Proton Planning Rolex 24 Effort

Photo: Porsche

The GT Le Mans class in January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona is likely to see at least one European entry, with Proton Competition planning an effort for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opener.

Team boss Christian Ried confirmed to Sportscar365 that he’s working on bringing one of his Porsche 911 RSRs to the Florida endurance class, featuring a Pro-Am driver lineup.

He said the likelihood of it happening is currently at 70-75 percent.

“We’ve already fixed the budget and have fixed the lineup,” Ried told Sportscar365. “But we have to speak to [IMSA] to see if we can run the old-spec car there. We have both the ’15 and ’16-spec cars.”

The German squad has a total of five Porsche 911 RSRs, including one 2016-spec car, currently driven by defending GTE World Champion Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Ried would not disclose the driver lineup for Daytona but said he would be one of the four drivers for the planned effort.

It would mark the team’s return to Daytona for the first time since 2003 when it fielded a Porsche 911 GT2 car.

“For me, it’s time to do it again,” Ried added. “It would be great to go there. I just have to explain to my wife. She doesn’t know yet!”

Daytona will see the competition debut of Porsche’s new mid-rear-engined 911 GTE car for the factory CORE autosport-run Porsche North America program.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John