IMSA: Porsche to field third car for COTA

The factory Porsche squad will field an additional car in the next round of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship at Circuit of The Americas later this month.

Porsche has opted to enter a third 911 RSR in the defense of its narrow lead in the GT Le Mans manufacturers' standings at the penultimate round of the TUDOR Championship on Sept. 20. Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki, who will also be racing in the World Endurance Championship event on the same Austin bill, will share the #910 Porsche in the two-hour 45-minute race ahead of the six-hour WEC round.

"The fight for the championship in the GTLM class remains exciting to the very end," Porsche Motorsport boss Hartmut Kristen said. "By fielding a third 911 RSR with Porsche North America in Austin we want to maintain our good title chances as leaders of the manufacturers' classification."

Porsche, which is represented by the works CORE squad and the Walker Racing-run Falken Tire squad, leads the manufacturers' stakes by a single point, but factory rivals Chevrolet, Dodge and BMW are all within four points.

WEC regular Jorg Bergmeister has been drafted into the #911 car to bolster the line-up of Nick Tandy and Richard Lietz, who sustained arm injuries during practice at last month's Virginia International Raceway round and isn't certain to take part at COTA. The #912 will be driven as usual by Patrick Long and Michael Christensen.

Porsche has not revealed if it will also enter a third for the Petit Le Mans finale at Road Atlanta at the start of October. The changes mean that each of Porsche's GT drivers in the WEC is scheduled to compete in the IMSA  event, which finishes only two hours and 40 minutes before the six-hour race begins.

Lietz is scheduled to take part in the WEC race after a reshuffle of the driver roster at the Manthey factory GTE Pro squad. The Austrian will race alongside Bergmeister in place of Pilet, who moves over to replace Marco Holzer in the second car alongside Frederic Makowiecki. Tandy is also listed in the #91 car alongside Bergmeister and Lietz as a precaution.