By alley - Dec 12, 2016, 1:00 PM ET

IMSA: Park Place Porsche returns to GTD

Park Place Motorsports will return to IMSA's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the No. 73 Porsche 911 GT3 R, with Porsche factory driver Jörg Bergmeister, Matt McMurry and team principal/driver Patrick Lindsey.

Lindsey

removed the No. 73 Porsche

from the August race at VIRginia International Raceway, citing concerns over the series' Balance of Performance tables in relation to Porsche's GT3 product. The moved followed the decision by WeatherTech founder and series sponsor David MacNeil to withdraw the No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche 911 GT3 R from the GT Daytona class for the remainder of the season. After returning for the Circuit of The Americas round and finishing fifth, the team wound up 12th at Petit Le Mans.

"We have unfinished business, not only in championship standings but hopefully we can add a couple wins during the season," Bergmeister said. Overall, I would say we have all the ingredients along with more experience with the car to pull it off. Therefore, I look forward to the season this year. I enjoy the atmosphere and having the ability to really work with [lead engineer John Horton] and Patrick on driving and setup."

Bergmeister and Lindsey will compete in all 12 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races, with McMurry being brought in for each of the four Tequila Patròn North American Endurance Cup races.

The trio earned second-place finishes at Belle Isle and being Road America and five top-10 finishes overall. Lindsey scored a second-place starting position in Detroit while McMurry, 19 earned a second-place qualifying effort at Road Atlanta. To note, McMurry was the highest qualifying Porsche driver at Petit Le Mans.

"Jörg is great to have because of his out and out pace and experience. Just having that competitive force [like Jorg] inside of the team is a glue that binds everyone tighter together," Lindsey said. "He's actually a younger brother so you wouldn't expect this, but he has the heart of an older brother or a father to build up a budding talent like Matt. He's there to extract Matt's full potential and it's amazing to see what he accomplishes when that happens. Look at Matt's Petit qualifying from last year, I expect to see more of that from him.

"Of course having the same drivers in the car allow you to continue where you left off and build rather than begin again. That will hopefully be somewhat of an advantage as the GTD class has a few new entrants this year. I believed we could accomplish a lot last year, and we didn't necessarily hit the marks we wanted. But I'll set my hopes equally as high, if not higher, this year because I know we have a crew and lineup that is set to achieve."

Porsche also weighed in with suggestions during the off-season. In fact, the manufacturer gave specific instructions to McMurry.

"I was invited to the Porsche Young Driver's Academy so I have my list of things I can work on this year," McMurry said. "I think the number one thing I need to work on is to be fast immediately. I can work up to a good pace but it usually takes me too long to get up to speed. I need to be as fast as all the other pros in practice one rather than by qualifying.

"Being in the Porsche has taught me a lot. A Porsche needs to be driven in a certain way, and that was not the way I drove coming into this. I drive very smoothly but in a Porsche, you really have to wheel it around, it makes driving more difficult. You have to work hard to drive that car, but it makes it a fun car to drive."