Eng Takes Porsche Supercup Title; Riberas Wins COTA Finale

A pair of drivers who have made occasional starts in IMSA the last two years, German Philipp Eng and Spaniard Alex Riberas, starred in the sole U.S. round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season this weekend at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas.

Eng, who won twice in 2015, secured the Supercup title with an eighth place finish in the No. 17 Market Leader by Project 1 entry, while Riberas scored his first win of the season in the No. 23 The Heart of Racing by Lechner car.

The planned doubleheader weekend was reduced to one race, held Sunday afternoon, due to the torrential downpour.

Sven Mueller, one of Porsche’s Junior drivers, led from pole in the No. 4 Lechner Racing Middle East entry but had Riberas hounding him the whole race.

Riberas made it past exiting Turn 10 on Lap 6, and extended the gap to 3.345 seconds by the end of the 12-lap, 30-minute race.

It’s his second win in the U.S. this year, having also shared the No. 23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America with Mario Farnbacher and Ian James to win the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in March.

Michael Ammermueller, one of the 2014 Austin race winners, finished second in the No. 5 Lechner Racing Middle East entry with Mueller in third.

Swiss driver Jeffrey Schmidt finished fourth in the No. 24 The Heart of Racing by Lechner entry, with American Connor de Phillippi scoring his second top-five finish of the season (fourth at Round 3 in Monza) in the No. 2 VERVA Lechner Racing Team car.

Eng finished eighth while Christian Englehart, who entered the 10th and final race of the season 17 points back and without much mathematical hope of overtaking Eng, ended 13th in the No. 14 MRS GT-Racing car.

The only other American driver in the field, Pirelli World Challenge GT Cup and 2014 IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA champion Colin Thompson, made up two spots early from 20th on the grid but crashed out on Lap 7 in his No. 33 Market Leader Team by Project 1 entry.