Proton Competition (also known as Team Felbermayr-Proton) is a German

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

team founded by Gerold Ried. The team is based in

Ummendorf, Baden-Württemberg Ummendorf () is a town in the district of Biberach in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Attractions Ummendorf is located on the main route of the Upper Swabian Baroque Route. Buildings * Catholic church ''Johanneskirche'', 1805 * Castle ''Ummend ...

. They currently operate a

Porsche 911 RSR The Porsche 911 RSR and its predecessor GT3 RSR, GT3 RS and GT3 R are a line of GT racing cars produced by Porsche that are used in motorsport for endurance races. They are based on the currently highest class in GT racing worldwide, the GTE cla ...

sports car in the FIA World Endurance Championship and

European Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the ...

History

Beginnings and early years

The team was founded in 1996 by Gerold Ried. Ried entered two GT2-spec

Porsche 911 GT2 The Porsche 911 GT2 is a high-performance, track-focused sports car built by the German automobile manufacturer Porsche from 1993 to 2009, and then since 2010 as the GT2 RS. It is based on the 911 Turbo, and uses a similar twin-turbocharged engin ...

to compete it in the

BPR Global GT Series The BPR Global GT Series (sometimes referred to as the BPR Global GT Endurance Series or simply abbreviated as BPR.) was a grand tourer-based sports car racing series which ran from 1994 to 1996 before becoming the FIA GT Championship in 1997. The ...

. Both cars #51 and #69 got six points each in the Teams Championship. 1997 saw Proton compete in the inaugural FIA GT Championship season running one 911 GT2. The team earned only one point throughout the season. Proton also competed at that year's

Daytona 24 Hours The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layou ...

which saw the team finish 27th overall. Between 1998 and 2002 saw little success for the team. They competed in the same 911 GT2 between these years mostly with the father/son partnership of Gerold and

Christian Ried Christian Ried (born 24 February 1979) is a German racing driver who currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Career Ried's father Gerold founded Proton Competition in 1996, the team which Christian has spent most of his caree ...

. The team raced the same car in the first few races of the 2003 season before moving down a class from GT to N-GT after purchasing a

Porsche 996 GT3 The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a line of high-performance models, which began with the 1973 911 Carrera RS. The GT3 has had a successful racing career in the one-make national ...

-RS They only picked up one point in the season at the final round in Monza.

2004-2006

Things picked up for the team in 2004 where the team finished fourth in the Teams Championship. Their best race finish was third at the opening round in Monza, the same venue where they scored their only point in the 2003 season. 2005 saw Proton finish second in the Teams Championship, although in a GT2 class that was simply dominated by Gruppe M Racing who won every race in the GT2 class that season. Proton earned 45 points, some 135 points behind Gruppe M. Team Cytosport finished fourth in the LMP1 teams championship. The team changed its name for the upcoming 2006 season to Team Felbermayr-Proton after Horst Felbermayr Sr. became part of the team. A new colour scheme was also introduced changing from the orange/red and black to a light blue livery, a similar livery to the one used by the team now. It did not bring them as much success as 2005 however, with the team finishing fifth in the Teams Championship. The driver pairing of

and Horst Felbermayr Jr. finished eleventh in the Drivers Championship.

2007

Seikel Motorsport Porsche 997 GT3 RSR No

2007 was the year that the team progressed into the

Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

. They competed with three cars in the 2007 season in the GT2 class; No. 77 was a

Porsche 997 GT3 The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a line of high-performance models, which began with the 1973 911 Carrera RS. The GT3 has had a successful racing career in the one-make national ...

-RSR driven by

Marc Lieb Marc Lieb (born 4 July 1980) is a former German Porsche factory motor-racing driver. He won the FIA GT Championship in 2003 and 2005, and the European Le Mans Series in 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2010. He won the 24 Hours Nürburgring four times, one ...

and Xavier Pompidou, No. 79 a 996 GT3-RSR driven by Gerold Ried, Horst Felbermayr Sr. and Philip Collin, and No. 88 a 997 GT3-RSR driven by Christian Ried and Horst Felbermayr, Jr accompanied by a third driver in some races which included Thomas Grüber,

Marc Basseng Marc Basseng (born 12 December 1978 in Engelskirchen) is a German racing driver. Career Basseng began his career in karting. In 1997 he began competing in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany for the UPS Porsche Junior Team, finishing third in the 19 ...

and Johannes Stuck. The best of these trio of cars was No. 77 which took second place in the Teams Championship only three points behind winners

Virgo Motorsport Virgo may refer to: *Virgo (astrology), the sixth astrological sign of the zodiac *Virgo (constellation), a constellation *Virgo Cluster, a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo *Virgo Stellar Stream, remains of a dwarf galaxy *Virgo Supe ...

. The driver pairing of Lieb and Pompidou also took second in the Drivers Championship, 9 points behind

Rob Bell Robert Holmes Bell Jr. (born August 23, 1970) is an American author, speaker and former pastor. Bell founded Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan, and pastored it until 2012. Under his leadership, Mars Hill was one of the fastest ...

of Virgo Motorsport and

JMB Racing JMB Racing is a racing team from Monaco that competes in sports car racing. It was founded in Nice, France, in 1995 as JB Racing by Jean-Michel Bouresche and Jean-Pierre Jabouille. It was renamed JMB (Bouresche's initials) in 2000 after Jabouille l ...

. Car 77 won three of the six races in the season. Car No. 88 only managed to pick up seven points finishing eleventh in the Teams Championship level on points with JMB Racing. Car No. 79 did not pick up any points. The team also contested selected rounds in the

FIA GT Championship The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout ...

that year finishing with only one points scoring race which was eight points at the Bucharest 2 Hours with cars No. 66 and 69 finishing second and seventh respectively. 2007 was also the year that the team made their début at the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active endurance racing event. Unlike fixed-distance races whose ...

. The team contested the 75th running of the famous event partnering Seikel Motorsport. The father and son partnership of Horst Felbermayr Jr. and Sr. alongside Philip Collin were the drivers in car No. 71. Qualifying didn't go well with the car qualifying in 52nd position out of 54 cars. The race didn't last long either with the car retiring after 68 laps due to a problem with the electrics.

2008

Team Felbermayr-Proton's 2008 campaign was similar to 2007's. They would compete every round of the

, selected round in the

and compete at the Le Mans 24 Hours. The team raced two cars in the LMS rather than three in 2007 with Marc Lieb joined by

Alex Davison Alexander Davison (born 3 November 1979) is an Australian racing driver. He won the 2004 Australian Carrera Cup Championship. As part of the Davison motorsport family, he is the older brother of Will Davison, grandson of Lex Davison and cousin ...

in car No. 77 while car No. 88 was piloted by the two Horst Felbermayrs and Christian Ried. Despite not winning any races, car 77 finished second in the Teams Championship finishing once again behind Virgo Motorsport with a gap of 5 points this time round. Car 88 finished eighth place with ten points, level with Farnbacher Racing. The team only competed one round in FIA GT which was the FIA GT Bucharest 2 Hours. The team scored no points in either of the two races that weekend. The team made its full début at Le Mans with no partnership from Seikel Motorsport this time round. The teams' line up for Le Mans was Horst Felbermayr Sr. Alex Davison and

Wolf Henzler Wolfgang Henzler (born 5 April 1975) is a former German Porsche factory racing driver. He began racing in 1991 with a win in the German Junior Kart championship. Born in Nürtingen, Baden-Württemberg, he won one time the 24 Hours of Le Mans in ...

. Qualifying went well with car 77 qualifying in second place in the GT2 class behind 2007 class winners

IMSA Performance Matmut IMSA Performance (racing under the name IMSA Performance Matmut) is a French auto racing team founded by Raymond Narac. The team is based in Saint-Jean-du-Cardonnay, Upper Normandy. IMSA stands for Innovation Mécanique Service Automobile. They ...

. They were not able to retain their second place qualifying position during the race but finished a respectable fifth place in class and 27th overall.

2009

The 2009 season was Felbermayr-Proton's most successful season to date. Marc Lieb remained in car 77 for the 2009 season with

Richard Lietz Richard Lietz (born 17 December 1983 in Waidhofen an der Ybbs) is an Austrian professional racing driver and a Porsche Factory driver. He has competed in such series as American Le Mans Series, Formula 3 Euro Series and the Rolex Sports Car Seri ...

becoming his teammate replacing Alex Davison. Horst Felbermayr Jr. and Christian Ried remained in car 88 with Felbermayr Sr. replaced by Francisco Cruz Martins. It was car 77 that earned all of the success for the team winning three of the five races and winning the Teams Championship by just one point ahead of JMW Motorsport, with car 88 finishing tenth in the standings earning five points. The pair drivers of Lieb and Lietz also won the Drivers Championship beating JMW drivers Rob Bell and

Gianmaria Bruni Gianmaria "Gimmi" Bruni (born 30 May 1981) is an Italian Porsche factory auto racing driver who drove in the 2004 Formula One World Championship for Minardi. He is a GP2 Series race winner and is now racing in the FIA World Endurance Championsh ...

by a point. The team entered the

2009 24 Hours of Le Mans The 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: 24 Heures du Mans 2009) was the 77th Grand Prix of Endurance, an endurance racing (motorsport), endurance auto racing, auto race run over 24 hours. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France, ...

with essentially two cars with No. 77 driven by LMS regulars Lieb and Lietz, who were joined by

. They also partnered IMSA Performance Matmut who are long time Porsche competitors with car No. 70 with the two Felbermayrs racing alongside Matmut driver Michel Lecourt. The team were pretty confident going into the race after qualifying where they repeated their 2008 qualifying position of second in the GT2 class. The team narrowly missed out on pole position by only 0.030 seconds behind American Porsche competitors

Flying Lizard Motorsports The Flying Lizard Motorsports group is a motorsport team from Sonoma, California, formed by Seth Neiman in early 2003. The team competed in the full American Le Mans Series season, as well as the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. ...

. Unfortunately their race came to a very early end after just 24 laps when car 77 ran out of fuel. The IMSA/Felbermayr car 70 soon followed by retiring on the 102nd lap. Felbermayr-Proton wrapped up their season when they contested the inaugural round of the

Asian Le Mans Series The Asian Le Mans Series is an Asian sports car racing endurance series created by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and based in Asia. It is the successor to the defunct Japan Le Mans Challenge which folded in 2007 after its second season. ...

and indeed the only round of the season in Asia. The race was at Okayama in Japan and the team brought over the two cars but mixed the driver pairings up a bit. All four drivers were German. Marc Lieb was joined by Le Mans teammate Wolf Henzler in No. 77 and Christian Ried was joined in No. 88 by

Marco Holzer Marco Holzer (born 30 July 1988) is a German professional racing driver. He has competed in sports car competitions such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Hours of Daytona, American Le Mans Series and Le Mans Series as a Porsche works driver. Care ...

. Both cars finished second and fourth in class respectively.

2010

The team hoped to continue their 2009 success in 2010. The team retained their No. 77 championship winning line up of Lieb and Lietz for the 2010 season with Christian Ried retaining his No. 88 seat alongside Martin Ragginger for the season. Porsche factory drivers

Patrick Long __NOTOC__ Patrick Long (born July 28, 1981) is a professional racing driver, one of 18 Porsche factory racing drivers, and the only American to hold that distinction. Racing career Sports car racing Following a successful career in karts and th ...

and

Romain Dumas Romain Dumas (born 14 December 1977) is a French racing driver and a Porsche factory driver. He first started out in karting and single-seater before becoming an expert driver in endurance racing, GT and sport-prototype. He has won the greatest r ...

also joined car 88 for a few of the LMS events. Car 77 once again was the force to be reckoned with winning three of the five races and once again winning the Teams Championship. They finished a comfortable 21 points ahead of second place team AF Corse. Car 88 was a lot more competitive than in previous years finishing fourth in the standings. Lieb and Lietz also retained their Drivers Championship titles beating the AF Corse trio of

Jean Alesi Jean Alesi (born Giovanni Alesi, 11 June 1964) is a French professional racing driver of Italian origin. After successes in minor categories, notably winning the 1989 Formula 3000 Championship, his Formula One career included spells at Tyrrell ...

, Giancarlo Fisichella and

Toni Vilander Toni Markus Vilander (born 25 July 1980) is a Finnish professional racing driver who currently drives for the Risi Competizione Ferrari team in various categories of sports car racing. After a single-seater career which reached the level of the ...

by 21 points. 2010 was the inaugural season of the

Intercontinental Le Mans Cup The Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (shortened ILMC) was an endurance sports car racing tournament organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) started in 2010.

, a global endurance racing series that mixes in with events like the Le Mans Series and the

American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The American Le Mans' hea ...

. It is the first of its kind since the

World Sportscar Championship The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992. The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance, and road racing events in Europe and ...

last run in 1992. The 2010 edition was a sort of prologue to a proper season with three events with one event in Europe, America and Asia. Felbermayr-Proton took part in the European and Asian rounds at Silverstone and

Zhuhai Zhuhai (, ; Yale: ''Jyūhói''), also known as Chuhai is a prefecture-level city located on the west bank of Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China, on the southeastern edge of Pear ...

. The team won the championship with 72 points, 15 points ahead of LMS rivals AF Corse. As it was a series for teams and manufacturers, a drivers championship was not awarded. For the

2010 24 Hours of Le Mans The 78th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: ''78e 24 Heures du Mans'') was a non-championship 24-hour automobile endurance race for Le Mans Prototype (LMP) and Grand Touring (GT) cars held from 12 to 13 June 2010 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, near L ...

, the team hoped that their championship winning car could prove its status this time round after a disappointing early exit in last years edition. The previous year's car 77 trio of Lieb, Lietz and Henzler remained while car 88 saw the father/son duo of the Felbermayrs return being joined by Slovakian racer Miro Konopka. Qualifying went reasonably well for No. 77 qualifying fourth in class while No. 88 started second last. The race however was a completely different story with car 77 taking the GT2 class victory at Le Mans in 2010 beating Ferrari, Corvette and fellow Porsche factory teams. It was Marc Lieb's second class victory, winning the

2005 24 Hours of Le Mans The 73rd 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 73e 24 Heures du Mans) was a non-championship 24-hour automobile endurance race held for Le Mans Prototype and Grand Touring cars from 18 to 19 June 2005 at the Circuit de la Sarthe close by Le ...

in the GT2 category with

Alex Job Racing Alex Job Racing is a former professional sports car racing team based in the United States. The team, which is noted for its long-time association with Porsche, has competed in the American Le Mans Series, the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge series, and th ...

. Richard Lietz also won his second class victory in 2010 after winning the GT2 class in his first Le Mans race in 2007 with IMSA Performance Matmut. It was Wolf Henzler's first class victory at Le Mans. Car 88 did reasonably well finishing eighth in a highly competitive GT2 class.

2011

The

2011 Le Mans Series season The 2011 Le Mans Series was the eighth season of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's Le Mans Series. The series began on 3 April with the 6 Hours of Castellet and ended after five rounds on 25 September. It is a series for Le Mans Prototype and Gra ...

saw the GT2 class split to two classes LM GTE Pro and LM GTE Am. GTE Pro was for teams using 2011 spec cars or older and were allowed have a fully professional (gold and platinum) driver line up. GTE Am was for teams with 2010 spec cars or older and could only have one professional or gold category driver in the line up. The team raced with two cars with once in each class. Car 77 was a 2011 spec

-RSR in LM GTE Pro driven by champions Lieb and Lietz. Car 88 was an older spec GT3-RSR competing in the LM GTE Am class and was driven by Horst Felbermayr Jr. and Christian Ried with appearances from Felbermayr Sr. and

Bryce Miller Bryce Miller (born July 26, 1982) is an American racing driver from Summit, New Jersey. He currently drives in the IMSA owned Tudor United SportsCar Championship for Paul Miller Racing. Bryce is the son of Paul Miller and nephew of , both of w ...

in some of the rounds. In GTE Pro, the team finished third in the Teams Championship, sadly not earning three championships in a row. The GTE Am Porsche also finished third in the championship out of four competitors and picked up a win in the opening round at

Paul Ricard Paul Louis Marius Ricard (; July 9, 1909 – November 7, 1997) was a French industrialist and creator of an eponymous pastis brand which merged in 1975 with its competitor Pernod to create Pernod Ricard. Ricard was also an environmentalist and t ...

. The team competed in that year's ILMC but only in the GTE Am class and restoring the old Proton Competition name of yesteryear. The car used was No. 63 and had many different driver combinations throughout the seven-round season with Christian Ried racing in all but one of the events. Proton finished third in the championship with 52 points. The team went into the

2011 24 Hours of Le Mans The 79th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: ''79e 24 Heures du Mans'') was an 24-hour automobile endurance race for Le Mans Prototype (LMP) and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) cars. The race was held from 11 to 12 June 2011 at the Circuit de ...

in two classes as well as being the reigning GT2 Le Mans winners. They kept the Lieb/Lietz/Henzler alliance that won Le Mans in 2010 for their No. 77 GTE Pro car while the GTE Am car No. 63 was driven by team boss Christian Ried and the two Felbermayrs. Proton also operated an extra 911 GT3-RSR No. 88 in the Pro class, driven by

Nick Tandy Nick Tandy (born 5 November 1984) is a professional British racing driver currently racing for Corvette Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship in the 64 Corvette C8.R. His major victories include the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 20 ...

, Abdulaziz al-Faisal and

. The two Pro cars qualified in the middle of the pack while the Am car qualified second fastest in class. Out of the three cars, No. 77 was the only one that finished which was fourth in class. Car No. 63's race came to an end near dawn on the 199th lap when the No. 74

Corvette Racing Corvette Racing is an American auto racing team established in 1999 by General Motors and Pratt & Miller for the purposes of competing in sports car racing internationally. Corvette Racing is an official racing program for General Motors and t ...

car in GTE Pro went to lap the Proton Competition car driven by Felbermayr Sr. at the time. Corvette driver

Jan Magnussen Jan Ellegaard Magnussen (born 4 July 1973) is a Danish professional racing driver and was a factory driver for General Motors until the end of the 2020 season. He has competed in Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), NASCAR, the FIA Formula O ...

who was leading in the Pro class at the time, tried to lap the Porsche on the inside of the final part of the Porsche Curves rather than around the outside. The Corvette C6.R went onto the grass and spun hitting the driver's side of the Porsche head on injuring Felbermayr Sr., who was the oldest driver competing at Le Mans in 2011. Car No. 88 retired thirty laps previously.

2012

Proton Competition announced plans to campaign in the inaugural season of the FIA World Endurance Championship in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

with two cars in GTE Pro and GTE Am. Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz would be the regular season pair in the GTE Pro car while Christian Ried and Gianluca Roda were scheduled to compete in the GTE Am Porsche.

2015

Proton Competition teamed with Dempsey Racing at the 2015 24 Hours of LeMans. The team qualified 5th and finished 2nd in the LM GTE-AM class with drivers Marco Seefried, Patrick Long, and

Patrick Dempsey Patrick Galen Dempsey (born January 13, 1966) is an American actor and race car driver. He is best known for his role as neurosurgeon Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd in ''Grey's Anatomy''. He had early success as an actor, starring in a number of fi ...

driving the number 77 Dempsey/Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR.

External links

Proton Competition official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Proton Competition German auto racing teams Auto racing teams established in 1996 1996 establishments in Germany European Le Mans Series teams FIA World Endurance Championship teams 24 Hours of Le Mans teams FIA GT Championship teams WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams Porsche in motorsport