DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — One of the most compelling storylines about Porsche Penske Motorsport’s third consecutive overall victory in the 2026 Rolex 24 At Daytona was that it created the perfect start for celebrating the 60th anniversary of the formation of Team Penske.
Somewhat lost in the excitement for Penske was the fact that 2026 is also the milestone 75th year of competition for Porsche Motorsport. The German marque’s illustrious racing history dates to 1951, when a 356 ‘Gmund’ coupe claimed the 1,100-cc class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans while finishing 20th overall.
Porsche owns more overall Le Mans wins than any other manufacturer (19, including seven consecutive between 1981-87) as well as a record 21 overall wins (and 25 powered by a Porsche engine) in the Rolex 24.
During this year’s Rolex 24, Porsche brought together a diverse panel to reflect on the manufacturer’s 75 years of sustained success on the race track.
The participants included IMSA Hall of Famer Hurley Haywood, who notched five overall wins at Daytona driving the 911 Carrera RSR, the 911-derived 935, and a 962 prototype. He also earned Le Mans triumphs in three iconic Porsche prototypes – 936, 956, and 962.
Haywood later shared a Porsche-powered Fabcar Daytona Prototype in the 2005 Rolex 24 with Timo Bernhard, then a Porsche Junior driver who would soon be tabbed to join a collaboration between Porsche Motorsport and Team Penske.
A Team Penske Porsche RS Spyder produced three consecutive LMP2 class championships in the American Le Mans Series between 2006-08. Bernhard and Romain Dumas clinched the LMP2 title in 2007 and ’08, and in the latter year, they also guided the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) Spyder to overall victory at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
The RS Spyder toppled the theoretically faster and more powerful LMP1 class entries for overall race wins 11 times between 2006-08, with Bernhard and Dumas earning nine of those trophies.
Jonathan Diuguid joined Team Penske straight out of college in 2005 and was immediately assigned to the nascent RS Spyder project, where he designed parts and served as a ‘DAG’ (Data Acquisition Geek) and assistant race engineer.
From 2010-17, Diuguid worked with Penske’s IndyCar program before returning to sports cars in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship when Penske joined forced with Acura to field prototypes in IMSA’s top class. With Diuguid leading the engineering effort, the Penske Acura ARX-05s claimed the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class title in 2019 and ’20.
When Penske announced a collaboration with Porsche for IMSA’s new Grand Touring Prototype class starting in 2023, Diuguid was named the program’s Managing Director. Porsche Penske Motorsport has locked up the last two GTP class championships with the Porsche 963, and they started the 2026 season with Felipe Nasr, Julien Andlauer, and Laurin Heinrich taking the overall laurels at the Rolex 24.
Haywood’s first experience with a Porsche prototype came in 1973, driving the legendary 917-10 in the SCCA Can-Am championship.
“With 1,200 horsepower and a lot of aerodynamics, it was quite tricky and quite a handful to drive,” Haywood recalled. “That was a tremendous jump forward from a 300-horsepower 911, but Mark Donohue gave me some good advice and said, ‘You’ve got to be really careful with this car. Take small steps, and then eventually, you’ll catch up.’ That’s exactly what I did, and I was third in the championship behind Donohue and George Follmer.
“I think when Porsche looked at that, they thought, ‘If he can handle that car with really no experience in a prototype, maybe we should look at him to come on for Le Mans (in 1977),’” Haywood continued. “The first year I was paired with Jurgen Barth, then Jacky Ickx had some problems with his car, so they moved Jacky over to our car. Jacky was brilliant at night in the rain – which I’ll tell you is pretty daunting at Le Mans – and we won the race. That sort of opened the door for Porsche and me.”
Bernhard had a solid record racing GT-class Porsche 911s, including multiple victories at the Nurburgring 24 Hours and the ALMS GT class championship, when he got the nod from Porsche to make his first prototype start in the 2005 Rolex 24.
“We had five drivers on that car!” he laughed. “I was with Hurley, JC France, Romain Dumas, and Mike Rockenfeller. The car didn’t handle that well and we didn’t finish the race. Then I remember I got a call from Roland Kussmaul in August 2005 who said, ‘We’ve got a beautiful RS Spyder at Weissach (the Porsche Motorsport headquarters and test track outside Stuttgart), and we need a driver for some gearbox testing. How fast can you be there?’ I said, ‘Two hours, but if the car is waiting, I can make it in 90 minutes!’
“I went hammering down to Weissach, and I got my first experience in the RS Spyder. I fell in love with this nimble little LMP2 car with lots of downforce. That’s when the RS Spyder program kicked off, and that’s when Penske Racing came into my life. Later that year, I met Roger Penske for the first time in person, along with Tim Cindric, and Jonathan, who was an engineer on this program. We won three straight LMP2 championships and we won the 12 Hours of Sebring overall. That’s really where my Porsche career kicked off.”
Diuguid, then in his early 20s, has fond memories of the RS Spyder program and the start of his successful association with Team Penske.
“My first experience with a Porsche prototype was the first track test run outside of Weissach,” he said. “It was at Jerez, and it was very hot. We were very successful with the RS Spyder, and that has transitioned into the Porsche 963. It’s come full circle, really, in 20 years. It’s exciting to develop and work with a manufacturer like Porsche; racing is in their culture and their DNA and their blood, and it’s amazing to be successful with them over almost two decades.”