{"id":32881,"date":"2024-06-24T09:19:15","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T13:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=32881"},"modified":"2024-06-24T09:20:22","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T13:20:22","slug":"penske-at-le-mans-the-captains-quest-with-porsche-for-the-ultimate-sportscar-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/penske-at-le-mans-the-captains-quest-with-porsche-for-the-ultimate-sportscar-glory","title":{"rendered":"Penske at Le Mans: The Captain’s quest with Porsche for the ultimate sportscar glory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Le Mans, France<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 The 87-year-old Detroit industrialist Roger Penske has made motorsports success the centerpiece of his sprawling, global business empire with 20 Indy 500s, 17 IndyCar championships, 16 Australian Supercar titles, four NASCAR titles, three Daytona 500 races and two Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.<\/p>\n

But one item on his bucket list has eluded him: a win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the globe\u2019s most prestigious sportscar race. Penske drove in the\u00a024 Hours of Le Mans<\/a>\u00a0just once, for Italian sportscar maker Ferrari in 1963, and fielded entries in 1971, again with Ferrari, and last year with the winningest Le Mans brand of all time, German sportscar maker Porsche, which has won the 24 Hours 19 times.<\/p>\n

Hungry for victory in 2024, he has reunited with Porsche in a historic bid to win the Big One. The Porsche Penske all-star team had previously scored championships in 1972 and 2006-08 in two North American sportscar series. The team this June has entered three Porsche 963 Hypercars, driven by the world\u2019s top sportscar drivers, for an all-out assault on the grueling, twice-around the clock contest Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the #6 Porsche Penske driven by Kevin Estre delivered Penske his first Le Mans pole position, nipping Cadillac by 0.1 seconds in the final moments of Hyperpole qualifying.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the course of my career, our teams have been fortunate to produce many significant victories, including wins at some of the biggest race events in the world,\u201d said the soft-spoken Captain, as his troops affectionally call him, in an interview ahead of the French epic. \u201cThe 24 Hours of Le Mans has such great tradition and prestige. It\u2019s an event where our teams have never experienced victory, so it would be a special accomplishment, both for our team as well as for our partners at Porsche.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Roger<\/figure>\n
Roger Penske speaks at a Porsche Penske Motorsport press conference at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in Le Mans, France, on June 14, 2024. Started in 1923, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is the longest running endurance motorsports race in the world. Chris DuMond, Special To The Detroit News<\/em><\/figure>\n

The respect is mutual.\u201cWhen it came to choosing a partner for our new program with the Porsche 963, Team Penske was the logical choice,\u201d said Vice President of Porsche Motorsport Thomas Laudenbach in an interview, \u201cespecially because we were looking for a global WEC and IMSA partner.\u201dA rare alignment of the two premier international motorsports sanctioning bodies, Europe\u2019s World Entrance Championship and North America\u2019s International Motor Sports Association, opened an opportunity for the racing community to compete across the globe under common rules. Porsche Penske jumped at the chance, uniting the motorsports legends for the first time since 2008 when they successfully teamed in an RS Spyder in North America\u2019s smaller LMP2 class.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe common past in U.S. motorsports was highly successful. I personally was even a part of it,\u201d Laudenbach said. \u201cIn the successful years with the RS Spyder, I was responsible for the engines. Back then, I was able to see very clearly the demands, ambitions and high standards of Team Penske. Without any doubt, Roger Penske’s team is the right partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hypercar category, the world\u2019s fastest sportscar class with speeds in excess of 200 mph at Le Mans, raises the bar. From the front of the grid, the pole-sitting Porsche Penske 963 will have to hold off an Olympian field of 25 winged, hybrid-powered, prototype Hypercars to take the top step of the podium.<\/p>\n

“In 24-hour races, I’ve learned that, if you’re not there at the end of it, it doesn’t matter where you start,” deadpanned Penske at a press conference Friday. “Our goal is to be (at the winner’s press conference) Sunday night.”<\/p>\n

\"Roger<\/figure>\n
Roger Penske with a Porsche Hypercar after a Porsche Penske Motorsport press conference Friday at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He’s hoping to be in the winner’s circle come Sunday. Chris DuMond, Special To The Detroit News<\/em><\/figure>\n

Rivals include Alpine A424, BMW M, Cadillac V-Series.R, Lamborghini SC63, Peugeot 9X8, Toyota GR010 and last year\u2019s winner, Ferrari 499P. In Thursday’s qualifying session, a mere 1 second separated the top 6 Hypercars across an 8.5-mile lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith such a rich history, Le Mans is the world’s most historic endurance race,\u201d Penske said. \u201cAnd the competition is part of what makes this event so special with increased Hypercar entries year over year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hypercars will compete in a ferocious mixed-class race that includes less powerful, so-called LMP2 prototypes, and production-based GT3 beasts, including household names like Aston Martin Vantage, Chevy Corvette Z06, Ferrari 269, Ford Mustang, Lamborghini Huracan and McLaren 720.<\/p>\n

“If there is one race you want to win, this is the one,” said sportscar ace Estre, who put Penske in pole position at Le Mans for the first time.<\/p>\n

In addition to fighting each other, Hypercar drivers must negotiate traffic through the other classes having their own podium battles. It makes for exciting \u2014 and harrowing \u2014 racing as Hypercars duck and cut between cars. The huge, 62-car, three-class entry comes despite the most draconian government auto regulations since the 1970s \u2014 regulations that, combined with the OPEC oil crisis, threatened racing\u2019s existence at the time. But 50 years later, manufacturers have adroitly negotiated political trends \u2014 fielding hybrid powertrains powered by synthetic fuels \u2014 to perpetuate the sport.<\/p>\n

After a teething year in 2023 that included a disappointing ninth-place Le Mans debut marked by on-track incidents and mechanical hiccups, Porsche Penske has been on a roll this year. The team opened the season by winning IMSA\u2019s Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona (The Captain\u2019s first Rolex since 1969), defeating Cadillac in a fierce, down-to-the-wire battle. On the WEC front, Porsche Penske is leading the WEC manufacturer\u2019s championship after a win in Qatar, and will take the green flag on pole for Saturday’s 4 p.m. (Le Mans time) race start.<\/p>\n

Belgian driver Laurens Vanthoor, co-driving the #6 963 this weekend with four-time Le Mans winner Andre Lotterer and Estre, told Sportscar365.com that the team is \u201cnight and day\u201d different from a year ago. Porsche Penske managing director John Diuguid agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a different atmosphere,\u201d he told the racing publication. \u201cYou can probably see it on the faces of everybody around here. We have all the spares prepared, and a lot of our engineering tools and processes are in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a familiar march for Penske, who has built winning relationships over the last seven decades with manufacturers as varied as Chevrolet, Ford and Acura. \u201cWe are proud to work with Porsche as we have built this program the right way from the ground up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Yet, for all its success with Team Penske, Porsche has not put its eggs in one basket. To encourage inter-team competition, race shops Hertz Team Jota and Proton Competition have also prepared 963 Hypercars for Le Mans.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, they could beat us,\u201d Vanthoor said.<\/p>\n

For The Captain, the Le Mans opportunity is the culmination of a sportscar career working with Porsche dating back six decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo experience victory at this event with Porsche would be something truly special,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And what would a Le Mans win would mean to his Bloomfield Hills-based organization? \u201cWith our history of winning at some of the most prestigious races in the world, Le Mans would be quite an accomplishment to add to our racing heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne<\/em>.<\/p>\n

How to watch<\/h2>\n

The 24 Hours of Le Mans begins at 4 p.m. Saturday Le Mans time (10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time).<\/p>\n

In the United States, the race will be broadcast by the Max streaming service and the Discovery+ pay TV channel.<\/p>\n

In Canada, the race will be shown on the CTV digital platform.<\/p>\n

Source: FIA World Endurance Championship<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Le Mans, France\u00a0\u2014 The 87-year-old Detroit industrialist Roger Penske has made motorsports success the centerpiece of his sprawling, global business empire with 20 Indy 500s, 17 IndyCar championships, 16 Australian Supercar titles, four NASCAR titles, three Daytona 500 races and two Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. But one item on his bucket list has eluded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32881"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32881"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32885,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32881\/revisions\/32885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}