FIA GTE Am world champion Ben Keating is set to return to the FIA WEC for his home race at Circuit of The Americas on Sept. 1. The Texan, who has been competing full-time in IMSA’s LMP2 class this year with United Autosports, features on the event’s …
FIA GTE Am world champion Ben Keating is set to return to the FIA WEC for his home race at Circuit of The Americas on Sept. 1. The Texan, who has been competing full-time in IMSA’s LMP2 class this year with United Autosports, features on the event’s provisional entry list in LMGT3. He will take up the third seat in Proton Competition’s No. 88 Ford Mustang, which was previously filled by Giorgio Roda until São Paulo, where team owner Christian Ried stood in on short notice.
Keating has already featured in a WEC race this year, as part of United Autosports’ effort at the Le Mans 24 Hours in the LMP2 class. However, this will be his first regular WEC race outside of Le Mans since the 2023 season finale in Bahrain last November. There he drove with Corvette Racing in what was the final race for GTE cars globally.
The only other change on the provisional 37-car entry list comes in Hypercar. Harry Tincknell will rejoin Proton’s Porsche lineup alongside Neel Jani and Julien Andlauer after missing the trip to Brazil. That weekend he took part in the IMSA race at CTMP.
Lone Star Le Mans will be Tincknell’s fourth WEC race of the season with Proton. He also missed Round 3 at Spa.
The final driver lineup for Proton Competition’s Le Mans 24 Hours-bound No. 44 Ford Mustang GT3 has been revealed. The German team is set to contest the 92nd running of the French classic with factory driver Chris Mies, Le Mans debutant Ben Tuck and …
The final driver lineup for Proton Competition’s Le Mans 24 Hours-bound No. 44 Ford Mustang GT3 has been revealed.
The German team is set to contest the 92nd running of the French classic with factory driver Chris Mies, Le Mans debutant Ben Tuck and former Le Mans Series LMPC champion John Hartshorne. This confirmation follows the most recent Le Mans entry list reveal, which listed Proton team owner Christian Ried alongside Tuck and Mies.
However, Ried told RACER prior to the entry list being published that he did not intend to drive, following his retirement from professional racing at the end of the 2023 FIA WEC season. Instead, Ried was a Bronze-rated placeholder for the car while the team finalised the deal for Hartshorne to join the team.
Currently, the British duo of Hartshorne and Tuck compete in the European Le Mans Series together with JMW Motorsport in an LMGT3 class Ferrari 296 GT3. The Le Mans 24 Hours will be their first event in a Mustang GT3.
“I’m delighted to have the chance to race at Le Mans once again,” said Hartshorne, who has three previous Le Mans starts to his name. “This will be the last time I enter the event and I can’t wait to get going with a great team. It is a superb event and I’m lucky enough to have done it three times already. I’m thrilled to be racing with Proton Competition too.
“They are one of the top GT teams and I know I will learn a lot from them. I’m also pleased to be racing with Ben once again. He and I have formed quite the partnership over the last couple of years and I can’t wait to see how he enjoys his first Le Mans experience. Racing with Chris Mies is also a huge privilege. I think we have a good package and I am now counting down the days till June!”
Ahead of Le Mans 24 Hours debut, Tuck added; “What a year to make my debut at Le Mans, in an era of endurance racing that’s going from strength to strength. It’s such a competitive grid and I’m thrilled to be part of it. To race with a team with the pedigree of Proton is a great opportunity and I’m thankful to all those who have made it possible. I can’t wait to get out there.”
Porsche Hypercar customer team Proton Competition revealed the 2024 colors of its No. 99 963 ahead of the FIA WEC preseason Prologue test later this month. The car, which is set to be driven by Neel Jani, Harry Tincknell and Julien Andlauer this …
Porsche Hypercar customer team Proton Competition revealed the 2024 colors of its No. 99 963 ahead of the FIA WEC preseason Prologue test later this month.
The car, which is set to be driven by Neel Jani, Harry Tincknell and Julien Andlauer this year, will run in the colors of Porsche’s 1994 Le Mans race-winning Dauer 962, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the achievement.
The livery is complete with the iconic branding of FATurbo Express.
The delightful throwback of @ProtonRacing’s new Porsche 963 livery. 🔥
Proton Competition’s reach in the world of motorsports continues to expand. A longtime competitor in WEC GTE, and the team running WeatherTech Racing’s Mercedes AMG in GTD PRO in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Proton expanded to …
Proton Competition’s reach in the world of motorsports continues to expand. A longtime competitor in WEC GTE, and the team running WeatherTech Racing’s Mercedes AMG in GTD PRO in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Proton expanded to include the full schedule of European Le Mans Series in 2023, as well as adding Porsche 963s to both WEC HyperCar and the WeatherTech Championship GTP class mid-season.
“We’re doing it because we love motorsport,” explains Christian Ried, whose father Gerold started the team. “And when Porsche announced the LMDh program, two-and-a-half years ago, it was super interesting for us, especially knowing that the GT time will come to an end, unfortunately. So we said, ‘What is the option from the team side?’ Racing since 1996, and always doing more and more and growing.
“To be honest, only doing GT3 was not really an option coming from GTE. So we started the LMDh program. And yeah, also racing the GTD car [in IMSA]. And I was before in IMSA, and really enjoyed racing here and it’s such a great championship. So the best thing that can happen is running a car here in IMSA and WEC, for sure the top two championships in the world.”
The WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG, with full-season drivers Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella, has three victories this season, in the Rolex 24 at Daytona (with Maro Engel and Cooper MacNeil), at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and the most recent round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The other races, though, have been more miss than hit, and the team sits third in the GTD PRO standings. With only two races run in GTP with Gianmaria Bruni and Harry Tincknell (plus two more in WEC), Proton, like fellow Porsche privateer JDC-Miller Motorsports, is still learning the car. But Ried expects to be able to challenge Porsche Penske Motorsport, which has three victories between its two cars so far in 2023, next season. In the meantime, he’s happy to have the opportunity.
Proton’s full-time GTD entry has won three times this season. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
“It’s great to have these cars for customers available. And I hope, also other manufacturers will do this soon. For sure it’s a big commitment from Porsche, running customer cars in the first season – which we’ve learned quite hard this year; everything is late and we’re always short on parts, but they’re doing the best they can. So far I have to say if you look at JDC, JOTA and us, privateers can run the car. It’s it’s not easy, but nobody expected this to be easy. So it’s great, for our team to learn and it’s just the next step,” says Ried.
Germany-based Proton has been a longtime competitor in European-based series, beginning with the FIA GT Championship, and a presence in WEC since the beginning. Despite occasional forays into American Le Mans Series races in the U.S., though, the team hadn’t had a regular presence in North America until WeatherTech owner David MacNeil tabbed the team to run the Porsche 911 RSR in the final season of GTLM. But since then it has stuck with IMSA, and found it appealing enough to bring its first 963 to America to compete in GTP.
Next year, however, the team’s long association with the GTE/GTLM category comes to an end as WEC joins IMSA in a GT3-based GT category. In WEC, Proton will become the first customer team for the new Ford Mustang GT3, with plans to field it for the full season, should the team be granted an entry in what is expected to be a very crowded, high-demand grid in the first season of LMGT3 – including at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Ried welcomes the opportunity, even as he laments the disappearance of the GTE category. As a driver, Ried has competed in every season of WEC since the series’ inception. However, he also noted he has no interest in racing a GT3 car. Perhaps his son, Jonas, will carry on the legacy on the driving side as he launches his own career. But as for the team’s ambitions in 2024 in WEC, its first full season in IMSA GTD PRO has given the team a preview of the challenge.
“We expected it will be tough. The level of the championship and the level of teams … it’s the best in the world and we’re fighting against manufacturers like Corvette and Lexus. For sure it’s not easy. We had a really great start with winning Daytona, we were a bit unlucky in Sebring – we should be also able to win that race – and we struggled a little bit on BoP. But we’ve got good drivers and we’re still fighting for the endurance championship, so we’ll keep pushing.”
Ried says he doesn’t know exactly what the IMSA program will look like next year, on either the GTD PRO side or GTP. While Bruni and Tincknell are campaigning both the WeatherTech Championship and WEC races (with Neel Jani) this season, conflicts next year make keeping the same driver lineup for both series an impossibility. But he plans to return, taking the lessons learned from 2023 to charge forward.
Every day is proving to be a school day for Porsche’s Hypercar customer teams in the FIA WEC. Both HERTZ Team JOTA and Proton Competition have had to navigate the challenge of receiving their car mid-season and learn the ins and outs of the 963 as …
Every day is proving to be a school day for Porsche’s Hypercar customer teams in the FIA WEC. Both HERTZ Team JOTA and Proton Competition have had to navigate the challenge of receiving their car mid-season and learn the ins and outs of the 963 as they go, without the benefit of a winter testing programme to draw from.
This task has been especially tricky for German outfit Proton, which received its first of the four 963s it has on order after Le Mans, and has been competing in both the FIA WEC and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship since.
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Sunday’s WEC race at Fuji will be the team’s third race as a Hypercar/GTP team, but the first for its second chassis. The first was used at the WEC race at Monza back in July, then for the IMSA race at Road America, meaning its staff were forced to undertake the not-so-simple task of switching the car from Hypercar to GTP spec.
It’s a process which according to team owner Christian Ried takes multiple days and primarily involves extensive work swapping the car’s electronics.
Thankfully, with two cars now in its possession, it can leave its first car in GTP-spec for the final two races of the IMSA season at Indianapolis and Petit Le Mans and use the second for the WEC finale at Bahrain.
Nevertheless, receiving its first car so deep into the season, with no chance to test, has made life particularly tough for its drivers. Gianmaria Bruni, who along with Harry Tincknell and Neel Jani is competing with Proton in both the WEC and IMSA, says the emphasis on learning the car and gathering data has prevented them from being able to push.
“It was a bit disappointing that we got the car so late. It’s cost us the season and forced us to go race-to-race without testing,” Bruni said to RACER. “I wasn’t able to test the car before Monza, Harry and Neel were the same, though Harry did time in the simulator because of his work with Multimatic.
Proton has been dividing its time between WEC and IMSA. Motorsport Images
“I drove at Monza, Road America and that’s it. We have missions as drivers every time we get in,” he continued. “At Monza, I tried lots of things with the electronics to set it up when I was in the car, for example, and Neel and Harry had other tasks.
“It’s not really racing for us, it’s been testing while racing. It’s hard because you want to push, but we need to just finish and gain experience, data and knowledge. It’s frustrating as a driver, I don’t want to be conservative.
“And it’s super hard to learn how to drive it. We have to study the Porsche manual, which is 50 pages and it feels like I am back at school. I am studying and having to learn it all. You need a long time in the car to learn all the buttons! Hopefully, by the end of the season, it will be easier.
“At the moment I am driving at 70 percent of what I want to because I want the knowledge. We just want to finish the races to help us to prepare next year.”
Next year’s program, though, is somewhat up in the air for Bruni. He will return to the team in 2024, but where he will compete hasn’t yet been decided.
In an ideal scenario, Bruni told RACER that he would like to continue competing in both IMSA and the WEC. However, due to clashes, full-season campaigns in both will not be possible.
“It’s up to Porsche or Proton to decide where I race,” he said. “I am happy with either, but my best wish for sure would be the FIA WEC and the IMSA long races.
“Whatever happens I am looking forward to next season, when we can start from zero and come back stronger.”
Proton Competition has revealed the livery and driver lineup for its Porsche 963 that will debut at Monza before attentions turn to the U.S. for a trio of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races beginning at Road America in August. Carrying …
Proton Competition has revealed the livery and driver lineup for its Porsche 963 that will debut at Monza before attentions turn to the U.S. for a trio of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races beginning at Road America in August.
Carrying the colors of series sponsor WeatherTech — Proton Competition currently runs the Mercedes AMG for GTD PRO team WeatherTech Racing — the Porsche will be driven by Gianmaria Bruni and Harry Tincknell, with Neel Jani on board for Monza. It also carries a throwback FAT International logo that was a familiar sight on Porsche race cars of the past, although now an automotive lifestyle and promotions company rather than the logistics company it was then.
🚨 Oopsie, the cat’s out of the bag! We had a surprise in store, but the racing world just couldn't wait! Our #hypercar livery got leaked revealing a jaw-dropping design that will leave you in awe😱
For both Tincknell and Bruni, Road America will mark a return to the IMSA paddock. Tincknell most recently competed with AO Racing in its GTD-class Porsche 911 GT3R at Daytona, but his last full-season appearance came with Mazda in its DPi program in 2020-21. Prior to that he was with Chip Ganassi Racing and Ford in its GT GTLM efforts, and has recently been working with Ford to develop the new Mustang GT3. The last couple of years he has raced with Proton and Dempsey-Proton in WEC and at Le Mans.
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Bruni has been tied with Porsche since 2017, although he was a Ferrari driver prior to that. He was part of the winning LMP2 squad for Proton Competition at this year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona, and was competing with WeatherTech Racing at Daytona last year.
The Proton car marks the second customer Porsche 963 in the WeatherTech Championship, JDC-Miller Motorsports having brought theirs to the party beginning at Laguna Seca in May.
Two years ago, Ryan Hardwick took an unusual chance: He skipped the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In the middle of the pandemic, with the race delayed two months and restrictions implemented on competitors and fans, Hardwick decided to forego the iconic …
Two years ago, Ryan Hardwick took an unusual chance: He skipped the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In the middle of the pandemic, with the race delayed two months and restrictions implemented on competitors and fans, Hardwick decided to forego the iconic event with the hope that someday he’d be able to compete.
That someday has arrived.
Hardwick, as winner of the Bob Akin Award for the top-finishing Bronze-rated driver in the GTD class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2022, has joined Proton Competition in the GTE AM category for the 100th anniversary 24 Hours of Le Mans this week.
While Hardwick was debating his 2021 decision after winning the 2020 Akin award, friend and former teammate Patrick Long had a premonition that Hardwick would win the award again.
“He said, ‘Dude, you’re going to earn it again,’” Hardwick recalled. “I had made my own decision and decided to forego it, and I’m glad I did. My first time at Le Mans will also be the 100th anniversary (of the race).”
Hardwick (right) and Zacharie Robichon teamed up for Michelin Endurance Cup races and will partner again at Le Mans. JEP/Motorsport Images
Hardwick decided to share the spoils of his award with the Wright Motorsports co-drivers who helped him earn it. Jan Heylen, who partnered with Hardwick for the full 2022 WeatherTech Championship season when they won twice and finished second in GTD points, and Zacharie Robichon, who joined them for the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races including a victory in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, will also be in the No. 16 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19. Heylen qualified the car 17th among the 21 GTE AM entries on Wednesday.
“With me winning the entry, I could really name the drivers, so I’m bringing the three guys who won the (2022) Rolex 24 together,” Hardwick said. “It’s really important for me on this first try that I’m giving it my absolute best shot. I feel like I’ve got the two best teammates.”
Calling Robichon “one of the best Silvers in the world” and saying Heylen “is up there with some of the greatest drivers in the world, period,” Hardwick said the No. 16 Proton group has one goal: winning.
“We aren’t going there to participate,” he said. “We’re going to try to win.”
Hardwick is also joined on the trip by John Wright, owner of Ohio-based Wright Motorsports which fields the No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) for Hardwick, Heylen and Robichon in the WeatherTech Championship, and Hardwick’s race engineer at Wright, Bobby Viglione.
“I’m bringing my full Wright Motorsports/IMSA nucleus,” Hardwick said. “It’s a big thing for John personally. He’s never had a car at Le Mans that was his own team. This is as close as he’s ever been. He’s got his three drivers. While his name won’t be on the car, he’s very much a part of it.”
Looking back on his difficult decision in 2021 to bypass the event, Hardwick knew it could’ve been his only chance to compete at Le Mans. He also knew it probably wouldn’t be.
“I took a risk,” he said. “But It worked out.”
Tower Motorsports carries on in LMP2, with Thomas replacing Farano
While Hardwick is preparing for his first run at Le Mans, the prize for winning the 2022 Jim Trueman Award and representing IMSA as the top Bronze-rated driver in the LMP2 class has been transferred from John Farano to Steven Thomas. Farano earned the Trueman Award and Le Mans invitation on his way to collecting the WeatherTech Championship LMP2 season title last year.
But the 63-year-old Canadian and Tower Motorsports team owner is still recovering from a crash during the Motul Course de Monterey Powered by Hyundai N on May 14 and stepped out of the car for Le Mans as a precautionary measure. Thomas, who finished third in both the Trueman and LMP2 season standings last year, is filling in.
Tower Motorsports will have Steven Thomas in place of team owner John Farano alongside Ricky Taylor and Rene Rast at Le Mans. Nikolaz Gode/Motorsport Images
Farano assured that the team will uphold the significance of the Trueman Award, even if he’s not driving.
“It is a great honor to have won this award and to carry on Jim Trueman’s legacy,” Farano said. “Everyone at Tower Motorsports has worked so hard and I have immense pride in this team and their endless dedication in the pursuit of winning championships. It is a rare and very special thing to be a part of, and being able to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans is an exceptional highlight in this team’s history. This is a race that all drivers dream of racing in, especially for the centenary.
“I’d like to thank IMSA and (president) John Doonan for their support and the platform they provide for Bronze drivers. It means a great deal to us all.”
Unfortunately, Thomas was involved in an incident Wednesday in Free Practice 1 when he ran into a stricken Aston Martin on track. Thomas was uninjured but the car sustained significant damage and was unable to participate in the qualifying session later in the day.
The Tower team scrambled to prepare a replacement chassis overnight. Thomas and co-drivers Ricky Taylor and Rene Rast were on track Thursday for final practices and will start last in the LMP2 class, though the team will also have to serve a stop-and-hold penalty of three minutes for Thomas failing to “slow sufficiently” before the crash.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans starts at 10am ET Saturday.
Proton Competition has been announced as the first customer team for the Mustang GT3, with intent to campaign a pair of the new Ford race cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans “This is a very important …
Proton Competition has been announced as the first customer team for the Mustang GT3, with intent to campaign a pair of the new Ford race cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans
“This is a very important program and an exciting moment for our organization,” said Proton Competition team principal Christian Ried. “The Mustang is a great brand and this is an important step for our team. We look forward to joining with Ford starting in 2024.”
Proton Competition currently runs programs in a variety of series, including WEC and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, spanning the GTE, GT3 and LMP2 categories. Proton will also introduce a fourth Porsche 963 into the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTP category later this year. The Ehingen, Germany-based company will join Multimatic in racing the Mustang GT3. Multimatic was previously announced as Ford’s partner in GTD PRO in the WeatherTech Championship, where it will campaign two cars.
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“We’re very excited about the partnership with Proton,” Mark Rushbrook, Global Director, Ford Performance Motorsports, told RACER. “What Proton represents as a team, how successful they have been, the way that they approach racing … they’re very focused, great people, great technical resources. So when we had the first opportunity to talk to them to be our first customer team, and for them to be able to apply for entering in the 2024 WEC season, it was a big opportunity for us and we really saw there were a lot of synergies with how they approach racing and and how we approach racing. We’re excited that they will be the first customer team and looking forward to seeing them on track.”
— Ford Performance (@FordPerformance) June 9, 2023
From the moment that Ford announced at Daytona in January 2021 that it would produce a GT3 car, inquiries began coming in from teams wishing to race the car in a variety of series, Rushbrook reported, and Ford Performance has been active in talking to them to find the right partners. While Ford Performance will prioritize getting cars to Multimatic and Proton, it is intent on building as many Mustang GT3s for which there is demand, and hopes to see customer teams competing with the car not only in IMSA and WEC, but SRO worldwide and any other series that feature GT3 cars.
“That’s what we like about this convergence, that it’s no longer GT and GT3 separate,” Rushbrook said. “We can compete as a factory as appropriate in IMSA GTD PRO, but we also can have customer teams competing in GTD — or even customer teams competing in GTD PRO if they choose — as well as SRO and WEC.
“We’re excited that we can design and homologate one car that can be sold around the world to compete in so many different series in a very meaningful way. Mustang is a global sports car, and we’re now finally able to go global racing as well. So it’s very important for us what we’re able to do with GT3 and customer teams.”
The final gaps in the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours entry list have been filled, with today’s release of the latest provisional entry list for the centenary race. There have been a handful of changes in the three main classes, though only in the driver …
The final gaps in the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours entry list have been filled, with today’s release of the latest provisional entry list for the centenary race.
There have been a handful of changes in the three main classes, though only in the driver columns. There have been no changes to the list of teams, but the reserve list has been reduced to eight following a withdrawal from IMSA stalwart Risi Competizione.
With all 186 drivers now named, we have a clear picture of the level of quality in the field for this year’s running of the world’s greatest endurance race, set for June 10-11. The list includes no fewer than 16 drivers with F1 experience, two of whom are world champions: Jenson Button and Jacques Villeneuve. It also features 10 previous overall Le Mans winners, 11 WEC world drivers’ championship winners, five GTE Pro champions and 16 other class champions.
There are also title winners from various other global championship including NASCAR, IndyCar, Champ Car, IMSA and WTCC.
A pair of Glickenhaus 007s will be on hand at Le Mans to do battle with their Hypercar rivals. Motorsport Images
In Hypercar, the latest edition of the entry confirms the drivers for Glickenhaus Racing’s second 007 LMH. The No. 709 will be driven by Franck Mailleux, who stood in for Ryan Briscoe at Spa in the No. 708, Nathanael Berthon who will make his eighth Le Mans start and former Sauber and Haas F1 driver Esteban Gutierrez.
LMP2, meanwhile, sees a few new names confirmed.
In Prema Racing’s No. 9 WEC-entered ORECA, Juan Manuel Correa returns after missing Sebring and Spa due to his F2 commitments. It means future Lamborghini LMDh driver Andrea Caldarelli is without a drive in the race.
DKR Engineering brings a newly confirmed all-Belgian trio to the entry, with just one of the team’s ELMS full-season drivers, Tom Van Rompuy, set to drive. He will be joined by BMW factory driver Maxime Martin and Ugo de Wilde in the No. 43 Pro-Am entered ORECA.
The remaining tweaks and additions come in the GTE Am field, for the category’s final appearance at Le Mans.
GTE Am power Proton has made a number of changes to the rosters of its Porsche entries for Le Mans. Motorsport Images
At the top of the list, Jan Heylen is named alongside Ryan Hardwick and Zacharie Robichon in the No. 16 Proton Competition Porsche. Heylen becomes the team’s third co-driver of the season, after Harry Tincknell in the WEC races pre-Le Mans and Alessio Picariello in the ELMS season opener.
It may come as a surprise to some to see this lineup feature in the ELMS No. 16 rather than the FIA WEC No. 88, but Proton’s efforts will reshuffle after Le Mans with the arrival of its Porsche 963 for the Hypercar category.
With Hardwick and Robichon in the No. 16, the No. 88 that has contested the opening WEC races of the season will be driven by Harry Tincknell, Brendan Iribe and Oliver Millroy. Originally Gianmaria Bruni was listed as the car’s nominated first driver, but a drive for the 2022 GTE Pro Le Mans class winner has not come to fruition for what would have been his 15th start. However, the Italian ace is still expected to form part of Proton’s Porsche 963 effort in IMSA and WEC post-Le Mans, along with Tincknell.
In the third and final car entered by Proton, Martin Rump has been named, as expected, alongside his full-season ELMS teammates Michael Fassbender and Richard Lietz in the No. 911.
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Three of the Ferrari teams on the GTE Am list have added new names to the grid.
AF Corse’s No. 21 sees Diego Alessi’s seat taken up by Frenchman Julien Piguet. ELMS outfit JMW Motorsport has named a new set of drivers for its No. 66 488. The British team will race with Thomas Neubauer, Louis Prette and Giacomo Petrobelli. Meanwhile, Asian Le Mans Series GT3 title winner Walkenhorst Motorsport has signed Chandler Hull, Jeff Segal and Andrew Haryanto for its Le Mans debut.
There are no surprises from the Aston Martin teams in the entry, although this entry list confirms the addition of Heart of Racing trio Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli and Alex Riberas in the No. 98 Northwest AMR Vantage. They replace Paul Dalla Lana, Axcil Jefferies and Nicki Thiim, following PDL’s sudden retirement last month.
The absence of Dalla Lana and Thiim breaks two significant streaks. This year would have been Dalla Lana’s 11th start and Thiim’s 10th.
The FIA WEC field for Friday’s 1000 Miles of Sebring has been reduced to 36 cars. The heavy shunt in Free Practice 2 for the No. 88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR 19 left the car damaged beyond repair, and the team with no choice but to withdraw …
The FIA WEC field for Friday’s 1000 Miles of Sebring has been reduced to 36 cars. The heavy shunt in Free Practice 2 for the No. 88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR 19 left the car damaged beyond repair, and the team with no choice but to withdraw the car from the remainder of the meeting.
The No. 88, driven by Harry Tincknell, Ryan Hardwick and Zacharie Robichon, hit a concrete block head-on at high speed after contact with the Cadillac Racing V-Series.R of Richard Westbrook, resulting in a lengthy red flag.
The contact between Westbrook and Hardwick occurred in the braking zone to the hairpin, Westbrook moving across on the Porsche while trying to take the racing line, clipping the front of the Porsche with the rear of his V-Series.R. Thankfully Hardwick walked away from the hit unscathed.
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“It’s a real shame,” a disappointed Hardwick told RACER after the session. “We had a really good program going here. Proton has a spare car but it’s in Europe so we can’t use it this weekend. The chassis was broken by the impact. We hope to be back at Portimao.”
By missing Sebring, the No. 88’s 2023 FIA WEC program is likely to be reduced to just three races, as RACER understands that the car is unlikely to continue after Le Mans in June. Proton is believed to be planning to scale back its GTE Am effort to a single car once it begins competing with the Hypercar class Porsche 963 it has ordered.
