Indian racing driver Parth Ghorpade will compete in the headline LMP2 Class of the prestigious European Le Mans Series sportscar championship this year, the 22-year-old having signed a deal to race as team-mate to Michael Munemann and Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy at the Algarve Pro Racing team.
Ghorpade, from Kolhapur, will team-up with reigning LMP3 Champion Hoy and 2015/2016 Asian Le Mans Series runner-up Munemann in the blue riband class of the ELMS. The trio will share driving duties at the Portuguese squad in a 4.5-litre V8 Nissan-powered Ligier JS P2
Along with Munemann, Ghorpade will contest the full six round campaign while Hoy will be replaced by Andrea Pizzitola for the latter portion of the season after the blue riband Le Mans 24 Hours race.
After securing no fewer than five National Karting titles in his homeland, Ghorpade graduated into cars and won the Asian Formula Pilota Championship and was the first Indian driver to test for the Ferrari Driver Academy. He also raced in French Formula 4, Formula Renault Alps and the EuroFormula Open, and was a Force India F1 Team ‘Young Driver Academy’ finalist.
Ghorpade’s maiden sportscar racing season will begin at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit in the UK on 16th April. The ELMS will then visit Imola in Italy, the Red Bull Ring in Austria, Paul Ricard in France and Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, before the championship concludes at Estoril in Portugal on 23rd October.
He will be represented throughout his maiden campaign in the ELMS by the fast emerging British management company Go Motorsport Management, which is headed by vastly experienced motor racing professional Mick Gomme – former Promotional Operations Manager at the Sahara Force India Formula One Team.
Stewart Cox, Team Principal at Algarve Pro Racing:“We are really happy to have signed Parth, he tested recently at Paul Ricard and we were very impressed with his maturity and focus. Given the limited time Parth had in the car we were really impressed with how quickly he adapted to the LMP2 car, and how quickly he got up to speed.”
Parth Ghorpade:“I’m really happy to be working with Algarve Pro Racing, there is a really good atmosphere and buzz around the team and I look forward to a long association with them. I will do my best to live up to their expectations and confidence they have shown in me.
“The switch for me from single-seaters to a prototype was not as easy as it looked, but as I got more miles in the car I began to feel more at home. It’s a fantastic car to drive and racing in ELMS with some big motorsport names is going to be a fantastic opportunity for me. I’m really looking forward to working with Chris, Michael and Andrea and can’t wait to get started.”
