Henzler to Miss Three Rounds in Wright Porsche

Photo: Wright Motorsports

Wolf Henzler is set to miss the final three rounds of Wright Motorsports’ planned seven-race sprint season campaign with its No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3 R, it has been revealed.

The former Porsche factory driver, who was announced alongside Michael Schein in the second Porsche entry, will not take part in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship events at Road America, Virginia International Raceway and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca due to previous coaching commitments in Germany.

Henzler explained to Sportscar365 that his deal with Wright came together after securing a position as a driver coach for Porsche Carrera Cup Germany.

Wright Motorsports team principal John Wright, however, said there’s a plan in place for Henzler’s replacement for the races he will miss.

“There’s two drivers right now that we’re currently looking at,” Wright told Sportscar365. “It’s not been announced yet. Maybe one driver for one race and the second driver for the other races.”

Wright said that he’s been pleased with Henzler’s integration with the Ohio-based team, especially in helping Schein acclimate to endurance racing.

The team’s second entry with Henzler and Schein made its series debut earlier this month at Mid-Ohio, finishing 11th in class.

“Wolf is a fantastic driving partner with Mike, in mentoring,” Wright said. “Mid-Ohio wasn’t the easiest track to break into that scene.

“Mike, making the commitment and making the step to come into WeatherTech, was a big step for him. 

“He ran through our Cup program and went into PWC, which is a great platform for a guy to get used to a GT3 product in sprint racing.

“Then the environment him going into WeatherTech, for him, was a natural progression. Hopefully he’ll get accustomed to the traffic and may want to run some of the endurance races.”

Single-Car Focus for Endurance Races

Wright said the focus, for now, is on its No. 58 Porsche of Patrick Long and Christina Nielsen for the remaining Tequila Patorn North American Endurance Cup races at Watkins Glen and Road Atlanta.

However, he wouldn’t completely rule out adding the second car to the mix, once he feels it wouldn’t compromise its season-long entry. 

“For me, part of the building process, I’ve went about it in a little bit of a different fashion than other teams have with running two cars in [NAEC] and only one car in the sprint races,” Wright explained.

“I’m prepared to do it the opposite way around until I know that we have everything streamlined in the team.”

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