Delta-ADR Joins Forces with Action Express for Daytona, Sebring

Photo: John Dagys

FIA WEC front-runners Delta-ADR will team up with Action Express Racing for the opening two rounds of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

Sportscar365 has learned that the British squad will help run AXR’s second DP entry for Daytona, while potentially fielding a P2 car of its own alongside the two AXR prototypes for the Twelve Hours of Sebring in March.

It’s part of a new partnership formed  between the two organizations that has seen Delta develop generic bodywork for the Coyote DP chassis. While originally scheduled to run at Daytona, the bodywork may now not debut until Sebring, according to Delta-ADR team manager Simon Dowson.

“The project has been delayed because of the rules,” Dowson told Sportscar365. “We finished it probably three months ago and then we had to re-activate the aero program to work on the new rules.

“We’re still working through it with Coyote at the moment. The issue is if we come out and have to homologate the new body sooner than we’d like, we’d be stuck. We want to make sure we have testing time beforehand.

“So we’re just weighing out whether the best option for us would be to stick with the Corvette for Daytona, then run at Sebring with the new body.”

Instead, Dowson said the No. 9 entry for Daytona may be run as a Corvette DP. Either way, the car would carry sponsorship from Millennium Development fund, a new partnership that begins with this weekend’s WEC season-ending Six Hours of Bahrain with driver Fabien Giroix.

Dowson said Giroix will be one of the drivers for Daytona alongside the pairing of Burt and Brian Frisselle, who are expected contest the entire North American Endurance Cup in the No. 9 car.

“We’ll run a combination of some of our WEC drivers and some of their regular drivers they work with,” he said. “We’re looking to Sebring with a DP or a LMP2. At the moment, I’d quite like to carry on with the DP element, but it depends on the performance balancing.”

There is the potential for the team to bring one of its Oreca 03 Nissans to Sebring, alongside the generic-bodied Coyote and AXR’s full-season No. 5 Corvette DP of Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais.

“I think with the new tire, we’re not going to learn anything [for WEC] by going to Sebring with a LMP car,” Dowson said. “But from a team element, we want to work together as a group.

“It really depends on the performance balancing. We want to go there and be competitive. But it’s important to support our own product. We want to do the right thing both ways.”

As for the engine for Delta/AXR’s generic-bodied Coyote, Dowson said it’s likely they’ll go with the BMW-based Dinan powerplant, although a final decision has yet to be made.

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