F1Weekly Podcast # 1065

Nasir returns from Petit Le Mans at road Atlanta with a fully loaded in flight burrito! Motorsports Mondial has a brief history on American drivers, what is really going on with Toyota and, This week Nasir chats with Urs Kuratle Porsche motorsports director of factory racing.

Kuratle, who oversees both the WEC and IMSA programmes, emphasises how IMSA events are “booming,” adding: “Every race is a record crowd there, and that’s nice to see. That’s once again very important for us to have that positive feedback. So far, so good – we are leading in all the championships at the moment.”

Key to that IMSA boom has been the introduction of the GTP class last year, which follows similar rules as the WEC’s hypercar class and allows manufacturers to compete across both championships. The class replaced the the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class and saw many new teams flock to the series – Porsche Penske Motorsport among them.
Though Porsche and Penske’s relationship dates back to 1972, when the two brands entered the grid together in the Canadian-American Challenge Cup (Can-Am), the new outfit is the first to see both brands united in one team name.

Bringing together two of motorsport’s biggest names, with hundreds of wins between the two teams, the Porsche Penske Motorsport name also reinforces the importance of that special relationship with the US to Porsche as a brand.
This year’s IMSA race at Laguna Seca marked an important milestone to both brands, with the GTP Triumph by Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy marking Team Penske’s 100th sportscar racing win, and the 600th in IMSA for Porsche.
“There’s a reason why Porsche chose Penske – it’s a partnership, it’s not a supplier relationship,” Kuratle says. “It’s visible in the name Porsche Penske Motorsport. Penske is one of, if not the most, successful teams worldwide, not only in the US, with all its victories in different series, and it’s a highly professional team.

“Something which is not highlighted enough sometimes, it’s one of a very few teams that have the size to operate worldwide. The WEC team, which is operated out of Mannheim, is something which is operated by Penske, and that’s part of this partnership.
“There are only a few teams who have the size, the knowledge and the know-how, being able to do so. That’s a big thing. Penske in motorsport, in the US, an extremely big name.”

Porsche Motorsports.

Nasir returns from Petit Le Mans at road Atlanta with a fully loaded in flight burrito! Motorsports Mondial has a brief history on American drivers, what is really going on with Toyota and, This week Nasir chats with Urs Kuratle Porsche motorsports director of factory racing.

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