Porsche and Team Penske are no strangers to winning together. The German carmaker and American racing team forged a triumphant partnership from 2006 to 2008 in the American Le Mans Series, the predecessor of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (WTSC). With the Porsche RS Spyder, Team Penske cleaned up the LMP2 titles over three consecutive years, regularly beating faster LMP1 prototypes in the process. Earlier still, Penske found success with the legendary Porsche 917 in the Can-Am Series in the 1970s.

“Team Penske has made a name for itself with an almost unparalleled success story in motorsport,” said Fritz Enzinger, Head of Porsche Motorsport. “In the long list of victories to date, however, the name of Le Mans has been missing. I hope that we will finally be able to chalk up this success as of 2023 with Porsche Penske Motorsport. This would then mark Porsche’s 20th overall victory in La Sarthe – a dream come true.”

Eighty-four-year-old Roger Penske has never made any secret of his desire to return to Le Mans. “Le Mans is the Number One challenge, the challenge I haven’t been able to achieve. It is a world-class event. I put it up there with the Indianapolis 500. This is an iconic race, with world-class drivers and teams, and I think that the new rules package will bring more competition for the leadership,” he said in an earlier interview. 

The centenary race in 2023 will therefore mark Team Penske’s return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans after a very long absence. Its only previous appearance in the iconic French marathon was in 1971 with a Ferrari 512 M driven by Mark Donohue and David Hobbs. Penske himself had competed in 1963 at the wheel of the North American Racing Team’s Ferrari 330 TRI/LM shared with Mexican Pedro Rodríguez, but they were forced to retire. “We had a relationship with Luigi Chinetti. He was a Ferrari distributor in New York, and, because I was a racer, he contacted me and asked me if I’d like to run in the 24 Hours,” Penske said. “I knew Pedro and his brother Ricardo, because we raced against them in the United States in sportscar racing. That was a wonderful time for me being able to race there. The Mulsanne Straight did not have chicanes then. Today drivers look at technology, lap times; we had none of that in those days. It was interesting for the crowd, as we had all the cars in the garage near the track and we could see all the Ferraris lined up.”

Today Team Penske is involved in several motorsport disciplines, including NASCAR and IndyCar.

Photo: the Porsche RS Spyder run by Team Penske in the American Le Mans Series from 2006 to 2008.