The No. 7 Porsche 963 car fielded by the Porsche/Penske Motorsport team has won the 24 Hours of Daytona, held Jan. 27 -28 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Drivers Felipe Nasr (Brazil), Dane Cameron (USA), and Matt Campbell (Australia), as well as American IndyCar star Josef Newgarden, extended Porsche’s record number of victories to 19. The No. 6 sister car finished fourth with drivers Mathieu Jaminet (France), Nick Tandy (Great Britain), Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) and Kévin Estre (France).
In an action-packed race witnessed by a record crowd, the two Porsche/Penske Motorsport’s Porsche cars traded places at the front of the field with the No. 31 Cadillac. Shortly after sunset on Saturday evening, the No. 6 car took the lead for the first time. However, several penalties kept throwing the car shared by Jaminet/Tandy/Vanthoor/Estre back down the field. Kévin Estre’s small slip in the pit lane exit on Sunday morning dampened the hopes of victory for this hybrid prototype.
“An amazing day for the entire Porsche/Penske Motorsport organization,” said Roger Penske, Founder and Chairman of the Penske Corporation. “Both of our Porsches had great speed but more importantly, the reliability and the execution by our team allowed us to secure the overall win for the first time since 1969. Congratulations to the entire Porsche and Penske organization on this monumental victory.”
About the Porsche 963
The Porsche 963 (Type 9R0) is a sports prototype racing car designed by Porsche and built by Multimatic to compete in Hypercar and GTP (Grand Touring Prototype) races. Weighing around 2,200 lbs., the race car is powered by a total output of 670 hp. The engine's maximum speed is 10,000 rpm. With a maximum of 110 decibels when passing, the Porsche 963 still produces a rich sound. The engine is based on the high-performance 918 Spyder hybrid sports car. The powerful engine is designed to run on renewable fuels, which enable a significant reduction in CO2 emissions.