Batavia, Ohio (July 25, 2017) - Following a short break in the action, Wright Motorsports is jumping right back into the thick of things for this weekend’s Rounds 5 and 6 of the Pirelli World Challenge Sprint championship. This time the Batavia, Ohio-based team will take on home ground as Patrick Long and Michael Schein enter their pair of Porsche 911 GT3 Rs at Mid-Ohio SportsCar Course.
Located just 150-miles south of Mid-Ohio, Wright Motorsports carries a rich history at their home track. Since founded in 2000, the Batavia Ohio-based squad has collected countless podiums at the road course. This dates back decades for Wright Motorsports principal and Ohio-native, John Wright who ran his first professional event at Mid-Ohio in 1988. The group hopes to extend their line of triumph following this week’s event.
Still fresh off of his victory and second place at Road America, Long will enter this weekend’s double-header event tied for the overall championship lead with Michael Cooper and carrying a 7-point lead in the GT Sprint championship over Alvaro Parente.
No stranger to the 2.4 mile, 15 turn road-course, Long has three podiums and a Mid-Ohio win to his name. The Porsche factory driver who was thrown a number of challenges during last season’s event, looks to extend his championship lead and pad his resume with an additional ream of success at the track.
The momentum is particularly high for Schein, as he looks to replicate his GTA victory sweep from 2016. The track remains a special one for the New Yorker who claimed the first win of his racing career at Mid-Ohio during a 2010 IMSA GT3 Cup race.
After a challenging weekend at Road America, Schein sits fourth in the GTA championship, with a 44-point deficit to James Sofronas who has taken over the lead. He hopes to change that at this weekend’s event.
Pirelli World Challenge GT/GTA field will take the stage for Round 5 at 4:45 pm EST Saturday, July 29, followed by Round 6, which is set for noon EST Sunday, July 30.
John Wright // Team Principal, Wright Motorsports – “I would love to put Patrick and Mike in the winner’s circle at Mid-Ohio. We are coming off a win for Patrick at Road America and would like to keep up that momentum. We approached 2017 much differently from last year and things are paying off now, but the season is long from over. A good performance at Mid-Ohio would be big for the team. Plus, it’s in our home state. An Ohio-based squad winning at Mid-Ohio would be a thrill.”
Patrick Long // Driver, No. 58 Porsche 911 GT3 R - “I’m excited to get back on track at Mid-Ohio for Wright Motorsports' home event. With four races left in the sprint season and an overall championship on the line it's going to be business as usual, which means we are going to push hard every lap. You always come back stronger after a trying week like we had last season at Mid-Ohio. Since then, we’ve been able to analyze where we were losing time and feel a lot better heading into this week. We don't have the budgets like some of the other teams to pre-test at most tracks, but I have a lot of confidence in John [Wright] and Bobby [Viglione]. I’m looking forward to the weekend.”
Michael Schein // Driver, No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3 R – “After a pretty unfortunate weekend at Road America, I’m really looking forward to Mid-Ohio. It's Wright Motorsports’ home event and we had a lot of success there last year with two wins in our Porsche 911 GT3 R. It's a track that I really enjoy and has a lot of rhythm which is nice. I'm pretty far out of the Sprint championship now, so we’re just going to keep pushing for wins and hope we get lucky in the end.”