IMSA: Park Place signs Pumpelly for GTD campaign

Park Place Motorsports owner Patrick Lindsey has acquired one of the most coveted sports car drivers in North America to serve as his wingman in the No. 73 Porsche GT America.

He’ll have Spencer Pumpelly to help pursue the GT Daytona championship during the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship’s second season, and tells RACER the Virginian is the perfect co-driver to move Park Place forward in the standings.

“We pursued Spencer a couple of years ago for our second car but that deal was never able to come together,” Lindsey said. “He drove with us in Daytona in 2013, and we’ve always tried to figure out a way to get him back. We had Kevin Estre last year, he was an absolute bullet, but he got pulled in a lot of different directions with McLaren.

“Spencer is a brand name in the sports car racing world – that is also key for us. He’s an American, and we were looking for someone who could be more dedicated to the program. All of that fit Spencer perfectly.”

The inaugural TUDOR Championship run for Park Place wasn’t especially kind for Lindsey and his teammates. Speed was on display quite often, but solid results were sparse in the first half of the season. A podium at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park served as the team’s best result, and while they added more top-10s before the end of the season, a bit of retooling for 2015 was needed.

A refocused effort with Lindsey and Pumpelly in the No. 73 was the first change, and Lindsey has also taken a more prominent role in managing the team.

“I think we’re going into this a little battered from 2014, just from the side of the results, but knowing that it is a championship effort, knowing that the driver and the crew and everybody can get it done for a championship for 2015, we’re determined to get the best out of everyone,” Lindsey noted.

“I know Spencer ended 2014 feeling many of the same frustrations, so that’s something we’re both looking to resolve. And you wouldn’t notice it from the outside, but I’m taking a bigger role in the team side of things, and we already have a great group of people here, so I expect it to show in the results we put up.”

Pumpelly has put a frustrating year in a Flying lizard Motorsport Audi R8 behind him, and welcomes the chance to work with Park Place and the Porsche platform once again.

"2014 looked to be a promising year, but we had a run of tire failures in the No. 45 car last year that took us out of contention. We ran the same cambers and pressures as the (sister) No. 35 car which had no problems, so it was hard to put your finger on anything, but I knew I wanted to rebound from last year," Pumpelly told RACER. "It was the first season in a while where I hadn't won a race, and that's something I'm determined to fix. I know the Park Place guys, John Horton does a really good job engineering the car, and Patraick is one of the fastest Silver-rated drivers anywhere. There's a lot of potential here."

Estre and Dr. Jim Norman will rejoin the team at the Rolex 24, and David Ducote will also be added to the No. 73’s lineup.

“I think we have as good a shot as any team; most of the driver lineups are really solid across the board, so it’s not like anyone has a huge advantage in GTD,” Lindsey reckoned.

Along with Park Place’s full-season GTD program, the team continues to seek customers for IMSA’s Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge series, and will branch out into IMSA’s Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America series for the first time with Dr. Norman behind the wheel.

“Running Jim Norman in his Lamborghini in the Super Trofeo series is a very cool expansion for us,” said Lindsey. “First, because we get to have Jim in our paddock and on our team – he’s a great teammate. And two, we’re super excited about how he’s going to promote that car and raise awareness for his calcium apps and vitamin D applications for mobile devices.”

Norman is tipped to return in the No. 73 Porsche for Sebring, and the rest of the roster for the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup events should be sorted in the coming weeks.