SRT41 to Field First Garage 56 Entry in Five Years

La Filiere Frederic Sausset by SRT41 has been included on the 24 Hours of Le Mans entry list, setting up the French team to become the event’s first Garage 56 ‘Innovative Car’ entry in five years.

SRT41 will field a specially adapted, Graff-prepared Oreca 07 Gibson for a driver lineup including two disabled competitors.

The team is run by Frederic Sausset, who in 2016 became the first quadruple amputee to race and finish at Le Mans driving a modified OAK-run Morgan-Nissan LMP2.

Nigel Bailly and Takuma Aoki, who are both paralyzed from the waist down, have been named on the 62-car entry list for Sausset’s return to the race as a team manager.

They will be joined by Francois Heriau who is an LMP3 race winner in the European Le Mans Series.

Bailly and Aoki will team up with Pierre Sancinena for the Barcelona and Paul Ricard rounds of the ELMS, in preparation for their Le Mans debuts on Aug. 21-22.

Bailly and former superbike racer Aoki have both been wheelchair-bound since motorcycle accidents in 2004 and 1998 respectively, but through Sausset’s SRT41 initiative have been able to compete in sports car races using hand-control technology.

The Silver-rated pair have contested several races in a modified LMP3 Ligier including the 2019 Road to Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe alongside Snoussi Ben Moussa.

Ben Moussa withdrew from the 2021 program due to personal reasons, leading to the team hiring the inaugural Alpine Elf Europa Cup champion Sancinena for the ELMS rounds and Heriau for Le Mans.

SRT41 successfully filed an entry into last year’s Le Mans edition for Aoki, Bailly and Ben Moussa, but the coronavirus pandemic forced the team to abandon its plans.