On Wednesday the FIA World Endurance Championship unveiled its full-season entry list, and it miraculously includes a whopping four Porsche 963 LMDh cars in the Hypercar class, plus a further six 2019-spec 911 RSRs in the GTE Am category. More than a quarter of all the cars on the grid this season will be sporting the Porsche crest. I’d say that really increases Porsche’s chances when it comes to one of them finding the top step of the podium. This is going to be a banner year for motorsport, certainly on par with, or better than, the previous 919 hybrid LMP1 era. And get ready, because next year is going to be even better.
So what does the entry list look like? Well, we’ve got two factory-entered cars from Porsche Penske, as expected. There’s the Hertz-sponsored Jota, and incredibly Proton Competition are on the list, though will miss the 1000 Miles of Sebring season opener. With four cars in the class, Porsche is the most represented brand. Cadillac, Vanwall, and Glickenhaus all entered one car each, while there will be two factory-prepped cars from Toyota, Ferrari, and Peugeot, bringing the class total to 13. Porsche is believed to be prepping a third factory car specifically for entry at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, bringing the total potentially to five. It seems unlikely that Porsche will be able to deliver any additional chassis to customers by June, but Proton has allegedly expressed interest. That would be pretty cool.
Down in the GTE Am class we will see the end of the GTE/GTLM chassis, this will be the last season that these cars will be eligible to race anywhere in the world, so of course there’s a bunch of them on the entry list. With one car each from Proton Competition, GR Racing, Iron Dames, Dempsey-Proton, and Project 1-AO, this is a pretty serious Porsche-heavy lineup as well. It’s pretty cool to see the all-female lineup of Rahel Frey, Sarah Bovy, and Michelle Gatting in a Porsche for the first time with the Iron Dames. Most of the other lineups are TBA, so we’ll have to wait a few weeks to see who gets in what seat. Either way, there’s a ton of Porsches on the grid. It’s a good time to be a Porsche fan.