October 31st 2022 – Sebring, FL.
Kenny Schmied and the Will-to-Win Racing #986 Porsche Cayman traveled to Sebring Florida over the weekend for the penultimate round of the 2022 World Racing League season. Fighting hard from near the back, the team managed to rip through the field and score points with a P7 finish on Saturday. Running well on Sunday and looking at another points finish, a problem with the fuel relay caused a 15-minute trip to the paddock and evaporated the teams hopes for a top ten finish. Still on the charge, the team managed a P12 in class at the end of Sunday’s running.
Schmied was excited to head to Sebring International Raceway, especially after the teams performance in the 2021 24-Hours of Sebring. “It’s been a year but I’m still glowing over that victory we had last year” Said Schmied. “Sebring is a special place, and it seems like me and the team do well here. I’m excited to see how we’ll do given this year’s normal race format of two 8-hour races instead of the 24-hour we had last year”.
Schmied would be sharing the car with Gordon Scully and Elias De La Torre IV. With Gordon having never driven a GT car at Sebring and Elias not used to the street tires the team runs on the Porsche, much of Friday was spent bringing the two drivers up to speed at the historic circuit. Schmied would be given the task of qualifying the car on sticker tires later in the afternoon. Putting in the fastest time of the day for the team, Schmied would start the race on Saturday from P24.
As a sold-out field of cars took the green flag, Schmied fought hard to make up several positions at the start before a GP1 and GTO car would collide after the exit of turn 13, sending both cars into the barriers and lighting one of them ablaze. A red flag quickly followed which lasted about an hour, and thankfully both drivers exited their cars on their own and suffered only minor injuries. Upon resuming the race, Schmied would continue his charge and bring the #986 up to P13 before handing the reigns over to Gordon Scully. Gordon drove well and continued the charge before handing things over to Elias. On the hunt in the last few hours Elias would secure P7 for the car during Saturday’s running.
“It was a great race out there today” Schmied said. “I was super aggressive on the start and was just putting in my fastest laps of the weekend when that red flag came out. Sadly the track went downhill over the next hour as the sun warmed it up, so when we resumed running I wasn’t able to put in any more purple laps. But we charged hard from a spot pretty far back and brought home some points.”
Sunday morning, Elias would start and would immediately begin moving the #986 up the field. After a solid double stint in the car, Elias handed the car over to Gordon who continued the charge through the middle of the day. Unfortunately Gordon was hit by another driver, and this hit partially dislodged the fuel relay on the car which would completely dislodge a few laps later disabling the car.
A tow to the paddock for a 10-second repair which consisted of pushing the fuel relay back in set the team on their back foot. Gordon would continue for another hour before handing the car to Schmied. Schmied would double-stint and then hand back to Elias for the final session of the day. Unfortunately the damage was done when the team had to be towed to the paddock, so despite the teams best efforts, it was a P12 in class for the team during Sunday’s running.
“It’s a shame about the fuel relay, but what can you do” said Schmied. “It was great sharing the car with Gordon and Elias, and I’m really glad we scored some points on Saturday. We would have been in the running on Sunday as well, but sometimes these things happen. We can leave the weekend with the knowledge that we pushed hard and gave it our all and just got a bit unlucky”.
Schmied heads next to Austin Texas and the Circuit of the Americas for the final round of the 2022 WRL Season in early December.
Photos from the event can be found below or at the photo gallery page here.
