BATAVIA, Ohio — VOLT Racing, along with Porsche Cup winner Alan Brynjolfsson and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Champion Trent Hindman, will advance to the IMSA WeatherTech GTD class in 2023 as partners with Wright Motorsports.
The pair will be racing brand-new machinery, the Wright Motorsports No. 77 VOLT® Lighting Porsche 911 GT3 R (type 992), in the iconic electric yellow and black VOLT Racing livery.
Following Wright’s success in securing the 2021 Michelin Pilot Challenge championship with drivers Ryan Hardwick and Jan Heylen, VOLT Racing switched support structures and joined the Wright Motorsports family for the 2022 season, racing in the stepping-stone development series for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The two brands gelled immediately, producing a second-place finish at Sebring International Raceway in the effort’s second race together. At round three at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, a calculated fuel run made from the pit box, paired with expert driving by Brynjolfsson and Hindman, brought the team their first win of the season — their third as a pair.
The group secured the overall championship title at the season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, a title Wright Motorsports clinched in 2021 with Hardwick and Heylen, racing a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport.
As the VOLT Racing squad steps up to join Wright’s WeatherTech GTD effort, Wright will bring Brynjolfsson back to Porsche, a brand that team owner John Wright and his Ohio-based team have been representing for over two decades. In 2021, Wright Motorsports secured nine team and driver titles racing Porsche machinery, also securing the German brand a manufacturer’s title.
That same year, driver Jan Heylen completed 24 races with Wright, and with four wins and 19 podiums, he won the Porsche Cup — an award given annually to the most successful non-factory Porsche driver in the world. The symbiotic relationship between Wright and Porsche Motorsport North America has proven to be one of the longest-running and most successful in customer racing.
As the premier sports car racing championship in North America, the move from Michelin Pilot Challenge’s GS class to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will be an exciting new test for Brynjolfsson, a 55-year-old gentleman racer.
“I’m totally stoked to fulfill a longtime goal of racing in WeatherTech, America’s top series for professional sports car racing. Racing against the best drivers in the world is going to be a mega challenge but one that I have been preparing a long time for and a step I don’t take lightly,” Brynjolfsson said.
Created for both professionals and amateurs to race in the same class, GTD provides a competitive arena for Pro/Am pairings to race at North America’s best circuits. Currently slated to be one of just a few full-season bronze drivers, Brynjolfsson will be competing against some of the top-rated drivers in the world with long time co-driver Hindman by his side for a sixth year.
At just 27 years old, Hindman is on a four-year championship-winning streak, having captured the IMSA WeatherTech GTD championship (2019), the 2020 GT World Challenge America title (2020), the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup (2021) and most recently the 2022 Michelin Pilot Challenge championship (2022). His return to Wright in the GTD class comes after he earned four podium finishes for the team in 2021, racing alongside former Porsche Factory driver Patrick Long.
The 2023 schedule will include 11 races, featuring the usual composition of four endurance races and seven sprint races.
The four endurance rounds — the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen and Motul Petit Le Mans — will again include 52 hours of racing. Six of the seven sprint rounds will clock in at two hours, 40 minutes, while the Grand Prix of Long Beach in April will run at one hour, 40 minutes.
The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and Belle Isle rounds were removed from the schedule, but the IMSA Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be a new event, running in September as the final sprint round before the Petit Le Mans conclusion.
The team will announce the two endurance driver additions at a later date.
Meanwhile, the team is running full speed ahead into preparations for the first event of the year, the Roar Before the 24, the first full-series test which will also set the grid for the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Keyword: Wright Motorsports Confirms IMSA Entry