JOTA Completes Airfield Shakedown With No. 12 Porsche

Hertz Team JOTA completed a shakedown run with the No. 12 Porsche 963 on the Le Mans airfield on Friday evening after an extensive rebuild and chassis change following Callum Ilott’s crash in Wednesday night practice.

Ilott returned to the cockpit of the Multimatic-chassised LMDh car for the 30-minute run on Friday, for which JOTA was allocated a slot from 8 p.m. CEST (2 p.m. EDT) on the airfield adjacent to the Circuit de la Sarthe.

A replacement chassis supplied by Porsche Penske Motorsport arrived at Le Mans on Thursday after Ilott hit the wall at the Forest Esses in Free Practice 2 on Wednesday night.

The No. 12 crew, which consists of Ilott, Will Stevens and Norman Nato, sat out the third and fourth Free Practice sessions as well as Hyperpole as repairs continued.

The car was then initially fired up in the garage on Friday afternoon before it was transported to the airfield for the shakedown run.

“It feels great to be back in the car, although it was a little wet out there and obviously we had to build up to things slowly,” Ilott said.

“Even though [the] shakedown is short, it’s great to get a little mileage in the car and check the systems.

“It’s just incredible that the car is running and I’m beyond grateful and proud of the team for their heroic work getting us this far.

“Everything feels good, looks good, I think we’re ready to roll. Will will take the reins in warm-up and make sure that it feels good on track and we’ll see from there.

“A huge thank you to the team for their determination and team spirit, it’s humbling and makes me extremely proud to be part of this family.”

The warmup session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans is scheduled for 12 p.m. CEST (6 a.m. EDT), after which the No. 12 Porsche is set to take the start of the 92nd running of the French endurance classic from eighth on the grid.