Penske has revealed that his aspirations to host the North American spherical of the WEC on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway highway course, outlined as early as 2022, stay on maintain for at the very least the subsequent two seasons.
“I can not say we’re able to do one thing within the subsequent 24 months,” stated Penske, whose staff runs the manufacturing unit Porsche squad within the Hypercar class of the WEC.
“I wish to do it, however we have now nothing on the bottom proper now.”
Penske revealed that the scheduling conflicts that resulted within the North American WEC spherical going to Austin for this season stay an impediment to his aspirations to host the collection on the venue of the US Method 1 Grand Prix from 2000-2007.
“In the intervening time it’s a scheduling state of affairs, when Indy is obtainable and their schedule,” he defined.
Indianapolis has obtainable the weekend in mid to late September at the moment stuffed by an IMSA SportsCar Championship spherical, which this 12 months has turn out to be a six-hour enduro, however this conflicts with the long-standing Fuji WEC fixture in Japan.
The Fuji 6 Hours is scheduled for 15 September, just one week forward of the so-called Battle of the Bricks IMSA spherical at Indy, whereas Austin will host the WEC on 1 September.
Begin: #1 Porsche Crew Porsche 919 Hybrid: Neel Jani, Andre Lotterer, Nick Tandy leads in 2017
Picture by: JEP / Motorsport Images
The WEC has renewed its relationship with the Circuit of the Americas in Austin in 2024 after the top of its five-year deal to run on the undercard of the Sebring 12 Hours IMSA race ended after final 12 months’s season-opener.
Austin is known to have signed a contract for a single 12 months in opposition to the backdrop of the WEC organisation’s negotiations with Penske.
Austin had a daily place on the WEC schedule from 2013-2017 earlier than returning in 2020 on a one-off foundation when it stepped in as a late substitute following the cancellation of the Brazilian fixture at Interlagos.
Penske has nevertheless re-iterated his hopes of bringing the WEC to Indianapolis sooner or later.
“We’d like to have them sooner or later,” he stated. “There may be a number of curiosity in sportscar racing proper now.”
Penske stated he wasn’t on the lookout for drive Austin off the schedule.
“We’re not right here to push them out,” he stated. “In the event that they [the WEC] have race there, they need to keep there.”
Austin has struggled to draw sturdy crowds to its WEC fixture, even when it was a part of a double-header with IMSA in 2014-2016.
Porsche Motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach threw his weight behind the thought of what he stated could be a “house race” for the Penske Porsche Motorsport squad.
“It will be one thing we wish to see,” he stated.
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