Park Place Motorsports announced Monday (Dec. 10) that they will return to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on a full-time basis in 2019. Team owner Patrick Lindsey will once again drive the No. 73 Porsche 911 GT3 R with the returning Patrick Long alongside.
“I’m extremely excited for our team this year,” Lindsey stated in a press release. “We’re growing as a team, and we have the full support of Porsche Motorsport North America to chase a championship. We’re pursuing a lot this year. We’re running two new cars with the new GT3 R in WeatherTech and GT4 in the Michelin [Pilot Challenge]. We’re hoping to run Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA [as well] for the second year.
“However, I do believe that we’ve never been in a better position to make the leaps we will make this year and to do them with great success,” Lindsey continued. “Maybe we won’t make them without setbacks or issues, but we will have success this year. Everyone on the team feels that.”
Long is pleased to be back with Park Place Motorsports.
“Park Place is a great team and I enjoy working with them,” Long stated. “They’re a group of very determined people with tremendous talent. We had some memorable moments when we last raced together, but I’m hoping we can build on those accomplishments this coming year. They’ve made great changes and additions during the offseason to the team which I’m sure will pay off during the season. I’m happy to be back with Patrick; he’s a great a teammate. Hopefully, we can make some magic happen this year.”
For Long, this will be his second go-around with Park Place Motorsports. When the team formed out of the former Horton Autosport for the 2013 Rolex Sports Car Series, Long was signed to drive their No. 73 Porsche full-time alongside Lindsey. The first time out, they ran this special scheme with backing from the Children’s Tumor Foundation.
When I saw that @pLmotorsport was going back to @ParkPlaceRacing for 2019, I immediately thought back to the first car he drove for them. Picture is courtesy of myself. pic.twitter.com/jsEBgaUeOY
— Phil Allaway (@Critic84) December 10, 2018
In 12 starts, Long and Lindsey did not claim a victory, but had three second-place finishes (Road Atlanta, Road America and Kansas Speedway). They eventually finished fifth in points.
Long returns to Park Place Motorsports after spending 2018 racing for Wright Motorsports alongside Christina Nielsen. In 11 starts, Long won at Road America and earned a second-place finish at VIR. Long and Nielsen finished seventh in points.
For Park Place Motorsports, the move comes after cutting back on IMSA in 2018. The team only competed in six of the 11 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship events for the GT Daytona class. In those races, Lindsey and teammate Jörg Bergmeister scored a best finish of second at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in September.
Instead of continuing full-time in the IMSA, Lindsey and Bergmeister chose to enter the FIA World Endurance Championship’s GTE-Am class for their “Superseason.” Driving a Porsche 911 RSR for Team Project 1, Lindsey, Bergmeister and Egidio Perfetti are currently leading the Endurance Trophy for LMGTE Am Drivers points on the strength of a class win at Fuji and three additional podium finishes with three races remaining. However, that is somewhat of a misnomer due to Dempsey-Proton Racing’s Porsches having their points for the whole season stripped after Fuji due to a breach of the regulations.
Of the six races Park Place ran in IMSA in 2018, Lindsey and Bergmeister only competed in five of them. The 6 Hours of Fuji was a direct clash with the Motul Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, forcing the drivers to skip it. The roster at Road Atlanta was filled by Tim Pappas. Wolf Henzler and Spencer Pumpelly.
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.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.