G-Drive Completes Sebring Test; Planning 2019 Programs

Photo: G-Drive Racing

G-Drive Racing has completed a test at Sebring International Raceway, with the Russian squad in the process of finalizing its 2019 racing plans that could include additional FIA World Endurance Championship outings.

While Roman Rusinov was joined by TDS Racing’s full-season WEC drivers Matthieu Vaxviere, Francois Perrodo and Loic Duval at the wheel of G-Drive’s European Le Mans Series-winning Oreca 07 Gibson, the team also evaluated newly crowned ELMS LMP3 champion Job van Uitert and Garry Findlay.

The TDS trio of Vaxviere, Perrodo and Duval are set to take part in the 1000 Miles of Sebring round in March, although there is no indication if the sister G-Drive entry could be prepped for WEC or IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition on the Florida airfield circuit in March.

A similar program is expected from G-Drive next year, with Rusinov likely to seek a fourth consecutive LMP2 teams’ championship in the ELMS, alongside selected WEC outings, including a return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans courtesy of its auto invite for winning this year’s ELMS title.

Recent media reports of a Russian-badged G-Drive DPi program for 2020, meanwhile, have been refuted by Rusinov, who admitted a LMP2 program in January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona had been under consideration at one point.

IMSA rules stipulate that all DPi manufacturers must be mainstream OEMs with high volume sales within North America, a criteria that no Russian automaker currently meets.

The sanctioning body is known to have refused DPi requests, including one from Panoz, which had proposed a Ligier-based DPi for 2017.

Laurent Mercier contributed to this report

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