IVRA Endurance Series

Heartbreak for both Porsche Teams at VIR

by Fischer Motorsport PR

February 20, 2021 11:40 PM CET 663 Views

Saturday’s 5 Hours of Virginia, Round 5 of the 2020-21 IVRA Endurance Series, looked promising early for Fischer Motorsport’s two Porsche 911 RSR. However, a series of crashes lead to an early retirement of the No. 385 Porsche in GT AM. The No. 284 GT PRO entry retired in the final hour of the race, after receiving an all-but-race-ending penalty from race control.

Kyle Birnie led the charge for Fischer Motorsport, in his return to IVRA Endurance Series competition by qualifying the No. 385 Porsche 911 RSR in second position for GT AM and a lap time of 1:42.747.

Pascal Theis managed to put together a best lap time of 1:42.974, which was good enough for seventh in GT PRO qualifying.

Lap 23: Kyle Birnie crashes on the restart with another GT car, setting of a chain of crashes throughout the race

The 5 Hours of Virginia got off to an entertaining and clean start. For the first half hour, there was no caution flag, to the surprise of some fans that expected drama to unfold early at the narrow track.

But by the end of the day, the race was going to list a season-high seven caution flags, as drama caught up with the race eventually.

As the first caution period neutralized the race on lap 12, Kyle Birnie was running in the top-two of GT AM, closely behind the leader. On the race start, a check-up in the front of the field caused Birnie to slam the brakes hard and the 30-year old almost lost control.

“It was an absolutely idiotic moment. They messed up leaving too large a gap at the front and it caused a huge check-up in the GT field. I was barely able to keep it out of the wall. This could have been total disaster for us there.”, commented Birnie.

Theis got off to good restart and continued to keep a good spot in the top ten. Through a smart strategy and not taking any tired until the final 90 minutes of the race, the team looked like it had an excellent shot of possibly fighting for the win at Virginia International Raceway.

Under Caution: The Porsche No. 284 makes contact with a LMP2 prototype, an incident that lead to a penalty late in the race and the team's subsequent retirement

But a late penalty from race control, for a contact with a LMP2 prototype under yellow flag conditions earlier in the race, forced the No. 284 Porsche team to come to the pits and take a 45 second stop and hold penalty.

As a result, the team was eliminated from competition and Manuel Mayer parked the car shortly after.

By that point, the No. 385 Porsche had already retired from the race, following a series of crashes. At the famous oak tree it was Nathan Manning colliding with two other GT cars hard, picking up significant front-end damage.

“I tried to go to the inside and miss that spun car, but then we all crashed. It was unfortunate, because we were fighting real hard to stay in the race and get back into it. I just couldn’t avoid that one.”, said Manning.

But the ultimate blow to a once-promising day for the No. 385 Porsche team occurred on lap 101, when Kyle Birnie was a little bit too fast and optimistic in turn 13, going wide over the outside curbs and crashing hard into the barriers after losing control on the gras.

“I’m going to be a little sore tomorrow, that’s for sure. That was a nasty wreck. What a totally useless day. We had a great car, but couldn’t do anything with it today. Just an overall bad race for us, really.”, commented Birnie on his disappointment.

It was the first time this season that both cars retired from the race and failed to see the checkered flag.

The IVRA Endurance Series will continue on March 20th with the 6 Hours of Imola.

Unofficial Race Results - GT PRO Class

Unofficial Race Results - GT AM Class