JOTA Sport, who won the LMP2 class at the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans, return to the French racetrack a year later looking to repeat their success in the 2015 race.
The #38 Gibson 015S-Nissan will be driven by Simon Dolan, Oliver Turvey and Mitch Evans. The latter replaces Harry Tincknell who has been called up for Nissan LMP1 factory duty. The British team is currently third in the LMP2 standings in the European Le Mans Series, after finishing 2nd and 3rd in the opening races. They also won the WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the ‘dress rehearsal’ for Le Mans.
In the official Le Mans test day on May 31, JOTA set the fifth fastest LMP2 time and successfully passed the technical checks yesterday (June 7).
“I can’t wait for the Le Mans race to start,” commented Simon Dolan. “We obviously have such happy memories there from last year and we’re all gunning 100% to defend our title successfully. This year will be tougher with the new cars that have looked very strong in previous races this season. Meanwhile the driver line-ups are world class. Last year’s race was close and I’ve a feeling this year could be even closer! We will, of course, all miss Harry [Tincknell]. That said we have a fantastic replacement in Mitch who proved just what a great driver he is with his incredible debut sportscar drive at Spa.”
Mitch Evans makes his Le Mans debut this year: “I am really excited to compete in my first Le Mans 24 Hours. I think it will all become a bit more real when I get there at the beginning of race week – I’d never been there until the test day recently. The race throws absolutely everything at you on, and I’ve been told, off the track too which combines to make it one of the most challenging and unpredictable races in the world. It’s a race but one of the biggest challenges is actually ‘beating’ it through the entire 24 hours if that makes sense. It’ll be a very long week in Le Mans but I can’t wait to experience it all!”
Qualifying starts on Wednesday (June 10) evening.
