American Le Mans SeriesIntercontinental Le Mans Cup

Panoz Abruzzi Set For Debut In Zhuhai With Benjamin Leuenburger

1 Mins read

The late delivery of key parts forced Benjamin Leuenburger and the rest of Team Panoz onto the sidelines at Petit Le Mans. However, the team are now aiming to enter the brand new Panoz Abruzzi “Spirit of Le Mans” in the 6 Hours of Zhuhai next month.

“Some parts which were delivered from suppliers just didn't come in time. So in the final stages, the whole schedule came to a halt,” says Leuenburger about the team's disrupted preparations. The delays led to the car only being completed the day before the 1000mile race at Road Atlanta, and only arrived at the track on the morning of the race itself – two days too late to enter the event.

However, the car – in race livery – was able to complete a demonstration lap before the start of the race, the car running perfectly from the moment the start button was pressed.

The team now hopes to debut the car at the Chinese Zhuhai track when it hosts the final round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Challenge (ILMC) on November 5-7. But before the car is loaded for the journey Leuenburger will get the chance to test the new car before its first race.

“I just extended my stay in the US for some couple of days,“ Leuenberger, 28, says. “We will test the new Panoz this week. Immediately after the test, car and parts will be loaded into a container and shipped to China. It's too bad that we couldn't race with the Panoz on home turf at Road Atlanta, especially as there was a record crowd this year of more than 120.000 spectators. But now I'm really looking forward to a successful race debut at Zhuhai.”

2902 posts

About author
James is our Diet-Coke fuelled writer and has been with TCF pretty much since day 1, he can be found frequenting twitter at @_JBroomhead
Articles
Related posts
American Le Mans SeriesBTCCDTMFIA GTFormula 1GT SeriesIndyCarMoto3MotoGPNASCAR

TCF Team Pick: Race Of The Year

7 Mins read
As we at theCheckeredFlag.co.uk continue to cast our collective minds back over the previous twelve months of racing the time has come…
24 Hours of Le MansAmerican Le Mans SeriesBritish GTFIA WECFIA World Rally ChampionshipFormula 1Ginetta GT4 SupercupGinetta JuniorGP2 SeriesGT World ChallengeMotorcyclesRenault UK Clio Cup

TCF Team Pick: Team Of The Year

7 Mins read
As the TCF team continue to look back on the highlights and talking points of the 2013 season they turn their eyes…
American Le Mans Series

ALMS: Last Ever Season In Review

6 Mins read
With the final season of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) drawing to a close for the final time, it was another…