Porsche kicked off its factory assault on the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship in the best possible way with victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona for Richard Lietz, Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet.

For Porsche, the most successful manufacturer in the history of the Rolex 24, it was the company’s 76th class-win to accompany the 22 overall wins at the historic event. The victory by Porsche North America in its debut as a factory program is the 40th class-win for a Porsche 911-based racecar in the 52nd running of the United State’s premier 24-hour race.

The result was part of a perfect day for Porsche’s competition partner CORE autosport which was also successful with victory in the PC class.

“Our goals included keeping a conservative pace, preserve the brakes and make sure that drivers, crew and support members did not make any mistakes,” said Pilet who drove the final stint in the race.

“We achieved those goals, and the result was a GTLM win. We all stayed away from that ‘big’ incident and avoided all contact, even though the traffic was heavy at times. After the restart for the last 15 minutes, I had to go away from our measured pace and push, but the car responded.”

The No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR driven by Michael Christensen (Denmark), Patrick Long (Playa del Rey, Calif.) and Joerg Bergmeister (Germany) had its time in the lead of the GTLM class as well during the course of the event. However, an engine mechanical issue forced the car to the garage with six hours remaining in the race. The team finished ninth in class.

“The goal was to stay clean with both cars, run as a team and be there when the sun came up and we achieved that,” said Long, the only America factory driver for Porsche. “I am incredibly proud of this whole organization for coming together on such tight time constraints. That is what we will build from for the rest of the season.”