Newbridge Motorsport is seeking prospective sportscar and prototype drivers to join the team for its maiden full-time assault on the 2016 European Le Mans Series’ (ELMS) LMP3 category.
With more than 30 years of experience in national and international endurance racing, Newbridge Motorsport is perfectly positioned to provide sublime support to customers who want to challenge for victory.
The Milton Keynes-based outfit prides itself in its first-class levels of preparation and its ability to provide the discerning driver with superb ‘arrive-and-drive’ offerings that include coaching, lap experiences, as well as full race packages in some of the best-loved and most competitive motorsporting arenas in the UK and Europe.
With the rise of Le Mans Prototype (LMP) racing, Newbridge Motorsport has set its sights on on a full campaign in next season’s ELMS, in a car built and developed under the newly devised LMP3 regulations.
As a result, it is calling for like-minded drivers who share the team’s ambition to compete within the highest echelon of European endurance racing.
ELMS
Team spirit together with long distance performance, as embodied by the 24 Hours of Le Mans, is the credo of the European Le Mans Series. The duty is to offer its competitors a full season of racing on some of the best tracks in Europe, while keeping a tight control of the costs associated with running in a top pan-European series.
The Automobile Club de L’Ouest (ACO) guarantees a series that has strict rules and a paddock that embodies the professionalism surrounding top level endurance racing.
However, the ELMS paddock is a friendly environment for teams, drivers, the media and, of course, fans.
The opportunity to compete in a first-class series according to their budgets and level of competitiveness means there is plenty of track action throughout the large grid of 40-plus cars.
The ELMS is a natural training ground for drivers wanting to tackle the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), as teams compete with the same specification machinery that features on the global stage.
The Champions in each class will be offered a place on the grid for the following year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, which gives an extra dimension to the title race across the four categories.
Le Mans Prototypes (LMP)
In order to strengthen the pyramid of endurance racing, which was introduced in 1999 by the ACO, the organisation has launched a new category of junior sports-prototype for endurance racing, LMP3.
In the pyramid of “Le Mans Prototypes,” the LMP3 category, which is aimed at young and gentlemen drivers, becomes the first step on the ladder before moving up to the LMP2 and LMP1 classes, which both feature in the FIA WEC and 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The thinking behind the concept is to limit those budgetary, technical, driving or operational constraints that can be found in the higher powered categories.
Like LMP1, the LMP3 category is a closed cockpit car. The chassis and body of the LMP3 can be built by any manufacturer and are very close to those of the current LMP2 crop. Powered by a normally aspirated Nissan powerplant capable of 500bhp, unique to and identical to all chassis, the engines are marketed by the ORECA company, which also provides technical assistance to teams.