Roger Penske and Porsche North America recently announced that the two companies have agreed to run an all-new Porsche prototype racecar in next year’s American Le Mans Series.
The joint announcement outlined plans for a new prototype sports car racing program to be run in the LMP2 class. Penske Motorsports will exclusively run the new Porsche prototype in 2006.
Penske and Porsche last worked together in the early ’70s on the fabled Porsche 917 Can-Am program where the combination of Porsche engineering, Penske preparation and the driving skills of Mark Donohue resulted in one of the most dominant race packages of the modern era.
According to Porsche North America CEO Peter Schwarzenbauer, “Our American racing customers have made it clear to us that they would like to move up several levels in the ALMS competition, as would we. We believe this new Porsche prototype program will provide the perfect means to do so, and will generate added enthusiasm for sports car racing in America, especially with Penske Motorsports as our partner and initial entrant.”
