DC Racing Set for Expansion to ELMS, WEC

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

On the heels of its debut victory in the Asian Le Mans Series, the upstart DC Racing team has set its sights on expansion to the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2017, while planning a multi-car European Le Mans Series effort for next year.

According to team owner David Cheng, plans are being put in place for a European campaign with a Ligier JS P2, alongside its existing Ligier JS P3, which will be relocated to Europe following the conclusion of the 2015/2016 Asian LMS season.

It will culminate with the goal of stepping up to the FIA WEC full-time in 2017.

“Our plans are quite ambitious, but having driven the Asian, European and American Le Mans Series with Ho-Pin [Tung], with Remy [Brouard, team manager], our core team has been working together for three years now,” Cheng told Sportscar365.

“Over that period we always talked about plans and I guess we’ve always known what our target is.

“Now we paired that with the good backing from Jackie Chan so a lot of the commercial side is taken care of.”

Cheng, who is targeting his third consecutive Asian LMS title, and the automatic invite to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans in LMP2, is competing in this weekend’s WEC race in Shanghai alongside longtime co-driver Ho-Pin Tung in a Pegasus Racing-entered Morgan Nissan.

With the backing of film star Jackie Chan, who is in discussions with Cheng for “deeper involvement” within the team, the 26-year-old driver-turned-owner is confident of his team’s growth plan.

“It’s a lot of work, I’m not going to lie,” Cheng said. “It’s been a lot of flying back and forth and a lot of conversations over the last month, but I think it’s an achievable target.

“To do WEC in 2017, we definitely want our team to be challenged for next year, to learn through competition.

“ELMS is a great way for my team to learn, not just for myself and Ho-Pin but for the entire team.

“This year we’re taking technical service from Eurasia [in Asian LMS], but right now, even before coming here, we’ve been looking everywhere for a crew, a garage and everything like that.

“We are expanding but we are building this into our team as well.”

Cheng has also expressed interest in taking part in the one-hour Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup support race at Le Mans, which will also be open to full-season ELMS and Asian LMS LMP3 cars.

“The goal is to win the Asian Le Mans championship, to have the P2 at Le Mans [in 2016] and quite exciting now too is the sprint race for LMP3 at Le Mans,” he said.

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