Team Penske has been seen carrying out testing with an ORECA 07-Gibson at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway amidst speculation that the American powerhouse operation could be preparing an entry into the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship.
The unliveried LMP2 car was spotted at the Indianapolis venue, sharing the track with an Indy Lights car.
Dailysportscar states that Penske is expected to field a pair of the cars into the 2022 FIA WEC as it prepares for its LMDh effort with Porsche in 2023.
The secondary prototype effort would be in preparation for the full factory effort in the top class of the WEC in which Penske will operate Porsche’s Multimatic-built prototypes.
MotorsportWeek.com has reached out to a Team Penske representative for further comment, but has yet to receive a reply.
The team has previous history of utilizing ORECA machinery in order to gear up for a major factory sportscar operation.
In 2017, the team entered a single car into the Petit Le Mans round of the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship. This was in order to prepare for the team’s major sportscar racing return as part of the Acura DPi effort, which ran from 2018 to 2020.
The team impressed in its sole outing with the ORECA, with Castroneves taking pole position for the ten-hour enduro before he, Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud would go on to finish third overall behind Extreme Speed Motorsports and Whelen Engineering Racing.
Were Penske to contest the FIA World Endurance Championship, it would be a first for the legendary team.
The team did contest a number of other major sportscar series around the world, including the then-called World Sportscar Championship, but has not competed in any of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest’s current series.
Aside from its previous involvement in the Acura DPi effort, Penske’s last major involvement in sportscar racing came when it operated a factory Porsche effort in the American Le Mans Series from 2005 to 2008.
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