Park Place Motorsports announced Wednesday (Aug. 22) that they intend to compete in the final two races of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. The team was originally planning on only running the endurance events, but added Road America earlier this month to the schedule. Now, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca has been added to the schedule as well.
For Laguna Seca, the team will have the regular duo of Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Lindsey behind the wheel. For Petit Le Mans, that cannot happen. After the WEC shuffled their schedule around earlier this year, Petit Le Mans is now a direct clash with the 6 Hours of Fuji in Japan. Lindsey and Bergmeister are full-time in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Team Project 1 and cannot do both races.
As a result, the team will have third driver Tim Pappas share the car with Wolf Henzler and Spencer Pumpelly. In Henzler and Pumpelly, the team gets a couple of drivers with oodles of experience in Porsche 911s. Pumpelly ran full-time for the team in 2015, winning twice. That included the incredibly wet Petit Le Mans.
In addition, Road Atlanta is Pumpelly’s home track. Winning at home is very important for the family man.
“I’m happy to be back with Park Place at my home track,” Pumpelly stated. “We had a great run in 2015 with the win. I think with the way the Porsche has been performing in GTD, and with the lineup we have, we’re already in contention for the win in 2018. I’m confident in what this team can do because I’ve experienced it first-hand so I hope we get the outcome they deserve.”
The team’s lineup at Road Atlanta is basically the best lineup that could be assembled for the purposes of tackling the 2.52-mile undulating road course. In addition to his GT Daytona class win in the wet in 2015 with Park Place, Pumpelly also won the GTC class in 2013 for Flying Lizard Motorsports. Henzler, a former Porsche factory racer, is a two-time class winner in the Petit Le Mans (2013 and 2014 with Team Falken Tire). Pappas claimed a GTC class victory in 2011 with his own team, Black Swan Racing.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
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