Over a month after the season opening races at Sebring, TPC Racing returned to action for rounds three and four at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah with the Porsche of Silver Spring, TeamSpeed.com sponsored #36 TPC Racing Porsche GT3 Cup. The opening rounds at Sebring saw TPC Racing with a very promising start to the season, finishing rounds one and two with podium finishes, and TPC Racing team owner and driver, Michael Levitas, second in the drivers’ championship in the Gold Cup standings.

We took advantage of the extended break between races, and took the #36 car to Virginia International Raceway, where more testing and development with the 997 GT3 Cup chassis was performed. While there, Levitas made good progress with the vehicle’s development, and figured a few things out, giving him high hopes heading out to Miller Motorsports Park. As our crew chief, Leon Towns, drove into Tooele, Utah with the truck and trailer, the weather was already off to a rough start. He drove through a white out.

Being his first visit to Miller Motorsports Park, Levitas needed the time from his first practice session to figure the track out. During these first sessions, Levitas was running used tires from the Sebring event and the VIR test session, resulting in lap times that were seventh quickest. During the second practice session of the day, Mike decided to use his first set of sticker tires for the weekend, but was surprised by heavy snow! Battling the clock, and the forces of Mother Nature, Levitas turned the fastest lap time during the second session. And with his great progress, we were looking forward to qualifying.

Unfortunately for Michael and TPC Racing, the qualifying session was completely snowed out! Due to the heavy amount of snow creating limited visibility and extremely dangerous driving conditions, IMSA officials decided to play it safe, and canceled qualifying.

Because qualifying was canceled, IMSA decided to set the grid positions based on the times recoded during the first practice session. This did not benefit the TPC Racing team, forcing us to start further down the field. However, Michael and the TPC Racing team simply viewed this as another challenge to overcome, and were ready to take on the field when the green flag flew.

When the green flag flew, Michael Levitas did a great job piloting the #36 TeamSpeed.com/Porsche of Silver Spring/TPC Racing Porsche GT3 Cup making his way from seventh to fourth and holding his position. As the race progressed, Levitas was soon faced with a car that was becoming more of a handful with every passing lap. From there, things went from bad to worse. Michael and the team figured out that the #36 had picked up a hole in one of the radiators, and was slowly leaking during the race. It was a tough break and forced the TeamSpeed.com/Porsche of Silver Spring/TPC Racing #36 to park the car for the remained of race one and scramble to repair it for race two the following day.

After working tirelessly for hours repairing/replacing damaged parts, and making further chassis adjustments, Levitas and the TPC Racing team were ready and excited for race two of the weekend at Miller Motorsports Park.

When the green flag flew for race two of the weekend, Michael again jumped out to another great start, quickly passing from seventh place up to fourth and was running great lap times, keeping up with the leaders. As the race went on Mike battled furiously for position, but challenges from the strong competition resulted in #36 losing places as the race came to its final laps. On the last lap of the race, Michael received one last surprise. With a cough from the motor, Levitas came to the dreaded realization that he was running out of fuel! He was forced to back of the throttle and switch the #36 over to survival mode, just to complete the race in seventh position.

Though seventh was not the result we were looking for, as Michael was second in the drivers’ standings and the TPC Racing team was second in the team championship, Levitas and TPC Racing thoroughly enjoyed our time in Utah, at Miller Motorsports Park. We have learned a lot, we will be back out in Montreal stronger than ever, ready to fight for the championship!

Thank you to our sponsors Porsche of Silver Spring, JRZ USA, TeamSpeed.com, and IBIZ World Class for all of your support.