ESM Patrón has announced three star drivers for the four races that make up the North American Endurance Championship (NAEC) that makes part of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship (USCC).
Simon Pagenaud, David Brabham and Anthony Lazzaro will aid the team at Daytona, Sebring, Petit Le Mans and Watkins Glen in a combination that will be explained below.
Brabham, a former class champion in the ALMS P1 category, will join the TUSCC field and the #01 of Ryan Dalziel and Scott Sharp at Daytona, Sebring and Petit as the teams third driver in an ever expanding Prototype (P) field.
The Australian already has experience with the team, taking ESM to a fifth place class finish at Sebring this year and a second place class finish at this years Petit.
Pagenaud, who finished third in this years IndyCar series, and team regular Lazzaro will alternate third driver duties in the #02 of Ed Brown and Johannes van Overbeek on an almost alternating schedule. Pagenaud and Lazzaro will share driving duties at the season opener at Daytona International Speedway before they separate with Pagenaud taking the drives at Sebring and Petit with Lazzaro taking the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.
Indeed Simon Pagenaud has good experience of top flight prototypes alongside his open wheel experience. It was alongside Brabham at the Patrón Highcroft team in a HPD P1 that they took the ALMS championship.
