Cameron Excited to Be “Coming Home” to IMSA Full-Time

Photo: Drew Gibson/Porsche

Dane Cameron said he’s excited to be “coming home” to IMSA competition full-time next year after a season abroad in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Porsche Penske Motorsport.

The 35-year-old Californian has swapped seats with Matt Campbell in the No. 7 Porsche 963, which will see the Australian join the Hypercar ranks of the globe-trotting series and Cameron back in WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition.

It will mark Cameron’s first full-time WeatherTech Championship campaign since 2021.

“It’s exciting to be coming home,” he told reporters during last week’s IMSA-sanctioned test at Daytona International Speedway.

“Doing the WEC thing was something I really wanted to do and try, especially to do it with Porsche and Penske and this year to do it in the overall category was definitely a personal goal I wanted to try and achieve.

“Certainly it will be nice to be back here in IMSA, where I’ve spent so much time and had a good bit of success.

“It will be a bit of a change but looking forward to it nonetheless.”

The three-time WeatherTech Championship title winner revealed that he had requested to race in the WEC, which led him to the 2023 campaign in the No. 5 Porsche alongside Fred Makowiecki and Michael Christensen.

“I put my hand up for it for sure and said, ‘If you think it would be a fit, then I’d love to give it a shot,'” Cameron said.

“There are opportunities that don’t come around all the time in motor racing, especially this style of program.

“We went and did it and I enjoyed the experience.

“It was disappointing to miss on a couple of podiums here and there throughout the year where we were close, at Spa and Monza and a few places.

“They ultimately said, ‘Maybe you come back here.’ It’s fine in the end. But they do place us where they think is the best fit.

“I wanted to do [WEC]. I’m happy I had the opportunity to do it with this group but yeah I’m happy to be back here as well.

“There’s several faces that were here through the [Penske] Acura program, so it makes for a really easy transition to come back to the IMSA side where there are a lot of familiar people from my previous time.

“It makes for a really seamless and comfortable transition to step back into the IMSA program with Porsche and Penske.”

Cameron said he’s hoping the 2024 season with the second-year Porsche operation will lead to more consistent results following a somewhat challenging start to the factory LMDh program.

“I think it’s clear we’re still improving,” he said. “When you look at the back half of the year, it was better across both programs for sure.

“But there’s still lofty expectations for it. There’s still a bit of work to be done and still a few issues here and there to clean up on the reliability side for the longer races and things like this.

“We’re trying to push on in both fronts to be faster like everyone else and also a bit more reliable for the big races, where we fell short last year.

“It definitely never stops to try and improve for sure…

“The team is set up in a much better place. Hopefully that can give us another step forward.

“I really think that was something that was difficult, was not only to bring new race cars, but we were maybe less stable or less mature as a team compared to everyone else.

“That takes time. I think it’s easier to change a race car than it is to build teams from the ground up.

“Hopefully now all the dust is settled on that whole deal, it’s more like normal.”

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