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ByKolles Switches to Gibson Engine for Rest of Season

ByKolles Racing switches from NISMO to Gibson for remainder of 2018-19 FIA WEC…

Photo: MPS Agency

ByKolles Racing has signed a contract with Gibson Technology that will see the British engine manufacturer supply the Austrian team for the remainder of the FIA World Endurance Championship ‘Super Season’.

Gibson’s 4.5-liter V8 LMP1 engine, which is derived from its current LMP2 unit, will replace the 3.0-liter NISMO V6 turbo that ByKolles has used in its ENSO CLM P1/01 since 2017.

The first engine is set to be delivered to the team’s Greding workshop in April before the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in early May, while the package is also slated to contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Spa will mark ByKolles’ next race appearance after it recently dropped off the entry list for next month’s 1000 Miles of Sebring

“Everyone saw the tough time we suffered in recent race weekends and it’s time to move on to a new chapter,” said ByKolles team principal Manfredi Ravetto.

“We are very confident that a Gibson-powered ByKolles Enso will reward us with the results that our relentless work and investment deserve.

“It’s a massive challenge to be ready for Spa but our small and dedicated team in Greding loves these challenges as we’ve proven before in F1 and WEC.”

Gibson Technology operations manager John Manchester added: “Everyone at Gibson Technology is delighted that our engines have been chosen by yet another top-flight team.

“We are all looking forward to being part of this new phase in ByKolles Racing history, which will further enable us to develop our engine technology to compete against some of the top sports car and engine manufacturers in world sports car racing.”

In nine races with NISMO power, ByKolles achieved its best result of fourth during last year’s Six Hours of Spa, with Oliver Webb, Tom Dillmann and Dominik Kraihamer driving.

Before switching to the Japanese brand two years ago, the team had run with an AER engine since it joined the LMP1 category in 2014.

ByKolles becomes the third LMP1 squad with a different chassis to opt for the normally-aspirated Gibson package, joining the Rebellion Racing R13s and DragonSpeed’s BR Engineering BR1.

Daniel Lloyd is a UK-based reporter for Sportscar365, covering the FIA World Endurance Championship, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, among other series.

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