By Jack Webster & Eddie LePine
Photos by Jack Webster, Fabrice Huet and Porsche AG
Will this be the year? Will this be the year that Roger Penske achieves his life-long goal of winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall?
52 years ago, Roger himself was a driver at Le Mans, co-driving with Pedro Rodriguez in a NART Ferrari 330 TRI/LM. That effort ended in retirement of the car when Roger missed a shift and blew the engine. Fast forward to 1971, and Roger Penske had long since retired from driving, but now was a very successful team owner. He took a Ferrari 512M to Le Mans for drivers Mark Donohue and David Hobbs. Despite being perhaps the best prepared car that year, the result was another DNF.
Sebring night stop.
Jack Webster photo
However, the professionalism of the Penske Ferrari entry (the Ferrari finished 2nd at the 1971 24 Hours of Daytona behind the winning Porsche 917) impressed the Germans and they got together with Penske for the development of the Porsche 917/10 and 917/30 CanAm cars, which turned out to be quite successful. Historically successful, if you recall. Fast forward again to a couple of years ago when once more, Penske and Porsche teamed up to run the new Porsche 963 in the IMSA GTP class and the FIA-WEC Hypercar class.
Penske had said for years that he would only go back to Le Mans if he had the opportunity to run for the overall victory, and this latest partnership with Porsche has put all the pieces of the puzzle together to give him and his team that opportunity. Porsche built the 963 and turned it over to Roger Penske for development, testing and racing. It was similar to the partnership in the 1970s when Penske dominated CanAm with the 917.
Fabrice Huet photo
In the 2023 IMSA season, Porsche Penske took wins at Long Beach and Elkhart Lake with the new car. In 2024, they won Daytona, Laguna Seca, Mosport and Elkhart Lake. They were developing the Porsche 963 into a consistent winner. The team took the same methodical steps in preparing to win at Le Mans. In 2023 Porsche Penske entered three cars. They finished 16th, 22nd and had one DNF. In 2024, Porsche Penske once again entered three cars at Le Mans. They started on pole, finished 4th, 6th and had another DNF.
For 2025, Porsche Penske has once again entered three cars at Le Mans – with an eye on moving up the finishing results to the top step of the podium. It would be a record 20th overall victory for Porsche, and that elusive 1st overall Le Mans win for Roger Penske.
This year, in hopes of taking the win at Le Mans, the Penske Porsche 963 entries have been race prepared by Porsche at their facility in Mannheim, Germany. Porsche and Penske have pulled out all the stops. “We are better prepared than ever before. The Porsche 963 is extremely reliable, the team is in perfect sync, and our driver line-up is world-class. Let’s go racing!”, said Jonathan Diuguild, Managing Director Porsche Penske Motorsport.
Porsche photo
Porsche Penske certainly has momentum going for it as they look to Le Mans. The team have already taken victory at the other two world famous endurance races so far in 2025 – the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Victory at Le Mans would make the ‘Triple Crown” complete, a fact certainly on the mind of Penske driver Felipe Nasr. “That’s the ultimate goal, and it would be incredible to have…for Roger Penske and Porsche as well. We already started the year really well, like a dream. It’s been fantastic to get Daytona and Sebring back-to-back in the same year, so I’m already like ‘Wow’.”
Nick Tandy: “If you’d asked me about winning the Triple Crown before, I’d have said, ‘That’s never going to happen’…The problem is we’ve had an unbelievably unlikely season so far. I’m incredibly proud to get to this point where we’re still talking about it now, because it means we’ve won Daytona and we won Sebring. That’s an incredible thing to say, by itself. So, you begin to think, ’What is possible?’ When luck is on your side and things are rolling your way, you’ve got to roll with it. Why not take it to France next weekend?”
There are actually two potential scenarios for Penkse drivers to take the triple crown – Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy are driving the Penske #4 Porsche 963, while endurance Porsche pilot Laurens Vanthoor (who was in the winning car at both Daytona and Sebring with both Felipe and Nick) will be in the #6 Porsche.
Fabrice Huet photo
The 2025 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is shaping up to be an historic contest of man and machine. At this stage it impossible to forecast the eventual winner on Sunday afternoon, but Porsche and Roger Penske have certainly tried to prepare as best as they can for whatever arises in the race.
Porsche first took the overall win at Le Mans in 1970 with the Porsche 917K. Its most recent win was in 2017 with the Porsche 919 Hybrid. Will 2025 be the year of the Porsche 963 and Roger Penske?
Stay tuned. It’s going to be a good one.
Update: In a press release on Wednesday June 11, Porsche stated that Kévin Estre had set the fourth-fastest time in the number 6 car. However, the car was subsequently placed to the back of the Hypercar grid as it was below the required minimum weight. “With the number 6 car we have fallen below the minimum weight as stated in the regulations for our race cars. For this reason, the vehicle was relegated to the back of the hypercar field. We are now concentrating on preparing for the race,” says Urs Kuratle, Director Factory Motorsport LMDh. “We still have two more irons in the fire in the battle for pole position and are hoping for a top result tomorrow.”
