With two races left, one team is in the driver’s seat for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship titles, and that driver’s seat was built in Weissach and carries a gold crest.
Porsche Penske Motorsport is on the brink of both the driver and team championships. In order for Porsche to not end the season with the manufacturer’s title, the PPM drivers would have to violate Racing Rule No. 1 (Don’t. Hit. Your. Teammate!) in the two remaining races, tomorrow’s six-hour tirerack.com Battle on the Bricks and Motul Petit Le Mans. The No. 7 and No. 6 Porsche 963s are one-two in the championship and while nothing is guaranteed, the chances of another team overtaking both are pretty slim.
That’s especially true if the team can display the first-and-second-place dominance it showed last year at Indy. While that’s unlikely in the second year at the Speedway, a win by either car would effectively put the championship out of reach.
There’s a possible 165-point swing in each race; for that gap to occur, one car has to take pole and win, the other has to finish last in both qualifying and race. For that to happen once … possible. For it to happen two races in a row would be ridiculousness on the highest level.
The No. 7 with Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron has 2386 points. The No. 6 of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy is 100 points back. PPM’s closest challengers are the two Cadillac Racing teams, the No. 01 V-Series.R of Chip Ganassi Racing, Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande (185 points behind the No. 7); and the Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken-driven No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing entry (242 points back).
Those are pretty big gaps to overcome. Even the 100-point gap between PPM teams is tough, especially given the No. 6’s record in endurance races. If you’re Nasr and Cameron, or PPM as a team, it’s a pretty nice position to be in.
“I would say you’re never comfortable … it has to be every time in a race car, you’re trying to maximize the package, regardless if you’re leading the championship or second,” says Nasr. “I think it’s more how you manage the risk in a race and making the right decisions.
“And I don’t see the reason we should we should change any of the approach we’ve been having all season long. Car 7 has had a strong run all year long, with plenty of podiums, two victories in our pocket, so it’s been working pretty well. And I don’t see the reason to change any of that approach.”
Being in a strong position as the championship heads to a close is one thing. Having a teammate between you – both in the points and on track – is even better.
“For sure, it’s better to have a sister car second in the championship. And you know, as a driver and for the whole Porsche Penske motorsport team, all I can say is we are all working towards the same goal, which is to prioritize the team and manufacturer win,” Nasr adds.
The drivers in the No. 6 have the same priorities – make sure PPM wins the drivers and teams titles, and Porsche take home the manufacturer trophy. But Jaminet and Tandy would like to be the driver champions … and if the No. 7, or better yet both cars – goes into the finale under no threat from the Cadillac squads, the gloves are off.
“We need to see where we’re going to be, but if it’s the same gap, and the P3 car especially is further away, let’s say then everybody’s doing their race,” declares Jaminet. “They don’t need our help … I think we’ve been helping them quite a bit this year already, so we’ve done our part of the job. And I think from now on, we go racing and try to do best we can on car 6, and especially if we arrive [at Road Atlanta] with a bigger gap to P3, then the championship is done anyway, so it’s going be one of the two cars. So it’s good for us.”
At this point, it’s probably unnecessary for PPM to play favorites; but they will if they think it needs to be done. In the most recent GTP round at Road America, the No. 7 was chasing the No. 6 for the victory. But the No. 7 was under intense pressure from Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06; trying to orchestrate a different PPM finishing order could have ended up in a loss for both.
“I think our goal is to maximize points coming out of Indy, and ideally we have a championship locked up before we go into the last race,” explains PPM Managing Director Jonathan Diuguid. “But we don’t control everything. I think as we looked at the points championship, we talked about team orders and everything in Road America.
“And to be honest, the battle was so tight right there … I think if we swapped the cars, we probably had a chance of losing the win, which we weren’t prepared to do. So I think the main focus is the manufacturers championship. In that regard, it doesn’t matter if the 6, or the 7, or even the Proton or [JDC-Miller MotorSports] cars win in IMSA, that’s the goal, to get the manufacturer championship.
“I think specifically at Road America with the pressure the 10 car was applying, there was just no opportunity to do it. I think if it was a different scenario, we likely would have; but in that regard, our focus was to make sure a Porsche won the race.”
And a Porsche did. While another 30 points for the No. 7 would have made the gap harder to close, the fact that PPM and Porsche have two cars in excellent position for the title that can be lost only in the most unlikely of circumstances is a dream, especially considering the position the team and manufacturer were in 18 months ago.
“We’re proud,” declares Urs Kuratle, Porsche’s director Factory Racing LMDh. “Obviously, we know how much work it was and what we did, in hindsight, but also we are really proud about those positions. One-and-a-half years ago, it looked different, and it’s nice to see how things are coming together now and the work – and it was a lot of work – everybody put into the these things, how that comes into place and now it starts to work.
“We are nowhere near finished with the whole thing, we still have to make further steps, optimize it more and the car, but I think we can be proud, not only me, but everybody in the team.”