Sportscar racer Michael Lyons will assume a role in Murphy Prototypes’ support team for this year’s running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 13-14.
The 24 year old, who raced for the Irish LMP2 squad in the opening two rounds of this year’s European Le Mans Series, won’t be competing in the French endurance classic but will play a key part within the garage.
Lyons will aid the team’s management throughout the weekend, which he is viewing as a key learning experience ahead of his anticipated debut in the 2016 edition.
“Obviously I’d love to be racing at Le Mans next weekend but this really is the next best thing, officially being part of the team and getting to learn on the ground about everything competing at Le Mans entails”, he said. “I’ll be involved with all of the briefings and meetings with the Murphy guys and will be in the garage all weekend, just soaking up everything I can from the experience.”
“My aim is to be racing at the 24 Hours next year and, coupled with the progress I’ve been making in the ELMS over the last couple of seasons, this is a building block to achieving that.”
Murphy Prototypes will field the ORECA 03R Nissan that it currently campaigns in the ELMS. Full-season drivers Nathanael Berthon and Mark Patterson will be joined by former F1 competitor and current Formula E star Karun Chandhok, who is returning to the team for a third consecutive year.
The Irish squad is hoping to achieve a high finish at this year’s race after Chandhok recorded the third quickest time at Sunday’s official test day.
