ORECA Establishes U.S. Base in Charlotte

Photo: John Dagys

After enjoying success as a team and manufacturer in the region, ORECA will expand its commitment to the North American market by establishing a U.S. base. (En Français)

The French squad, which won the 2011 Twelve Hours of Sebring as well as claiming multiple titles and victories with Dodge’s first-generation factory Viper program in the ALMS, has revealed plans of opening an office in Charlotte.

The U.S. entity is expected to be in place by the end of the first quarter next year.

With involvement in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship with its Prototype Challenge chassis, and plans for future growth in the market, the Hugues de Chaunac-led organization felt the time was right to make the move Stateside.

“There is a real demand from our existing clients,” ORECA communications manager Anthony Megevand told Endurance-Info. “We want to be even closer to teams in LMPC while keeping a close relationship with Haas, our distributor for this class and IMSA.

“In addition, our presence is also logical for LMP2. ORECA aims to sell cars outside of Europe and Asia. We want to win races like Daytona and Sebring as a constructor. This cannot be done remotely.”

The first focus will be on the PC and P2 categories, although ORECA hasn’t hidden its desires to utilize its knowledge base for projects in IndyCar and NASCAR.

A large delegation of ORECA staff made the trip to the PRI Show in Indianapolis, meeting with American teams to discuss short and long-term projects

While the new closed-top Oreca 05 LMP2 car is not expected to begin on-track testing until March, Megevand said it’s the goal to see one of the cars in the TUDOR Championship before the end of the 2015 season.

The U.S. office joins ORECA’s recently opened office in Hong Kong, which handles the Asian market.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John