Ahead of their FIA World Endurance Championship debut in Portugal next month, Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus has reveled who will be piloting their two SCG 007 Le Mans Hypercars.
Despite only six seats being available, seven drivers have been announced as part of Glickenhaus’ Hypercar project. The combination of who will be in which car has yet to be announced.
Pipo Derani, Romain Dumas, Olivier Pla, Richard Westbrook, Frank Mailleux and the previously confirmed Gustavo Menezes and Ryan Briscoe are the seven who will make up Glickenhaus’ 2021 driver line ups. Combined, these drivers have vast experience in the WEC, 24 Hours of Le Mans and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, making both cars rich with endurance and sportscar racing experience.
Derani comes to the team as one of the three most recent WEC racers, having raced with the LMP1 Rebellion Racing team in 2020. His credentials include three 12 Hours of Sebring victories in the top DPi IMSA class, overall victory at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in 2014, and a second place GTE class finish at Le Mans with Ford GT in 2017. Westbrook is the other most recent WEC racer, having joined Aston Martin Racing last year for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 8 Hours of Bahrain. He makes his full season debut in the series this year with Glickenhaus, after having competed in the last 11 Le Mans with various GTE teams. His best class finish was third. Third most recent WEC racer is Menezes, who raced with Derani at a few rounds last year with Rebellion last season. He has a lot of experience in the endurance series, and some of the circuits that will be visited this season having been a common feature on the WEC entry list for the last five years
Pla and Dumans come with strong experience in the top tiers of sportscar racing, with Dumas being an ex-factory-backed Porsche LMP1 driver – having claimed the WEC championship and overall 24 Hours of Le Mans victory in 2016 – and Pla having raced in the DPi class in IMSA for the past eight years. Pla has also had experience racing with Ford in both Le Mans and WEC, giving the Brazilian driver all round experience in endurance racing.
Last year’s IMSA DPi runner up and reigning Rolex 24 at Daytona winner Briscoe joins Westbrook in embarking on his maiden WEC full season, whilst the final driver announced – Mailleux – has been associated with Glickenhaus for years, most notably seen as a key member at the Nürburgring 24 and other Nordschleife endurance races for several years.
“I’ve dreamed of racing Le Mans since I was 11 years old,” Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus founder and owner Jim Glickenhaus told SportsCar 365. “We are proud of each driver who has joined our team. We are an international David versus Goliath, and our history shows we punch well above our weight class. We are racing to win and we are enjoying the journey.”
A September clash between the WEC 6 Hours of Fuji and the IMSA race at Long Beach will put into question Derani and Pla as the duo have full time commitments to IMSA racing teams and will not be able to go racing at Fuji. Even is this is covered by the seventh driver, Glickenhaus will still need to bring in another to complete the six required drivers.
