The retro liveries that Porsche Penske unveiled at Road America 2026

Throughout 2026, Porsche Penske Motorsport has been changing the liveries of its two 963 prototypes at every round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Sebring, Long Beach and Laguna Seca saw designs that paid tribute to Mobil 1, Apple Music and the 1980 Apple Computer. This weekend, at Road America, the team adds two more schemes, inspired by the 917/30 from 1973 and the RS Spyder from 2007, just as the race extends to six hours and awards Michelin Endurance Cup points for the first time.

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Porsche is celebrating 75 years of racing and Penske 60, and the factory in Weissach together with Roger Penske's team have been leaving glimpses of their partnership throughout the season with commemorative liveries. At Sebring, the two 963 cars sported the white with blue and red stripes that Mobil 1 used on the official Porsches of the 1990s, a nod to three decades of work with ExxonMobil. At Long Beach, the concept was more contemporary, with red, pink, white and black tones to promote the partnership with Apple Music. And at Laguna Seca came the most recognisable tribute, with the livery of the 935 K3 that Dick Barbour Racing entered in 1980 and the multicoloured Apple Computer logo, right in the year that company turns half a century old.

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The 917/30 of Mark Donohue had dipped below two minutes in qualifying in 1973 and put an eternity on the competition. The RS Spyder, a 775‑kg LMP2, took on the official Audi LMP1s in 2007 on the same track. Two performances that parc fermé still talks about and that now dress the 963 number 6 and number 7.

Road America becomes an endurance race

For the first time, the Wisconsin round goes from two hours and forty minutes to six hours and joins the Michelin Endurance Cup, the internal trophy that scores the endurance events at Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, Road Atlanta and now also Road America.

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That change suits a Porsche Penske team that has experienced two opposite realities in 2026. The start was devastating, with a win at Daytona thanks to Felipe Nasr, Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich, and a dominant first and second at Sebring. But as soon as the sprint races arrived, the picture turned. At Laguna Seca, the two official 963s finished sixth and seventh. At Detroit, fifth and eighth. At Watkins Glen, fifth and sixth. Cadillac found pace, Acura returned to the conversation with Meyer Shank, and BMW took a consistent step forward. Porsche didn't fall off, but lost the cushion with which it had opened the year.

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The championship battle

The Cadillac Whelen #31 leads with 2,145 points, the Meyer Shank Acura #93 is second with 1,900, and the Porsche #7 of Nasr and Andlauer is third with 1,887. Just thirteen points separate the Acura from the Porsche in the fight for second, and the gap to the leader stands at 258. The Porsche #6 of Estre and Vanthoor is fourth with 1,774, closely followed by the JDC‑Miller #5 with 1,705. Porsche still leads the Endurance Cup, and Road America, with its new six‑hour format, awards points from that pool.

If one thing has become clear in 2026, it is that the 963s perform better the longer the race. Daytona and Sebring were proof of that. The sprint rounds at Laguna Seca, Detroit and Watkins Glen exposed a sharper Cadillac, an Acura that recovered ground, and a BMW that entered the conversation. But extending the distance to six hours dilutes that attrition and returns Porsche to a terrain where it moves more comfortably.

Kevin Estre, who has not driven a prototype at Road America for a decade, will wear the yellow helmet that replicates Donohue's. "I hope it goes just as well for us," he joked in the preview.

Nasr aimed straight at the objective ahead: "We want to cut points from the leader and get back to the top." Both quotes sum up the heart of the matter. The tribute to Donohue, to Bernhard and to Dumas is not just about the paint. Porsche and Penske need that nod to the past to push a season run‑in that had begun to get complicated.