United Autosports to Complete NAEC with Senna, Hanson

Photo: United Autosports

United Autosports will complete the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup season with Phil Hanson and Bruno Senna the first confirmed drivers, the team announced on Friday.

The Anglo-American team will enter the remaining races at Sebring, Watkins Glen and Road Atlanta following its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut in this weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona.

It will enter a single Ligier JS P217 Gibson for Senna and Hanson, both of whom are racing in the team’s two-car entry this weekend, although in seperate cars

“To enter the four endurance races as part of the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup is a big step for United Autosports, but one we are really looking forward to,” said team co-owner and managing director Richard Dean.

“There has been a lot to learn about racing over in America and in IMSA, but everyone has been very helpful in assisting us so far.

“Racing in the IMSA series has been on our radar for a while now and to take our European championship winning team over there is definitely the next step in our racing plans.”

This program is in addition to United’s previously-announced European Le Mans Series entry, in which the team will run two Ligier LMP2s for the six-race season, including a car for Hanson.

“Extending the program with United Autosports is very cool,” Senna said. “So far the team has been great and we have been working together very well and the environment in the team is really fun.

“There’s always so much car and team development throughout a season and the first race is always a big learning curve. We can look forward to the next few races now though and try to do the best we can.”

Hanson added: “It will be a good supplement to an already pretty lavish program we have going on with ELMS and the Rolex 24 and my testing program, so it will fill up my calendar quite nicely.”

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.