Manthey Racing and CORE Autosport will continue to run Porsche’s works GT cars in the FIA WEC and IMSA Weathertech series respectively in 2017. Contracts with both outfits were renewed at Le Mans on Thursday.

“With the Le Mans 24-hour race, we chose a very special event to extend the contracts with our key GT-motorsport partners officially and in good time,” said Porsche’s head of motorsport Dr Frank-Steffen Walliser at the signing of the contracts. “With Manthey Racing and CORE Autosport we will continue our close ties to two of the very best teams in the campaigning of our GT vehicles. Together, we have achieved a great deal in recent years and we want to achieve even more in the future.”

“We’re proud that Porsche will stand behind our team in the coming years and thus trusts us to contest the WEC on behalf of Porsche Motorsport,” said Nicolas Raeder, Managing Director of Manthey Racing at Le Mans. Jon Bennett, the owner of CORE Autosport, said: “Everyone at CORE is thrilled to continue our relationship with Porsche. Our partnership started with a Rolex 24 at Daytona victory and continued with multiple championships. We are prepared to offer more of the same.”

In the case of Manthey, the renewal was perhaps something of a formality, as Porsche owns a 51 percent controlling stake in the German squad.