After their victory at Silverstone and 5th place in the Petit Le Mans in front of Acura, the Team ORECA-Matmut-AIM will race in the last 2 events of the season on 31st October and 1st November. The ORECA 01 will be at Okayama and will be driven in the Asian Le Mans Series by Nicolas Lapierre and Loïc Duval.
Lapierre has been a regular member of the team for 2 years – usually with Olivier Panis – and has scored a couple of pole positions plus victory at Silverstone as well as finishing 5th in the Petit Le Mans. Loïc Duval will back him up in the two 500-km events in Japan. Loïc has won the 2009 Formula Nippon Championship title this season scoring 4 victories and 3 pole positions in the 8 rounds! He has also shone in the Super GT Championship in which he is racing in addition to his single-seater commitments. Like Lapierre in the past he has also competed in A1GP, and he knows the Team ORECA-Matmut-AIM squad well as he drove for it in the 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours in which he finished eighth. At Le Mans, he also received the Jean Rondeau Prize awarded to a rising French star.
“Loïc’s got all the right qualities to back up Nicolas,” explains Hugues de Chaunac. “He’s a talented driver as shown by his results, in particular his recent Formula Nippon title. His performances in Japan are strong arguments in his favour. On the one hand, he’s a well-known driver there, and on the other he knows all the Japanese circuits including Okayama. As it’s the team’s first outing on the track his experience will be a big help. Like Nicolas he’s shown his talent in both sprint and endurance events. He drives single-seaters on a regular basis and he’s already driven an LM P1 prototype.”
In Japan, the ORECA 01 will in the hands of a couple of drivers who’ve proved just how quick they are. Nicolas and Loïc combine both speed and steadiness so they have all the qualities necessary to tackle the Okayama races – long certainly, but shorter than the usual ones in endurance. The whole Team ORECA-Matmut-AIM squad is determined to finish the season on a high note in the Land of the Rising Sun !
Source : ORECA