KCMG Swaps Porsche Chassis for Race

KCMG is rallying to rebuild its Proton-prepared No. 78 Porsche 911 RSR Friday afternoon at Le Mans after team principal Christian Ried, and his co-drivers Wolf Henzler and Joel Camathias, found the car undriveable in practice and qualifying.

Despite a Porsche that was clearly a handful, the No. 78 car qualified 8th in a field of 13 competitors in GTE-Am.

The team skipped last night’s third and final qualifying session but still managed a combined 64 laps in Free Practice and the first two qualifying sessions.

The replacement chassis from Proton’s shop in Germany arrived around 2 p.m. and the rebuild is expected to be complete in time for Saturday morning’s warmup.

Ried told Sportscar365 they believe the handling issue is likely related to previously undetected damage from an incident with an Audi R18 in a practice session at last month’s FIA World Endurance Championship round at Spa.

The team received special dispensation from race organizers to change chassis, which is typically prohibited during a WEC race weekend.

The donor car for the replacement tub is the Porsche that Henzler, Mike Hedlund and Robert Renauer drove to class victory in last month’s European Le Mans Series round at Imola.

James Newbold contributed to this report