Pumpelly, Pappas Complete Proton’s No. 99 Porsche Lineup

Photo: Bob Chapman/Autosport Image

Spencer Pumpelly and Tim Pappas will join Patrick Long at the wheel of the No. 99 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR in next month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, completing the team’s GTE-Am class lineup.

Confirmation came Thursday following the ACO’s release of the finalized entry list for the French endurance classic.

Silver-rated Pumpelly, who returns to the French endurance classic for the first time since 2014, will make his fourth Le Mans start, with Black Swan team principal Pappas, who is Bronze-rated by the FIA, set for his race debut.

The pairing had previously teamed up in the 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona in a Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi R8 LMS GT3, which lost its GT Daytona class win due to the Level 5 Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 being reinstated post-race.

“I’m extremely excited and honored to get an opportunity to back for my fourth time,” said Pumpelly. “With Tim Pappas and Pat Long, I really couldn’t ask for two better teammates, and to be with a team that has the history of success like Proton Competition makes it all even more exciting.

“The previous three times I’ve been there, I’ve had good cars and I’ve actually been able to lead a bunch, but I ran into bad luck all three times.

“The opportunity to go back to Le Mans and have a chance to have a good run at the 24 means a lot. Hopefully, we can put it all together this time.”

Porsche factory driver Long, meanwhile, will be making his 15th consecutive Le Mans start, and is a two-time GT class winner.

It will mark the only all-American driver lineup in this year’s race.

Proton’s two other Porsches, meanwhile, will be driven by its full-season FIA World Endurance Championship lineup of Matt Cambell, Julien Andlauer and Christian Ried (No. 77) and Matteo Cairoli, Khaled Al Qubaisi and Giorgio Roda (No. 88).

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