DragonSpeed to Run G-Drive Oreca in ELMS

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

G-Drive Racing’s No. 22 Oreca 07 Gibson competing in the European Le Mans Series will be run by DragonSpeed, the Russian outfit confirmed on Friday.

Memo Rojas has been confirmed as the first driver in the car, with a statement from G-Drive on social media confirming that the remainder of the lineup will be announced in due course.

DragonSpeed already has the No. 21 Oreca competing under its own name, and the addition of the G-Drive-backed car stays true to the Elton Julian-led team’s announcement in June that it would run two cars in the ELMS this season.

The No. 21 DragonSpeed car will return with an unchanged lineup of Nicolas Lapierre, Henrik Hedman and Ben Hanley.

Meanwhile, G-Drive Racing will also have a full-season entry in the FIA World Endurance Championship, but run by a different team.

G-Drive backer Roman Rusinov will pair up with Pierre Thiriet in a TDS Racing-run Oreca for WEC, with that car’s third driver yet to be announced.

In addition to this, TDS Racing will also campaign an Oreca under its own name in WEC, driven by Emmanuel Collard, Francois Perrodo and Matthieu Vaxiviere.

This all comes after G-Drive split from its 2016 partner Jota Sport. In 2016, the British team fielded a G-Drive-backed car in both WEC and ELMS.

Meanwhile, having won the 2016 ELMS title in G-Drive colors, Jota is heading down a different path for 2017, running a two-car Oreca program for Jackie Chan DC Racing in WEC.

Jake Kilshaw

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