WEC: Le Mans winners Howson, Bradley return to KCMG

Chinese entrant KCMG has brought back 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2 winners Richard Bradley and Matt Howson for the defense of its class crown.

The British duo, who won the class at Le Mans last season with Nicolas Lapierre, will be teamed with Tsugio Matsuda for KCMG's LMP2 one-off entry for the 24 Hours on June 18-19.

"These are the three drivers who gave us our first World Endurance Championship victory at Austin in 2014," team owner Paul Ip told Autosport. "We wanted to use drivers who have been with us before."

Howson has been part of the KCMG P2 squad since 2013.

"It is good to go back to defend our victory with such a strong line-up," he said. "We've got everything we need to go for the win, but we are not going to dominate like last year because the P2 field has such strength in depth now."

Bradley is moving across to KCMG from Manor's second WEC car, which does not have an entry for Le Mans. KCMG's Le Mans-winning ORECA-Nissan 05 will be run by a crew that Ip said would incorporate many of the same members as last year's squad, despite its decision not to mount a full campaign in the 2016 WEC.

The team has been allowed to take up its guaranteed LMP2 place that came with last year's victory because a Porsche 911 RSR is being fielded under the KCMG banner in GTE Am by the Proton team.

The KCMG ORECA will be given a shakedown ahead of the Le Mans test day at the start of June, but is not likely to undertake any further running beforehand.

Originally on Autosport.com