This season, Thiriet by TDS Racing team will enter the European Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans (June 18th and 19th) with only one goal : to win ! To achieve it, the team will rely on a solid line-up.
Thiriet by TDS Racing team program will be centered on the European Le Mans Series, in which the team will enter one Oreca 05 Nissan, equipped with Dunlop tyres, and with a new livery designed by Gaazmaster Motorsport, a faithful partner of the team. Without a doubt, the team will play the first roles in LM P2, a category the team knows well after being champion in 2012 and vice champion in 2015.
In order to achieve its goal, to be crowned as an ELMS Drivers and Teams champion, Xavier Combet and Jacques Morello’s team will rely on a renewed line-up. Pierre Thiriet will be at the centre. The faithful driver integrated into the team since 2011. He will team up alongside a man he knows well, Mathias Beche, with who he was crowned four years ago. The Rebellion Racing driver in LM P1 in World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) is coming back to his beloved team. His arrival corresponds to a partnership between TDS Racing team and Rebellion Timepieces.
The third man will be Ryo Hirakawa. The young Japanese driver has already a solid profile. After starting kart in 2007 and winning the All Japan Junior Kart Championship the following year, the 22-year-old man (on March 7th) became All-Japan Formula Three champion in 2012. The same year, he was crowned in Porsche Carrera Cup Japan with seven wins! Since then, he has been driving in Super Formula Japan and in Super GT for Team Tom’s. This year, Ryo Hirakawa will discover endurance as part of the Toyota Young Drivers Programme (TDP)..
The line-up will remain unchanged for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the pinnacle of the season for the team. Being invited by Automobile Club de l’Ouest, Thiriet by TDS Racing team will enter the most famous endurance race of the world for the sixth time in a row. After two second places in LM P2 category in 2012 and 2014, the team wishes to climb up on the highest step of the podium.
Now, the members of the team are focusing on the first ELMS round which will be held in the United Kingdom, at Silverstone, on April 16th.