Dempsey-Proton Finalizes Fuji Driver Lineup

Dempsey-Proton Racing has finalized its driver lineup for this weekend’s six-hour FIA World Endurance Championship round at Fuji Speedway.

ADAC GT Masters competitor Adrien de Leener will make his WEC debut in the No. 88 Porsche 911 RSR, partnering Thomas Preining and Satoshi Hoshino.

Until this week, Porsche Young Professional Preining was the only driver confirmed in the car, which he shared with Gianluca Giraudi and Ricardo Sanchez in the Silverstone season-opener.

De Leener arrives off the back of a season with two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Timo Bernhard’s KÜS Team75 Bernhard outfit, which runs Porsche 911 GT3 Rs.

The 30-year-old Belgian has also made GT3 appearances for Team WRT in Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe and AF Corse in the European Le Mans Series.

In July, de Leener tested with Dempsey-Proton Racing during the WEC Prologue, publicly driving the Porsche GTE car for the first time.

Hoshino, meanwhile, is set for his first world championship outing since Le Mans in June, where he was involved in a dramatic accident at the Porsche Curves that resulted in one of Corvette Racing’s GTE-Pro cars being written off.

Earlier in the 2018-19 campaign, the Bronze-rated Japanese racer helped score pole position for Dempsey-Proton at his home Fuji event 12 months ago.

Dempsey-Proton’s sister No. 77 car will be driven by Christian Ried, Matt Campbell and Riccardo Pera for the second consecutive race.

Laurent Mercier contributed to this report