Preview: IVRA ClubSport Series at Barber Motorsports Park
With mixed results in the first two races of the season, the No. 85 Porsche currently holds P12 in the standings at 85 points, while the no. 84 Porsche follows right behind in P13 and 83 points. Both teams have already fallen far behind the championship leaders with a margin of 124 points and 126 points, respectively.
Manuel Mayer had the worst luck in the last championship round at COTA, driving the No. 84 Porsche. After he got rammed off the track into the hairpin, the damage resulting from the incident was so bad it destroyed the race for the team.
Pascal Theis suffered a similar fate in the season-opener at Road America in October, when technical problems forced the Frankfurt, Germany native back to the pit box, before the first half hour of the race had been completed.
Going into this weekend, Fischer Motorsport will try to get back to the upper positions of the field. The location for this quest will be Barber Motorsports Park, in the south of the United States, Alabama specifically, near the city of Birgmingham.
The 2.3-mile (3.7 km) long racing circuit offers a multitude of blind corners and alternation of slow corners combined with long straights that are containing some high-speed chicanes.
While the GTE team of Fischer Motorsport had been running races at this track before, Saturday will mark the first time for the Cup teams of the organization to compete at this track.
“I know the track from the RSR, but with the 911 Cup this is a whole different story. You really need to watch out like hell, that you don’t hit the curbs and lose the car or that you miss the apex. The gras is just waiting for you and then it’s game over.”, Benjamin Fischer said, who will share the No. 84 Porsche with teammate Manuel Mayer once again.
Y. Hignet meanwhile arrived to the track late for personal reasons and is facing an especially tall task this weekend, having never raced at the track before, unlike his three teammates.
Together the two cars will take the green flag in the 2 hour 25 minute race Saturday 19:10 CET / 1:10 pm EST.