2023 GT Sports Cars & Prototypes Races/Results

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The WEC is making is lone U.S. appearance this week in Florida with the 1,000 Miles of Sebring noon-8 p.m. ET on Friday as the prelude to Saturday's IMSA Weather Tech 12-hours of Sebring.

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/more-ra ... d568259d8a

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The World Endurance Championship's lone American race this past weekend at Sebring was a good race for fans unused to seeing WEC in the U.S. and was also a good look ahead for the 24-hours of Le Mans coming up June 10 -11.

The 1,000 mile, 8-hour WEC Sebring race featured three classes - Hypercar, LMP2, and LMGTE. The Toyota Gazoo Racing hybrid Hypercars dominated their class, finishing 1 - 2. Porsche's 963 Hypercars finished 5 & 6, four laps off the pace of the winning Toyotas.

Porsche's motorsport chief Thomas Laudenbach admitted that it has work to do to catch up to its Hypercar rivals ahead of next month’s second round in Portugal:

“We did the best we could with what we currently have and made significant progress compared to the IMSA series season opener at Daytona,” said Laudenbach, referring to the Porsche 963’s nightmare debut outing in the Rolex 24 in January.

“The reliability of our two Porsche 963 was not an issue this weekend. However, it became very obvious that we still have some catching up to do in many areas.

“Compared to the competition, we lack performance. We have to work on this directly and intensively over the coming weeks.”

Porsche fared better in the LMGTE class with its 911 RSR-19's 2nd place finish behind the winning Corvette C8.R. Ferrari's 488 GTE Evo's finished 3rd, 4th & 5th followed by three other Porsche 911 RSR-19's in 6th, 7th, and 8th.


Autoweek's recap for the WEC's only race this year in North America:

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/more-ra ... d568259d8a


Final Sebring WEC 1000 results:

03-classification-race-hour-8-1-6415a81d449af.pdf

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The Porsche 963 GTP Hybrids at IMSA Long Beach this weekend.

The GTP hybrids will be the only prototypes on the track in addition to the GTD Pro and GTD entries. It's a tight course - the racing will be good and very competitive.

Autoweek Racing on TV Listings week of 2023-04-10.pdf

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The #6 Porsche 936 GTP hybrid of Mathieu Jaminet & Nick Tandy won Saturday's WeatherTech IMSA GTP race at Long Beach with teammates Matt Campbell & Felipe Nasr finishing 3rd in their #7 Porsche 963.

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/more-ra ... ld-finish/

05-results-by-class-race-unofficial-pdf-643b4062d461b.pdf

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A picture of each of the two Porsche 963 GTP cars that were on the podium at Long Beach this past weekend - the winning #6 of Jaminet and Tandy plus the 3rd place #7 of Campbell and Nasr.

Looking at how close to the barriers they are able to place their cars at speed, turn after turn, I don't see how there can be any doubt as to the impressive driving skills, vehicle awareness and car control perfection of exceptional pro drivers. Impressive.

963 #6 at IMSA Long Beach 2023-04-15.jpg (275.64 KiB) Viewed 1295 times

963 #7 at IMSA Long Beach 2023-04-15.jpg (286.67 KiB) Viewed 1295 times

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I moved the posts relevant to the 2023 24-Hours of Le Mans to its own new topic here

viewtopic.php?t=1948

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The IMSA Weathertech Championship main race plus the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, IMSA Lamborghini Super Trofeo, IMSA Porsche Carrera Cup, IMSA VP Racing Sportscar Challenge and the Mazda MX-5 Cup races are this weekend at Watkins Glen. Lots of racing!

https://www.imsa.com/events/2023-sahlen ... he-glen/#/


From Autoweek: "Watkins Glen 6-Hour IMSA Race at Watkins Glen Provides a Good-Case Scenario for BMW"

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/more-ra ... d568259d8a

Meanwhile, the Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 Hypercars still lead the IMSA GTP field after four races. Hopefully they will have a good showing, especially after the disappointing results at Le Mans two weeks ago.

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Porsche Penske Motorsport Takes Top Spot at Watkins Glen

Sahlen’s Six Hours at the Glen Porsche 963 drivers Mathieu Jaminet, Nick Tandy and Porsche Penske Motorsport are season's first two-time winners in GTP. The 963 gets it done!

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/more-ra ... d568259d8a

IMSA Watkins Glen WTSCC 2023-06-25 results.pdf

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963 #6 GTP & overall winner at IMSA Watkins Glen 2023-06-25.jpg (85.66 KiB) Viewed 1108 times

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Update:

Porsche's IMSA Watkins Glen winning 963 GTP car disqualified during a post-race inspection.

“Following post-race inspection at Watkins Glen International, IMSA has penalized the No. 6 entry in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen citing that the front skid wear of the No. 6 Porsche 963 was less than one millimeter outside the legal tolerance. The rear skid wear was noted to be well within the legal tolerance. Porsche Penske Motorsport plans to collect all of the data and follow the protest procedures.”

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/more-ra ... d568259d8a

Less than 1mm outside the legal tolerance? What?

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This weekend's Spa 24-hours will be streamed live for free for any who might have a bit of time to watch some of it. Start time is 10:30am (ET).

It's being billed as a "Supercar Slugfest" per Autoweek:

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/more-ra ... d568259d8a

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Link to where the live feed will occur: https://www.crowdstrike24hoursofspa.com/watch-live