Other Series

Team West-Tec unveils Formula Le Mans plans

© Groupe ORECA

Team West-Tec is delighted to announce a new string to its bow, with the unveiling of an attack on the inaugural Formula Le Mans Championship in 2009.

The ACO backed series, for spec-LMP2 cars, supports most rounds of the Le Mans Series, as well as the Le Mans 24 hours itself and will culminate in its own 3 hour enduro in October.

Senior Team West-Tec personnel have been active, and successful, in LMP2 in the last few years and the team sees this as a natural progression.

With 430bhp cars prototype cars, with six-speed sequential gearboxes and carbon brakes, the series will offer a very cost-effective introduction to the exciting and professional world of Le Mans Prototype racing.

The team will be heading down to Paul Ricard later in February to test the ORECA-built chassis before hoping to take delivery of its own cars after that.

John Miller, Joint Team Principal: We have the resources and facilities to work with a prototype campaign and this will fit nicely alongside the existing team commitments in Formula 3 and Speedcar.

We are going down to Paul Ricard with drivers to test, although we are still wishing to speak to more potential pilots who are interested in the new Formula.

The car is stunning and is built to true LMP2 spec. It will offer tremendous bang for buck for performance compared to running budget.

Gavin Wills, Joint Team Principal: I was fortunate enough to lead the engineering on the Team Essex Porsche RS Spyder last year. We actually hoped to be able to run that car under own our banner this year, but those plans foundered with the economical problems of the world today.

However, we are delighted to be involved in the new Formula Le Mans initiative. We will be looking to win in 2009, before hopefully progressing back to LMP2 proper next year, preferably with the winning drivers from Formula Le Mans in 2009!