This weekend the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) series heated up again after a long summer break at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA).
At the six-hour race on the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, the Porsche 911 RSR finished second in the GTE-Pro class race. At the fourth round of the World Endurance Championship (WEC), the French Porsche works drivers Patrick Pilet and Frédéric Makowiecki looked like they might even bring home their second trophy of the season in front of 50.000 spectators. But although they held the lead until shortly before the finish, they were finallly beaten to the flag after a fight by a mere sixteen seconds.
The race on the Grand Prix circuit on the outskirts of the Texan city on Saturday afternoon set off under hot and humid weather conditions. Shortly before nightfall, torrential rain quickly flooded large sections of the race track.
Chopard and Porsche Motorsport: shared values
United by shared values such as the constant quest for performance and excellence, Porsche Motorsport and Chopard naturally gravitated towards each other around their passion for racing.
Born of a joint desire to pursue reliability and innovation, the exceptional mechanics emerging from the Porsche Motorsport or Chopard workshops have significantly influenced their respective fields and remain benchmarks for aficionados of motorsports and watchmaking.
The paths of Porsche and Chopard also meet in the story of another legend: Jacky Ickx. An exceptional driver who has put his name in the history books by feats achieved in several motorsports disciplines, and a longstanding Chopard ambassador, Jacky Ickx – nicknamed “Mr Le Mans” – can lay claim to six victories in this legendary case, of which four at the wheel of Porsche!
He has also taken part in the famous Mille Miglia race at the wheel of a Porsche 550 Spyder along side Chopard’s Co-President, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, an avid motorsport enthusiast and vintage racing car collector.
Karl-Friedrich Scheufele states: “Porsche stands for passion and performance – values we can fully identify with. We are proud to be part of their return to the FIA World Endurance series this season.”
The FIA World Endurance Championship will continue through October and November with races in Fuji/Japan, Shanghai/China, Sakhir/Bahrain and Sao Paulo/Brazil.