The Porsche development driver who won Daytona in a Corvette

In Porsche circles, Lars Kern is one thing of a legend. The German is a development driver for the corporate, and is greatest recognized for setting a lot of Porsche’s road-car Nürburgring lap instances. He additionally moonlights in sports activities automobiles, and on Sunday, he gained 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 after we began on the Roar [Before the 24 test] we felt like ‘Okay, there’s tempo within the automobile, the drivability is nice, every little thing it felt it might fall our method,” Kern, beaming, tells Motorsport.com. “However within the evenings, we had been at all times sitting in our house considering ‘When does this finish?’” Fortunately for AWA, it didn’t. 

A couple 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 at all times dreamed of and thought was by no means going to occur,” he says. “I had a win on the Nürburgring 24 in my fingers as soon as a few years in the past, which didn’t occur, so I believed ‘Possibly I’m simply the unfortunate man, I’m driving round in circles and nothing falls my method.’ I form of accepted it. Immediately, every little thing fell our method. We had loads of hiccups and gremlins, however we executed properly, ticked the containers, and on the finish the automobile had the pace, and Matt was doing a tremendous job.”

Whereas the #13 Corvette was usually out entrance from the 14th hour onward, Bell needed to combat off a powerful 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 automobiles 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 take a look at it,” Kern says. “I heard the noise, everyone cheering, and I believed ‘Yeah, I feel we made it.’”

Kern tells Motorsport.com it’s further particular to win with this crew, who’ve all grown shut collectively since their begin collectively. He’ll be part of them at the remainder of the endurance rounds of the IMSA WeatherTech sequence — 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 usually feels regardless of his expertise.  “I’m at all times questioning myself, daily, day in day trip. Each time I’m 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 suppose this win will change that. The self-doubt begins once more tomorrow, he says, perhaps solely half jokingly. 

“It’s the identical with file laps on the Nürburgring, I at all times have a foul sleep the evening earlier than,” Kern says. “I at all times suppose, ‘Why would I be the one who can try this?’ I’m not asking myself that query the opposite method round.”