SEBRING, Florida (February 14, 2023) – Anchored by full-season campaigns by returning Masters Class Champions David Williams and Michael Levitas, TPC Racing competes in the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama in 2023 with a total of four entries across all three series in the USAC-sanctioned all-Porsche championship. The Maryland-based TPC Racing team has participated in the first two Porsche Sprint Challenge seasons and looks forward to the biggest year of competition to date for the growing championship in 2023.
Williams returns for his second full-season of Sprint Challenge competition after securing last year’s 992 Masters Class title and overall championship runner-up honors in his No. 237 Mission BBQ Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
Levitas in turn is back to defend his 2022 Masters Class title and second-place overall championship finish in the 991 division in his No. 36 Erin Levitas Foundation TPC Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
TPC Racing also welcomes a third full-season entry to the team in 2023 in a new partnership with Henning Rader and Monoflo International. The TPC Racing-prepared No. 77 Monoflo International Cayman GT4 Clubsport will be shared by Tillman Schmid and Evan Hinkle who will split driving duties throughout the season in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Cayman class.
“We have the reigning Masters Class champions in the 991 and 992 categories coming back with David Williams in the No. 237 Mission BBQ Porsche 992 and Michael Levitas behind the wheel of the No. 136 Erin Levitas Foundation Porsche 991,” said Harris Levitas, TPC Racing Director of Race Operations. “And we are thrilled to have for a full season the No. 77 Monoflo International Cayman GT4 Clubsport with a pair of drivers, Tillman Schmid and Evan Hinkle, cycling through the car this year. We are very excited to have them onboard and can’t thank the Monoflo team and Henning Rader enough for the opportunity to be running them this season.
“We are also delighted to have Shaun McKaigue back for a partial season in the No. 134 Porsche 991 category car coming down from Canada. He is a great guy who has improved so much on the track the last couple of years and we are excited to have him back with us for the majority of the year’s races.”
Along with TPC Racing driver coach Billy Johnson, Williams, Levitas and McKaigue all took part in the recent PCA Club Racing 48 Hours of Sebring event earlier this month at Sebring International Raceway. The legendary central-Florida airport circuit hosts the opening rounds of the 2023 Porsche Sprint Challenge season March 24 – 26.
“Sebring was a really good event for the guys to kind of dust off the cars and get themselves prepped for the year,” Harris Levitas said. “It seems like it has been a bit of a long winter since our last event at COTA to now and basically getting our Porsche Sprint Challenge season going at the 48 Hours of Sebring. Everybody did a great job and the cars have been just phenomenal. We have really come to grips on the handling and can’t wait to get the season started.”
Williams earned last year’s Masters title and runner-up honors in his first season of racing with TPC since 2015. He was a model of consistency throughout the year and wrapped up his season-long honors at the 2022 finale at Circuit of The Americas (COTA)with a typically strong pair of fourth-place finishes.
“I learned a lot at Sebring,” Williams said. “I need the seat time. Working with Billy Johnson again has been fantastic. It’s almost like a golfer, where you’re breaking your swing down. So I am been working on my ‘swing’ and making some good progress, but it is also the racecraft, and that’s what makes these events so special. I really have a long way to go in all of these categories. I need to find a little more speed in the car, and that’s me, not the car, and to keep working on the racecraft. Being under pressure and being able to run with these front guys is a different program. I am really looking forward to that this year. I expect the competition to go up this year, especially in the 992 category. I expect a lot more 992s out there this year and it expect it to be a really competitive field. I am looking forward to it. It’s awesome. You’ve got to live life, enjoy yourself and challenge yourself and have some fun, and racing is all of those things for me.”
With six podium finishes on the year, Levitas was also a model of consistency in 2022 despite a challenging weekend here and there. The recent Sebring test has him primed to build on last year’s success this season.
“I am really feeling confident about the car,” Michael Levitas said. “TPC Racing has just done an amazing job. The crew has worked their butts off, and the coaching with Billy Johnson has been amazing – it has really helped – but the biggest thing is finding that sweet-spot with the chassis. I don’t want to be all full of ourselves but I think we have something to be reckoned with this season. I am in that spot, I’m within that quarter-to-half round ride height here or there and we will see where we come out now. The only thing we were concerned about at Sebring was going forward into the season, so the cars were pure-spec Porsche Sprint Challenge, down to the ride height, the tire compound, the complete series package. I think it will be a very nice season going in.”
Another TPC Racing driver ending 2022 on a high note at COTA was McKaigue, who secured a season-best ninth-place finish on Saturday before improving to eighth Sunday in the last race of the year. The top-10 results were earned in what was just the third race weekend of the season for McKaigue in his TPC Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
“I am really excited to be back with TPC Racing,” McKaigue said. “They are a great bunch of guys and Billy Johnson is such a great coach. I really think they can help me just up my game a little bit. I would like to really progress, maybe even try and get a few podiums, which would be really nice. I am just excited because it is a great organization and TPC is just a fun bunch of guys to deal with. And all credit to the Porsche Sprint Challenge series organization. Randy Hembrey runs a good show, he keeps it clean and it is very competitive. All of the cars are presented very well and all of the participants are really nice guys. But it is very good, hard and fast competitive racing. The series is attracting a lot of interest and a lot of our competitors were at Sebring with us and I saw the lap times. They were fast.”
The Monoflo International team, and drivers Schmid and Hinkle, bring a solid resume of recent sports car racing experience with them in the first year with TPC Racing. Harris Levitas is also currently discussing a second Cayman-class entry with an additional competitor at select races in 2023.
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.