Robbie Kerr is stepping out of an open-wheel cockpit for the second time to
race a sportscar, Le Mans-style. The Brit will join Adrian Fernandez and
Haruki Kurosawa at the historic 24 Hours of Le Mans in June to take on the
greatest challenge for an endurance race -- twice around-the-clock on the
famous La Sarthe circuit.
"This is a fantastic opportunity for me and I'm obviously really looking
forward to competing at Le Mans," Kerr said. "This is my first time
competing in the 24 Hour race and having only ever raced on the Le Mans
Bugatti Circuit, I'm looking forward to my first taste of the full-blown
track on Sunday. I'm hoping to show well at Le Mans as I want to make the
most of this opportunity!"
The trio from three different countries with similar backgrounds will race
the Lowe's Zytek 07S with a V-8 Zytek powerplant entered by Barazi Epsilon
in the hotly-contested LM P2 class.
The 2002 British Formula 3 International champion before moving into the
Formula Renault V6 Eurocup series. Continuing his climb in open-wheel racing
in 2006, Kerr joined KTR in the World Series by Renault.
Coming off a final push in the A1 Grand Prix championship, Kerr landed the
Sprint race in China -- his first in the series -- before heading to his
home race, the final two races in the World Cup of Motorsport. Kerr came
out of the box flying and notched the Sprint race pole before taking the
first of the two races. Team Great Britain ended third in the final
standings, one point out of second.
His performance at the Brands Hatch circuit made history in the A1GP, Kerr
was the first racer to earn a pole and victory in his home event. "It was
fantastic to score a home pole, the first team to achieve this in A1GP
history!"
On his win in England, Kerr commented, "It's definitely one of the best!
There were so many people at Brands Hatch cheering the British team on,
waving Union Jack's, wanting us to do well so to be able to give them
something like that at the start of the weekend was brilliant."
Like Fernandez, Kerr has never raced at Le Mans, the duo also share the fact
that they have limited experience in prototype racing, let alone sportscar
endurance. Fernandez races and is the team co-owner of one of the Acura
entries in the American Le Mans Series. Kerr did a one-off race with Chris
Dyson at Silverstone in the Le Mans Series in 2004.
The Brit and the American were driving the Zytek Engineering Zytek O4S LM
P1, finishing fourth. On the other end of the scale is Kurosawa who has
competed at Le Mans three times, twice in a prototype.
"I think we've got a good chance of going for the LM P2 win. I'm part of a
great team and I'm lined up with a pair of brilliant team-mates so all in
all we should be a strong package heading into the race," commented Kerr as
he headed to France to for the Le Mans test on Sunday, June 3rd.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans race will be held in mid-June with the race start on
June 16th.
