The Porsche development driver who won Daytona in a Corvette

In Porsche circles, Lars Kern is something of a legend. The German is a development driver for the company, and is best known for setting many of Porsche’s road-car Nürburgring lap times. He also moonlights in sports cars, and on Sunday, he won his biggest race yet, the Rolex 24 at Daytona. In a Corvette.

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

“I had a feeling, right from when we started at the Roar [Before the 24 test] we felt like ‘Okay, there’s pace in the car, the drivability is great, everything it felt it could fall our way,” Kern, beaming, tells Motorsport.com. “But in the evenings, we were always sitting in our apartment thinking ‘When does this end?’” Thankfully for AWA, it didn’t. 

A few years ago, Kern had a shot at winning the Nürburgring 24 that slipped away. So, the gravity of the moment is not lost on him. 

“I was crying because this is something I always dreamed of and thought was never going to happen,” he says. “I had a win at the Nürburgring 24 in my hands once a couple of years ago, which didn’t happen, so I thought ‘Maybe I’m just the unlucky guy, I’m driving around in circles and nothing falls my way.’ I kind of accepted it. Today, everything fell our way. We had a lot of hiccups and gremlins, but we executed well, ticked the boxes, and at the end the car had the speed, and Matt was doing an amazing job.”

#13 AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R: Orey Fidani, Matthew Bell, Lars Kern, Marvin Kirchhöfer

Photo by: James Gilbert – Motorsport Images

While the #13 Corvette was often out front from the 14th hour onward, Bell had to fight off a strong attack from the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin in the last hour. (The Aston ended up ceding 2nd to the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.) Kern credits IMSA for its successful new implementation of torque sensors on GT cars for the close battling between different manufacturers. But that didn’t make watching the final hour easy. 

“I was just in the pit box, sitting in the corner, on a chair, my jacket over my head just waiting for the noise of everyone cheering because I could not look at it,” Kern says. “I heard the noise, everybody cheering, and I thought ‘Yeah, I think we made it.’”

Kern tells Motorsport.com it’s extra special to win with this team, who have all grown close together since their start together. He’ll join them at the rest of the endurance rounds of the IMSA WeatherTech series — the Sebring 12 Hours, Watkins Glen Six Hours, and Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta — and this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Even fresh off a huge victory, Kern is refreshingly honest about the self doubt he often feels despite his talent.  “I’m always questioning myself, every day, day in day out. Every time I go to the race track I think ‘What the f*** am I doing here?’ And I have to prove myself, and I think I did in this race.”

He doesn’t think this win will change that. The self-doubt starts again tomorrow, he says, maybe only half jokingly. 

“It’s the same with record laps at the Nürburgring, I always have a bad sleep the night before,” Kern says. “I always think, ‘Why would I be the one who can do that?’ I’m not asking myself that question the other way around.”

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