American race fans have celebrated spectacular moments on the global stage. Like the time Phil Hill won the Formula 1 title. Or Ford’s trouncing of Ferrari at Le Mans. Or Mario Andretti’s F1 title. The downside? That all happened decades ago. A good portion of R&T’s readership wasn’t even born yet. State-side motorsport fans have had little to celebrate in years, in terms of international success. It’s been 27 years since an American driver won outright at Le Mans.
Next weekend, at the 100th anniversary running of the 24 Hours, just three American drivers out of 48 will compete in the hypercar class, with a shot at overall victory. A newly-minted Cadillac team is fielding three cars under the red, white, and blue banner. None of the drivers are from the U.S. This should illicit from American fans a booming WTF.
This year’s great American hope is Dane Cameron, who will suit up with the top rank Porsche Penske Motorsport team and its Porsche 963 hybrid hypercar. Cameron is the only American listed as lead driver on any of the hypercar teams. He’ll be a rookie in the top class, with an outfit that has a real shot. We caught up with him in between test stints at Paul Ricard and Monza, to remind him that 334 million Americans are depending on him. Is he feeling the pressure?
“I wouldn’t say I feel any bit of extra pressure,” says the 34 year-old native Californian. “I’ve always felt that I put more pressure on myself than anything or anyone else will. To drive for Mr. Penske and to drive for Porsche is a big deal. Everyone expects us to win and to be upfront and they expect me to be one of the best because they can get anyone they want. But we believe in ourselves. We know what’s expected of us. I know what I’m capable of.”
To race for Penske and Porsche (the most successful marque at Le Mans of all time) with a shot at all-out victory is a dream scenario for any hot-shoe, from anywhere. But this year brings an extra hot spotlight due to anniversary celebrations. Porsche’s 75th. Le Mans’ 100th. “There is certainly a lot of hype around it,” Cameron admits. “Hopefully we can put on a good show. There is certainly no shortage of onlookers.”
Cameron’s slot with Porsche comes at an opportune time. New regulations in the World Endurance Championship and in IMSA are theoretically leveling the playing field among American and Euro racing teams while lowering the cost to enter cars in marquee events. The result has been, among other things, the beginning of new American investment in international competition. Not only is Cadillac showing up on the grid at Le Mans with its new V-Series.R hypercar, Glickenhaus is returning after an impressive podium last year. Garage 56 will even field a Nascar Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at Le Mans, which will stick out on track like a Snow White at a goth concert. (The drivers are Jimmie Johnson, Jenson Button, and Mike Rockenfeller.) All this hints at further investment from America in the future.
But for now, for American fans of international sportscar racing, Cameron holds the best odds. Looking back on his career, he’s been groomed for this moment since he started karting as a kid. Motorsport has always been about being in the right place at the right time, and getting lucky with good rides. Cameron was born into a racing family, which has made those opportunities easier to come by. He recalls karting as a young competitor facing superbly talented drivers who, now that he looks back, never had the opportunity to even get in a real race car. As a kid growing up, his family ran race teams. His father Rick Cameron has over 40 years of experience as a race engineer.
“I think my upbringing was a little different,” Cameron says. “To grow up in the back of a race shop? It shaped me a little bit with the do’s and don’ts. I got to see what kind of guys made it through to the next level, and what kind of guys didn’t.”
When he started in IMSA, he had to compete against his own father. Now at 34, he’s a three-time IMSA WeatherTech title holder racing for the first time on the global stage with a full WEC schedule. He made his first appearance at Le Mans last year, in an LMP2 car, and says he “loved every lap.”
“There really is a bit of magic in the air there, for sure,” he says. “There’s something about the length of it, the trees, the speed. There is something so unique and special about it.”
Like Cameron, the Porsche 963 will also debut at the Circuit de la Sarthe, and will have to fight off the Toyota Gazoo juggernaut. Toyota has won Le Mans five years in a row, and has started 2023 the way it ended off last year, winning all three WEC rounds thus far, at Sebring, Portugal, and Belgium. The 963’s best finish was a third in Portugal, and Cameron’s best (he’s teamed with Michael Christensen of Denmark and Frederic Makowiecki of France) has been fourth, at Spa in April. The 963 has yet to match Toyota’s pace, but it’s close. “We need to get ourselves into a position where we can challenge,” says Cameron. “At Le Mans, anything is possible.”
And if he can get the job done? How good does it feel to jump up on that podium, as overall winner? “For starters, you’re pretty exhausted,” recalls Davy Jones, the last American to win Le Mans outright. Jones won in 1996 in Joest Racing’s TWR Porsche WSC-95. He was in the car at the finish, a lap ahead of the second place Porsche, so he got to be in the cockpit and see the checkered wave.
“You get up on the podium,” he recalls, “and you’re taking it all in. It’s just a sea of fans. And they’re all cheering and throwing their arms in the air. And But at the same time, you’ve been so focused on getting the job done that, when it’s over, you just feel more relieved than anything else—that you did your job and you accomplished it.”
Then, Jones says, the real good stuff starts. “You start seeing stuff in the newspapers, the stories and headlines and photographs. It took about two days before it really hit me. I was, like: Fuckin’ A! We just won Le Mans!”
Why hasn’t any American won it outright since? That question confounds Jones, just as it does so many race fans and pontificators. “It is the same thing with Formula 1,” he says. “Why hasn’t there been any American driver or any American team that has been successful in Formula 1, in decades? It’s a strange deal.”
All the fans can do is hope for the future. What would be more fun than to hear the Star Spangled Banner during the Le Mans podium ceremony? Not that Dane Cameron is feeling any extra pressure. “Honestly,” he says, “it has taken me so long to get here. To be at this level, to drive for a brand like Porsche, to race in the top category of sports cars in the world, and to race for overall victory at Le Mans—it’s something I have always dreamed of.”
A.J. Baime is the author of seven books, including Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans, and The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months that Changed the World. An R&T editor-at-large, he has driven cars on racetracks all over the U.S. and Europe, going back to 2007. He is proudly the R&T staff’s slowest track driver.
