- Second-Year Sprint Challenge Driver Williams Delivers TPC Racing its First Win with a Sunday 992 Am-Division Victory from the Front Row in his No. 237 Mission BBQ Porsche 911 GT3 Cup
- Debuting TPC Racing Driver Tillman Schmid Secures Podium Finish in First Race on Slick Tires in Saturday’s Sprint Challenge Cayman Race in the No. 77 Monoflo International Cayman GT4 Clubsport
- Shaun McKaigue Shakes Off Saturday Porsche Sprint Challenge Disappointment with Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) WeatherTech Sprint Race Victory in his TPC Racing 2012 No. 34 Porsche 997.2 GT3 Cup
SEBRING, Florida (March 27, 2023) – Wasting no time achieving one of their stated goals for the 2023 season, TPC Racing and team driver David Williams scored their first USAC Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama race win Sunday at Sebring International Raceway. Williams secured a close but flag-to-flag Sprint Challenge 992 Am-division victory, crossing the finish line third overall behind a pair of Pro-Am competitors and giving TPC its first Sprint Challenge victory in its third year competing in the all-Porsche racing series.
“It was a really great weekend for the TPC Racing team overall,” said Harris Levitas, TPC Racing Director of Race Operations. “We couldn’t be more excited to start the season off as well as we did. To collect our first win in the Porsche Sprint Challenge series is huge, but to start the season off collecting points in the way David Williams did with P2 in race one and then getting his first ever win in race two, those are just solid points going into the remainder of the season.”
Adding to the milestone weekend, the breakout victory – which followed a second-place 992 Am finish by Williams in Saturday’s season-opening sprint – came after he started Sunday’s race on the outside pole, his first front-row starting berth. In addition to the top 992 Am finishes, Williams battled in the overall lead pack in both of the weekend’s season-opening sprints.
“Since I started in IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup back in 2013, I never sat on the front row,” Williams said. “That was exciting in itself. And then to battle Sunday and even Saturday for the overall win is awesome. A lot of tough competition, tight, tight competition out there. It’s really cool to battle at the front of the pack. Everybody is so close, you make one little mistake and everyone is all over you, so it is really competitive and I am enjoying the hell out of it. I have been longtime friends and teammates with TPC Racing and I can’t say enough about these guys, they did a great job, and Sebastian Moreno, our driver coach, is fantastic.”
Adding to TPC’s top weekend, debuting team driver Tillman Schmid finished third in Saturday’s Sprint Challenge Cayman race in the No. 77 Monoflo International Cayman GT4 Clubsport. Schmid sealed third-place in the Pro-Am-class with a last-lap pass for the podium despite competing on racing slick tires for the first time.
“For Tillman Schmid in the Monoflo International Cayman GT4 Clubsport, it was just an amazing drive by him all weekend,” Levitas said. “Having never done more than certain levels of club racing in the past, and this being his first time racing on true racing slick tires, it was absolutely amazing to see him adapt to the car the way he did. Huge thanks and credit to David, Tillman, Shaun McKaigue and all of the TPC Racing team for all of the hard work and dedication that everybody put into this weekend. It wouldn’t be possible without all of the amazing driver coaching by Sebastian Moreno and everything that he did to get the drivers all set and ready for what they did on track.”
Schmid backed up Saturday’s podium debut with a fourth-place finish in Sunday’s Cayman race.
“We just focused forward, clicked them off one-by-one and made a last-lap pass for the podium,” Schmid said. “That was pretty sweet and definitely the top highlight reel of my small racing career. I just stayed patient and, working with TPC Racing, they have been coaching me and helping me along the way. I just tried to not force anything and waited for that opportunity. There were a few spots where I could have pressed the issue, but I wouldn’t have made the pass and just fallen back, but coming into Turn 7 on the last lap, the field was stacked up and I knew an accordion effect would catch him out. I went ahead and took to the inside right away and made the pass that way. Big thanks to Monoflo International and Henning Rader for allowing one of his employees to come out here and run his car. I am really looking forward to the rest of the season.”
TPC’s third 2023 Sprint Challenge competitor Shaun McKaigue moved off to a solid start in his 991-class campaign only to be taken out in an incident late in Saturday’s first race. McKaigue was uninjured, and the team believes his TPC Racing No. 134 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup escaped any structural damage, but the entry was still retired for the weekend in favor of immediately repairing the Porsche for next month’s race at Barber Motorsports Park. The No. 134 is currently being transported by TPC Racing personnel to a Tennessee-based race shop for bodywork repairs.
Despite the Sprint Challenge disappointment, McKaigue still scored a pair of podium finishes competing in the Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) Spring Fling event that shared the Sebring weekend card with Sprint Challenge and other racing series. McKaigue drove his TPC Racing-prepared 2012 No. 34 Porsche 997.2 GT3 Cup in the HSR events.
“It was a great weekend,” McKaigue said. “The boys at TPC Racing put together a great car for me for Porsche Sprint Challenge and we were running pretty well. We had pretty good qualifying and a great first race going but, unfortunately, we got caught up in an incident that retired the car for the rest of the weekend. But TPC Racing also helped out tremendously with bringing our 2012 Porsche 997.2 here for some historic racing. We just had so much fun, HSR always has great events, and running back-to-back and on the same weekend with Porsche Sprint Challenge was just a great opportunity. I was competing against some much newer and high-horsepower cars, but it is just a testament to running your own race, staying consistent and running your laps. Everybody on track is so respectful and races clean.”
McKaigue won his Saturday HSR WeatherTech Sprint race and followed it up with a second-place finish in the GT Modern (GTM) division in Sunday morning’s one-hour B.R.M. Chronographes Endurance Challenge race. Remarkably, McKaigue, TPC and the 11-year-old Porsche split a GTM podium that included the winning 2016 Porsche 991 GT3R and the third place 2018 Porsche GT2/RS/CS.
“On top of the Porsche Sprint Challenge weekend, we were also running HSR with Shaun McKaigue in his Porsche 997 Gen 2 GT3 Cup Car,” Levitas said. “That was a really fun experience, being back with a 997, and what a difference Porsche has made in the last 10 years and various generations of these cars. It was really cool for Shaun to do so well in HSR and come away with a couple of podium finishes, including a race win. It was a great overall weekend. It was hot, it was a lot of work, some late nights, and the guys just did an outstanding job and I can’t thank everyone enough.”
Next up for TPC Racing in Porsche Sprint Challenge North America is rounds three and four of the 2023 season at Barber Motorsports Park, April 28 – 30.
About TPC Racing: TPC Racing is the Mid-Atlantic’s premier maintenance, service, tuning and modification center dedicated solely to Porsche sportscars. TPC Racing specializes in R&D and sales of high-performance modifications for Porsche sports cars and race cars, offering a wide range of vehicle upgrades. Best known for a line of forced induction solutions for the Porsche 911, Cayman and Boxster, a long-time focus on only one make, Porsche, has enabled TPC Racing to become experts in Porsche service, tuning, and racing. In 2000, TPC Racing began entering races under its own banner, scoring an SGS-class Championship in 2004 in the Grand-American Rolex Series and was a class winner in the 2006 Rolex 24 At Daytona, and captured the 2013 and 2016 IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA Gold Cup Championships. More information can be found at www.TPCRacing.com.
