In the build-up to running at the 15th Petit Le Mans next month drivers Gunnar Jeannette and Lucas Ordonez have completed three successful days of twilight testing of the Nissan DeltaWing.
The pairing – American Le Mans Series (ALMS) regular Jeannette and Ordonez, the inaugural winning of Nissan GT Academy – will share the experimental car in the 10-hour, 1000 mile race at Road Atlanta. They shared over 170 laps of the Braselton, GA track in the car powered by a 1.6 litre engine.
“The car is a real joy to drive and it is a new challenge that I am really enjoying. I am really looking forward to getting to race time,” said Jeannette. “The race at Petit is one of the most difficult events I have ever been a part of. The car count is very high and the amount of track we have to share is quite low at only 2.54 miles so things get very busy with only one long straight to get the passing done. It will be very busy for Lucas and I but testing has gone very well and that is extremely encouraging. We still have some gains to be made and there is a lot of track time during race week where we can continue the learning curve.”
Originally a concept for the 2012 Indycar design the Ben Bowlby designed DeltaWing was unveiled at Petit Le Mans last year when it was announced it was make its race debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The car will return to the track for Petit Le Mans – also the final round in this year’s ALMS season – with Dr. Don Panoz of DeltaWing Racing Cars having previously said that the design will be eligible for the future combined North American sportscar series in 2014.
“The Nissan DeltaWing is certainly going to be one of the highlights of Petit Le Mans this year and having the guys test at Road Atlanta in advance has been very beneficial,” said Dr. Panoz. “It is amazing what has happened in a very short space of time. Twelve months ago we unveiled the car at Petit Le Mans and now we’re getting ready to race it again. As I expected, Gunnar Jeannette did a great job as always and I was thrilled to meet Lucas Ordoñez on the weekend and see him in action. Both the guys did a really good job and I am sure the fans are really excited about seeing them race the car here next month.”