Porsche dominates 2024 IMSA Championship

At the Road Atlanta finale, the factory team scooped the entire title pool in the top GTP class. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s two Porsche 963s finished the ten-hour Petit Le Mans race in second and third place. Works drivers Dane Cameron from the USA and Felipe Nasr from Brazil secured the drivers’ crown. The titles in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup also went to the sports car manufacturer from Stuttgart. In the GTD Pro class, the customer team AO Racing clinched championship honors with the Porsche 911 GT3 R, and the former Porsche Junior Laurin Heinrich from Germany is the new champion in the top category for GT vehicles.

Porsche Penske Motorsport, Champions 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship

Record crowd for 10-hour battle

Witnessed by a record crowd on the picturesque Road Atlanta racetrack, Porsche Penske Motorsport headed into the IMSA season finale as the hot favorites. Thanks to a healthy lead in the manufacturers’ championship, only one Porsche 963 had to start the 10-hour race to earn the final decisive points in the bid for the title. The sports car manufacturer accomplished this at 12:10 pm when the over 50-strong field rolled onto the grid. However, suspense remained high over the entire 443 laps of the race.

Porsche 963, Porsche Penske Motorsport (#6), Nick Tandy (UK), Mathieu Jaminet (F), Kevin Estre (F)

The two Porsche 963 crewed by Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr, and Matt Campbell (Australia), as well as Nick Tandy, Mathieu Jaminet, and Kévin Estre (France), not only battled between themselves for the drivers’ and team titles but also dueled over ten hours for race victory at Petit Le Mans. For long stretches, the hybrid prototypes outpaced the rest of the field. It was only in the final 35-minute sprint after the last of five safety car phases that they had to admit defeat to the victorious Cadillac. Finishing third at Road Atlanta, Cameron/Nasr clinched the drivers’ championship, while Tandy/Jaminet finished the race and the IMSA season as runner-up. Accordingly, the two Porsche Penske Motorsport crews locked out the first two places in the final team standings. Moreover, the manufacturers’, team, and drivers’ titles in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup also went to Porsche. This separate championship includes the five endurance races in Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, Indianapolis, and Road Atlanta.

Porsche 911 GT3 R, AO Racing (#77), Laurin Heinrich (D), Michael Christensen (DK), Julien Andlauer (F)

Detlev von Platen, Member of the Executive Board, Sales and Marketing

“It’s fantastic to see how happy the whole team is about the titles. We brought home everything we’d hoped for,” says a delighted Detlev von Platen. “It’s obvious from everyone involved that it was incredibly hard work: everyone is shedding tears of joy – what a wonderful sight!”

Thomas Laudenbach (Leiter Porsche Motorsport), Detlev von Platen, (Vorstand Vertrieb und Marketing Porsche AG) (l-r)

Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President Porsche Motorsport

“It doesn’t get much better than this: We won all titles in the top GTP class. Nothing was left on the table,” rejoiced Thomas Laudenbach. “The impressive performance of the entire team and our crews in Weissach, Mannheim, and Mooresville laid the foundation for this – these incredible accomplishments are no coincidence. I’m very proud! I’m also thrilled about AO Racing’s title wins in the GTD Pro class and Laurin Heinrich’s championship crown. I think it’ll only really dawn on us in the coming days what we have achieved today and throughout the entire season.”

Porsche 963, Porsche Penske Motorsport (#7), Dane Cameron (USA), Felipe Nasr (BR), Matt Campbell (AUS)

Porsche Penske Motorsport (#7), Felipe Nasr (BR), Dane Cameron (USA) (l-r)

Urs Kuratle, Director Factory Motorsport

“Wow! I couldn’t be prouder,” says Urs Kuratle. “Our drivers and every single team member did an incredible job throughout the year. That’s the only reason we’re where we are today. A banner season that we’ll never forget.”

Porsche 963, Proton Competition (#5), Gianmaria Bruni (I), Bent Viscaal (NL), Alessio Picariello (B)

Jonathan Diuguid, Managing Director Porsche Penske Motorsport

“Narrowly missing out on winning the final race is a little painful. We looked extremely strong for ten hours and it was super close at the end – but of course that’s complaining at the highest level, because we’ve scooped all the titles. Now it’s time to celebrate and then we’ll look ahead to the start of the next season,” stated Jonathan Diuguid.

Porsche Penske Motorsport (#7), Dane Cameron (USA), Felipe Nasr (BR), Matt Campbell (AUS) (l-r)

Customer Porsche Entries

Proton Competition’s Porsche 963 concluded the 10-hour race at Road Atlanta in sixth place. In the first half of the Petit Le Mans race, the seasoned squad led by works driver Gianmaria Bruni from Italy put in an inspired performance and at times matched the pace of the frontrunners – only to lose ground after two penalties. For the customer team JDC-Miller MotorSports, the final IMSA round ended in disappointment: the distinctive yellow-liveried racing car with the starting number 85 was forced into early retirement after about four hours due to a power steering problem.

Porsche 911 GT3 R, MDK Motorsports (#86), Anders Fjordbach (DK), Kerong Li (CHN), Klaus Bachler (A)

The new drivers’ champions of the GTP category

Brazilian Felipe Nasr joined Porsche’s works driver squad in 2022. The 34-year-old began his racing career early in karts before progressing into single-seaters. In 2014 he advanced to Formula 1. There, he spent one season working as a test and reserve driver at Williams and two years as a Grand Prix driver at Sauber. In 2018, Nasr returned to the American continent, where he promptly won the overall IMSA Sports Car Championship at the wheel of a DPi prototype. After finishing the 2019 season as vice-champion, he repeated the title success in 2021. Nasr has been racing the Porsche 963 in the IMSA series since 2023. In January this year, he won the 24 Hours of Daytona for the second time, this year with the Americans Dane Cameron and Josef Newgarden and the Australian Matt Campbell as teammates. Until the IMSA finale at Road Atlanta, he and Cameron pocketed five more podium finishes, including a win at the 6-hour race in Watkins Glen.

Dane Cameron (USA), Felipe Nasr (BR), Matt Campbell (AUS), Porsche Penske Motorsport (#7)

Dane Cameron has also been a Porsche works driver since 2022. Born in Newport Beach, the Californian also took his first motorsport steps in a kart before finding his way into sports car and prototype racing via championship titles in American and European formula series. In 2014, he won the GTD class of the United Sports Car Championship, the forerunner of today’s IMSA Sports Car Championship. In 2016 and 2018, the now 35-year-old clinched the overall title at the wheel of DPi prototypes. In 2023, Cameron shared the cockpit of the Porsche 963 with Denmark’s Michael Christensen and Frenchman Frédéric Makowiecki in the FIA World Endurance Championship WEC. On his return to the IMSA series, he celebrated his first Daytona victory together with Felipe Nasr, Josef Newgarden and Matt Campbell. Like Nasr, he crowned his career at Road Atlanta with a third IMSA title in the top prototype class.

GT classes: Laurin Heinrich and “Rexy” fulfill all dreams

In the GTD Pro category, Porsche celebrated the ultimate success with its customer team AO Racing – but not before the so-called “Rexy” 911 GT3 R suffered a bitter setback early in the race: the bright green No. 77 racer had to make several unexpected pit stops due to a faulty cable connection on the steering wheel, which cost five laps. Nevertheless, Laurin Heinrich from Germany, Michael Christensen from Denmark, and Frenchman Julien Andlauer brought the car across the finish line in eleventh place. All three are former Porsche Juniors. This result was enough to hand Porsche the manufacturers’ championship, AO Racing the team title, and Heinrich the drivers’ crown.