Estre, Vanthoor Explain No. 6 Porsche’s Setbacks

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor have explained the setbacks for their No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 that finished fourth in last weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, including a late-race pit miscue that ruled them out of a chance of victory.

The 2024 FIA World Endurance drivers’ champions, who were joined by reigning IMSA GTP champion Matt Campbell, initially overcame floor damage sustained by multiple hits from LMP2 cars, before fading late in the race, which was won by the sister No. 7 Porsche of Felipe Nasr, Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich.

Estre was caught up in the initial incident in the second hour that damaged the right-rear floor of his GTP car.

“It was from LMP2 contact,” he explained. “There were two cars following each other.

“I was exiting the pit lane and they were in Turn 3. After the first one I started to go towards the apex and then we had contact with the second one.

“To be honest, I didn’t see any footage; I’m not sure if there is any, if he had enough room or any understeer or if I didn’t leave enough room, I don’t know.

“It was not a massive contact but obviously his nose was attached to us. We had big damage on the car, although the contact was not that big.”

Estre then also had an incident with the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo that resulted in damage to left-rear of the 963.

“I had [nowhere to go],” he said. “He lost it in the middle of the Bus Stop, went sideways, almost spun.

“I was going to the right to try to avoid, he came back and hit me.”

The team, led by race strategist Jonathan Diuguid on the pit box, elected to make repairs during a series of pit stops while under the race’s six-and-a-half hour long safety car period for fog in the overnight hours.

“We didn’t want to go a lap down and we didn’t want to spend ten minutes fixing the things, so we made steps to always try to stay on the lead lap, which we did,” said Estre.

“The guys did a good job at repairing as much as they could. But when the floor is damaged, you cannot do much. We did our best.”

Penske Racing competition director Travis Law added: “They used a lot of tape there… and some carbon and a bit of glue and everything we had actually, so some rivets and everything.

“The guys did an amazing job, so to get the car back is pretty impressive.”

Pit Miscue Put No. 6 Porsche to Back of GTP Field

Vanthoor, meanwhile, revealed that a pit miscue took him out of the lead at the time and to the tail-end of the GTP field, having been forced to pit one lap later than everyone else while under the race’s final full-course caution with just over two hours to go.

“I don’t what exactly happened but there was some issue on the pit stand and they did not get the call from race direction,” he said. “So we stayed out.

“I saw the cars behind me pitting in and I was ‘OK, we must be doing a split strategy.’ But unfortunately it was not on purpose.

“Our car, when we were in clean air, it was not too bad. We had to put more effort in than the 7 [car] and we didn’t have the ultimate speed [due to the floor damage].

“Behind other cars, the dirty air felt like worse than ever. At that point we were leading, we went from the perfect track position to last.”

Vanthoor charged back up to sixth in the matter of a lap, although came under pressure from one of the Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06s, and while eventually moving into to second in the subsequent hour of green flag running.

Estre, who initially rejoined in third, dropped behind both of the Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8s until Marco Wittmann was forced to make a late call to the pit lane, resulting in the No. 6 Porsche finishing fourth.

The Frenchman explained they had to “save fuel like hell” in the end, which impacted their pace.

Vanthoor added: “You’re always for the team but from a personal point of view as a driver, you know you had a chance with the car and the team to get a victory, which you personally missed.

“You have to fake smile a bit now at the moment because we are personally disappointed. But for the team, it’s obviously a great result.”

Davey Euwema contributed to this report

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