DALLAS – Park Place Motorsports enters the Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear with a new driver pairing, as Zacharie Robichon joins Porsche works driver Patrick Long in the No. 73 Park Place Porsche 911 GT3 R, May 31-June 1.
This is the first time Robichon, the defending Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama champion, will run under the Park Place Motorsports banner and with Long.
However, it is not his first appearance on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship grid. Robichon has competed in the GT Daytona class at each of the previous events with fellow Canadian and former Porsche GT3 Cup Canada champion Scott Hargrove.
“I’m very much looking forward to teaming up with Park Place Motorsports for the race in Detroit,” Robichon said. “It truly is a sprint race at only 100 minutes, but I’ll be looking to keep my nose clean as it is my first time on the streets of Belle-Isle. I’ve had some success on street courses in the past, so I will be leaning on those experiences to get up to speed in Detroit.
“The team has done a great job this season, and hopefully I can help continue their success and aid them in their bid for the championship. It will be my first time teaming up with Pat Long, and that alone will be a great opportunity for me. I first met him a couple of years ago at the Porsche Young Driver Academy and learned a lot that time around, so I’m sure that will continue this weekend.”
Robichon joins Long at Detroit in round two of the new WeatherTech Sprint Cup for GT Daytona competitors only. While Park Place Motorsports has selected to run the full GTD season, including endurance events, it will run the optional Raceway at Belle Isle event to keep a good standing in the driver points championship.
“It will be great having Zach Robichon at Detroit,” Long said. “Zach has proven through the one-make Porsche challenges to be a team leader and race winner. That’s translated well into his first few IMSA races this year. Detroit is a place with little room for error and very little track time, so we have to get right down to business and be as efficient with our time as any other race weekend all year.
“With the theme of tight timing, it’s a very compressed schedule. We get our race in at Detroit and jump in a plane to land Sunday morning thousands of miles away in Le Mans, France to go straight into another Porsche race car. We did it last year with our partners at Mira Vista, and it worked out well. So, I think we’ll be prepared to attack Le Mans on Sunday.”
Long sits fourth in GTD driver points after a fourth-place finish at Mid-Ohio SportsCar Course. He is tied with the third-place duo of Jack Hawksworth and Richard Heistand at 77 points. Detroit is Long’s second race without co-driver and team principal Patrick Lindsey.
Lindsey will forgo the Detroit race to be more prepared for the official Le Mans test, which takes place Sunday, June 2. His Park Place sponsored team, Project 1, currently leads the GTE AM Championship as it heads into the final race of the Super Season.
Lindsey is set to fly multiple IMSA competitors to the Le Mans test as Pilot in Command of a Mira Vista Aviation-operated charter. Lindsey is the owner and president of Mira Vista.