Damage sustained at final pre Le Mans test leads team regretfully to withdraw from Le Mans race
Following a testing ‘off’ at Spa this week, Strakka Racing has made the very difficult decision to withdraw from this year’s Le Mans race. After an assessment of the damage and factoring the short timeframe ahead of the Le Mans Test Day, the team together with chassis manufacturer DOME has today confirmed it will unfortunately have to pull its entry.
“It happened on the first day’s running at Eau Rouge and if you leave the track there, it is going to result in damage,” says team manager Karl Patman. “Danny Watts was driving at the time. Crucially, he’s absolutely fine but we don’t have the time to be able to assess, repair the car and acquire sufficient spares in time. It has been a tight programme and this put any chance of competing out of the window.”
“Strakka Racing would like to apologise to the organisers, technical partners and our fans for both the unfortunate timing and impact of withdrawing from the Le Mans 24 Hours race,” says team founder Nick Leventis. “Everybody has worked tirelessly to get this car to where it needs to be and we are really sorry that we won’t be out this year. We owe it to everyone involved in the project to make this a success and we will.”
Strakka Racing remains very committed to the FIA World Endurance Championship and will be working closely with the organisers to ensure the team is back racing as soon as the issues from Spa have been resolved.
About Strakka Racing
From early domestic campaigns with BMWs and Aston Martins, Strakka Racing has evolved to become one of the most respected and successful privateer teams in the World Endurance Championship. In 2010 the Silverstone-based team achieved a class win, five circuit records and fifth overall in the iconic Le Mans 24 Hours. Ever developing, in 2013 Strakka Racing entered the Formula Renault 3.5 litre World Series single seater championship, regarded as one of the best training grounds before F1. In 2014 Strakka Racing joins forces with esteemed Japanese chassis manufacturer DOME to develop, market and race the Strakka DOME S103 LMP2 chassis. Alongside the racing teams, it also runs Strakka Performance, providing professional racing drivers with bespoke programmes aimed at enhancing their on-track performance. Unlike many training regimes, Strakka Performance goes beyond the gym with dedicated track time and coaching in World Series by Renault cars. It has also created Zanardi Strakka Kart racing team, putting in place the building blocks to enable racing drivers to develop and refine their skills right from the start of their career with a support infrastructure that goes beyond any typical racing team.
