OAK Team Asia Lineup Finalized

Photo: DPPI/OAK Racing

Following the team’s launch in China earlier this week, OAK Racing Team Asia confirmed Wednesday the remainder of its history making driver lineup for next month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Open-wheel rising star Adderly Fong will join reigning Asian Le Mans Series champion David Cheng and Ho-Pin Tung at the wheel of the No. 33 Ligier JS P2-Honda, which will mark the first-ever all-Chinese driver lineup in the race’s 82-year history.

Fong, winner of last year’s Audi R8 LMS Cup, will make his prototype debut after first sampling an Onroak Automotive-designed Morgan LMP2 car earlier this year at Paul Ricard.

“It is truly a pleasure and a highlight in my career thus far,” Fong said. “Life is down to a few moments and this is certainly one of them. I feel the Ligier JS P2 car is a great car to drive. It handles very similarly to an F3 car.

“Having driven 4 years, in 2 variations of F3, I quickly adapted to the Morgan LM P2 when I came at the Paul Ricard circuit for some tests. The Ligier JS P2 is a closed prototype, which increases the downforce significantly.”

OAK’s Asian program will continue with the support of TOTAL Lubricants and Michelin, which backed last year’s Asian Le Mans Series championship-winning run.

“A great challenge lies ahead of us in 2014, with the obvious objective of defending our titles but as well of a good result in Le Mans for the 24H,” said Patrice Devemy, General Manager of TOTAL Lubricants China Co Ltd.

“I am very pleased that we could further extend our cooperation for this event, having a squad of three Chinese pilots the year of the 50th anniversary of the cooperation between France and China.”

Added Patrick Dias, Michelin Motorsport Asia-Pacific Director: “The press conference in Beijing was a great event in which the fans and Chinese bloggers invited were able to take advantage of the availability of the three Chinese drivers of OAK Racing Team Asia.

“OAK Racing and Michelin China explained how this exciting project, which will bring a 100 percent Chinese team to the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time, was mounted.”

Following Le Mans, Cheng and Tung will switch to a Morgan-Judd for their Asian LMS title defense, which kicks off at Korea’s Inje Speedium on July 20.

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