The Porsche growth driver who received Daytona in a Corvette

In Porsche circles, Lars Kern is one thing of a legend. The German is a growth driver for the corporate, and is finest recognized for setting lots of Porsche’s road-car Nürburgring lap occasions. He additionally moonlights in sports activities vehicles, and on Sunday, he received his greatest race but, the Rolex 24 at Daytona. In a Corvette.

Since final yr, Kern has raced with the Canada-based AWA Racing in its GTD #13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R. His teammates for the race embrace countryman Marvin Kirchhöfer, Orey Fidani, and Matthew Bell, who took the checkered.

“I had a sense, proper from once we began on the Roar [Before the 24 test] we felt like ‘Okay, there’s tempo within the automotive, the drivability is nice, all the pieces it felt it might fall our manner,” Kern, beaming, tells Motorsport.com. “However within the evenings, we have been all the time sitting in our house pondering ‘When does this finish?’” Fortunately for AWA, it didn’t. 

A number of years in the past, Kern had a shot at profitable the Nürburgring 24 that slipped away. So, the gravity of the second will not be misplaced on him. 

“I used to be crying as a result of that is one thing I all the time dreamed of and thought was by no means going to occur,” he says. “I had a win on the Nürburgring 24 in my arms as soon as a few years in the past, which didn’t occur, so I assumed ‘Perhaps I’m simply the unfortunate man, I’m driving round in circles and nothing falls my manner.’ I sort of accepted it. At this time, all the pieces fell our manner. We had plenty of hiccups and gremlins, however we executed effectively, ticked the bins, and on the finish the automotive had the pace, and Matt was doing an incredible job.”

Whereas the #13 Corvette was typically out entrance from the 14th hour onward, Bell needed to struggle off a robust assault from the #27 Coronary heart of Racing Aston Martin within the final hour. (The Aston ended up ceding 2nd to the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.) Kern credit IMSA for its profitable new implementation of torque sensors on GT vehicles for the shut battling between totally different producers. However that didn’t make watching the ultimate hour simple. 

“I used to be simply within the pit field, sitting within the nook, on a chair, my jacket over my head simply ready for the noise of everybody cheering as a result of I couldn’t have a look at it,” Kern says. “I heard the noise, everyone cheering, and I assumed ‘Yeah, I feel we made it.’”

Kern tells Motorsport.com it’s further particular to win with this workforce, who’ve all grown shut collectively since their begin collectively. He’ll be a part of them at the remainder of the endurance rounds of the IMSA WeatherTech collection — the Sebring 12 Hours, Watkins Glen Six Hours, and Petit Le Mans at Street Atlanta — and this yr’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Even recent off an enormous victory, Kern is refreshingly sincere in regards to the self doubt he typically feels regardless of his expertise.  “I’m all the time questioning myself, on daily basis, day in day trip. Each time I am going to the race monitor I feel ‘What the f*** am I doing right here?’ And I’ve to show myself, and I feel I did on this race.”

He doesn’t assume this win will change that. The self-doubt begins once more tomorrow, he says, perhaps solely half jokingly. 

“It’s the identical with report laps on the Nürburgring, I all the time have a nasty sleep the evening earlier than,” Kern says. “I all the time assume, ‘Why would I be the one who can do this?’ I’m not asking myself that query the opposite manner round.”