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Gommendy to drive third SPM car in 2018 Indy 500
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports will partner with former Formula 1 entrant Didier Calmels to run France's Tristan Gommendy in the 2018 Indy 500.
"Didier has a long history in racing in Europe, just sold his company, and we've had some meetings in Indy," said SPM co-owner Sam Schmidt. "He has high hopes, and it's going to be huge in France. He's got a couple of large companies behind him, [and] the car will be in the French red, white and blue colors. French TV is going to broadcast live every day. It's fantastic, and it's a very patriotic entry, bottom line."
Gommendy, who currently races LMP2 prototypes in the FIA World Endurance Championship, spent 2007 in America driving for KV Racing in the Champ Car series (below). The 38-year-old Frenchman has already undertaken Indy 500 familiarization on a simulator, and will drive the No. 77 Honda as SPM's third entry at the Speedway. Calmels was one of the founders of the Larrousse F1 team in the 1980s. In recent years, he’s been a fixture in sports car paddocks, mostly with the French Signatech Alpine program.
"We signed a contract a while ago for Didier and Tristan, and we've discussed expanding the deal after Indy, but there's nothing concrete right now," Schmidt said. "Indy 2018, that's the plan. We still have to get our second driver in place, so we'll hold off on making too many plans for the future until that's done."
SPM is in discussion with team veteran James Hinchcliffe to continue leading the program with a new multi-year contract. Identifying the Canadian's full-time teammate is also in motion, as Schmidt and fellow owner Ric Peterson parse through a
"Didier has a long history in racing in Europe, just sold his company, and we've had some meetings in Indy," said SPM co-owner Sam Schmidt. "He has high hopes, and it's going to be huge in France. He's got a couple of large companies behind him, [and] the car will be in the French red, white and blue colors. French TV is going to broadcast live every day. It's fantastic, and it's a very patriotic entry, bottom line."
Gommendy, who currently races LMP2 prototypes in the FIA World Endurance Championship, spent 2007 in America driving for KV Racing in the Champ Car series (below). The 38-year-old Frenchman has already undertaken Indy 500 familiarization on a simulator, and will drive the No. 77 Honda as SPM's third entry at the Speedway. Calmels was one of the founders of the Larrousse F1 team in the 1980s. In recent years, he’s been a fixture in sports car paddocks, mostly with the French Signatech Alpine program.
"We signed a contract a while ago for Didier and Tristan, and we've discussed expanding the deal after Indy, but there's nothing concrete right now," Schmidt said. "Indy 2018, that's the plan. We still have to get our second driver in place, so we'll hold off on making too many plans for the future until that's done."
SPM is in discussion with team veteran James Hinchcliffe to continue leading the program with a new multi-year contract. Identifying the Canadian's full-time teammate is also in motion, as Schmidt and fellow owner Ric Peterson parse through a
list of 28 drivers
they've assembled.
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