Roger Penske will field an LMP2 program in the FIA World Endurance Championship ahead of his team’s Porsche factory LMDh campaign for 2023.
After a private test at the Penske-owned Indianapolis Motor Speedway was scheduled earlier this week for an unliveried ORECA 07 that ran late into the night, ‘The Captain’ acknowledged the team’s intent to race in the WEC to RACER.com’s Marshall Pruett.
“With the commitment that we have with Porsche for ‘23 and beyond, you just can’t show up and be ready to run,” Penske told RACER. “So we purchased the LMP2 car and expect to enter it in some races and compete at Le Mans as a training ground for us for ‘23.”
Penske will also run a two-car factory Porsche LMDh effort in IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship but the WEC Porsche effort will be new to the Penske organization.
“We were shaking down the car with some drivers not to be identified at this point,” Penske continued. “Just to get a feel for the car and the team. These are guys that worked on the Acura Team Penske program, and we were just trying to get people back on their feet after the IndyCar season. And we’ve done a couple of days of testing and it was well worthwhile. And we have more to do.”
With a heap of pre-2023 prep to undertake including establishing a new WEC based Europe and the testing of the Porsche’s a part-time WEC LMP2 project is tall that can be currently committed to.
