LM24: Eurasia considering Le Mans entry in 2016

Eurasia Motorsport is aiming to contest next year's Le Mans 24 Hours with a new ORECA 05 coupe purchased for its 2016 LMP2 campaign.

Eurasia, which finished sixth in this year's European Le Mans Series with an open-top ORECA-Nissan 03R, is still evaluating its plans for next year and is considering both remaining in the ELMS and graduating to the World Endurance Championship.

Team boss Mark Goddard, whose team is based in the Philippines and registered in Hong Kong, said: "We are considering the WEC, but we are leaning more towards returning to the ELMS and trying to win it. We really want to do Le Mans, subject to gaining an entry of course."

A final decision on which series to enter is expected to be made next week.

Goddard said that the time was right to upgrade to a coupe and that the ORECA was the obvious choice "because it can be converted to the new rules in 2017". The coupe will be delivered to the team in March and then race for the first time at Silverstone in April on the WEC/ELMS double-header weekend.

Chinese driver Kevin Pu Jun Jin and Dutchman Nick de Bruijn, who raced for Eurasia in 2015, will continue with the team in whichever series it contests. A lead driver for Eurasia's primary sportscar program with the Nissan-engined ORECA coupe is expected to be announced shortly.

Eurasia is expanding its Asian Le Mans Series campaign to two cars for the final races at Buriram in Thailand and Sepang in January and February respectively.

It is bringing back its ex-Sebastien Loeb Racing ORECA 03R raced in Europe this year to join the chassis – leased from the Boutsen team, which is already competing in Asia with Richard Bradley, William Lok and Tacksung Kim.

Goddard said that "a pretty strong driver lineup" would be announced for the additional car later this month.

Originally on Autosport.com