Porsche Not Taking ‘Unnecessary Risks’ for GTP Manufacturer Title

Photo: Jurgen Tap/Porsche

Porsche Penske Motorsport won’t take any “unnecessary risks” to claim the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP manufacturers’ championship that could jeopardize the drivers’ and teams’ titles according to Penske Racing President Jonathan Diuguid.

The factory squad’s two Porsche 963s sit a comfortable 1-2 in the drivers’ standings, with the No. 6 entry of Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet holding a 128-point advantage over teammates Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy in the No. 7 Porsche following qualifying.

BMW M Team RLL drivers Philipp Eng and Dries Vanthoor still hold an outside chance of the drivers’ title, 148 points behind Campbell and Jaminet, who need to finish eighth or higher no matter where the No. 7 Porsche and No. 24 BMW take the checkered flag.

The only theoretical way the BMW pairing could snatch away the drivers’ title is if the No. 6 Porsche of Campbell, Jaminet and Julien Andlauer finish 11th or last and the No. 24 entry wins the race, which has put an emphasis on getting the No. 6 Porsche to the finish.

Porsche Penske is seeking back-to-back WeatherTech Championship drivers, teams and manufacturers’ titles.

“Obviously we’ve got to survive,” Diuguid told Sportscar365. “I think the Road Atlanta track, plus the car count, is heavy traffic. You saw in 2023 Nick got taken out for no fault of his own.

“That’s our main goal, is to avoid that, at least for the 6 car.

“Other than that, both cars were competitive [on Thursday night] so I think we can push quite hard and be up front.

“But we’re not going to take any unnecessary risks with either car for the first seven hours. The last three hours is when the race starts.

“The main focus is to capture at least some championships. Obviously the one we’re best positioned for is the driver and team championships.

“We’ll be then focusing on the Acura for the manufacturers’ championship.”

After the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist scored pole, the battle for the GTP manufacturers’ championship has tightened from seven to just two points between Porsche and Acura, in what is set to be a winner-take-all scenario.

“We wouldn’t take an unnecessary risk to sacrifice losing the drivers and teams’ championship for whatever scenario may pop up to win the manufacturers’ on,” said Diuguid prior to qualifying.

“I wouldn’t say they’re prioritized any more, one over the other. It’s just whichever one we have the best chance to capture.

“We’re going to do whatever we have to do to make sure we win the most championships.”

The GTP teams’ championship, which is on the same points scale as the drivers’ championship for each car, provides an automatic invite to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Hypercar class, which could possibly be used for Team Penske to have presence in next year’s French endurance classic but is based on a number of unknowns at this stage.

Porsche LMDh factory director Urs Kuratle emphasized their focus will be to minimize risks for the No. 6 crew in the race.

“It’s even more the normal speech before the race to tell the drivers to stay out of trouble as much as possible,” he told Sportscar365. “That’s one thing, but also out of penalties, like we saw at the last race.

“That was something which was announced at the team managers’ meeting, the drivers’ meeting, before, and also executed during the race and we still had penalties.

“That was something which was not necessary but it was announced beforehand. There’s no criticism but you have to stay out of trouble as much as possible. That’s what we try to tell the drivers as well.”

Diuguid added that they’ll likely “calm down” the drivers a bit, especially in the early stages of the ten-hour enduro.

“It was pretty open in Indy, to be honest,” he said. “The cars probably raced each other a little bit too aggressively at some stages of the race.

“We’ll probably calm that down a little bit. But to be honest, all the drivers work quite well together so I don’t expect any issues. But the timing stand is always there to correct any problems that we have.”

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