With the Lone Star Le Mans, the six-hour race on the Circuit of the Americas, the FIA World Endurance Championship returned to the USA. On the demanding track in Austin, the Porsche 963 from Proton Competition finished third on the podium in the FIA World Cup, the classification for hypercar customer teams. In the overall standings, Harry Tincknell (GBR), Neel Jani (SUI) and Julien Andlauer (FRA) finished eleventh against strong competition.
Quotes after the race
Michael Ried, team owner and technical director of Proton Competition: “We were really looking forward to the WEC returning to Austin. For the team, the race was the expected challenge and an important experience.”
Christian Ried, team owner of Proton Competition: “We saw some good approaches in Austin. The race continues in Fuji in just two weeks. This will also be a challenging race for which we want to be well prepared again.”
Harry Tincknell (Porsche 963 #99): “Our pace was good. Without the drive-through penalty that I received for a stupid mistake, we would have finished further up the field. We gained a lot of important insights. I am sure that we can show a better performance in Fuji.”
Julien Andlauer (Porsche 963 #99): “That was a very tough weekend for us. We were a bit late with everything and it took a long time to get our Porsche 963 where we wanted it. Nevertheless, we learned a lot again and I hope that we can use that in Fuji. Today’s race showed again how important a good starting position is in this strong field. We still have to work on that.”
Neel Jani (Porsche 963 #99): “We were the only hypercar team not to test in Austin. That made it a difficult weekend for us from the start. We were able to constantly improve our car up until the race, but we were always one step behind our competitors. For Fuji, we have data from last year that we can work with. We want to get back into the top 10 there, where we undoubtedly belong.”
What happens next:
The next race for Proton Competition in the FIA World Endurance Championship WEC is the six-hour race in Fuji/Japan on September 15th.
