Ahead of the first race of the 2019/20 FIA World Endurance Championship, Ginetta has announced the six drivers that will pilot the two Team LNT cars.
When the provisional entry list for the 4 Hours of Silverstone was released, Team LNT had just one driver announced in each car: long-standing Ginetta factory drivers Charlie Robertson and Mike Simpson. The team have now confirmed that SMP Racing-driver Egor Orudzhev and ex-DragonSpeed racer Ben Hanley will join Robertson in car #5, with Simpson gaining Chris Dyson and Guy Smith in the sister #6.
The #5 cars gains some strong LMP1 experience, with Orudzhev and Hanley having both appeared on the 2018/19 WEC LMP1 grid. Robertson was in the Ginetta LMP1 car for the start of the season, until financial issues forced the team to withdraw from the championship.
Dyson and Smith took the American Le Mans Series championship in 2011, so have some experience in racing and winning together. Simpson will be primed to show them the ropes in running the AER-powered G60-LT-P1 as he, alike Robertson participated with Ginetta at the start of their 2018/19 campaign.
“We’re really excited to show what the Ginetta can do this season.” Lawrence Tomlinson, Team Principal of the team, said. “The mix of experience, consistency and raw speed that we are announcing for Silverstone has a great chance of helping us to show what the car is capable of in a field of really quick cars and world-class drivers.”
Team LNT used the Prologue to test eight different drivers for their six full season seats, including Stephane Sarrazin, Luca Ghiotto, Mathias Beche and Stephane Richelmi. Only Dyson and Hanley were not present at the Prologue last month.
Ghiotto locked in the fastest time for the car at the test, but due to a Formula 2 clash he was never available for the opening round of the championship. It is possible, however, that the driver line-ups for these cars could see a change as soon as the 6 Hours of Fuji.
