Less than two weeks after the event in Mexico City, the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) campaign is traveling 1,500 kilometers north for the sixth of the season’s nine races of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). At the Circuit of The Americas near Austin, Schaeffler and Porsche are competing as the front runners in the drivers’ and manufacturers’ classifications.

Thanks to three victories in succession – including those in the prestigious 24-hour race at Le Mans and the event on home soil at the Nürburgring – the Porsche trio of Earl Bamber/Timo Bernhard/Brendon Hartley continues to lead the WEC drivers’ championship. Their teammates, Neel Jani/André Lotterer/Nick Tandy – also racing in a Porsche 919 Hybrid in the top LMP1 class – made for a one-two win in the past two races. In the manufacturers’ championship, Schaeffler and Porsche are heading the standings as well.

As in the past four seasons, the Circuit of The Americas is hosting the fourth from last of the 2017 races. The 5.513-kilometer circuit located near Austin,Texas, was opened only in 2012. The Porsche trio of Bernhard/Hartley/Webber won there in the past two years.

In the motorsport scene, the WEC is considered a particularly challenging and at the same time ideal test laboratory for innovative drive technologies. As a pioneer in the development of hybrid systems for production vehicles, Schaeffler in the WEC finds an ideal platform to show that the technology transfer between race track and road works. Schaeffler is partnering with Porsche for the fourth year. Together, in 2015 and 2016, they won both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ world championships, and from 2015 to 2017, the season’s great highlight, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, three times in a row.

For the automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler with worldwide manufacturing operations, the U.S. is one of the most significant locations. Of the company’s total of nearly 87,000 employees, some 6,000 are employed at eight plants and three research and development centers in the United States. Just recently, in June, Schaeffler expanded its plant in Fort Mill, South Carolina, improving the infrastructure and the working environment. With an investment of 36.5 million dollars, Schaeffler created 105 new jobs at this location.