Photo: Brett Farmer/IMSA
Laurin Heinrich said the splitter damage on his GTD Pro class-winning AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R didn’t compromise their long-run pace in an incident-filled Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic.
Heinrich and co-driver Seb Priaulx scored their second consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory, benefiting from a collision between the class-leading No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg and Ben Barnicoat’s No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 with 45 minutes to go.
The German driver took over the class lead and held off Barnicoat, also in a damaged car, to take victory on the streets of downtown Detroit.
“It all happened after the restart,” Heinrich explained.
“The Lexus and the Corvette were going for it into the hairpin. I saw it obviously, so I wanted to put myself in the best position I could be in, A) to stay safe and B) to capitalize on it.
“Fortunately they got caught up in an incident and me being on the outside, I had to make a really sharp turn.
“Unfortunately I hit the spun Corvette, which is the characteristic of a street track; there’s not much space to avoid. It’s always hard to judge when your’e inside the car.
“Obviously you’ve had a hit but you don’t know how the car looks from the outside.
“I immediately went on the radio asking how does it look on the TV images and how did the car look when I passed it?
“At first glance it looked quite OK but once I came back to the back straight, the splitter wad going up and down, touching the floor. It was horrendous inside the car.
“At the end of the race I couldn’t see anymore, it was vibrating that bad.”
Heinrich said he was able to adapt “quite” well to the damaged Porsche.
“We have some tools in the car with the TC, brake bias, ABS, to help this understeer which will happen if you have splitter damage,” he explained.
“I adapted my driving style quite well, which worked in the end.
“We didn’t have to compromise so much pace. It was just really difficult on the restarts at the end when the tire pressure drops, the ride height drops as well.
“The splitter was scraping more and more on the ground, especially on these early laps, you could really see I was struggling for pace after every restart but then could pick it up lap by lap and I think that was the key.
“I tried to improve my restarts every time by. At some point you run out of cards you can play because the guy behind you knows what you’re going to do.
“I’m really happy. It was a really stressful race. Back to back victories, three out of four podiums is a really good start.”
Priaulx, meanwhile, said he’s been “gobsmacked” by the early season success for the privateer squad in the ultra-competitive GTD Pro ranks.
The duo extended their points lead in the process.
“I couldn’t be prouder of everyone, the team, and just how they’ve been working this year,” Priaulx said. “It’s just amazing we’ve had two wins with these Pro guys and factory teams.
“We’re just a single [privateer] team. I’m absolutely gobsmacked that we’re winning these races.
“Laurin, my teammate, is absolutely awesome. He did a mega job to get the car home with the damage we had.
“I’m super proud of all the guys.”
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