Murphy Prototypes’ Nissan powered ORECA 03 will carry the oval logo of STP at the 24 Hours of Le Mans later this month.
The STP has a successful history in racing, most readily associated with Richard Petty’s record breaking NASCAR career, with the company’s brand director, Jamie Kistner describing the French endurance classing (June 22-23) as “a timely opportunity to re-engage with STP’s magnificent motor racing heritage”.
“We are thrilled to be bringing the legendary STP name to Le Mans this year and carrying its iconic logo on the car,” said team owner Greg Murphy.
After the opening rounds of a European Le Mans Series campaign the LMP2 team travel to Le Mans where regular drivers Brendon Hartley and Mark Patterson are joined by former F1 driver Karun Chandhok. In their first start at Le Mans last year the team spent five hours in the lead before they were forced to retire.
That performance, coupled with Chandhok, who impressed in his first season of endurance racing and a strong start to the ELMS seaon have the in optimistic mood for Le Mans.
“Our front-running performances at the two ELMS rounds this year at Silverstone and Imola have shown we have the pace,” said Murphy, “and a great driver combination in Brendon and Mark, which is boosted still further with the addition of Karun Chandhok to the squad for Le Mans.”
