Fraga Lands Full-Time Drive in Riley LMP3 Entry

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Brazilian sports car ace Felipe Fraga has landed a full-season drive in one of Riley Motorsports’ Ligier JS P320 Nissans in the new-for-2021 LMP3 class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Fraga will join Gar Robinson at the wheel of the No. 74 entry for the seven-race campaign kicking off at next month’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, where they will be joined by NTT IndyCar Series driver Oliver Askew and former IMSA Prototype Challenge driver Scott Andrews.

The Gold-rated driver is able to take part in a full season thanks to a caveat in IMSA’s driver rating rules for the LMP3 class, which permits a Silver-rated driver under the age of 30 to be paired with a Gold and thus eliminates a Bronze driver mandate. 

Robinson will be 26 at the time of the Daytona season-opener.

This allowance caused several planned LMP3 programs, including a two-car effort from United Autosports for the Rolex 24, to be called off, due to the lack of a Bronze driver mandate class-wide.

All four drivers of the No. 74 Ligier are coming off a two-day test at Daytona International Speedway last week, which also saw Riley’s other LMP3 also in action. 

Jeroen Bleekemolen and Austin McCusker will join the previously announced full-season pairing of Dylan Murry and Jim Cox in the Wynns-sponsored entry.

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