NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (May 16, 2022) – From California to Miami to New Orleans, TPC Racing’s whirlwind racing schedule continues this weekend at NOLA Motorsports Park, which is located just outside of the Crescent City, for Rounds 3 and 4 of the 2022 IMSA Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America championship. The team and its trio of TPC Racing Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 competitors bring the momentum of both a breakout win in the season-opening Super Trofeo race and a top-five finish by returning team driver David Williams in the recent Porsche Sprint Challenge North America doubleheader at the Grand Prix of Miami.
With multiple entries in both series, TPC Racing has moved 2022 off to a successful start with the Lamborghini victory, two Porsche Sprint Challenge podium showings and Williams’ Porsche 992 class top five in front of the Formula 1 crowed in Miami.
The next order of business is this weekend’s Super Trofeo doubleheader at NOLA where TPC Racing’s trio will look to build on an encouraging and winning season-opening weekend at WeatherTech Raceway just over two weeks ago.
In Saturday’s opening round of the year at WeatherTech Raceway, new team drivers Wesley Slimp and Tyler Hoffman wheeled the No. 9 HNTB Companies Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 to the LB Cup class win. Hoffman paced the LB Cup field in his race-opening stint while closing driver Slimp continued the winning charge straight to the checkered flag for the biggest victory to date in his emerging driving career and TPC’s first win in Super Trofeo.
Now competing in the Am class, Slimp and Hoffman will be joined by two more team cars under the TPC Racing tent at NOLA.
In addition to Slimp and Hoffman in the No. 9, Billy Johnson competes in the top-tier Pro category in the No. 71 DSC Sport/Erin Levitas Foundation Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2.
Scott Schmidt is also back in 2022 for a second full season in the No. 38 DSC Sport/Erin Levitas Foundation Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2.
Schmidt has elected to shift to the Super Trofeo LB Cup class from the Am division beginning at NOLA. Ironically, the move brings TPC back into LB Cup just one race after series organizers moved Slimp and Hoffman up to the Am class following their victory. Trevor Andrusko, Schmidt’s co-driver in Am since the duo entered Super Trofeo in late 2020, will continue in what was his dual role as Schmidt’s driver coach.
On the Porsche Sprint Challenge front, TPC’s trio of competitors in that series include Rob Lorndale (No. 6 TPC Racing Porsche 991 GT3 Cup), David Williams (No. 37 TPC Racing Porsche 992 GT3 Cup) and Mike Levitas (No. 36 TPC Racing Porsche 991 GT3 Cup).
After a pair of podium finishes in March’s season-opening weekend at Sebring, Levitas came out strong in Miami’s lone practice session. The third place 991-class time in that session indicated a strong performance ahead in the Miami races only to see Levitas knocked out of competition for the weekend at the start of Saturday’s race. Levitas was uninjured but the No. 36 was too damaged to complete the Miami weekend.
Williams was quick to keep up TPC’s competitive performance, however, and scored his fifth-place finish in Sunday’s Miami sprint, which was just his fourth start of the season in his return to competition. Williams has returned to TPC and top-level Porsche competition for the first time since 2015 in his No. 37 TPC Racing Porsche 992 GT3 Cup. Williams previously raced with TPC in IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup competition, the predecessor to USAC Porsche Sprint Challenge.
Lorndale also delivered his best result of the Miami weekend in Sunday’s second and final race. Improving a position over his Saturday result, Lorndale finished 12th Sunday at Miami and is primed to hit top-10 form this weekend at NOLA.
Following qualifying earlier that morning, the first 50-minute Super Trofeo race of the NOLA weekend starts at 4:30 p.m. CDT this Saturday. Sunday’s second and final Super Trofeo race is scheduled to go green at 9:45 a.m. CDT. Livestreaming of both races is available at http://www.IMSA.tv.
Harris Levitas, TPC Racing Director of Race Operations: “We are heading to NOLA Motorsports Park early this week for Rounds 3 and 4 of the IMSA Lamborghini Super Trofeo championship. It has really been a non-stop and coast-to-coast schedule since the season-opening Super Trofeo weekend just over two weeks ago out in California. Wesley Slimp and Tyler Hoffman gave TPC Racing its first ever Super Trofeo victory on Saturday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and we are looking for more success at NOLA. Our first order of business after the Lamborghini race at Laguna Seca was to head straight to Miami where the Porsche Sprint Challenge Series was a primary support series at the inaugural Miami Grand Prix. Having Porsche Sprint Challenge as the opening race for Formula 1 at Miami was a really cool experience for the entire team. The track is a new, so other than simulator time, there was no possible way to test there prior to the race. Fortunately, we collected a lot of data while on track during our one and only practice session, so it gave the drivers an opportunity to go over everything with TPC Racing driver coach, Billy Johnson, to prepare everyone for qualifying and the races. All three TPC Racing drivers adapted well and quickly even though our track time was very limited. The weather conditions were a bit extreme with very high temperatures and humidity, but the team and drivers handled that very well. We went into Race 1 with the No. 36 car of Michael Levitas being top two in the 991 points standings, but he was hit and taken out of the race. He was fine, but the damage sustained was too much to fix on site at the track, so the No. 36 car was unable to make Race 2. It hurts in the point standings, but we will repair the car and move on to continue to chase strong points for the remainder of the year. David Williams and Rob Lorndale did great, and David had his first top-5 finish of the year, which was great for him. The TPC Racing team did an amazing job all week preparing the cars between sessions and working hard and having long days in the hot weather conditions. I am extremely proud of everyone and really looking forward to the next Porsche Sprint rounds at VIR in June.”
Rob Lorndale, Driver, No. 6 TPC Racing Porsche 991 GT3 Cup: “As a support series, we had one 30-minute practice session and then on to qualifying. It was important to get up to speed quickly on a fast and challenging circuit with little margin for error. It was not easy, but, as a result of the experience, I will have more confidence finding speed quickly in the remaining races. It was incredible to be part of an F1 race weekend. The schedule, amount of track time and logistics were difficult but it was worth it!”
Billy Johnson, Driver No. 71 DSC Sport/Erin Levitas Foundation Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2: “I love the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series because the cars have power! In pro racing these days, everything is essentially a downforce, momentum car with not much power relative to the grip and the downforce. The Super Trofeo Lamborghini Huracán EV02 is just a fun combination of some downforce and a whole lot of power. I really like that aspect of the series and wish more pro racing classes had more power! I like that a lot, but there is always a learning curve in any platform, and we are in that learning process right now to figure out the Lamborghini. We made a lot of gains in the season-opening weekend at Laguna Seca and will keep moving the program forward this week at NOLA Motorsports Park.”
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 http://www.TPCRacing.com.