street circuit on the streets of Long Beach, IMSA has limited participation this weekend to only Prototype and GTLM class cars. Therefore, the two official Porsche North America works cars and the customer Porsche 911 RSR of Team Falken Tire will be the only Porsche racecars in the field.
Owen Hayes, Director of Operations, Porsche Motorsport North America: “I think the limited track time this morning had a small influence on our qualifying for sure. I think the baseline of the car is quite good and the drivers are quite comfortable. Overall we have a good racecar on either slow or high-speed corners.”
Sports Car Showcase At Long Beach Qualifying Results:
1. No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, Jan Magnussen (Denmark), 1:17.939
2. No. 55 BMW Z4 GTE, Bill Auberlen (USA), 1:18.091
3. No. 56 BMW Z4 GTE, Dirk Mueller (Germany), 1:18.246
4. No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, Tommy Milner (USA), 1:18.489
5. No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR, Nick Tandy (Great Britain), 1:18.574
6. No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR, Michael Christensen (Denmark), 1:18.675
7. No. 62 Ferrari F458 Italia, Giancarlo Fischella (Italy), 1:18.675
8. No. 91 SRT Viper GTS-R, Dominik Farnbacher (Germany), 1:19.223
9. No. 17 Porsche 911 RSR, Bryan Sellers (USA), 1:19.270
10. No. 93 SRT Viper GTS-R, Jonathan Bomarito (USA), 1:19.980
