Grant Larson (Director of Special Projects, Style Porsche)[1] Stéphane Lenglin (Exterior Designer)[2] Christian Eifrig (Technical Project Manager)[3] Stefan Moser (Head Engineer, Powertrain)[3]
The official race debut of the 963 was at the 2023 24 Hours of Daytona, the season-opening round of the 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship. The car was originally slated for a non-competitive dress rehearsal at the 2022 8 Hours of Bahrain,[10] however, Porsche decided later that they would not race at Bahrain in favour of more private testing time.[11] Porsche later announced that the first customer 963s would not be delivered until April 2023 due to delays caused by supply chain disruptions, forcing customer teams to miss the opening races of the IMSA SportsCar Championship and WEC, something that the teams understood when engaging in talks with Porsche to take delivery.[12]
Background
Porsche last competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship's top class, LMP1, back in 2017 with the Porsche 919 Hybrid, and in the IMSA SportsCar Championship with the Porsche RS Spyder in the LMP2 class, with the 919 taking outright championship victory in its final year of competition, and the RS Spyder taking outright championship victory in the American Le Mans Series and class championship victory in the European Le Mans Series.[13][14] Following the withdrawal of Porsche's factory LMP1 and LMP2 teams from the World Endurance Championship and American Le Mans Series, Porsche maintained a presence in the lower classes with continued factory support for the 911 RSR in the American Le Mans Series' GT2 (later GTLM) class, and in the World Endurance Championship's GTE class.[15][16] The Automobile Club de l'Ouest, the organiser of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, issued a statement regarding the matter, saying that the club "regrets this precipitous departure, as it does the abruptness of the decision from one of endurance racing’s most successful and lauded manufacturers".[17]
As part of the LMDh regulations, interested parties can choose four constructors to partner with to construct the chassis upon to which design the car, those four constructors being Oreca, Ligier, Multimatic and Dallara.[18] Head of Porsche Motorsport Pascal Zurlinden announced in March 2020 that Porsche would be evaluating an entry into LMDh, saying "Porsche is seriously looking into it, but there is no decision yet".[19] This was followed up with an announcement in December that year that development of a LMDh project would commence, with Porsche being the first manufacturer to commit to the LMDh class.[20]
A multi-year partnership with Team Penske to run the factory team under the banner of Porsche Penske Motorsport was announced in May 2021. The announcement marked the commencement of third major collaboration with between Porsche and Team Penske, continuing a decades old relationship that began with the Porsche 917/30 in Can-Am and blossomed again with the Porsche RS Spyder in LMP2 class of the ALMS. The collaboration would be aiming to debut with two entries each in the top classes of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship and 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship.[21]
Vice President of Porsche Motorsport Fritz Enzinger commented that "Porsche and Penske shared a proven track record of success" and that "In the long list of victories to date, however, the name Le Mans has been missing. I hope that we will finally be able to chalk up this success as of 2023 with Porsche Penske Motorsport. This would then mark Porsche's 20th overall victory at the Sarthe - a dream come true."[21]
In the same month, Multimatic was revealed to be the constructor that would supply the chassis for which Porsche would design bodywork, with Enzinger saying that "Multimatic is the most obvious and logical solution for us", and that "We have known this highly respected company and its team of experienced professionals for many years and are absolutely convinced of the quality of their work".[22]
Porsche also announced in May 2022 that four 963s would be allocated to customers for 2023, at the cost of $2.9 million, with full factory support.[29][30]JDC–Miller Motorsports and JOTA Sport both announced on the 25th of June that they would take delivery, with JDC MotorSport campaigning the 963 in the IMSA SportsCar Championship and JOTA fielding the car in the FIA World Endurance Championship. In November 2022, Proton Competition was revealed as operator of the remaining 2 customer entries, fielding a single entry in the 2023 editions of both WEC and IMSA.[31][32][33]
Launch of the 963 at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed
The 963 made its first appearance in the practice sessions of the 2023 24 Hours of Daytona alongside fellow GTP debutants, the BMW M Hybrid V8, the Acura ARX-06, and the Cadillac V-LMDh. The 963 was often right behind the ARX-06s of Meyer Shank Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing, with the former leading all five practice sessions, bar the last one.[37][38] A technical problem limited the mileage of the No. 6 963 to just nine laps in second practice, however, still managed to clock a time faster than the No. 31 Cadillac.[39]Nick Tandy set the fastest time in a damp fifth free practice that saw intermittent rain, albeit that none of the ARX-06s left their garages during the session.[40]Tom Blomqvist took pole in what was a chaotic qualifying session: John Farano crashed at turn 7 in his Oreca 07, red flagging the session, and later another red flag was brought out for Tandy, who crashed his 963. Given just a single flying lap after the session resumed after Tandy's accident, Blomqvist took pole with a 1:34.031, 0.083 s faster than Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 963.[41] Blomqvist carried his pace into the race, leading the first 62 and last 97 laps.[42] Both Porsches were beset by reliability issues, with significant time spent in the garages: No. 7 was the first to come in, losing 35 laps to replace a faulty battery,[43] and Tandy – in No. 6 – had been running in contention for overall victory in the morning until a gearbox failure ended his race.[44]
The Porsche 963 took its first victory in IMSA competition on the Streets of Long Beach with Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy driving.[45] In the season's fourth round, the Motul Course de Monterey, Matt Campbell took the car's first pole position while Tandy's No. 6 started second and van der Helm's No. 5 JDC–Miller Motorsports car qualified ninth.[46] The No. 6 car recovered to second after a slow start. Campbell hit the No. 94 Andretti AutosportAston Martin Vantage AMR GT3, losing time as he served a drive-through penalty. A crash at turn 10 after Nasr relieved Campbell relegated the No. 7 car to ninth. Tijmen van der Helm and Mike Rockenfeller finished seventh in JDC–Miller Motorsports first race with the car.[47][48][49] At Watkins Glen, Tandy and Jaminet started from pole position after qualifying was cancelled.[50]Porsche Penske Motorsport's No. 6 car battled for the win. Through a better pit-stop strategy, the No. 6 Porsche overtook the No. 31 Cadillac and the No. 60 Acura and rejoined in second with 40 minutes remaining.[51][52] Jaminet overtook Connor De Phillippi in the final minutes before the race ended behind the safety car.[53] The No. 7 car was in contention until Nasr sustained an issue with the hybrid system and spent 2 hours replacing the battery, gearbox and rear axle.[54] It later emerged onto the track and finished 52nd overall. Later, the No. 6 Porsche was disqualified for illegal skid block wear.[55]
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