Wright Motorsports’ Michael Schein had two very different experiences but similar stellar results during the Pirelli World Challenge GT/GTA/GT Cup doubleheader Saturday and Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park. Once again the series rookie impressed the onlookers, as he recorded two podium finishes in the GTA class with his Porsche 911 GT3 R.
It was only the second event ever in this very competitive series for the driver from Glen Cove, N.Y., who now has three podium finishes in four starts.
In the first 50-minute race on Saturday Schein was never out of a podium position and he was hounding the winner at the checkered, finishing just 0.133 of a second behind.
On Sunday he had an off-track excursion and had to pit so his Batavia, Ohio-based team could clean his car’s grills of debris. The team finished the service without the entry losing a lap, but Schein fell to sixth place due to the mishap. Without the help of any full-course cautions he battled back to third place.
The one consistent aspect of Schein’s experiences was how hard he pushed as he made his way around the 2.38-mile, 17-turn road course that is notorious for being a difficult place to pass.
Schein started third in class in Saturday afternoon’s race after qualifying with a time of 1:24.217 Saturday morning. He moved into second on lap three after the driver who was second pitted for repairs. There were two GT cars between Schein and the class leader at that point, while the driver who was now third in class was right on Schein’s Porsche’s rear wing.
Schein set his fastest lap of the race on lap five with a 1:26.091, but two laps later he had to take evasive action when a GT driver who was five positions ahead of him overall hit a wall off Turn 4, bringing out the event’s only full-course caution flag on lap eight.
Schein often posted lap times that were faster than the class leader during his efforts to catch him and pass him, and with 10 minutes to go he had cut the leader’s advantage to just 0.382 of a second. Schein had a comfortable advantage over the third-place driver at that point, as that driver was about 3.655 seconds behind.
Schein kept the pressure up, and took the checkered flag just 0.133 of a second behind the class winner and a whopping 6.198 seconds ahead of third place.
His fastest lap of Saturday’s race ended up being the third-fastest lap set, which earned him the third starting spot in class for Sunday morning’s race.
He was still in third on lap 10 when he went off course and then pitted so the crew could clean his car’s grills of grass. He didn’t lose a lap, but he dropped to sixth place in class.
He regained fifth when the driver who had been fifth spun on lap 13. He passed the fourth-place driver on lap 17 and then took aim at third, but that driver was some 24.032 seconds ahead of him.
Schein set his fastest laps of the race trying to catch him. He posted his fastest lap of the race while fourth on lap 24 with a 1:25.309, which was the second-fastest lap recorded by anyone in the class.
By lap 25 with about 13 minutes remaining Schein had cut the gap to third to 15.069 seconds, while fifth place was a comfortable 32.698 seconds behind him.
He needed a full-course caution that he wasn’t responsible for, but the race went non-stop.
He took the checkered on lap 36 in third, only 5.961 seconds behind second place.
“It was a solid weekend for the Wright Motorsports crew and myself,” Schein said on Sunday afternoon. “My qualifying wasn’t optimal, and I started P3 in GTA. I was able to move into second and had a fun battle with [Martin] Fuentes for the rest of the race. He didn’t make any mistakes and Barber is a tough place to pass, so I had to settle for second.
“In Race 2 I was running third when I went wide on a corner and collected a bunch of grass that was causing the car to overheat. I had to pit to clean out the grills, and I was on my way. We were able to get back into third, having fallen down to sixth. So it was a great effort from the Wright crew. We had a fast race car this weekend. I’m looking forward to Mosport.”
The doubleheader was part of the seventh annual Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.
The PWC races will be shown on the CBS Sports Network on Sunday, May 1 at 4 p.m. Eastern time. Archived video streams will be available at Motor Trend on Demand. More information is available on the series’ Web site at world-challenge.com.
Schein is slated to compete in the next PWC event May 19-22 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario.
Wright Motorsports’ multi-car effort in the IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama series will be in action this coming weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas, Calif. The team is that series’ defending champion.
Source. Restart Communications/Photo. Porsche