Glickenhaus Aiming for Continuity in Driver Lineup

Glickenhaus Racing is looking to complete its driver lineup for the upcoming FIA World Endurance Championship season from its existing pool of names, with team owner Jim Glickenhaus saying the team does not want to alter the crew “for change’s sake.”

The American squad is yet to announce its trio of drivers for its single-car, full-season Hypercar class entry, with the season-opening 1000 Miles of Sebring less than a month away.

So far, only Romain Dumas has been confirmed aboard the No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 Pipo, making the team one of the few to not have a lineup nailed down ahead of the start of the season.

While commenting about the team’s driver plans, Jim Glickenhaus also confirmed that his eponymous squad has filed an entry request for a second car for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“As you know, we have one car in the season and then we will be making an entry that we hope and we believe we will get for a second car at Le Mans,” Glickenhaus said. “So we’ll have two cars at Le Mans.

“Our drivers will likely be people that we have worked with in the past. We don’t change just for change’s sake.”

Glickenhaus’ pool of potential talent to pick from has been depleted by the arrival of new LMDh manufacturers, which have snapped up some of the drivers that raced for the team previously.

Last year, its lineup at Le Mans consisted of Dumas, Olivier Pla, Pipo Derani, Franck Mailleux, Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe.

Of those six, Derani and Westbrook are now involved with Cadillac’s rival LMDh program, effectively ruling them out.

While Glickenhaus would not go into further specifics, he hinted at bringing in a driver with backing to complete the squad’s lineup.

“There are some possibilities of a sponsor that could involve a driver,” he added. “I’m not being evasive, it’s just too early for me to tell. There are a lot of great drivers in the world. I don’t worry about that.”

Customer-Owned Second Car for Le Mans Under Glickenhaus Racing Banner

Glickenhaus also elaborated further on its potential second entry for Le Mans, stating it will be a customer-backed car run under the factory banner.

The arrangement is similar to the previous year’s expanded Le Mans effort, involving the No. 709 car owned by Connecticut-based dealership HK Motorcars.

“It’s Jason McCarthy that owns the car, the same person that owned it last year,” Glickenhaus said.

“He will race under the Glickenhaus banner and in the same pit with us, with a co-equal car, with the same livery.

“That is not an additional customer car. We have discussions for what would be a third customer car, but whether or not they would want to race with us, I don’t know.

“The cars are really identical, we had no knowledge that it was different. Jason has been driving the car himself, which makes us very happy.

“We’re really a throwback, in my mind, to [Luigi] Chinetti and NART. We’re a small privateer and as Mr. Chinetti had customers who raced, we have customers who race.”

Glickenhaus additionally indicated that it is unlikely that the second car will appear at any WEC rounds prior to Le Mans.