Porsche 2010 news 2009-12-11

BERGMEISTER/LONG LEAD PORSCHE'S DEFENSE OF GT TITLES

STUTTGART, Germany - December 11 -- Porsche will remain loyal to its successful customer teams and drivers in major international GT series around the world for 2010, including those in the North America.

In the American Le Mans Series, factory drivers Joerg Bergmeister (Germany) and Patrick Long (USA) will defend their championship drivers title with Flying Lizard Motorsports in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, the most successful GT vehicle worldwide in the 2009 season.

Porsche works drivers Marc Lieb (Germany) and Richard Lietz (Austria) strive to defend their Le Mans Series (LMS) title in 2010 in the Felbermayr Proton 911 GT3 RSR. Also, continuing his effort from 2009, Porsche works driver Patrick Pilet (France) will support the IMSA Performance Matmut team at the wheel of a GT3 RSR in the LMS.

On the occasion of tonight's season-closing "Night of Champions" in the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, Wolfgang Durheimer, Member of the Executive Board for Research and Development at Porsche AG, underlined the great importance of GT racing.

"We at Porsche are keen that GT sport enjoys steady, long-term development. Indispensable pre-requisites for this are stable regulations, predictability, cost control - and common regulations between the F.I.A. and A.C.O. organisations." In saying this, he asks the governing bodies to show more judgement and transparency in the categorisation of different vehicles, earlier establishment of regulations and a mutual agreement on containing costs.

Chief Executive Officer, Michael Macht, underlined the special significance of motorsport for Porsche AG.

"Motorsport is a central element of our company's DNA. And it will hold an important role in the future. I'm not the only one at Porsche to be tempted to race for overall victory again at the Le Mans 24 hour race."

The successful Porsche makes cups will grow in importance in 2010. The family of championships, which are exclusively run with the world's most produced race car - the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup - increases from 13 to 19 worldwide. Aside from the GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East, which celebrates its debut this weekend in Bahrain, five more series join the list of GT3 Cup Challenges: Great Britain, Japan, Scandinavia, Turkey and Switzerland. The Patron GT3 Challenge by Yokohama, sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association, is the Porsche makes cup challenge that runs in North America.

Brumos Racing (Florida), defending Rolex 24 champions, have already announced their plans to return to the Grand-Am series in 2010 with the #59 Porsche Riley and drivers David Donohue and Darren Law (both USA).

Other individual Porsche teams for North American series such as the Rolex Grand-Am Sports Car series, the SCCA World Challenge, and the American Le Mans Series LMP, GT2, and Challenge classes will be making their own announcements shortly concerning their 2010 racing plans.

-credit: porsche ag