24h Le Mans
US team DragonSpeed, led by former driver Elton Julian, will be making the switch from GT to the LM P2 class and the European Le Mans Series next year in support of Henrik Hedman, the driver representing the team in two GT championships in 2015.
In July, the DragonSpeed outfit was on the grid at the 24 Hours of Spa, the fourth round of the Blancpain Endurance Series, in the Pro-Am class with the #100 Ferrari 458 Italia spangled with the stars of the US flag. Unfortunately the squad made up of Ryan Dalziel, LM P2 class winner at Le Mans in 2012, Anthony Lazzaro, Henrik Hedman and team owner Elton Julian was forced to retire.
Julian, who founded DragonSpeed in 2007, has two 24 Hours of Le Mans appearances under his belt – in LM P1 in 2005 with Racing for Holland’s Dome (seventh overall) and in LM P2 in 2012 with Greaves Motorsport (fifth in the class). The Florida-based team owner hopes to back at the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe in 2016 as he intends to apply for an invitation to the 84th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Oreca 05, the car that scooped the LM P2 class title this year, to be entered by DragonSpeed in ELMS and at the 12 Hours of Sebring next season.
The Florida event is the home race for DragonSpeed and Julian, who competed in the endurance classic five times from 1995 to 2012. On the last two occasions, Julian was at the wheel of a Formula Le Mans-class car, designed by Oreca whom he has known since his days in the French Formula Three Championship.
The choice of the Southern France-based constructor for DragonSpeed’s move into LM P2 therefore comes as no great surprise. No surprise either that the two drivers announced for the venture are none other than Hedman and Frankie Montecalvo, both of whom are competing in this year’s Pirelli World Challenge with Julian’s structure. A Formula Le Mans rival of Montecalvo back in the days of the American Le Mans Series, Julian takes no persuading to slip back into a car seat, like at Spa where he shared a cockpit with Hedman whose ultimate aim is to have a go at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
After a visit to the manufacturer’s headquarters, the US-based Swede decided to take the plunge next year and bought an Oreca 05 to fulfil that very dream.
Cécile Bonardel / ACO - Translated by David Goward
