STUTTGART, Germany — Porsche Penske Motorsport has added two additional drivers for the final round of this year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with Josef Newgarden and Laurens Vanthoor.
Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet will start the race in the No. 6 Porsche 963 together with Vanthoor.
The Belgian is part of the Porsche Penske Motorsport factory lineup in the FIA World Endurance Championship WEC and knows the GTP race car according to LMDh regulations well.
Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden will complement Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 car.
“Porsche Penske Motorsport has chosen to add Laurens Vanthoor and Josef Newgarden to our Petit Le Mans lineup,“ said Managing Director, Jonathan Diuguid. “Laurens has raced at Road Atlanta in the Porsche 911 RSR and he will be able to add his experience from racing in the WEC for PPM.
“Josef brings a different dynamic as this year’s Indianapolis 500 winner, it will be something very exciting for the team as well as himself. Josef has increased his exposure to sportscar racing already in 2023 with a test in the Team Penske LMP2, as well as raced in Daytona in 2023. In addition, he got his first exposure to the 963 in early June at Road America. With several testing days for the team at Road Atlanta, we are confident that both Laurens and Josef will be fully prepared to deliver for the team and have a positive result in the final race of the season.”
Both the Tandy/Jaminet driver pairing and Campbell and Nasr have already won IMSA races in the debut year of the Porsche 963. The No. 6 car drove to victory in the 100-minute sprint race on the Long Beach (Calif.) street circuit, and the No. 7 Porsche recently repeated this success at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Vanthoor took the first podium position for the Porsche Penske Motorsport WEC team at the first European race of the FIA World Endurance Championship in Portimão, Portugal. He currently occupies eighth place in the drivers’ standings of this championship. He has contested the Petit Le Mans several times in the past with the 911 RSR of the Porsche factory team and with the Porsche 911 GT3 R for the Pfaff Motorsports customer team. In 2021, Vanthoor finished second in the GTD class.
“I’m really excited to compete with the team’s IMSA program and help them wrap up their season, as they try and attain both the team and manufacture championships,” said Vanthoor. “I feel like my experience at the track will help, and working closely with Nick, Mathieu and the entire team will help myself gain even more perspective of the overall organization as we wrap up the WEC season in Bahrain at the beginning of November.”
Newgarden will make his race debut for Porsche Penske Motorsport on October 14 at Road Atlanta at the wheel of a GTP hybrid car. The American can already look back on 29 race wins in the NTT IndyCar Series. He has four of them to his credit this season, including his first – and 19th for Team Penske – success at the famous Indianapolis 500.
Newgarden celebrated his IMSA debut in January this year at the 24 Hours of Daytona at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway. He finished eleventh overall and fifth in the LMP2 class.
“I have a lot of respect and admiration for both the Penske and Porsche brands, and the combination between the two through Porsche Penske Motorsport is a dream scenario for any racing car driver and is an absolute honor to be a part of,” said Newgarden. “Watching the dedicated teams build this program from the ground up over the last couple of years has been exciting to watch, and seeing both Porsche 963 get wins this year and compete for championships shows that all the hard work has paid off.
“My goal is to add to the program and help support the tremendous efforts that Porsche Penske Motorsport have put in place. With some good fortune, I’m sure we can turn effort into results together.”