Jota Sport is preparing for its seventh 24 Hours of Le Mans following an official invitation from the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO).
The team will field its LMP2 class Zytek-Nissan at the race, with regular Jota drivers Simon Dolan and Oliver Turvey lined up as two members of the three-driver team. The third driver is said to be announced in the coming weeks.
LMP2 class is set to be the largest class at Le Mans, with 22 entries confirmed, with some of the finest driving talent in world motorsport preparing themselves for the challenge.
“We are very pleased to have received our invitation to this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours and are determined to make 2013 our best effort yet.” said Jota Sport Team Principal, Sam Hignett “The team is highly motivated to succeed and with our increasing experience of the event I believe we can mount an extremely strong challenge. What’s more, having added a driver of Oliver’s speed and technical expertise to our line-up we were keener than ever to test ourselves against the world’s finest. Le Mans gives us a chance to do just that.”
Turvey will make his maiden appearance at Le Mans, but enters with an impressive CV that includes the 2006 Autosport BRDC Award winner, victories in both GP2 and Formula Renault 3.5 and an ongoing F1 test driver role at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.
“It’s extremely exciting to know that I will be making my debut at Le Mans this year.” said Turvey. “I would like to thank the ACO for selecting the team as well as everyone at Jota Sport for the fantastic opportunity to race their LMP2 car. Le Mans is a famous and historic race that I have always wanted to compete in, so I can’t wait to work with the team to achieve our aim of winning the LMP2 class.”
Turvey’s team-mate, Simon Dolan, will be making his third appearance at the Circuit de la Sarthe, having raced for Jota in the GTE Pro class Aston Martin Vantage in 2011, before the switch to LMP2 in 2012.
“I’d like to offer my thanks to the ACO for inviting us to this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours and with 22 LMP2 cars on the grid I’m sure it’s going to be an epic race.” said a positive Dolan. “I can’t wait to get there and make this third time lucky for me and seventh time lucky for Jota at the world’s greatest endurance race.”
The entry will form the centrepiece of Jota’s 2013 programme, which also sees the team attack selected rounds of the World Endurance Championship alongside a full season of the European Le Mans Series.
