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Porsche’s Christensen, Cameron on Double Duty Challenge

Christensen, Cameron set to double up in Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963s…

Photo: Porsche

Michael Christensen and Dane Cameron are gearing up for a unique double-duty experience as the only two drivers set to race in both the 1000 Miles of Sebring and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in the top prototype classes.

What’s more, the Porsche Penske Motorsport duo will be at the wheel of nearly identically-prepared Porsche 963s in the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship enduros, which both drivers feel could play to their benefit during the ‘Super Sebring’ event.

“It’s definitely a challenge, that’s for sure. It’s not a straightforward operation,” Christensen told Sportscar365.

“For the driver, basically you just have to jump in the car and drive, if you look at it like that.

“We’re trying to be involved in the teams as good as possible, to try and guide in the right direction and be involved in the decisions and do our best performance in each car.

“That is definitely the challenge, to be up to date and be really in sync with the team. On both sides, the guys try to do a good job on the information flow.”

Both drivers focused exclusively on their full season WEC entries during last weekend’s Prologue pre-season test although beginning on Thursday with the start of WeatherTech Championship practice, will be splitting their time between the two PPM operations.

Cameron, who is driving the No. 5 Porsche in the WEC with Christensen and Fred Makowiecki, and is again serving as the third driver in the No. 6 WeatherTech Championship entry alongside full season drivers Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet, said the transition will be easier given he’ll essentially be in the same car.

However, the three-time IMSA champion admitted the difference in rules between the two series will likely be the biggest challenge.

“I don’t think the cars would be too far apart probably at the end of the day, but there’s a lot of small details that are different,” Cameron told Sportscar365.

“In particular the rules, the pit lanes, logistically it’s challenging, back and forth across everywhere, just time management. All these things can be a little bit difficult.

“Seating position is going to be a little different between the two, but I don’t think it’ll be too bad. If anything, having the extra seat time will be okay and the fact that we’re using three guys for the WEC side I think is okay.

“For an eight-hour race it really shouldn’t be too bad. So I feel pretty good about where I’m at physically, so I’m not super worried about that.

“Just managing your day becomes difficult, making sure you feel like you’re getting the time you need to be everywhere and be in the meetings and be informed and all the rest.

“I’ve just kind of said to everybody ‘Hey, just honestly treat me like I don’t know anything when I’m in the car because the cars are going to look the same and feel the same. Just don’t let me do anything dumb. Remind me which pit lane I’m meant to be going to and which board and which number I’m in.’

“All these little details so I don’t trip over my shoelaces.”

Christensen added: “The good thing with our program here with Porsche and the WEC and IMSA is that we drive more or less double as much as everyone else in the WEC or IMSA category.

“So we can, as we’re still in the development phase of the project, take some stuff with us that we learned from one side to the other.

“Of course that can get a little complex, but we try as good as possible to share the knowledge we learned on the other side of the paddock.

“I think it’s quite good, but for sure we have to be careful with what we conclude and what we really learn.”

While both the WEC and WeatherTech Championship programs have been built to run autonomously, there are several other personnel in cross-over positions this week including the team’s managing director Jonathan Diuguid, technical director Christian Eifrig and Urs Kuratle, Porsche’s factory LMDh director.

“We have a technical director in between the two teams to follow up, so that everyone knows what’s going on here and vice versa,” Christensen added. “Also crew chiefs in between.

“There’s a few guys that are in between and their job is basically being in between and sharing the information.”

Cameron added that lessons from last weekend’s Prologue have already been taken into the WeatherTech Championship program, which could lead to gains for the overall program.

“We’ve already just had some conversations on the bits and pieces that we’ve learned over the Prologue. They’re asking questions,” he said.

“The cars are still new, we’re still trying to find a bit more. So being able to cross pollinate these things, I think it’s going to be good.

“If we find something that’s good here or there then we can try to bring that across to this side of the paddock because the configuration is slightly different in terms of aero, but otherwise it’s more or less the same.

“So if we find some good things here or there, I think it’ll help in terms of tire management and track evolution. It’ll help keep us in sync a little bit I think.

“I think it’s good positives and it keeps both halves of these programs aligned and more on the same page and hopefully we can use the advantage of having four of these cars to push things forward.”

Davey Euwema contributed to this report

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

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