BATAVIA, Ohio. (December 2, 2022) – Hot on the heels of winning the 2022 Michelin Pilot Challenge team and driver championship, VOLT® Racing, with Porsche Cup winner Alan Brynjolfsson and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Champion Trent Hindman will advance to the IMSA WeatherTech GTD class in 2023, partnering 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 and 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, known for superior consistency, and flawless performance. This relationship will be greatly beneficial to Brynjolfsson, who also won the 2019 Porsche Cup.
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. 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 2 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. Wright Motorsports will make further announcements in the coming weeks for additional racing efforts.
DRIVER QUOTES
Alan Brynjolfsson I am happy to announce I will be racing with Trent Hindman and Wright Motorsports in the IMSA WeatherTech Series for the full season. We will be piloting the brand-new type-992 Porsche 911 GT3 R sporting our iconic VOLT® Racing livery.
We won the IMSA GS Championship last year and it is time to move up the GTD! 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. At 55 years old, I will be the oldest full-season GTD/GT3 driver and possibly one of just a few full-season bronze GTD drivers. That is a big challenge to overcome but it gives me pride and motivation. I have a lot to learn and look forward to my debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona. Hopefully I’ll have a lot of fans supporting “The Old-Man-Rookie!”
To win in WeatherTech you need it all—great car, team and drivers and we have that combo. Porsche-Wright-Hindman. It is the best combination of talent and machinery I could dream of. I want to thank John Wright and all the guys and gals at Wright Motorsports, Trent Hindman my longtime co-driver, Volker Holzmeyer President and CEO Porsche Motorsports North America for making this happen, and my driver manager/wife Trish for supporting me in my dreams.
Trent Hindman Alan and I have been working together for five years. Throughout that time, we’ve won races, lost others, but more importantly we’ve become as strong of a team as you can find in the Michelin Pilot Challenge, and now I’m proud to say, WeatherTech Sportscar Championship paddock.
The timing for the step up to GTD could not be better; we’re fresh off a GS championship victory and Alan’s game has never been stronger. We’ve got a Wright Motorsports prepared VOLT® Porsche 911 GT3 R, which will always be a force to be reckoned with, and the same phenomenal team around us that brought us to the 2022 Michelin Pilot Challenge title.
A massive thank you to Alan and the entire Brynjolfsson family, who are as committed to this endeavor as us drivers are, Johnny Wright and his incredibly talented Wright Motorsports team, and of course our friends at Porsche Motorsport North America, who have built us the equipment to go ahead and fight for WeatherTech race victories in 2023.
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Wright Motorsports Wright Motorsports is the premier Porsche race engineering facility in Ohio and a multi-series and international racing team known for superb car preparation, expert race strategy, and driver development. Located in Batavia, Ohio, it is owned and directed by John Wright, a certified Porsche factory-trained technician. As a crew chief John Wright has played a key role in winning eight driver and seven team championships in World Challenge, IMSA (ALMS) and the Grand-Am Rolex Series. Wright Motorsports won the team championship in Porsche GT3 Cup USA in 2012, 2013, and 2015, and went on to win the Pirelli World Challenge Overall, Sprint, Team, and Manufacturer’s titles in 2017. In 2020, the team captured the GT World Challenge America Am championship. In 2021, Wright Motorsports had a wildly successful season, capturing nine championships across their five racing efforts. The team has since written their names in the history books, as winners of the 2022 Rolex 24 At Daytona.
About VOLT® Lighting Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, VOLT® Lighting manufactures and distributes quality indoor and outdoor lighting products and systems. VOLT® is the largest manufacturer of professional landscape lighting in the world. For more information, visit www.voltlighting.com or contact the company at customersupport@voltlighting.com or 813-978-3700.
About Adelie Technik Founded in 2011 Adelie Technik, a Service Disabled Veteran Small Owned Business (SDVOB) deploys the highest caliber engineers and consultants for our customers needs. Adelie is focused on delivery of your solution to your customer on your schedule. Adelie can deliver solutions ranging from PC deployment up to full DataCentre builds and beyond. Our engineers can also migrate your environment to the cloud. For more information on Adelie Technik, see adelietechnik.com.