Oliver Jarvis has held true on his statement that he would not be leaving the World Endurance Championship paddock this year as he has picked up an LMP2 drive for the 2017 season. He will co-pilot the Jota-run Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA 07 along with Ho-Pin Tung and Thomas Laurent.
Whilst taking part in LMP2 with DC Racing, Jarvis will also be splitting his commitments to the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup with the factory Bentley M-Sport team. The mix of commitments has been stated as the “perfect combination” by Jarvis, who, when talking to Autosport, said:
“This is the perfect combination for the year ahead because I am racing with a manufacturer and continuing in the WEC in a prototype. I love the WEC and have made many friends there, and I also love driving prototypes.”
After racing with Audi Sport in LMP1 for nine years, this will be a different challenge for Jarvis. He was very outspoken about the team’s retirement from Endurance racing when Audi stated they were leaving at the end of last season and was determined to remain in the WEC paddock. Jarvis split from the German manufacturer at the end of last year to pursue the opportunity they could no longer provide him with.
Jarvis will get his first experience in an LMP2 car this week during the Dunlop tyre test at the Aragon circuit in Spain. As one of the most experienced endurance drivers Jarvis should accommodate to the car fairly quickly, but with the LMP2 field looking to be at it’s most competitive this year, the competition could be a lot tougher than he has ever experienced.
“I’m looking forward to driving the car and hopeful of a successful season if we can hit the ground running,” he said in an interview with Autosport about his new up-and-coming venture. “It looks like there are going to be a lot of strong line-ups in P2 this year, but Jota’s results last year [as G-Drive Racing] speak for themselves.”
Jarvis made sure to mention his thanks to Bentley who are the reason he was allowed to take up the offer to return to WEC. He made his race debut with Bentley earlier this year at the Bathurst 12 Hours.
