Porsche today announced that it will field three factory-backed cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race this year, with a fourth 963 being entered by privateer squad, Hertz Team JOTA. Cadillac, meanwhile, announced that the three cars it raced at the Daytona 24 are headed for Europe this summer.
Although it normally runs just two cars in World Endurance Championship (WEC) events (the series whose calendar Le Mans is officially a part of), Porsche says it decided to run three factory-backed cars at the endurance race, because winning in France was always the main focus of the 963 program.
“Le Mans is the highlight of every endurance season—even more so this year in light of the 100th anniversary of the 24-hour race,” said Thomas Laudenbach, the VP of Porsche Motorsport. “For us, it’s all about maximizing our chances of scoring our 20th overall victory at Le Mans on the 75th anniversary of the Porsche brand.”
Read: Le Mans-Bound NASCAR Camaro Found To Lap Daytona As Quick As IMSA GTD Cars
To celebrate its personal anniversary, the third 963 Porsche enters in the race will wear the number 75. It will be shipped to France from the U.S. for the race, borrowed from the automaker’s IMSA racing outfit.
“While the choice to commit to Le Mans with three cars increases our chances, it also presents us with enormous challenges,” said Urs Kuratle, Porsche’s director of factory motorsport LMDh. “We have to put together an additional crew and ship one of the IMSA cars to France and back again. On top of that, due to ongoing supply bottlenecks for certain assemblies, the parts supply might not be perfect.”
Fortunately, the IMSA calendar has been designed to accommodate this kind of exchange program. That also means that Cadillac’s three-car IMSA team can also compete in the historic race.
“We are thrilled to return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the full Cadillac Racing team,” said Rory Harvey, Global Vice President of Cadillac. “Over the last 20 years Cadillac Racing has built a legacy of winning on the track and we feel very privileged to return to Le Mans during this exciting new electrified era in racing.”
Both teams recently competed at the Daytona 24-hour race in January. Although the Porsche 963 looked fast, and was competing for the lead early in the race, reliability issues ultimately led to a disappointing finish for the team. The Cadillac V-Series.R, meanwhile, finished in third, behind Acura’s ARX-06, which finished first and second.
The Porsche and the Cadillac will be back in competition at Le Mans, against a variety of other competitors, which will run from June 10 to 11.
