Team SARD-Morand Withdraws from 6H Silverstone

Photo: John Dagys

Team SARD-Morand has pulled its two-car LMP2 entry from this weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship season-opening Six Hours of Silverstone, Sportscar365 has confirmed.

The Swiss-Japanese effort, led by Benoit Morand, was due to enter Judd-powered Morgan EVO LMP2 cars for Tristan Vautier, Oliver Webb, Koki Saga, Zoel Amberg, Pierre Ragues and Christian Klien.

The team cited “administrative and legal issues” as the reason for the withdrawal.

“Announcing this withdrawal is very painful,” team co-owner Benoit Morand said in a statement. “The team and I are working hard to race in Belgium and for the following rounds. I am still optimistic and have to go ahead.”

It was announced during last month’s Prologue pre-season test at Paul Ricard that Kairos Technologies had taken a majority stake of Morand’s team.

The future of SARD-Morand’s “Race to 24” online reality driver competition, which was due to kick off on April 12 after already facing a delay, is also unclear.

Sunday’s race will now see a reduced 29-car entry, out of the original 35 full-season cars that are registered for the championship.

Nissan’s two-car GT-R LM NISMO effort and Rebellion Racing’s new AER-powered Rebellion R-Ones will also not take part in the British round, with both cars expected to debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.

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