Photo : Michel JAMIN - Michel JAMIN / ACO

 

In last year’s race, Thiriet by TDS Racing’s Ligier started in pole position and finished second. Also with a Ligier, OAK Racing clocked up the most laps as leader in LM P2 and went on to claim two victories in the FIA World Endurance Championship and a pole position in the 2015 24 Hours of Daytona. That was enough to convince the new teams and to please Jacques Nicolet, the car’s originator: “The Ligier JS P2 is what sparked my desire to take up the wheel again,” enthused the owner of OAK Racing and its manufacturing branch Onroak Automotive, which makes the JS P2 and the Morgan. “When I sat at the wheel for the first time, I was quite anxious at driving a closed cockpit prototype, because of the ventilation and the reduced visibility, but my tests went well. It’s a comfortable car, very fast and the visibility is actually very good. It’s a lot like being in a Formula 1 single seater. You are very low down with your legs horizontal. It felt right as soon as I got in. All in all, the JS P2 did extremely well at the Le Mans 24 Hours 2014, with three cars on the starting grid and three on the finish line.”

Two years after driving the Morgan “Art Car” in the 90th Anniversary edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours, Jacques Nicolet will be back at the wheel of one of the six JS P2s. The JS P2 will be the only prototype entered in all three major endurance series this season: the Russian team G-Drive Racing will be entering two cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship, while US-based Krohn Racing and Michael Shank Racing will be competing in the European Le Mans Series and in the Tudor United SportsCar Championship, and perhaps in the Asian Le Mans Series too. However Michael Shank Racing will not be at Le Mans this year. The two cars entered by OAK Racing will be joining G-Drive and Krohn at the Circuit de la Sarthe for the Le Mans 24 Hours, as will Algarve Pro Racing, who are on the reserve list.

Jean-Philippe DORET / ACO                  Translation by Emma Paulay

Photo: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, LE MANS 24 HOURS, SUNDAY 15 JUNE 2014, RACE. Fifth in LM P2, the Ligier JS P2 driven by Jann Mardenborough, Alex Brundle and Mark Shulzhistkiy was in the lead for 240 laps – over two-thirds of the race.