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Penske and Porsche united: Two motorsports superpowers, one Le Mans goal
Posted by Talbot Payne on September 18, 2022
aytona Beach, Fla. — Roger Penske’s race cars have been in the winner’s circle of the world’s most storied tracks — including the Indianapolis 500 18 times, NASCAR’s Daytona 500 three times, the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, even Australia’s legendary Bathurst 1000.
But there is one title that has eluded Metro Detroit’s most famous car guy: the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, the world’s premiere sports car endurance race. So Penske has teamed with Le Mans’ winningest sports car brand, Porsche, to realize his ambition at the age of 85.
“It’s like having a new baby. I don’t want to miss it taking its first steps,” said Penske, who came here Sept. 2 to watch the sleek, red-and-white Porsche cyborg take its first test laps around Daytona Motor Speedway’s high bankings.
On the road to Le Mans next June, the 24 Hours of Daytona will be the first test of the Porsche 963. For “The Captain” — as his loyal troops at Team Penske call him — capping his illustrious career with a Le Mans win would be just desserts given that his racing days began behind the wheel of a Porsche RSK in 1958.
Penske long ago stepped out of the driver’s seat to run not only one of the world’s most successful racing programs. He sits atop a business empire that includes Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the IndyCar series, Penske Truck Leasing, and auto dealerships that employs 64,000 people across nine countries and four continents.
And yet, his passion for winning races — and for Porsches — is still at the heart of it all.
Under the banner Porsche Penske Motorsport, the formidable pair are teaming up again for an assault on the record books (Porsche is going for its 17th overall Le Mans win) at a time when the automotive world is in turmoil as government climate policy increasingly forces the industry to go all-electric.
Racing is not unaffected by the electrification push: the so-called LMDh (Le Mans Daytona hybrid) class that the Porsche 963 prototype has entered bows to the trend with a hybrid, 680-horsepower, twin-turbo V-8 that includes electric-motor assist.
But it’s the 4.6-liter V-8 that will do the heavy lifting in brutal 24-hour endurance races where cars crest 200 mph, and thrill crowds with their thunderous internal combustion-engine sounds.
“We didn’t buy the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to run around there with electric cars,” smiled Penske who packed nearly 300,000 fans into IMS last June to see 33 V-6-powered IndyCars take the green flag at full squawk. By contrast, the electric Formula E race series has struggled to gain fans. Penske says that electric racing is a long way off even as production luxury vehicles like the electric, $100K-plus Porsche Taycan EV in his showrooms have flown off the shelves.
Of more immediate interest is adding to his trophy case, a passion that creates a standard for the rest of his companies.
“This is the first (racing program) that is destined for the 24 Hours of Le Mans,” said Porsche 963 team director Jonathan Diuguid, 39, who has been with Penske since he graduated from the University of North Carolina as an engineer in 2005. “As you can see here, Mr. Penske is at the test, which doesn’t happen very frequently. It’s definitely something he is focused on, and it carries extra weight for that reason.”
Porsche first teamed with Penske in 1972 on the ferocious 917 Can-Am car that dominated North America’s fastest sports car series. With drivers George Follmer and Mark Donahue, Penske dominated the 1972-73 seasons before a similar era of government intervention forced performance changes on auto racing.
The two titans teamed up again in 2006-08 with the Porsche RS Spyder, a nimble, efficient racer that was a giant killer — challenging more powerful competition with better reliability and tactics. The bond the two teams share is rooted in decades of success — but also in the larger-than-life personalities behind the racing brands: the Porsche family and The Captain.
Respect for Penske in the Daytona pit was palpable.
He walked among his charges, talking to each individually. He is low-key but extremely well-briefed, says Urs Kuratle, Porsche Motorsports chief. Kuratle worked with Penske at Le Mans this year when the team entered a special, non-Porsche prototype entry to learn the Le Mans ropes.
“He was up for 36 hours at Le Mans, on the radio, asking questions,” said the Porsche team boss. “He knows the open points list as well as our engineers. To me, the man is from another planet.”
Patrick Long was the only North American driver on that team, a stint that launched him on a career as one of the world’s best race drivers.
“Growing up racing in the United States, I watched Roger Penske. He was the guy,” said Long, 41, who retired from racing last year and was on hand for the 963 test. “He called my races in 2008 (meaning each driver has a tactician in his ear during a race). Team Penske provided all the resources you could hope for, and in return was the expectation that you would win.”
Californian Dane Cameron is one of the hot shoes who tested the 963 in Daytona. Like Long, he is family — having won an IMSA title previously for Penske in 2019 when the team ran Acura’s program.
“It’s quite an honor to drive for Roger,” Cameron said. “And it’s quite an honor to join Porsche with their motorsport heritage. For me, that marriage is perfect and really something I wanted to be involved in.”
The car he will co-drive is at the summit of current automotive technology.
Taking its engine from Porsche’s legendary 918 hybrid supercar, the 680-horsepower 963 then adds an electric motor between the mid-mounted engine and seven-speed gearbox. A sophisticated aerodynamic chassis incorporating a Formula One-like front keel wing sucks the car to the ground enabling neck-straining cornering speeds.
As part of an 800-volt electric platform (similar to the Taycan electric road car), the electric current brings new challenges to drivers and tracks. If an incident occurs, the driver is trained to exit the cockpit by standing on the sill — then jumping as far from the car as possible to guard against electric shock.
Prior to the test, corner workers and fire safety teams are brought by the garage and debriefed on how to handle the car if it is involved in a crash. Key is a light in the front windshield that indicates if the electrical system is OK (green) or compromised (red, or no light at all). If the latter, then responders are not to touch the car until a special team from Porsche arrives.
While hybrids advertise efficiency in their road cars, they promise parity in auto racing, making for close competition that manufacturers covet.
“The LMDH regulations allow for all kinds of engine architectures: Cadillac normally-aspirated V-8, Porsche-and-BMW turbo V-8s, Acura twin-turbo V-6,” Diuguid said. “All engines have a different power curve shape (but) the hybrid system fills in holes and dips in the power curve so everyone is making the same power.”
This promise of parity, cutting-edge tech — and the tantalizing prospect of winning Daytona and Le Mans in the same calendar year — has attracted a who’s who of performance brands to the prototype class.
Porsche Penske Motorsport will compete in the years ahead against teams from Cadillac, Acura (both of which were at the Daytona test), BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Toyota.
With the track record of Penske and Porsche combined, there is no doubt who is the favorite.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.