Heinrich Excited for GTP Title Bid With JDC-Miller “Underdogs”

Photo: Porsche

Laurin Heinrich said a chance to make a bid for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP title is something that’s “not happening every year” especially with an “underdog” team in privateer outfit JDC-Miller Motorsports.

The Porsche factory driver, who won the opening two races of the season in Porsche Penske Motorsport’s works squad, was confirmed earlier this month to contest this weekend’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, the only GTP race that wasn’t on Heinrich’s latest schedule.

He was initially slated to take part in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa in a Pro class Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, a program the 24-year-old German was committed to prior to his promotion to race the WeatherTech Championship sprint rounds, plus the six-hour Road America round, with the Minnesota-based team.

Heinrich currently sits second in the GTP points standings, 144 points behind leader Jack Aitken but ahead of full season Porsche Penske drivers Felipe Nasr and Julien Andlauer.

“It’s a shame, obviously, not to be in Spa on one hand because I know Schumacher CLRT; I’ve been with this team for many years already and I know they’re a team that’s totally capable of winning that big endurance race,” he told Sportscar365.

“I’ve had the honor to join them already in the test and I saw they came well prepared and that we, in my opinion, built a strong package to start into the race weekend.

“But obviously on the other hand, Spa is a one-off race, especially for Schumacher CLRT, which is just coming for that one race; they’re not doing the full season in GT World Challenge (Europe powered by AWS).

“IMSA is a full championship. Spa, arguably, you can do every year.

“Sitting second in IMSA at the halfway point, it’s not happening every year, especially if you’re fighting for the overall title in GTP.

“I’ve had the honor to join a great team in JDC-Miller Motorsports and we’ve been successful so far. It’s a pretty good upwards trajectory, and I’d love to keep fighting for the title.

“The last race, I’ll be back with Porsche Penske Motorsport, which should also be good.”

Heinrich said the decision was taken jointly with Porsche, himself and Schumacher CLRT, which has drafted ex-Porsche driver Fred Makowiecki into its lineup for this weekend.

While having entered last month’s street race in downtown Detroit in the GTP points lead, Heinrich and co-driver Tijmen van der Helm recorded an 11th place class finish in a race that was marred by self-induced penalties.

“We came from the back; we got a penalty for a pit stop infringement, which threw us way back,” said Heinrich.

“Then I had a hard fight with the Aston Martin and there was just a misjudgment from my side; I didn’t mean to put him into the wall.

“Obviously it didn’t look great from the outside. I’m not proud of that but we put that behind us.

“If you look at the positives, we’re still showed great pace at a track that JDC-Miller admitted before that it was arguably one of their weakest tracks.

“I think we’ve made very good steps. We had a good race car in the end. We just weren’t able to put the result on the sheet, which you cannot expect to have that every race, especially from a customer team.

“We’re a very small team battling against the big dogs, I would call them.

“We’re all motivated now and I hope we still can carry some great momentum going into the endurance round.”

JDC-Miller Reminds Heinrich of His Racing Roots

Heinrich said he takes pride in driving for the John Church-led squad, a tight-knit family-run organization that reminds him of his early days in motorsports.

“Personally for me, I’ve come out of a family team,” he said. “My father, he bought a used Formula F4 [car] back in 2017 and it was just me and my father.

“I know what it means to run a family team. Also back then we were racing against big teams Prema and Van Amersfoort Racing.

“I know what it means and especially once you score a good result, the feeling of that, it gives me some flashbacks into where I started, so I’m really enjoying that and soaking up the good atmosphere.

“We’re a little bit the underdogs, so any good result, any good lap time we’re doing makes us shine.

“I’m really thankful for this opportunity. It’s not just about me to learn, it’s to also help JDC-Miller.”

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