Duval, Vautier Confirmed in JDC-Miller’s Full-Season Lineup

Loic Duval will contest his first full season of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next year having been confirmed alongside Tristan Vautier in JDC-Miller Motorsports’ DPi driver lineup for the 2021 campaign.

As reported by Sportscar365 last month, Duval will replace Sebastien Bourdais as a full-time driver of JDC-Miller’s Mustang Sampling-sponsored Cadillac DPi-V.R.

Bourdais, who is returning to full-time NTT IndyCar Series competition next year, will take up an endurance-only role with the Minnesota-based team.

Duval represented JDC-Miller in three of the 2020 season’s long-distance races starting at the Rolex 24 at Daytona where he, Bourdais and Joao Barbosa finished third.

Vautier started out in JDC-Miller’s No. 85 Cadillac crew but switched to the Mustang Sampling entry when Barbosa and the team parted ways with three rounds remaining.

The all-French trio of Duval, Vautier and Bourdais then contested Motul Petit Le Mans and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring together.

“It’s great to have all three of them back for 2021,” said JDC-Miller Motorsports managing partner John Church.

“We had a little bit of an up and down year in 2020 but I think we showed in the final race of the year at Sebring a lot of momentum and the potential we have as a group and that is what we have to build on for 2021.

“Consistency with our partners and line-up is a big part of that, so we are all very excited to be able to keep the line-up together for another run at the championship in 2021.”

Duval, who also drove for Audi in the DTM and Algarve Pro Racing in the European Le Mans Series LMP2 class this year, has competed at Daytona four times previously but has never held a full-time IMSA position until now.

“I am really happy and pleased to be back with Mustang Sampling Racing/JDC-Miller Motorsports for the 2021 season after I joined the team in 2020 for the long endurance races,” said the 2013 Le Mans winner.

“2020 was a challenging year for a lot of reasons and as a team we for sure had our up and downs, but we started the season really strong at Daytona and had a lot of momentum towards the end of the season.

“So it’s great to be back with Tristan and Seb in 2021, now as one of the full-season drivers for the team because it for sure gives us consistency and to build on the momentum we had.

“All the best of luck to Seb for his IndyCar season in 2021 and it’s great that we will have him back in the lineup for the endurance races.”