Team Penske has confirmed an entry to the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship decider at Road Atlanta next month, with three of its IndyCar drivers forming the lineup.
The multi championship-winning outfit will run an ORECA 07-Gibson LMP2 car for Indianapolis 500 winners Juan Pablo Montoya and Helio Castroneves (pictured) and 2016 series champion Simon Pagenaud at the 10-hour event.
The Petit Le Mans appearance will serve as a teaser for the Penske organisation's 2018 Dayona Prototype international (DPi) project in association with Acura.
“We’ve had this race on our radar for some time, but we wanted to wait until we were able to get our drivers some testing at Road Atlanta prior to committing, as it is a very fast track and these cars are very difficult to drive from an IndyCar,” said Team Penske president Tim Cindric.
“Unfortunately, we confirmed this the hard way, as we have had to totally rebuild our car after an incident during testing last week."
"ORECA have bent over backwards to be sure we receive everything we need as they understand the importance of this race as our team prepares for the debut of our Acura ARX-05s at the Daytona 24.”
Montoya has been announced as one of the four full-time drivers for the upcoming season alongside Dane Cameron, while Castroneves has been heavily linked to one of the remaining two seats.
The Brazilian three-time Indy 500 winner is on the class honour roll for the Petit Le Mans enduro, having won in 2008 when sharing a Penske-run Porsche RS Spyder with Ryan Briscoe.
Pagenaud also won his class in 2010 with team-mates David Brabham and Marino Franchitti, and finished fourth overall last year in a Corvette DP entered by Action Express Racing.
The Frenchman, who finished second in this year's IndyCar championship, said the return to prototype racing would be like a "homecoming".
“They are great cars to drive, and to be paired with Juan and Helio in an endurance event is going to be a lot of fun," said Pagenaud.
"This is a chance for me to help Team Penske prepare for next year, while seeing what things we can learn and where we can improve right now."
Team Penske's last-minute entry brings the total car count up to 39, with 10 Prototype cars set to battle for overall honours.
