Still riding high from its inaugural victory at the Sportsbook.com Grand Prix of Atlanta last month and a near-podium finish at last weekend's Mid-Ohio race, the Panoz Esperante factory racing team has announced an agreement with Bank of Scotland Corporate to sponsor its pair of Esperante GTLM race cars in this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans and onward throughout the 2005 American Le Mans Series (ALMS).
Appropriately enough, the new arrangement involves Scottish drivers in both the team's Panoz Esperantes. Edinburgh-born Robin Liddell will race at Le Mans with Californian Bill Auberlen. Scott Maxwell of Toronto will complete the driving trio of the first Panoz entry.
After making his initial appearance with the team at last year's Petit Le Mans and the season-ending race at Laguna Seca, Scotland's Marino Franchitti returned to the Panoz squad as a "reserve" driver just last weekend. At Le Mans, he will co-drive with America's Bryan Sellers and Le Mans native Patrick Bourdais.
Bank of Scotland's head of Corporate Banking, Gary Gerrard, made the announcement on behalf of the bank, saying, "We have developed an excellent relationship with Don Panoz as financiers of his flagship resorts in the UK and USA over the past six years. We are delighted to have the opportunity to extend this relationship to the Panoz Esperante team at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The worldwide attention given to this classic contest provides an excellent platform to promote our support of the Panoz team. We wish them every success."
"Along with Marino, we also wish to welcome 'Monsieur' Patrick Bourdais to the Le Mans team," added Panoz Motor Sports General Manager Ed Triolo. "With his considerable Le Mans experience, he'll be an extremely valuable coach to Bryan and Marino." Bourdais is well known as the father of Newman-Haas Racing star Sebastian Bourdais.
"I know we have a fast and well-seasoned lineup with our pair of Esperantes," said Triolo. "Scott Maxwell is a Le Mans 2000 winner in the Multimatic LMP 675 Lola, so I know he will have thousands of fans there cheering him on for a new win."
In addition to Bank of Scotland Corporate, the Panoz Esperante GTLM factory racing team is proud to receive support from Pirelli racing tires, Élan Power Products, Multimatic, 3-Dimensional Services, Diablo Grande Award-Winning Wines, BBS wheels, Sparco driver gear, and Bosch sparkplugs and engine management systems.
Panoz Auto Development, manufacturers of the Panoz Esperante luxury sports car, is America's premier maker of limited production, high performance automobiles. Panoz Auto Development seeks to become the best small-volume automobile manufacturer in the world and a springboard for new automotive technologies through innovation, dedication and an unwavering love for the automobile.
