Euraisa Motorsport is targeting an end-of-year run in the FIA World Endurance Championship ahead of a full-season program in 2018, according to team principal Mark Goddard.
Goddard has revealed ambitions of taking his Asian-based team to the six-hour races in Fuji and Shanghai with a Ligier JS P217 Gibson, which it is utilizing in this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
While its Le Mans program with a leased Ligier with drivers Jacques and Pierre Nicolet and Erik Maris is currently a one-off, the Philippines-based Brit is working to secure additional races this season.
He revealed the team, which took part in the European Le Mans Series last year with an Oreca 05 Nissan, had plans to enter the WEC full-time this year, but fell through when one of its drivers backed out of the program.
“We actually hoped to be doing that this year,” Goddard told Sporttscar365. “Pu Jun Jin isn’t with us anymore, and that was a shame.
“We started in the vein of: we really had to be at Le Mans, but the plan was never to do European Le Mans this year anyway because the ACO are keen to push the Asian series as being as important as the European series, so it doesn’t make sense to do both for us.
“Plus with the date clashes, it makes it very difficult to do.”
Goddard said his team will field at least two cars in the 2017-18 Asian Le Mans Series season, including one Ligier JS P2 with a to-be-announced driver lineup.
A second entry could be in the LMP3 or GT ranks, he said.
“As an Asian team, we have to do Asian Le Mans, but our long-term goal is WEC, so being here at Le Mans is very important to us,” he said.
The team is making its second Le Mans start this weekend, with support from OAK Racing and its experienced engineering staff.
“It’s been great,” Goddard said. “We’ve got a couple of Onroak engineers who know the car, the majority of the mechanics are our mechanics from The Philippines.
“It’s a bit of the United Nations, anyway. We’ve got English, French, Filipino, and they’re all very happy. It’s gone incredibly well so far.”
Eurasia could join fellow Ligier squad Tockwith Motorsport on the grid in the Asian WEC races, with the British team also planning additional races in the globe-trotting championship this year.
Source : http://sportscar365.com
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