Skeer Powers to First Porsche Victory at NOLA Motorsports Park

AVONDALE, La. (April 11, 2015) – After two straight second-place finishes, rookie Elliott Skeer earned his first career Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama victory in a smooth, controlled drive during Round 3 Saturday at NOLA Motorsports Park.

IMSA Scholarship winner Skeer, from Carlsbad, California, won the International Motor Sports Associate (IMSA)-sanctioned Single-Make Series race by 1.941 seconds over fellow rookie Andrew Longe, from Naples, Florida.

“It’s really emotional,” Skeer said. “It’s the end of a chapter of getting all this started. Through the offseason there were some struggles to get it all together. But this caps it all off. Now we’re in the championship. It’s good to go, season’s going. I can’t be any happier with it.

Skeer’s teammate and reigning Platinum Masters Champion Kasey Kuhlman, from Cincinnati, finished third overall and first in Platinum Masters in the No. 15 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

Four of the top five finishers were from the Wright Motorsports stable, with Santiago Creel finishing fourth and Michael Schein rounding out the top five.

David Ducote, a New Orleans native, won the Gold Cup and Gold Masters classes and finished eighth overall in the No. 6 Kelly-Moss Motorsports entry. He was joined on the podium by his father, Wayne Ducote, who finished third in the No. 70 Kelly-Moss Motorsports Porsche just one day after celebrating his 70th birthday.

Skeer led from pole to finish in the No. 14 Wright Motorsports entry. After an early yellow flag, Skeer gradually extended his lead over Longe, who took advantage of early contact between Schein and Jesse Lazare. Skeer and Long pulled away from the rest of the field to cruise to the one-two finish.

Skeer took the championship lead with the victory. Lazare, who entered this round leading the points, fell to second after finishing sixth in the No. 21 Kelly-Moss Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

Platinum Masters

Kuhlman started ninth overall but climbed through the field and held off his charging Wright Motorsports teammates to claim his second overall podium of the season and third straight Platinum Masters podium. Kuhlman also earned the Yokohama Hard Charger Award.

“It was just a wild start,” Kuhlman said. “Maybe a couple guys got a little overzealous, and I was able to take advantage of others’ misfortune at the start. And then I just had to hit my marks and stay clean. I didn’t have the pace for the two up front. My teammates were right on me at the end, so I had to be just fast enough to beat them to save bragging rights in the trailer. I can’t believe I started ninth and finished third. It’s amazing.”

John Goetz, from Weston, Connecticut, finished second in the No. 18 Wright Motorsports car. Oscar Arroyo, from Mexico City, finished third in the No. 89 JDX Racing Porsche.

Gold Cup/Gold Masters

After qualifying fifth overall and first in Gold Cup, David Ducote was overtaken by Jeff Mosing with 29 minutes left in the race. But he slowly picked his way through the field to catch Mosing for his first victory of the season after being caught in other drivers’ accidents in both opening rounds last month at Sebring International Raceway.

“I had to work really hard,” David Ducote said. “We battled for quite a while. (Jeff) drove fantastic, and he gave me lots of room. We had a couple wheel-to-wheel corners. Kelly-Moss gave me an outstanding setup on my Waskey Porsche. But this is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be in my hometown and be on the podium with my father on his birthday. It just can’t happen. But it did. It’s a miracle, and I’m thankful I had the opportunity to do this.”

With 13 minutes remaining, Ducote overtook Mosing to regain the lead. The two battled to the checkered flag, with Ducote edging Mosing by .823 of a second.

Wayne Ducote, from New Orleans, tied his career-best finish by placing third in his beloved hometown.

The hometown connections ran deep in the Gold and Gold Masters podium finishers. The Ducotes and Mosing all have close ties to Louisiana, as Mosing is a native of Lafayette, Louisiana.

All three Gold Cup podium finishers are also Gold Masters competitors.

Up Next

Round 4, another 45-minute race, is scheduled to start at 10:45 a.m. (CT) Sunday. For live updates on all the action, follow @IMSALive on Twitter. For live timing, visit scoring.imsa.com.

ROUND 3 POST-RACE QUOTES:

ELLIOTT SKEER (No. 14 Wright Motorsports, winner): “It’s really emotional. It’s the end of a chapter of getting all this started. Through the offseason there were some struggles to get it all together. But this caps it all off. Now we’re in the championship. It’s good to go, season’s going. I can’t be any happier with it. I have to thank everyone. John Wright, everyone at Wright Motorsports, for all they’ve done with this. They’ve really helped pull this program together. It’s a great feeling to finally win in a Porsche. Let’s just keep the momentum going throughout the season.” (About restart): “This is a pretty tight Turn 1, so the whole goal is survive Turn 1 and then see where you are. Luckily we were able to get sorted out enough to not really have any issues into (Turn) 1. It was a good, solid race from everyone.”

ANDREW LONGE (No. 47 Fall-Line Motorsports, second): “I think the key was smooth, consistent driving, not overdriving and conserving the tires. The team did a great job and gave me a great car. It was just as fast in the beginning as it was in the end. For a freshman team and a freshman driver, it is quite an accomplishment. I owe it all to them.”

KASEY KUHLMAN (No. 15 Wright Motorsports, third, first Platinum Masters): “It was just a wild start. Maybe a couple guys got a little overzealous, and I was able to take advantage of others’ misfortune at the start. And then I just had to hit my marks and stay clean. I didn’t have the pace for the two up front. My teammates were right on me at the end, so I had to be just fast enough to beat them to save bragging rights in the trailer. I can’t believe I started ninth and finished third. It’s amazing.”

JOHN GOETZ (No. 18 Wright Motorsports, second Platinum Masters): “I’m getting used to the 991 Cup car in my first year in IMSA and Platinum, and I’m finally getting the hang of it. So I’m happy to gradually progress up the field. Good, clean race other than the start. So I just kept hitting my marks and finished strong.”

OSCAR ARROYO (No. 89 JDX Racing, third Platinum Masters): “A great race. I am very happy. I’m not in good health condition; I have a cold. But no excuse. A good race. Third place. I am very, very happy. Everything was great.”

DAVID DUCOTE (No. 6 Kelly-Moss Motorsports, winner Gold Cup, Gold Masters): “I got caught up in the melee in the start, and Jeff (Mosing) got a great start and got around me. There were a couple of other Platinum 991s between us, and I had my work cut out for me from there. I had to work really hard. We battled for quite a while. He (Mosing) drove fantastic, and he gave me lots of room. We had a couple wheel-to-wheel corners. Kelly-Moss gave me an outstanding setup on my Waskey Porsche. But this is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be in my hometown and be on the podium, with my father on his birthday. It just can’t happen. But it did. It’s a miracle, and I’m thankful I had the opportunity to do this.”

JEFF MOSING (No. 01 TOPP Racing, second Gold Cup, Gold Masters): “This is the first time out here racing for me. Hats off to David Ducote and his father, the birthday boy, for getting up on the podium. David drove a great race. He gave me a lot of racing room, and he’s a lot of fun to race with. Hats off to Todd (Opperman); he gave me a great setup. I think we’re going to tweak some things tomorrow and see if we can give David a better race tomorrow. But the car was really good, and the Yokohamas were working great. We had a couple of big incidents in the beginning, so we really only had to race for about 30 minutes, but it felt like an hour trying to chase David down. But it was a lot of fun, and thanks again to Porsche and NOLA Motorsports Park for having us.”

WAYNE DUCOTE (No. 70 Kelly-Moss Motorsports, third Gold Cup, Gold Masters): “When you can celebrate your 70th birthday, race in New Orleans with your son and get on the podium, I’m going to kill myself. It doesn’t get any better.” (About final laps): “I never looked in my mirror, but the problem is the car wouldn’t stop at the end of the long straights. It just kept locking up, so I had stop with second gear. I knew he (Joe Catania) was going to be there, and he knew I was having problems, so I just had to do the best I can and try to scoot in the complex. He was killing me in the complex. I could get away from him in the rest of the places, but the braking was just awful. I knew he was coming, and I knew (Mark) Llano was there licking his chops. But it was really good, clean racing, and David and I are on the podium. Is that great or what?”

Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama

The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama enters its 11th season in 2015 as one of the largest of Porsche’s 20 single-make Cup Challenge series in the world. The series produces intense, exciting competition for semi-professional and aspiring professional drivers in the world’s most produced and iconic race car, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

Racing is divided into two classes – Platinum Cup, featuring the 2014 and 2015 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, which is based on the current seventh, and current, generation of the street car, and Gold Cup, which is comprised of the previous iteration (model years 2010-2013) of the race car. A Masters Championship also is conducted in Platinum and Gold classes. Each class is awarded with its own podium at the end of every race and individual champion at the end of every season. Points are awarded by finish in class.

ABOUT IMSA

The International Motor Sports Association, LLC (IMSA) was originally founded in 1969 with a long and rich history in sports car racing. Today, IMSA is the sanctioning body of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, the premier sports car racing series in North America. IMSA also sanctions the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge and the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda, as well as four single-make series: Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama; Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin; Ferrari Challenge North America; and Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America. IMSA – a company within the NASCAR Holdings group – is the exclusive strategic partner in North America with the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), which operates the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a part of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The partnership enables selected TUDOR Championship competitors to earn automatic entries into the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans.