Porsche Penske Motorsport Enters Three Cars For 24 Hours Of Le Mans

Three beautifully prepared Porsche 963 hybrid prototypes will attempt to give team owner Roger Penske his first victory in the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans Sports Car endurance race June 10-11.

One of those cars will carry the number 75 to commemorate “75 Years of Porsche Sports Cars” in the 100^th anniversary of the famed international motorsports event.

Together with the two Hypercar vehicles from the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), Porsche Penske Motorsport will also compete with a hybrid prototype from the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

For the major event on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the endurance classic, the factory team enlists personnel from both series.

The customer squad Hertz Team JOTA has entered a fourth Porsche 963 to tackle the 24-hour race that begins on June 10 and concludes on June 11 in Le Mans, France.

Porsche Goes For 20 In Its 75th Le Mans

The multi-car effort is an attempt for Porsche to score its 20^th overall victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans after Le Mans organizer ACO gave the approval for an additional hybrid prototype.

“Le Mans is the highlight of every endurance season – even more so this year in light of the 100^th anniversary of the 24-hour race,” said Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President Porsche Motorsport. “For us, it’s all about maximising our chances of scoring our 20^th overall victory at Le Mans on the 75^th anniversary of the Porsche brand. That’s why we’re fielding a third car.

“The history of the race has shown that the additional cars deployed are often the factor that ultimately tips the scales. We don’t have to look far back in Porsche Motorsport’s history to see evidence of this: in 2015, the third Porsche 919 Hybrid handed us victory at Le Mans.”

Impressive Driver Lineup

The No. 5 Porsche 963 will feature Dane Cameron of the United States, Michael Christensen from Denmark and Frederic Makowiecki from France. The No. 6 car includes Kevin Estre of France, Laurens Vanthoor of Belgium and three-time Le Mans winner Andre Lotterer from Germany.

Felipe Nasr of Brazil will be part of the lineup for the No. 75 team. The remainder of the driver lineup will come from his IMSA teammates at a later date.

The No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA customer team includes works driver Antonio Felix da Costa from Portugal, Will Stevens from the United Kingdom and Yifei Ye from China, who is receiving support from Porsche Motorsport Asia-Pacific.

“While the choice to commit to Le Mans with three cars increases our chances, it also presents us with enormous challenges,” explains Urs Kuratle, Director Factory Motorsport LMDh. “We have to put together an additional crew and ship one of the IMSA cars to France and back again. On top of that, due to ongoing supply bottlenecks for certain assemblies, the parts supply might not be perfect.

“We want to do the best we can and shine in the 75^th year of the Porsche brand and at the 100^th anniversary of 24 Hours of Le Mans.”

One More Challenge For Roger Penske

When the famed Roger Penske created the team with Porsche, the No. 1 goal was to achieve victory in the only major race that Team Penske has never won.

“Since day one of Porsche Penske Motorsport, the 24 Hours of Le Mans has been our focus. The privilege of fielding a third Porsche 963 throws both logistical and operational challenges at us,” said Jonathan Diuguid, Managing Director Porsche Penske Motorsport. “Even when we set up our program, we did so on the premise that we could expand it if need be. We are a global team with commitments in the World Endurance Championship and IMSA.

“We have highly trained and motivated personnel who support each other. Running a third car means that the participating team members from our IMSA crew will be in Germany and France for about four weeks. They’ll join forces with their colleagues from the WEC to prepare the cars and the relevant materials. Next up on the schedule is the test day and finally the race week.

“The IMSA calendar allows this without having to make any major concessions. We’ll have three cars on the grid that are prepared to exactly the same level.”

It was 100 years ago The 24 Hours of Le Mans was contested for the first time. The 91^st running takes place in 2023.

Porsche will be competing against Ferrari, Cadillac, Toyota and Peugeot in the next Hypercar class.