Tincknell to race Proton Porsche LMDh at Monza WEC round

Tincknell has been named in the German team’s 963 for its debut at the Monza 6 Hours on 9 July alongside Porsche factory driver Gianmaria Bruni, who was the only name listed in the Hypercar class car when the 2023 WEC entry was announced in January.

It will be the 31-year-old Briton’s first race outing in a prototype since a one-off at the Daytona 24 Hours IMSA SportsCar Championship round aboard PR1/Mathiasen ORECA-Gibson 07 LMP2 in January 2022.

That followed a four-season stint with the factory Mazda Daytona Prototype international squad in IMSA, which yielded victories in the blue riband Sebring and Petit Le Mans enduros in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

Tincknell has moved across from Proton’s GTE Am line-up, which he joined at Le Mans 2021 and then contested the full WEC last year.

The #88 Porsche 911 RSR in which he will make his fourth WEC start of 2023 at Le Mans on 10/11 June will be replaced on the entry list by the #99 963 from Monza onwards.

No third name has been announced by Proton for its LMDh and it is understood that the team is considering running with a two-driver line-up.

Proton opted to delay racing its 963 until after Le Mans in order to undertake a short test programme with the car, unlike Jota, the other customer Porsche LMDh team in the WEC.

The British squad debuted its car at the Spa 6 Hours at the end of April after only a brief shakedown at the Porsche’s Weissach test facility.

The WEC entry returns to 37 cars for Monza, round four of the series, after the Ganassi Hypercar squad ran a second Cadillac V-Series.R at Spa.

Tincknell has been racing GTE Am Porsches with Proton ahead of his move into the top class for Monza

Photo by: Paul Foster

Glickenhaus Racing has so far only listed Romain Dumas in its Pipo-engined 007 Le Mans Hypercar, but it is expected that Olivier Pla and Ryan Briscoe will continue in the car.

Mathias Beche comes into the Prema team’s #63 ORECA alongside Daniil Kvyat and Doriane Pin.

The Swiss LMP2 regular replaces Lamborghini factory driver Mirko Bortolotti, who will be racing on the Monza weekend at the Norisring DTM round aboard a Huracan GT3 EVO2 for SSR Performance.

Ben Hanley and Giedo van der Garde return to the #22 and #23 United Autosport LMP2 ORECAs in place of Filipe Albuquerque and Tom Blomqvist, who will be competing in the clashing IMSA SportsCar Championship round at the former Mosport circuit, now known as the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

The only other TBA on the entry is against the #21 GTE Am class AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo in which Ulysse de Pauw and Simon Mann will continue.

Stefano Costantini and then Diego Alessi have so far driven the car alongside them.