EGT Friday Sportscar Round-Up

The EGT Friday Sportscar Round-Up (15.12.17)

Photo: REBELLION Racing

As the 2017 season winds down, TF Sport is preparing to contest its final race of the year with the Gulf 12 Hours. TF Sport Director Tom Ferrier spoke to EnduranceandGT’s Andy Lloyd about this year’s season which has seen the Redhill-based team contest its first 24 Hours of Le Mans and win the Blancpain GT Endurance Series.

Ferrier described the experience of competing in the World’s Greatest Motor Race.

“Incredible – that was the word to sum it up! It was absolutely mind-blowing from start to finish. It was lovely to be involved through the Aston Martin camp through our first Le Mans. That helped us a lot and it helped me more than anyone, probably. What an event – it was mind-blowing! I couldn’t sum up the size of it to be honest. We were very proud to have been there. I hope we can do many more.”

Tom Ferrier also described some of the frustrations that the team encountered with its 2017 British GT Championship season, especially after the dominance the team had shown in 2016.

“(Mid season) we discovered that Derek and Jonny had had a bit of a handling issue with the car which carried through to Silverstone as well. We eventually found it was due to some of the chassis glue had come away but it took us a long time to get to the bottom of it. That lost us the mid-part of the season with Derek and Jonny which was frustrating. But then we were all up and singing at Brands Hatch and Donington.”

You can read the full interview here.

Young Australian driver James Allen has announced that he will return to the European Le Mans Series in 2018 with Morangis-based GRAFF, a team he enjoyed great success with in 2017, including competing in his first 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Speaking to EnduranceandGT.co.uk, Allen, currently enjoying a warm winter off-season in his native Australia, said:

“I’m very excited for 2018. My first year in LMP2 went much better than I expected and I’m pleasantly surprised. 2018 will still be a big challenge but I feel ready to push for an even better season next year.”

Two-time IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD champion Christina Nielsen will be joining forces with Porsche factory driver, 2017 Pirelli World Championship champion Patrick Long and Wright Motorsports to contest the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech Championship GTD class.

Wright Motorsports Principal John Wright is excited at the prospect of the 2018 season with Nielsen and Long.

“I am very pleased to have this great opportunity come together in such a short time,” said Wright. “It is a tremendous opportunity to be heading back into the endurance racing arena with such a strong program. In my experience, I haven’t seen too many driver combinations better to compete for a championship than what I think we will see in Patrick Long and Christina Nielsen.”

“I am really looking forward to being back in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and I am absolutely thrilled that we’ve come up with such a strong combination with Wright Motorsports and Porsche,” said Christina Nielsen. “I’ve had a great run for the last three years, but it won’t be easy to do what I’ve already done. For me the biggest thing is to go into 2018 without relying on any previous results. We’ll start from scratch beginning with Daytona and go from there.”

Swiss team REBELLION Racing, 2017 European Le Mans Series LMP2 champions, has announced a two-car assault on the LMP1 class of the 2018/19 FIA World Endurance Championship.

Bruno Senna and Mathias Beche will be joined by ex-Porsche LMP1 Team drivers Neel Jani and André Lotterer. Gustavo Menezes and European Le Mans Series star Thomas Laurent will also be joining the two-car driver line-up.

You can read the full story here.

And finally, the season draws to a close with the Gulf 12 Hours at Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi. The lights go out for the start at Part One at 09:10 local time on Saturday December 16.