The highlight of the year are undoubtedly the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The centrepiece of the World Endurance Championship takes place on 10-11 June. A victory in France not only brings prestige, but also lots of World Championship points: at Le Mans, the winner gets 50 points. In five races of the season, each lasting six hours, WEC points are awarded in the same way as in Formula 1: 25 for the winner, 18 for second place, 15 for third. The final race in Bahrain lasts eight hours, so the normal points are multiplied by a factor of 1.5. In the WEC, three drivers share a car in the "Hypercar" top class.
In the IMSA SportsCar Championship, clocks tick differently. The eleven race distances vary from 100 minutes in the case of the Long Beach street circuit – which Porsche has already won with the 963 – to 24 hours in Daytona, the season opener on the last weekend in January. Other highlights are the 12 Hours of Sebring on 17 March and the "Petit Le Mans" lasting ten hours to close the year on 14 October.
"Think big" is the motto of the Americans. This also applies to the points system: it pays out a whopping 350 points for each victory. Races on natural-terrain tracks in North America often remain exciting right until the last second, as the frequent use of the safety car repeatedly brings the field close together again. In the IMSA series, the Porsche 963 will compete in the top class GTP ("Grand Touring Prototype").
