Wright Considering Second Porsche GTD Entry

Photo: Porsche Cars North America

Wright Motorsports could expand into a two-car GT Daytona operation later this year, with the Ohio-based team working on a second Porsche 911 GT3 R for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The John Wright-led team confirmed last month a switch to top-level IMSA competition, initially with a single Porsche for 2017 Pirelli World Challenge champion Patrick Long and reigning GTD champion Christina Nielsen.

It has since been revealed Wright could add to its WeatherTech Championship commitment, with a second GTD entry that would possibly debut as early as the third round of the season at Mid-Ohio in May.

“It’s going to probably come together, but it will be after Sebring,” Wright told Sportscar365.

Wright is no stranger to multi-car operations, having fielded two Porsches, for Long and Michael Schein, in PWC competition over the last two seasons.

It also runs multiple Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars in the IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama series, including an entry for newly-named Hurley Haywood scholarship winner Max Root.

“Rolling assets change a little bit because it requires more transportation to get all of the equipment to the track, especially if we end up running two cars in the middle of the season, it requires a bit more equipment,” Wright said.

Should the entry materialize, it would mark the second full-time Porsche entry in GTD.

Park Place Motorsports, which contested the entire season last year, is set to scale back to a Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup-only program, with Alegra Motorsports having departed and CORE autosport stepping up to the Prototype class for 2018.

Wright declined to go into additional detail on the car, including possible drivers.

Porsche Young Professional Mathieu Jaminet and Robert Renauer will complete the team’s lineup in its No. 58 Porsche for Daytona.

Returning to Endurance Roots

After a focus on sprint racing, both in PWC and Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, Wright said he’s excited to be returning to the team’s roots in endurance racing this year.

He said its WeatherTech Championship program with Long and Nielsen came together only last month.

“We’ve been in sprint racing for so long it seemed like we needed to be back in this arena to just get a foothold in endurance racing again,” he said.

“It’s part of my company, which I formed in 2000, it was built around endurance racing and we haven’t had an endurance racing program, so the stars aligned and it came together. I was always looking for the right opportunity, and this is it.

“We’ve got a big mountain to climb but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Ryan Myrehn contributed to this report

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