WEC
Porsche customer Proton eyeing second car in WEC and IMSA
Proton Competition is planning on entering a second Porsche 963 LMDh in both WEC and IMSA next year
Gary Watkins
Published: Jul 17, 2024, 1:05 PM
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#99 Proton Competition Porsche 963: Neel Jani, Harry Tincknell, Julien Andlauer
Photo by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Photo
Proton Competition is eyeing an expansion of its World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship assaults with the Porsche 963 LMDh as the German manufacturer makes more customer cars available.
Christian Ried, boss of the German team currently fielding one 963 in each series, has revealed that he is working on plans to increase its presence in the respective Hypercar and GTP classes of the two championships.
“It is always better running two cars than one,” he said. “It makes sense, but we need the customers and sponsors first.”
Asked if he was specifically looking at WEC or IMSA for a two-car programme, Ried replied: “Both.”
Ried, whose WEC and IMSA campaigns with the 963 came on stream in mid-2023, added that a decision could be made “in the next few weeks, more or less”.
Proton’s plans coincide with Porsche revealing that it is again in a position to build and support more 963s after putting a temporary hold on production of customer cars late last year.
Urs Kuratle, boss of the 963 programme at Porsche Motorsport, revealed that discussions were ongoing with teams looking to run the car in both WEC and IMSA.
“Chassis are available, parts are available, and then it is a question of demand,” he said. “We are in discussion with other customers: if the situation demands that we should sell some more, we will sell more.”
#5 Proton Competition Porsche 963: Gianmaria Bruni, Bent Viscaal
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
He confirmed that the departure of the Jota team from the Porsche customer ranks to take over Cadillac's WEC programme, a move that has yet to be officially announced, would free up capacity to support new privateer 963s.
Kuratle stressed the importance of the customer programme in the progress made with the 963 this season. “We have done big steps in reliability, and that is also thanks to all the kilometres we can do with the customers,” he explained.
Asked if replacing Jota in the customer roster for 2025 would represent an ideal scenario for Porsche, he suggested that there were “a couple of ideal scenarios”.
What is not clear is if there will be room for an additional Porsche run by Proton or another team in WEC.
The expansion of the grid to 40 cars for 2025 means space for 22 entries in the Hypercar class, up from this year’s 19.
Two of the slots will be taken by Aston Martin’s arrival in the top category with the Valkyrie AMR-LMH, while Cadillac and Lamborghini will also have to double their assaults as a result of the new rule demanding that factory teams must run a pair of cars.
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Should Isotta Fraschini remain in the series — and therefore by regulation field two Tipo 6 LMH Competiziones — there would be no space for a further privateer Porsche.
IMSA would welcome additional cars in the GTP division, even though the overall series grid is at capacity this year.
Series boss John Doonan said last month extra GTP cars would be “welcomed with open arms”, while outlining a hope that other manufacturers would join Porsche in supplying privateer teams.
Porsche customers Proton and JDC-Miller Motorsports are the only independents in GTP at present.
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