Porsche and CORE Renew GT Partnership
With Manthey Racing, Porsche recently won the 2015 GT championship titles for manufacturers, drivers and teams in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), and paralleled this with three GT titles in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the USA and Canada with CORE autosport.
“With the Le Mans 24-hour race, we chose a very special event to extend the contracts with our key GT-motorsport partners officially and in good time," said Porsche Head of Motorsport Dr Frank-Steffen Walliser at the signing of the contracts. “With Manthey Racing and CORE autosport we will continue our close ties to two of the very best teams in the campaigning of our GT vehicles. Together, we have achieved a great deal in recent years and we want to achieve even more in the future."
Manthey Racing will continue to run race operations for Porsche Motorsport in the WEC, with CORE autosport doing the same in IMSA.
“We’re proud that Porsche will stand behind our team in the coming years and thus trusts us to contest the WEC on behalf of Porsche Motorsport," said Nicolas Raeder, Managing Director of Manthey Racing at Le Mans.
Jon Bennett, owner of CORE Autosport, said: “Everyone at CORE is thrilled to continue our relationship with Porsche. Our partnership started with a Rolex 24 at Daytona victory and continued with multiple championships. We are prepared to offer more of the same."
As the most successful manufacturer in the history of the prestigious long distance classic, Porsche is again represented by a large contingent at Le Mans. In the strongly supported GT classes, a total of seven 911 RSR tackle the world’s toughest automobile race: The Porsche Motorsport factory squad fields two 911 RSR with the overall Le Mans winners Earl Bamber (New Zealand) and Nick Tandy (Great Britain) and with five 911 contenders campaigned by customer teams. With the two 919 Hybrid in the LMP1 class, Porsche is represented at Le Mans by total of nine vehicles and 16 works drivers.