KC Motorgroup Ltd. (KCMG) shifts its gaze to North America as the Hong Kong-based squad tackles FIA World Endurance Championship’s (WEC) fifth round, which will be held as part of the much-celebrated Lone Star Le Mans event at the Circuit of the Americas. Following another peerless victory in Germany last month, KCMG returns to the highly demanding Austin track, where the team first claimed their LMP2 victory with the ORECA 03 in 2014.
Fresh from his WTCC-debut in Japan last weekend, French ace Nicolas Lapierre will rejoin his 24 Hours of Le Mans team mates Richard Bradley and Matt Howson in the World Championship’s six-hour round in the US. Lapierre will fill in for Nick Tandy, as the latter will represent Porsche in TUDOR United SportsCar Championship’s penultimate round in Austin.
KCMG is keen to extend its lead in the LMP2 class and is set to once again challenge for the podium’s top step at Austin with its powerful new ORECA 05 coupe. Powered by Nissan and shod with Dunlop tyres, the #47 LMP2 has displayed commanding pace and reliability, yielding two successive wins for KCMG in FIA WEC this season.
Richard Bradley: “I’m very excited to go back to Austin. This has been one of the races, along with Le Mans that I ‘ve really been looking forward to going to after I saw the WEC calendar this year. After having such a great race there last year, where we took our first WEC LMP2 win, it gives us a very good foundation to once again race there and push for a good result this weekend.”
Matt Howson: “I’m really excited about heading back to CoTA, where we won our first race in LMP2 with KCMG. It will always be a memorable venue. We arrive with the reason to be confident after our Nurburgring performance, and I look forward to the special challenge from the high temperatures, changeable weather and of course, racing at night again!”
Nicolas Lapierre: “I’m so happy to be back in the KCMG Oreca LMP2. I did follow the team’s performance at Nurburgring and I was very impressed. We will fight to extend this success. I love Austin track and I can’t wait until Saturday.”
Erich Kolb, KCMG WEC Team Manager: “The entire team is looking forward to be back in Austin after the success that we’ve achieved there last year. Our aim is to maintain the strong form that we’ve consistently had since Le Mans and hope that we seal our third successive win in WEC in the US.”
