Park Place Pulls Porsche GTD Entry for VIR

Photo: IMSA

Park Place Motorsports will also not take part in next weekend’s Michelin GT Challenge at VIR, with its Porsche 911 GT3 R parked for the upcoming IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round, due to Balance of Performance concerns.

The news follows the withdrawal of the No. 22 WeatherTech Racing Porsche for the remainder of the WeatherTech Championship season, citing the same reason.

“The truth is, for a while, several races back, we’ve been in discussions with the series about what we have felt was an improper Balance of Performance on the Porsche,” Park Place team owner/driver Patrick Lindsey told Sportscar365.

“Our view, which may or may not be expressed by other teams, is that what the series is doing is more driver BoP. It’s very elaborate.

“We feel that it’s too much energy looking at the minutia and they’re kind of missing the big picture.

“After Lime Rock, we were really surprised and disappointed by the BoP adjustment for Road America. We totally didn’t want to go to Road America but we went anyway.”

Lindsey and season-long co-driver Joerg Begmeister ended up finishing second in the GT Daytona class at Road America, a result Lindsey said was not representative of their true pace.

“[It] turns out we ran a perfect race but we completely lucked into second place,” he said. “If other cars didn’t make mistakes, we would have been fourth or fifth at best.”

Lindsey said they will be back for the final two rounds of the season at Circuit of The Americas and Road Atlanta due to sponsor and driver obligations.

The Texas-based team will welcome back Matt McMurry as its third driver alongside Lindsey and the Porsche factory driver for the 10-hour Petit Le Mans event, with McMurry still having a chance of winning the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup.

“If the series keeps the same BoP, which they probably will, I won’t expect much,” Lindsey said about the final two races. “You never know, if we run a perfect race, maybe we can see the podium again.”

The withdrawals of both WeatherTech and Park Place leaves only a single Porsche 911 GT3 R on the grid for the VIR round, in the No. 23 The Heart of Racing/AJR entry of Mario Farnbacher and Alex Riberas.

The No. 540 Black Swan Racing Porsche, which is currently entered, is not expected to race due to family-related matters for team owner/driver Tim Pappas.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John