Porsche Napleton Racing (PNR), David Heinemeier Hansson and Dominik Farnbacher Ready for ALMS Team Debut at Road America
Porsche Napleton Racing (PNR), lead driver David Heinemeier Hansson and top co-driver Dominik Farnbacher are ready to roll in this weekend’s Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase event at Road America, August 18 – 20, as first time entrants in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) presented by Tequila Patron. Hansson and Farnbacher will share the No. 97 PNR/37signals Porsche GT3 in what will be the first race for Hansson and PNR in the highly competitive ALMS Grand Touring Challenge (GTC) class in Saturday’s four-hour race.
“Stepping up to ALMS is certainly a big jump, but I feel the team is more than ready, so this is just the calm before the storm,” said Hansson, a native of Denmark who now lives in Chicago. “I am excited to get going!”
The move to the top-tier ALMS division comes after some recent success by PNR and Hansson in the team’s last two rounds of the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama. They finished third in their most recent race at Lime Rock Park last month, the team’s first career podium showing, in addition to an eighth place result earlier that same day in the first race of Lime Rock’s doubleheader event. In the team’s race prior to Lime Rock, PNR and Hansson finished fourth at Miller Motorsports in early May.
“I haven't actually raced at Road America, only done track days,” Hansson said. “But Road America isn't exactly a complicated track, just one that requires a sizable set of cojones. I'll be doing a bunch more virtual practice in Forza Motorsports and watch some more videos.”
Although he will co-drive with Hansson for the first time, Farnbacher, who is from Germany, is well familiar with Road America’s legendary four-mile road course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
“Road America is a great track,” Farnbacher said. “It is a very fast rollercoaster through the Wisconsin forests, it reminds me a lot of the old Nürburgring, but the runoff is good and the safety standards are high. The last time I drove there was with the Panoz Esperante in 2009. We finished fourth in a very competitive championship.”
While Farnbacher will meet Hansson for the first time just this week, he is well familiar with the PNR operation and confident in the team’s ability.
“I think David and I will have a good shot,” Farnbacher said. “I will try to work hard with my co-driver and give him everything I know and the goal, of course, is the top spot. Our competitors are very strong, but we don't have to hide with our good crew and team and we can hold our own among the talented drivers.”
Continuing with the top personnel that led the GT3 Cup effort, Hansson and Farnbacher will be supported by a PNR crew led by winning Team Manager and Crew Chief Tim Olsen and veteran Race Engineer Marc Manning. Napleton Porsche of Westmont General Manager Ron Barnaba is also PNR Team Principal.
Farnbacher scored multiple victories and finished second in the 2008 ALMS GT2 championship racing a Porsche, and was also on the pole for this year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona in a GT3.
Although Road America is the task at hand, Hansson and PNR are also planning on running additional ALMS races this year, including the season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
Visit 37racing.com all weekend for live race information, highlights and updates on the No. 97 PNR/37signals Porsche GT3 team.
NOTEWORTHY: Napleton Porsche of Westmont, PNR’s parent organization, is also supporting this weekend’s Road America event as an official partner of the Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase. Napleton Porsche offers a rare combination of experienced management and dealership personnel that have decades of experience in Porsche street car and SUV sales and service, and also with championship-winning high performance Porsches on the race track… Along with Porsche Cars North America and Flying Lizard Motorsports, Napleton Porsche of Westmont will host a pre-race reception at its Chicago-area dealership tomorrow, Wednesday, August 17, from 6 – 8 p.m. Several high performance and racing Porsches will be on display, including a Flying Lizard Porsche GT3 RSR, and drivers Hansson, Farnbacher, Patrick Long and Jorg Bergmeister will be in attendance for autographs and photo opportunities. ABOUT 37signals: 37signals specializes in web-based collaboration apps and millions of entrepreneurs, freelancers, small businesses and departments inside big organizations rely on their products Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack and Campfire to increase productivity. 37signals is also behind the popular web-development framework Ruby on Rails – used by Twitter, Groupon and more – and the New York Times best-selling business book “REWORK”
ABOUT PORSCHE NAPLETON RACING (PNR): Porsche Napleton Racing (PNR) is the performance and competition division of the Chicago-area auto dealership Napleton Porsche of Westmont. Although the team joins lead driver David Heinemeier Hansson in their first year in ALMSGTC and IMSA GT3 Cup competition in 2011, PNR is an established and full-service racing division and prep shop, specializing in amateur and beginner-level competition on up to entry-level and top-tier professional racing series. The PNR group is also one of the top teams in the Cayman Interseries, winning several races with Hansson in that championship last year. The performance-focused PNR operation is just one division within Napleton Porsche of Westmont, which is the Ed Napleton Automotive Group’s flagship Porsche dealership. A family business that was established in 1931 by their grandfather Edward W. Napleton with a single dealership on Chicago’s south side, Ed Napleton and his brothers today own 60 franchises in four states. The Ed Napleton Automotive Group operates 29 of these franchises in 14 locations.
