Shift Up Now Athletes Loni Unser and Erika Hoffmann made a statement to start the 2025 Porsche Sprint Challenge North America season. Unser stood on the podium after both races with back-to-back, second-place finishes, while Hoffmann earned two fourth-place finishes in class, during her series debut weekend at Sebring International Raceway on February 28-March 2, 2025.
Testing and the first official practice for the 22-car, Cayman GT4 Cup field took place on Thursday. Due to the Porsche Endurance Challenge taking place on Sunday, the weekend schedule was condensed, so that the second practice, qualifying and the first race all took place on Friday.
For the 2025 season, Unser is driving the No. 4 “Be Your Own Hero” car for Kellymoss Racing. The “Be Your Own Hero” campaign is aimed at helping young, talented drivers - especially women and minorities from all backgrounds - succeed in racing.
Unser immediately made her presence known on the timesheets, running in second place in the first practice at 2:11.2, and just 0.16 seconds off the session leader. She used the cooler temps on Friday morning to work on race setup, in preparation for the second race on Saturday morning, which would run in similar track conditions, and ran a 2:10.3.
Hoffmann, piloting the No. 21 car for Kellymoss Racing, ran inside the top ten for practice one with a 2:12.4, which she bested in the second practice with a 2:10.9, putting her in fifth. She noted getting more comfortable with each session as she got acclimated to the car, making significant improvements and preparing for her debut race.
Later that day, qualifying would prove to be the closest session of the weekend so far on the 3.741-mile, 17-turn road course. Unser just missed the pole position by 0.02 seconds, putting her on the outside of the front row for race one. Hoffmann backed up her strong practice runs to qualify sixth, rolling off from the outside of row three.
On Friday at 3:05pm EST, the green flag flew in the continued sunny, warm temps for the first 35-minute-plus-one-lap competition. Unser had a strong start, holding a side-by-side run through the notoriously fast and bumpy first turn, but dropped into second place as the field approached the brake zone in turn three. She was slightly offline into the carousel as she attempted to make the pass for the lead, but sacrificed her exit a bit. She continued to keep a close eye on her mirrors, ensuring the Cayman GT4 in third place didn’t get a run on her. By the exit of turn seven, the three lead cars all settled into running one car length apart as the field headed to Cunningham.
Hoffmann also had an adventurous first lap, dropping a couple wheels on the exit of turn three. She was able to continue on and take the strip for the first time in seventh place, just before a full-course yellow flew.
At the restart, the field ran single-file and clean. Unser slotted into second place, within a second of the leader, and the two would begin to build a gap of more than four seconds. Unser kept the pressure on until the finish, taking the checkered flag less than two seconds behind the winner.
In her Porsche Sprint Challenge North America debut, Hoffmann crossed the finish line in fourth place in class, and seventh overall. However, a post-race penalty for one of her competitors advanced her to sixth overall.
Race two began on Saturday at 9:30am EST, with Unser lined up once again on the outside of the front row. This time, Hoffmann was starting from fifth place on the inside of row three. Both drivers had a clean start.
Unser tucked in behind the leader earlier that the day before, instead of trying to force the issue around the outside. The two immediately began to pull away from the pack, running 2.5 seconds ahead of the field by the end of the first lap. Meanwhile, Hoffmann began to engage in what would be in a tough battle for positions four through eight.
By lap seven, Unser and the leader had created a ten-second gap to the rest of the pack. At this point, she began applying pressure on the car ahead, and didn’t let up for the next 20 minutes. She forced the leader offline multiple times per lap as she looked for an opportunity to pass. Despite multiple solid attempts, she crossed the finish line in second place, this time just 0.6 seconds behind, and earned the fastest lap of the race.
“I am incredibly grateful to be back racing with Kellymoss, and expanding on what I learned in 2024, into 2025,” said Unser. “To start the race season with two second-place finishes and a fast lap was very promising.
“The weekend was made even sweeter when we got to see the impact of the ‘Be Your Own Hero’ livery. A young go-kart rockstar named Mila came and visited us, sat in the car, and even signed it! I hope young Mila carries that experience with her throughout her career as motivation to accomplish whatever she sets her mind to. Ultimately, I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season holds.”
Hoffmann continued to impress in her debut weekend, starting strong and finishing in fifth place overall, just one place off the podium in class.
Next up, the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America series heads to California for round two of the 2025 championship, at Sonoma Raceway on April 4-6, 2024.
