“I really just wanted a different challenge, so it was good to scratch the itch,” says Dane Cameron of spending 2023 racing in the World Endurance Championship with Porsche Penske Motorsport in the 963. “But it’s nice also to be back in places that I’m very, very familiar with, very comfortable at. And I know a lot of the crew – there are several faces that were here through the Acura program as well. So it makes for a really easy transition to come back to the IMSA side.”
Cameron and Matt Campbell are switching places within the PPM organization. 2022 GTD PRO champ Campbell moves to the World Endurance Championship, while Cameron comes back to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship to partner with Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 963 in GTP. Cameron has won three IMSA championships in three different categories – GTD with Turner Motorsport, Daytona Prototype with Action Express Racing and DPi with Acura Team Penske. Now he’ll be looking for his fourth title, this time in the second season of the new generation of GTP.
Cameron says he was glad to compete in WEC and race at some tracks that he hadn’t previously had the chance to experience. But he’s looking forward to returning the series that he describes as “home.”
“It feels like coming home. I think that’s probably the word I use the most,” he said.
“It’s somewhere I spent a ton of time, more than a decade racing here with a lot of good success and really trying to forge a name and a space for myself in sports cars. WEC was something I really wanted to do, but it always seemed a bit out of reach, being a North American guy; it just seemed difficult to get there and have that opportunity. I was happy to take that with both hands and give it my best shot and, yeah, a little disappointed with missing a few results here and there over there. But I really enjoyed the experience.
“I think I’m better for it in a lot of ways. But I’m also quite happy to be home at tracks that I love, that I’m comfortable at. The team environment is the same, so a lot of people that I know pretty well, even guys that were there through the Acura program, so it’s a pretty easy, seamless transition to kind of step back into this side of the paddock, and drop right in and then plug and play.”
Cameron says he’s looking forward to trying the new pavement at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and Road America, two circuits he has personal ties to, hailing from California and his wife having family in the Chicago area. At the same time, he’s eagerly anticipating the rest of the circuits where he he has a pretty good idea what the tire degradation will be like, compared to most of the circuits last year where he was still learning. And he’s thankful that he’s racing alongside Nasr, who replaced Cameron at Action Express Racing when he moved to Penske for the Acura program, rather than against him.