Walking around the IMSA paddock with a sports car legend like Patrick Long is an exercise in fascinating patience. Even though the two-time Le Mans class winning, three-time ALMS championship-winning Porsche factory driver is four years post-retirement, it’s like Long never left racing. Fans, former teammates, and old colleagues all stop and chat, and Long has time for all of them, even under the blazing Long Beach sun. He’s a hero from the golden era of sports car racing, someone who has etched their name into history, and can see exactly how the sport has evolved since the era of ALMS.
“The level has gotten so high with this era of youngsters. It’s almost a given to be fast,” Long remarked. I had just started asking him about the specifics of driving a modern GTD car when AO Racing team principal Gunnar Jeannette stopped him for a chat. Once he was done, he continued. “It’s still wisdom versus knowledge that makes the difference in a driver’s career.”
Wisdom versus knowledge is an interesting point for the current era of GT racing. With simulators becoming highly popular and highly accurate, driving technique, data science, and testing time is democratized for all. The learning curve is shortened considerably, and drivers can show up and get up to speed quicker than ever, learning the track from laser-scanned models of tracks and cars. Long contends that this has brought the floor much higher, yet the ceiling of the true greats is a dark art.
Journey through Porsche's paddocks
Long guided me through the Porsche teams in the paddock: Wright Motorsports and AO Racing with the 911 GT3R for GTD, Porsche Penske Motorsport (PPM) and JDC Miller with the 963 for GTP. What I was most curious about was the differences between driving the two classes of car, with the modern FIA GT3 cars being much closer to prototypes in suspension and overall construction, and the GTP cars being much heavier than the previous IMSA DPi and FIA LMP1 rulesets. Having driven both, Long can explain some of the complexities of both.
“A modern GT3 car is so technologically advanced. I remember when I used to drive an H-pattern 996 RSR. Now, the suite of technology available to drivers makes the task of optimizing a different game. Motorsport ABS and traction control, for sure, but the suspension geometry is much less road car than it used to be.” When I asked him what the 963 was like, he was the typical Long humble. “I only tested [the 963], so I can’t say that much. But it’s intense. It’s heavier, so its closer to a GT car but still a different league.”
Looking at the operations surrounding a modern race team is startling. The amount of moving parts, people, and logistics is more than ever before. Even for a customer GT3 car, a full-time engineering staff must monitor the car, its health, and on-track performance. Along with the drivers, engineers can micro-optimize the car throughout the weekend and extract the most performance. The granularity is intense, with measurements being spoken of in tenths of a percent. An oddity to consider is that minimum weight is taken without the driver, so driver weight makes a considerable difference to lap time. Between the two Wright Motorsports teammates of Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer, a seven-tenths of a second difference in lap time is largely chalked up to driver weight, which is why driver lineups in endurance racing are often optimized towards lightness.
Wright’s operation is tight. A team of mechanics checks alignment and other critical car performance elements ahead of every session to monitor changes and quantify any differences in lap time. The car is prepared cleanly and efficiently, and drivers debrief constantly to provide feedback about the car. Still, it’s a far cry from the army that forms PPM, who runs two field-leading 963s. The difference is stark between the customer JDC Miller team, a “very good team” according to Long, and the factory PPM team. Where JDC Miller runs a single 963 with a setup similar to Wright and AO Racing, PPM is more akin to a Formula 1 team.
Where JDC Miller had a strong team of mechanics, PPM had an army. The alignment rigging was made of carbon fiber, simply because it could, and the PPM trailers were all spotless as per Roger Penske’s request. Each car has a swarm of people checking and rechecking items, clicking off checklists, and making changes to the car. It may look like chaos to the layperson, but is a carefully coordinated, factory-backed dance that has guided PPM to three consecutive victories this season, including Long Beach.
Long was once a cog in this machine, and has seen how it has evolved in IMSA. For the first time in a while, prototypes are a true international effort. Just two years into the GTP/FIA LMDh ruleset, there have never been more manufacturers and top-level drivers heading to IMSA. I asked him if he ever regretted not pursuing a formula career, a-la Indycar or Formula 1 and he replied, “Sports car racing has treated me well. I had a long career, and I’m thankful for that. But the world of formula racing and sports car racing are very different.” Knowledgeable fans will know that Long was on the radar of Red Bull in 2001 alongside Scott Speed. It was during that test that Porsche found Long, and the rest is history.
I asked Long if he could drive any car in his career, what he would go back to? Without missing a beat, he reaffirmed what he said earlier. “An H-pattern 996 RSR. That was my favorite.”
