British-Korean racing driver Jack Aitken will make his debut in prototype sportscar racing this season when he competes in the European Le Mans Series in its top LMP2 category.
He will drive for Racing Team Turkey in an Oreca 07 operated by successful British-based outfit TF Sport. Jack will be sharing the car with Salih Yoluç and Charlie Eastwood, who both made the step up from GT racing together with the team last year and achieved an outright pole position in ELMS as well as a race win in the Pro Am Cup.
Jack intends to help the team build upon those promising results, bringing his own GT racing experience gained during 2021. Even though his rookie season in the GT World Challenge Europe was interrupted by injury after a high-speed accident, Jack made a strong impression with how well he adapted to the discipline.
Entering LMP2 will further expand Jack’s increasingly diverse experience within racing, while also allowing him to make the most of his knowledge of driving higher-downforce machinery from his years racing in Formula 2 and as a test and reserve driver in Formula 1. Jack rounded out 2021 by undertaking his first IndyCar test at Sebring and then taking part in the official end-of-season F1 young driver test in Abu Dhabi with Williams.
The ELMS calendar consists of six four-hour races at well-known circuits across Europe. The season begins at Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of France on 17 April, followed by trips to Imola, the Hungaroring, Barcelona, Spa-Francorchamps and Portimao: Tracks that have all featured in Formula 1 over recent seasons and which Jack therefore knows well.
Jack is set for another busy season with more exciting news on the way soon about the rest of his 2022 programme.
Jack Aitken: “I’m delighted to make my debut in both ELMS and LMP2 with Racing Team Turkey this year. It’s something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while and a championship that I’ve been watching. It’s really exciting to be joining Salih and Charlie and to get in a car that clearly has pace, we can definitely compete for podiums and wins. I’m looking forward to getting started and seeing what we can do.”
Tom Ferrier, Team Owner: “Now we have a year of running the LMP2 under us, we are confident that we can greatly improve on last season’s results. Jack is a great asset to add to the line-up and alongside Salih and Charlie, I’m sure he can have a successful prototype debut. We were in contention for the LMP2 Pro Am title for the majority of last season and we will be pushing even harder this year to take that fight to the final round.”
Source. Jack Aitken
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