Le Mans: Davidson to compete for Aston in potential race-winner
By LJ Hutchins
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
At last something on the race track has come good for Anthony Davidson – the former F1 pilot and BBC radio commentator is to drive for Aston Martin in this year’s 24 hours of Le Mans in June.
Aston, which announced earlier this year that it would be returning to Le Mans as a factory team in the LMP1 class, has just revealed that it will be fielding three cars – and has already said that it aims to compete for a win. Perhaps optimistically, perhaps not.
Aston chairman David Richards, no stranger to competitive racing, said in January this year: “We don’t have a lot of money… We’re doing this because we felt it right and properly British to have a go in the anniversary year of our historic win.”
Davidson will compete in the 008 car for the iconic race alongside Dutch F1 legend Jos Verstappen and British GT youngster Stuart Hall.
It is not his first entry in the race. He took part in 2003 for the Veloqx Prodrive Racing in a Ferrari – alongside former McLaren tester and sportscar specialist Darren Turner. Their car did not finish the race.
Also competing for Aston this year are Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Andrea Piccini and Karl Wendlinger in car 007, and David Brabham, Antonio Garcia and Davidson’s former Le Mans team-mate Turner in car 009.
The team has backed up Richards’ ambitious claim by winning the recent Le Mans Series endurance race at Spa-Francorchamps. But its major competitors Peugeot and Audi, both running the arguably superior diesel engine, were not present after pulling out from the European Le Mans Series.
Davidson was recently in the frame for a Le Mans Series drive in a Nissan GT-R being run by Gigawave Motorsport – the opportunity instead went to Turner and Germany’s Michael Krumm.
Related posts:
- Verstappen crashes Davidson’s Le Mans Aston 008
- Davidson has GT1 drive at Spa
- Peugeot score Le Mans one-two as Aston’s hopes are dashed
- Le Mans: which British drivers are taking part?
- Prodrive in frame for job cuts
Read more about 24hrs of Le Mans, Anthony Davidson, Aston Martin, Darren Turner, David Richards, LMP1.
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 3:59 pm and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Author: LJ Hutchins. Supports McLaren, kind of. Thinks James May gets a rough deal off the other two. Drives a Subaru Impreza but regrets its lack of bright blue paint and gold wheels. Is very nearly old enough to know better but probably never will. Is a supporter member of the BWRDC. LJ has written 1119 articles for us.
