IMSA: Ligier to make debut at COTA

The Ligier LMP2 coupe will make its United SportsCar Championship debut in next month's Circuit of The Americas round with HPD power. The French OAK Racing team has confirmed that the Ligier JSP2 built by sister company Onroak Automotive will be on the grid for the penultimate TUDOR Championship round on Sept. 20.

Tentative plans for OAK to run two cars for the final two rounds at Austin and Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in October are unlikely to come to fruition. That means that the team's #42 entry will swap from the Morgan-Nissan LMP2 run since the start of the season to the Ligier-HPD, which was entered under the OAK Racing Team Asia banner in the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.

"It is not absolutely decided whether we will have one or two cars because the Morgan sustained a lot of damage at Road America, but for sure we will run the Ligier," explained Team manager Philippe Dumas. "It was always the plan to show the Ligier in the U.S. at the end of the year and we have an agreement with Honda Performance Development to do some more races."

The Ligier will be driven by Gustavo Yacaman and Alex Brundle, with Olivier Pla joining them for the Petit 1000-mile enduro in October. OAK Racing's G-Drive entry in the World Endurance Championship will also be a Ligier over the Austin sports car weekend.

Pla, Roman Rusinov and Julien Canal, who raced up to and including Le Mans in a Morgan, are swapping to the Ligier for the remainder of the WEC season.