Brits on Pole

IndyCar racer Darren Manning is to compete in Le Mans Series races at Nurburgring and Hockenheim this summer, it has been announced.

Manning made his series debut last year for Embassy Racing and went on to take part in three races.

He will return for the team in Germany on August 15-17 and in the UK on September 12-14 - the former date fits neatly between the IRL’s Kentucky and Infineon races while the latter is after the season’s point-scoring races have been completed, during the run-in to the exhibition event at Surfers Paradise in Australia.

Embassy Racing team principal Jonathan France said that he had been hoping to sign Manning for the entire season, but there had been too many clashes with IndyCar dates and the final two races proved to be the only practical ones.

He said: “I was a little disappointed at the start of the year when it became obvious that Darren would not be in our line-up for the whole of 2008.

“I knew that there were no clashes for the final two rounds and as things were working out I knew we would need an additional driver for Nurburgring and Silverstone. As a result, I have been working in the background for some time to ensure Darren was with us for Germany and the UK rounds.

“I am delighted to have secured his services and feel it will give us the best opportunity yet to get the WF01 on the podium. I have a great deal of respect for Darren, he is a prodigious talent and this is shining through in the States, I am hopeful our good fortune in signing him will translate into at least a little good fortune on the track which has so obviously deserted us so far this year.”

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed, or put your name down for the free e-book we're producing with all our race coverage from the 2008 season (see the sidebar for the sign-up form). Thanks for visiting!