CAMPBELL LEADS PENSKE PERFECT FRONT-ROW SWEEP AT INDY FOR PORSCHE

MEDIA RELEASE/IMSA – Photos: supplied

It’s shaping up to be quite a weekend for Porsche Penske Motorsport.

The team claimed the front row for the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks – the first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway since 2014 – with Matt Campbell winning the Motul Pole Award in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class on Saturday.

Mathieu Jaminet drove the other Penske Porsche 963 to the second starting position for Sunday’s two-hour, 40-minute race at IMS, which is owned by team owner Roger Penske.

“We want to perform well at home and put on a good show,” Campbell said. “Obviously at such an event, with Roger owning the circuit, we have a lot of supporters and sponsors along as well.”

Campbell was clocked at 1 minute, 13.672 seconds (119.182 mph) in the No. 7 Porsche 963 he co-drives with Felipe Nasr. Jaminet completed the sweep with a lap of 1:13.824 (118.936 mph) in the No. 6 Porsche 963 he shares with Nick Tandy.

Campbell said the team worked on consistency over the three sectors of IMS’ 14-turn, 2.439-mile road-course layout to string together strong overall laps.

“We’re not necessarily shining in one (sector) at the moment,” Campbell said. “I think we can just really put together a lap quite well, whereas with everyone else we’ve seen a lot of mistakes in practice with brake-locking and running off track. We have as well, but I feel like a lot less as some of the other competitors.”

Meanwhile, Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque gained three points in their WeatherTech Championship GTP battle against Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims. Taylor had the fifth-fastest lap in GTP in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06, while Derani was eighth in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.

Taylor and Albuquerque now lead Derani and Sims by 17 points in GTP with just two races remaining in the 2023 season.

The race gets underway at 3am Monday morning AEST.

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