Off of the truck, the cars felt as though they needed adjustment and the TPC Racing team got to work on chassis setup. The 37 TPC Racing / Merkle GT3 Cup of David Williams was running in the top three in practice while Michael Levitas was chasing the setup on his 36 TPC Racing / Merkle machine running mid pack. This would all change though once qualifying came around.

Qualifying for this season is different than in the past. For this season, you must set two fast laps to determine starting positions for races one and two. The fastest time of the session determines the position for race one while your second fastest time determines your position for race two. Right away, Levitas went out in the 36 car and noticed a night and day difference in the car setting a time of 2:11.2 while David Williams noticed his setup changes and turned a 2:11.4. This would put TPC Racing on pole in the 36 car with the sister car of Williams starting P2. After turning his 2:11.2, Michael thought there was more in the car. He had an open track and turned a 2:10.5! This would put Levitas on pole for both races.

Race one of the weekend had action, but it was all about the two TPC Racing Porsche’s of Levitas and Williams. Michael started the race keeping his nose clean and never looked back, take the race win. David Williams ran a smart and consistent race and went flag-to-flag finishing P2. This was the perfect way to start the season finishing 1-2!

“It was a great run, I had a great time, I mean TPC really pulled it off in the final hours,” said the class-winning Levitas. “Even from the practice day we had a great car but for some reason we couldn’t find it and the guys worked hard and pulled it off in the final hours last night. We weren’t too sure what we had going into the qualifying but once we got to qualifying I knew I had a great car, it was a great feeling going into the race.”

“It was all about redemption this weekend,” Williams said. “We did well in qualifying as well as the race, so overall this was a great weekend in my first race. If it wasn’t for the hard work and determination of our team and sponsors, we wouldn’t have been able to pull this off.”

The next day was race two. Michael Levitas started on pole once again, but teammate David Williams would start P4 in his 37 TPC Racing / Merkle Porsche. At the drop of the green flag there was tons of action and carnage. To avoid the incident in turn one, David dropped back a position to P5 but knew he was faster and could drive a smart race up to the front. There was a lengthy caution to clean up the carnage in turn one but once the field went green again, Levitas never looked back and opened a great gap on P2 while Williams drove his 37 machine to P3. With five minutes remaining in the race, David was turning lap times faster than P2 and knew he could make a pass by the end of the race. Williams set up a brilliant maneuver and made the pass for TPC Racing to have another 1-2 finish in the Gold Class!

“This race was pure excitement for me,” said Levitas. “I’m in the Gold Class but I started in the middle of the Platinum Class, which created a bit of an accordion effect coming up to Turn 1. I was in the middle of it and tried my hardest to stay out of the mayhem. I ended up having very slight contact that wasn’t enough to knock me out of the race. TPC Racing had a good weekend though, and it was great to have a 1-2 finish with my teammate David Williams.”

“This was my first weekend racing with the series after being away from racing for 10 years and it went really well,” said Williams. “I’m happy to be back on-track and being at Sebring has been an awesome experience.”

Not only did TPC Racing dominate both races, but Michael Levitas and David Williams both were battling for position in the Masters Class. The Masters Class is for drivers 45 years old and up, and both Levitas and Williams dominated the Gold Class and Masters Class finishing 1-2 in both races!

TPC Racing goes into rounds three and four at Laguna Seca as point’s leaders in both the Gold Class championship and the Masters championship. Also, Michael Levitas leads the driver’s championship with teammate David Williams in P2. The TPC Racing team is ready for the battle to take place at Laguna Seca and for an exciting season to come. This would all not be possible without the great team at TPC Racing and our sponsors, Merkle, JRZ USA, IBIZ World Class Wax and the strength and conditioning coaching from Bryan Woolson and Jay Dyer at JDYER Strength and Conditioning.

About TPC Racing:

TPC Racing is the Mid-Atlantic’s premier maintenance, service, tuning and modification center dedicated solely to Porsche sports cars. This long time focus on only one make, Porsche, has enabled us to become experts in Porsche service, tuning and racing.

TPC Racing has its roots in the IMSA Supercar Series of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, where team owner and driver Michael Levitas managed the turbocharger programs that gave the fire-breathing Nissan 300ZX, Mazda RX7 Twin Turbo, Lotus Turbo Esprit and Consulier GTPs their prodigious power.

By combining a lifetime of automotive enthusiasm, business experience and technical skill with advanced aeronautical training and certifications, Levitas has managed to extend the engineering of some of the most advanced and well-regarded machines in existence – Porsche race cars.

About Merkle:

Merkle is the nation’s largest and fastest-growing customer relationship marketing (CRM) agency. For more than 20 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. Employing data-driven strategies, Merkle combines a complete range of marketing, technical, analytical and creative disciplines to offer complete integrated customer marketing solutions. With a strategically led, consultative approach, we work closely with clients to design, execute and continuously evaluate CRM programs throughout the buying cycle, across channels and media.

Jessup, MD (March 14, 2013) Today marked an amazing start to the race season for TPC Racing. Over the offseason, both Michael Levitas and David Williams worked very hard to prepare for Sebring and to be championship contenders, and today proved that. The practice sessions on Wednesday were tough for the 36 TPC Racing / Merkle GT3 Cup of team principle Michael Levitas, but the team worked hard and sorted out the car.

Levitas started off the week in P4 turning laps in the 2:14 range while teammate David Williams was turning 2:13’s in his 37 TPC Racing / Merkle GT3 Cup. The team worked hard Wednesday night to prepare for the qualifying session this morning. Right away, the changes that were made to both cars Wednesday night proved to be successful.

Right away, Michael Levitas turned fast laps in his 36 TPC Racing / Merkle Porsche and grabbed the pole position turning a 2:10.5. This was the fastest lap that Michael has turned at Sebring in his GT3 Cup. Shortly after Levitas clocked in at a 2:10.5, David Williams turned a 2:11.4 in his 37 TPC Racing / Merkle GT3 Cup to take P2. From there, the positions stayed and TPC Racing would start the first race of the season P1 and P2.

When the race went green later that afternoon, Levitas kept his nose clean and turned consistent times holding a nice lead. David did the same and held his position in P2. Late on in the race, David starting running very fast lap times giving Michael a good run for his money. It was going to be a great team battle, but a caution late in the race would have race one of the weekend finishing under caution. When the check flag flew, TPC Racing would take its first ever 1-2 finish in the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge. It was a fantastic race, and the team did an amazing job preparing the cars to be race winning machines.

“It was a great run, I had a great time, I mean TPC really pulled it off in the final hours,” said the class-winning Levitas. “Even from the practice day we had a great car but for some reason we couldn’t find it and the guys worked hard and pulled it off in the final hours last night. We weren’t too sure what we had going into the qualifying but once we got to qualifying I knew I had a great car, it was a great feeling going into the race.”

This was a great run by David Williams finishing P2 in his 37 TPC Racing / Merkle Porsche GT3 Cup. David took delivery of his GT3 Cup in December after taking a few years off from racing and right away after a few test days was running in the front of the field racing for the race win.

“It was all about redemption this weekend,” Williams said. “We did well in qualifying as well as the race, so overall this was a great weekend in my first race. If it wasn’t for the hard work and determination of our team and sponsors, we wouldn’t have been able to pull this off.”

TPC Racing is hoping for another 1-2 sweep for race two Friday afternoon. The team has worked hard, and Michael Levitas will be starting from pole position again in his 36 TPC Racing / Merkle Porsche. David Williams will be starting P4, but David has a great car under him and is ready for a great race.

Jessup, MD (March 7, 2013) – The TPC Racing team has the hauler loaded and ready to depart for Sebring. After a successful test in February, both Michael Levitas, team owner and driver of the 36 TPC Racing / Merkle Inc. Porsche GT3 Cup in the Gold Class and David Williams, driver of the 37 TPC Racing / Merkle Inc. Porsche GT3 Cup are excited to return to Sebring. The TPC Racing team spent over ten days at Sebring last time testing, and it was a huge success.

During testing, the TPC Racing crew spent the test days changing the car setup and making big changes to the chassis. This seemed to work as the cars were faster and faster each session. Driver David Williams improved his personal best lap times by over five seconds and is now ready to take on the competitive field in the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama Gold Class.

Michael Levitas also made improvements during the test days. The TPC Racing team made several chassis adjustments to the 36 car. Levitas finally found the car and improved his lap times as well. Team coach, professional driver, Randy Pobst was also present at the test to help find the chassis on both cars and both Michael and David feel confident that they have strong cars to run up front.

“Testing went very well in February,” said Michael Levitas. Our TPC Racing / Merkle Inc. Porsche GT3 Cup cars are fantastic and should be very competitive at Sebring. I have always enjoyed racing at Sebring and could not be happier to be returning to my third season of competition in the Porsche IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama in my 2008 car. I am also very excited to have my teammate, David Williams out on track with us. He has improved tremendously and has adjusted very well to his 2009 GT3 Cup. Our sponsors play a key role in this as well and a huge thank you goes out to Merkle Inc., IBIZ World Class, JRZ USA and TPC Racing for all of the support.”

Other big news for the TPC Racing team is the addition of a third car to the stable. TPC Racing just acquired a new 2013 GT3 Cup to run in the Platinum Class starting at Laguna Seca as well as other ALMS GTC races. Once we take delivery of the car, there will be more news to come.

About TPC Racing:

TPC Racing is the Mid-Atlantic’s premier maintenance, service, tuning and modification center dedicated solely to Porsche sports cars. This long time focus on only one make, Porsche, has enabled us to become experts in Porsche service, tuning and racing.

TPC Racing has its roots in the IMSA Supercar Series of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, where team owner and driver Michael Levitas managed the turbocharger programs that gave the fire-breathing Nissan 300ZX, Mazda RX7 Twin Turbo, Lotus Turbo Esprit and Consulier GTPs their prodigious power.

By combining a lifetime of automotive enthusiasm, business experience and technical skill with advanced aeronautical training and certifications, Levitas has managed to extend the engineering of some of the most advanced and well-regarded machines in existence – Porsche race cars.

About Merkle:

Merkle is the nation’s largest and fastest-growing customer relationship marketing (CRM) agency. For more than 20 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. Employing data-driven strategies, Merkle combines a complete range of marketing, technical, analytical and creative disciplines to offer complete integrated customer marketing solutions. With a strategically led, consultative approach, we work closely with clients to design, execute and continuously evaluate CRM programs throughout the buying cycle, across channels and media.