Porsche Penske Motorsport eyeing three hypercar Le Mans 2024 attack
It has been revealed that the German manufacturer has put in for an extra entry for this year’s French enduro on 15-16 June to reprise its expanded assault in 2023 when the IMSA SportsCar Championship arm of its PPM operation joined the two-car WEC squad with a single Porsche 963 LMDh.
“We’re pushing. We ran three cars in 2023 and the results weren’t where we wanted them to be, but we saw the benefits of having three cars together on track, so that’s our goal,” PPM boss Jonathan Diuguid told Motorsport.com.
“We’ve applied for three cars and we’ll see how it all shakes out.
“We’d be ecstatic if we were granted another entry, but it’s not in our hands,” he said.
Manufacturers represented in the Hypercar class of the WEC are permitted to field addition cars at Le Mans on a non-points basis.
Porsche successfully took up this option last year with a car driven by three of its IMSA regulars, Nick Tandy, Felipe Nasr and Mathieu Jaminet.
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
#75 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr, Mathieu Jaminet, Nick Tandy
But Duiguid conceded that a squeeze on entries in Hypercar with an increase in the field for the full WEC to 19 cars means that it is not a given that its request will be successful.
He suggested that “getting the entry will probably be more difficult than pulling off the logistics”.
The revised 2024 IMSA schedule will not create significant difficulties, he said.
The revived Detroit fixture, now on a downtown street circuit, takes place one week before the Le Mans Test Day, while the Watkins Glen 6 Hours is only two weeks after the race. The latter has been brought forward a week to avoid a clash with the Spa 24 Hours round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.
“I don’t think it will be as difficult as it was last year. We were flying cars, parts and people around the world to make it happen,” he said.
“Now our workshops in Europe are more stable. We have three cars and all the support equipment in Europe, and the supply of parts and pieces is getting better each day.”
The entry process for Le Mans opened early last month and closes on 15 January for competitors entered in the WEC.
The full 62-car entry list is typically announced at the end of February.
