Porsche Completes 36-Hour LMDh Endurance Test at Sebring

Porsche Penske Motorsport has completed a 36-hour endurance test at Sebring International Raceway, signifying the longest known continuous run for an LMDh car to date.

The German manufacturer and its Penske factory squad put a single Porsche 963 through its paces at the Florida circuit last week, over a time period that equaled three back-to-back Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring editions.

It was the first endurance test for the Porsche 963, which is due to debut in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the FIA World Endurance Championship next year with factory and customer teams.

According to Porsche, the car completed 1,218 laps during the test, equating to 7,331 km (4,555.3 miles) as well as around 600 km (372.8 miles) of additional setup running.

The endurance test started on Thursday at 8 a.m. and finished at 8 p.m. on Friday evening. Porsche rolled the car out on Tuesday and performed setup runs on Wednesday.

A total of nine drivers took part in the test, which involved members from both the U.S. and European arms of the transatlantic Porsche Penske Motorsport operation.

Porsche has not stated which drivers were behind the wheel, although Autosport reports that ex-Formula 1 driver Pascal Wehrlein, who has also represented Porsche in Formula E, was one of the participants.

It is understood that of the eight confirmed Porsche factory LMDh race drivers, Dane Cameron did not take part in the Sebring session, while development driver Frederic Makowiecki was involved.

Porsche has stated that its LMDh car has now surpassed 24,500 km (15,223.6 miles) in total running since the start of its pre-homologation testing program in January.