Exclusive: KCMG to withdraw from LMP2 in 2016 WEC
KCMG will not participate in the LMP2 class of this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship, Motorsport.com has learned.
Photo by: Jose Mario Dias
The Hong Kong-registered outfit ran an Oreca 05 for British duo Matthew Howson and Richard Bradley last season, with the pair taking P2 class honours at the Le Mans 24 Hours along with Nicolas Lapierre.
Howson and Bradley followed that up with another class win in the 6 Hours of Nurburgring, joined by Porsche factory driver Nick Tandy, and finished second in the final standings with a total of five podiums to their name.
The team however was embroiled in controversy at Fuji, where Bradley and G-Drive Racing's Gustavo Yacaman came to blows on track, with KCMG being awarded a suspended drive-through penalty.
Motorsport.com understands that KCMG will only aim to race at Le Mans in 2016, ahead of a potential full-time comeback the following season, when new class regulations will be introduced. One of its ORECA LMP2 chassis has already been sold.
Team boss Paul Ip has expressed a desire to focus more on his core business, but revealed that there is still a chance of his team contesting the GTE-Am class of this year’s WEC.
This would be as part of a collaboration with Christian Ried’s Proton Competition squad, which ran two Porsche 911 RSRs in the class in 2015.
Additional reporting by Jun Qian and Sam Smith
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