Britain’s Harry Tincknell hopes “local” knowledge will enable him to launch his 2015 European Le Mans Series title assault in style at Silverstone on Saturday (11 Apr). The 23-year-old competes in the 4 Hours of Silverstone for JOTA Sport, sharing the LM P2 class Gibson 015S-Nissan with Simon Dolan (GB) and Filipe Albuquerque (POR) in the opening race of the five-event ELMS campaign.

Harry has previously achieved top results at the 18-corner, 3.667-mile Silverstone “Grand Prix” circuit. Furthermore Tincknell, Dolan and Albuquerque dominated last year’s corresponding Silverstone race until Dolan, with just 48mins remaining, was edged off the track by an errant GT car and into instant retirement. Tincknell starts only his second year of sportscar racing having enjoyed a prolific maiden season in the category. An amazing fifth overall in his maiden Le Mans 24 Hours plus personally scoring three pole-positions and three “podiums”, including one win in ELMS, set him apart from the rest and named the ELMS “Rookie of the Year”.

These performances ultimately earned Harry a “factory” Nissan LM P1 drive for 2015. He had been due to debut the radical Nissan GT-R LM NISMO in the FIA World Endurance Championship race at Silverstone on Sunday (12 Apr) but Nissan NISMO has delayed the car’s race debut until the Le Mans 24 Hours in June. However Tincknell returned from America yesterday (5 Apr) having completed a successful multi-day test in the GT-R LM NISMO. Two practice sessions for the anticipated 34-car field are staged on Friday at Silverstone with qualifying the following morning. The 4 Hour race is scheduled to start at 2.30pm on Saturday afternoon.

Harry’s Silverstone fact file:
Debut: 2009 Formula Renault UK
Others: 2011/12 British F3 Championships; 2013 FIA Euro F3 Series; 2014 European Le Mans Series (having set pole-position by 1.2secs, Harry did not actually take part in 4hr race due to retirement of JOTA Sport Zytek-Nissan).
Most recent: 2013 FIA Euro F3 Series (due to Harry not actually competing in Silverstone ELMS race).

Comments: “Silverstone is one of my favourite tracks. It’s good for overtaking while corners like Stowe, Copse, Brooklands as well as the Maggots/Becketts section, are a joy to drive. I’ve had some great results there over the past two years. It’s fairly physical due to the high-speed corners but has slow speed sections too that lead from one corner to the next. I’ve claimed ‘pole’ there the last two years [F3 & ELMS]. It’s a track where there are a few secrets to unlock fortunately being a Brit I know where they are!”

Harry Tincknell (GB): Age: 23. Born: Exeter, Devon. Lives: Sidmouth, Devon, England:

“I’m gunning for victory at Silverstone. It’s my one and only ‘home’ race of the year so I really want to perform well. I have ‘bossed’ it there for the last two years. Last year we [JOTA] suffered a freak accident in the closing stages and up until that point we had dominated the event. I claimed pole by an incredible 1.2secs in my first ever sportscar race which was amazing. The JOTA car crashed out of the race one lap before I was due to start my stint. But we bounced back to have a stellar season. I’m personally feeling even stronger as a driver coming into the 2015 season and can’t wait to race at Silverstone.”

“It was great to be back out in the JOTA car at Paul Ricard at the end of last month. I quickly got back into the rhythm of the LM P2 car and the JOTA and Gibson guys have worked really hard over the winter to improve the car and I could definitely feel the updates were an improvement. I could only do the first day at Ricard as I flew straight off to America for a number of days testing with Nissan in the LM P1 car. We’ve made some big steps over the last two weeks and I can really start to feel the potential the car has when I ąm out on track. We’ve made big improvements in a short space of time and are managing to step up the mileage per day, running multiple stints back to back. All of this testing certainly means I am going into Silverstone this weekend feeling much more sharp and ready to do the business.”