News from the Circuit of The Americas paddock

Audi congratulations…

First of all warm best wishes from all in the WEC paddock to Loic Duval for his recent marriage to his long-time girlfriend, Gaëlle. The couple tied the knot in Velleron in southern France and his Audi team mate Benoît Tréluyer was among the guests at the ceremony.

Secondly, congratulations to ‘Mr Le Mans’ himself, who took another victory last weekend but this time in a Ford Galaxie 500 at the Goodwood Revival Meeting in the UK. In the popular ‘St. Mary’s Trophy’ for pre-1966 Touring Cars, the Audi WEC driver crossed the finish line as the winner in the first heat after 17 race laps and posted the fastest race lap. The field included Le Mans GT winners Oliver Gavin and Darren Turner, as well as motorsport legends such as Steve Soper, Jochen Mass, Rauno Aaltonen and Stéphane Peterhansel.

Double Duty drivers…

Three drivers from within the FIA WEC paddock will be busier than most as they will also be competing in the American Le Mans Series.  In LMP2 they are David Heinemeier Hansson from the No.24 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan and Tom Kimber-Smith in the No.41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Z11SN Nissan.  In LMGTE Am, Matteo Malucelli will be returning to the No.81 8Star Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia for the first time since Le Mans as Davide Rigon, who drove with Enzo Potolicchio and Rui Aguas in Sao Paulo, is competing at the Nurburgring this weekend.

Speedy Lieb…

Since the 6 Hours of São Paulo Porsche factory driver Marc Lieb has been busy breaking records!  He drove the new Porsche 918 Spyder hybrid supercar around the Nordschleife, the iconic track which sits alongside the Nurburgring Grand Prix track.

With 887 bph available to him, the 2013 LMGTE Pro class winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans set a new lap record of 6 minutes 57 seconds, bettering the old lap record by 14 seconds.

Fiona Miller