Porsche Motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach told Motorsport.com “I don’t think it is going to happen” when asked if the two 963s available to customers for 2023 could be delivered in time for them to take part in the opening round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in late January.
JDC-Miller Motorsports was the first privateer to commit to running the 963 in IMSA and is likely to be joined by Proton Competition, which is putting together a yet-to-be-confirmed dual programme with a pair of Porsche’s LMDh prototypes across IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Laudenbach’s comments represent a more pessimistic outlook on the prospect of the customers racing against the Porsche Penske Motorsport works team in Daytona than the one he outlined in September.
Back then he said “it will be difficult” for deliveries to take place in time for the IMSA series opener.
Laudenbach stressed that no final decision had been made on the availability of customer cars for Daytona, but said that one was would come “for sure quite soon”.
“We try everything to get customer cars as soon as possible, but we don’t have everything in our own hands,” he said.
He explained that this resulted from the timelines involved in development of the 963 and then the delivery of parts to build up the first customer 963 prototypes.
“The cars will be ready when they are ready; if we can’t get them together we can’t get them together,” added Laudenbach.
It appears that the IMSA cars could be available for round two, the Sebring 12 Hours on 18 March, but that Proton’s WEC car and the one for the confirmed JOTA project will not be on the grid for the opening round of the WEC on the so-called 'Super Sebring' bill.
JOTA and Proton, at least according to current planning, look likely to get their chassis prior to round two of the WEC at the Algarve circuit in April.
“Again it is too early to say, though the goal is always for the customers to have them as early as possible,” said Laudenbach.
“It would be great to have all the cars in Sebring [taking part in both races], but we cannot confirm that.”
Proton, which has links with Porsche in GT racing stretching back more than 20 years, has yet to confirm its plans with the 963, but team boss Christian Ried has talked openly of its aspirations to compete in both championships with the car.
He admitted back in September that the plans for the WEC were at a more advanced stage than those for IMSA.
Expanding the team’s US operations in time to compete at Daytona, if a car were available, was already thought to be problematic, as Ried said it was “probably already too late for Daytona”.
