G-Drive Confirms Driver Lineup for Two-Car Ligier Program

G-Drive Racing will return to the FIA World Endurance Championship with a full two-car effort, in a pair of Ligier JS P2 Nissans as expected.

Roman Rusinov, Julien Canal and new recruit Sam Bird will share the No. 26 entry, with Bird the de facto replacement for Nissan-bound factory driver Olivier Pla.

Meanwhile the second car, the No. 28, will feature Gustavo Yacaman entering the full WEC for the first time, with co-drivers Ricardo Gonzalez and Pipo Derani.

“In our second year with G-Drive Racing we’re really determined to win the title that escaped us by such a tiny margin in 2014,” said team principal Philippe Dumas.

“Naturally, we’ve remained faithful to the Ligier JS P2 that’s proved just how competitive it is, and we have two excellent driver line-ups.

“We’ll be up against very stiff opposition in LMP2 with the arrival of new teams and new cars. But that makes the challenge all the more exciting and victory is our sole aim!”

OAK Racing has also confirmed its lineup – an all-gentlemen trio of Jacques Nicolet, Jean-Marc Merlin and Erik Maris, the same trio that competed in the No. 45 Morgan Nissan “art car” at the 2013 Circuit of the Americas round. This year, that trio will be in a third Ligier JS P2 Nissan, the No. 35 entry, for the full season.

The G-Drive pair and OAK lineup are part of a 10-car LMP2 lineup this season.

The 2014 champions SMP Racing will not run in WEC LMP2, but instead launch a full scale assault on the European Le Mans Series with its new pair of BR01s, and continue in the WEC with a GTE-Am class Ferrari F458 Italia.