The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Back on track for a French connection
Talented young Dundee racing driver Finlay Hutchison will be making his long-awaited return to track action next week when official testing ahead of the rescheduled opening round of the 2020 European Le Mans Series takes place at Paul Ricard in France.
Hutchison, who is racing with the highly successful JMW Motorsport squad for his maiden season in the prestigious ELMS this year, cannot wait for his maiden run at the wheel of the Ferrari F488 GTE EVO in the all-action LMGTE category.
It will be an all-British driver line-up too at JMW, with Silver graded driver Hutchison joined by former LMGTE Champion Jody Fannin – returning to the team he won the 2017 crown with – and Hunter Abbott.
The opening four-hour race of the campaign was, of course, originally set to take place at the beginning of April in Spain, but will now be contested on Sunday July 19 at Paul Ricard. Before then, Hutchison will test at the Le Castellet track next Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I really can’t wait to be back”, said
Hutchison.
“It’s been so long since I was on track, but the lockdown has obviously been the right thing to do.
“The last few months have been quite frustrating in one sense, with all racing halted, but now I’m looking forward to getting out there with the JMW guys and finally getting 2020 properly under way.
“The Ferrari will be something different for me, since I moved out of Formula Renault into GT racing I’ve only ever driven cars with ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) and the GTE Ferrari doesn’t have that so it’ll be something to get used to.
“I’m quite excited by the prospect of racing the Ferrari, it’s a fantastic car and JMW are always there or thereabouts – one of the very best teams in the ELMS.” The revised post-lockdown calendar for the European Le Mans Series will take place over five weekends.
After Paul Ricard the championship will visit Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, Barcelona and Monza ahead of the finale at Portimao in Portugal on Sunday November 1.
Featuring three classes, two for prototype cars – LMP2 and LMP3 – and the LMGTE class in which 20-year-old Hutchison will compete, the European Le Mans Series is one of the biggest and most competitive endurance racing categories on the globe.
“It’s going to be good experiencing what it’s like to race around the LMP cars, the GTEs are pretty much as quick as the LMP3 cars on the straights but the prototypes have the advantage around the corners with the aerodynamics”, he added.
“It’s great to have new challenges.”