Porsche are feeling ‘pretty reasonable’ about their chances in the FIA World Endurance Championship, the season-opening 1000 Miles of Sebring, driver Dane Cameron told MotorsportWeek.com.
“I think it’s really hard to know at this point, prior to the start of the weekend, where we really stand in the Hypercar world, if you will. There’re some new cars and some updated cars. So, we haven’t really seen, you know, what’s what,” the American Porsche driver said.
He added, “But we feel pretty good about our own preparation. It’s good to have one race under our belts adults already, in Daytona. We’ve done the number of tests here so I think we feel pretty reasonable with our with our chances for the weekend.”
Porsche has tested extensively at Sebring, partially in the form of IMSA-sanctioned test sessions, where its 963 Hypercar runs in rthe GTP class, and has also racked up significant miles in private tests at the Florida race track.
Still, the German-American team’s only WEC running at the track so far has been the official test session, the Prologue, where it lapped in a similar pace range to Cadillac and Ferrari, with Toyota ahead, as many expected.
While Cameron’s ‘pretty reasonable’ phrasing doesn’t indicate absolute confidence in only the 963’s second race, it shows the team are getting up to speed quickly with the still-new car — as you’d expect from Porsche and Penske, two of the world’s leading motorsport outfits. However, it’s clear they don’t want to hype up their chances unnecessarily.
Alongside the WEC race, Cameron is also racing in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship’s 12 Hours of Sebring, held on Saturday. But, Cameron said there isn’t any special preparation needed for driving in the two races.
“With three drivers on the WEC side that takes off some of the load for a thousand mile day on Friday, and then being in the third driver position as well for the 12 hour race, you’re not really kind of leading nothing, let’s say, or going to do the most amount of time in the car regardless. So I think I think it’ll fit. I’m not too worried about that,” he said.
However, the American is looking forward to competing in both races. “I’m really excited about the opportunity to do both of these races. it’s a special weekend, I think, for us to have all four works cars here, and all the work that’s gone into readying this car and readying both these programs, so to have everything here is really, really quite special,” he told MotorsportWeek.com.
Sebring is known to drivers, teams and fans alike as a challenging track, and Cameron is under noi illusions that it’ll be a tough weekend.
“I’ve been training with it [doing both races] in the back of my mind. And you don’t want to to be tired,” the 34-year-old said.
I feel good about my physical preparation, and it’s sure to be a challenge. It’s not the easiest place in the world, it’s normally pretty hot and normally the first hot race of the year, but I feel good about where I’m at physically and excited for the challenge of the double header,” he concluded.
