O'Young makes switch to World Endurance Championship
Darryl O'Young is getting set to make history in the FIA World Endurance Cahmpionship (WEC) this year.
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(8 April 2014, Hong Kong) Darryl O’Young is set to become the first Chinese full season driver to compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in 2014, after the Hong Kong driver signed with Aston Martin Racing to put his full focus in sports car endurance racing.
Aston Martin Racing will run the #99 Craft-Bamboo Racing Vantage GTE for the full WEC season with the Hong Kong-based team. O’Young will partner Brazilian driver Fernando Rees and British star Alex MacDowall in the three-driver line-up of the GTE Pro category.
The change is enormous, if not radical, after O’Young spent the last four seasons in the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC), but the 34-year-old insists his dream of becoming a world champion remains the same, despite switching to the new category this season.
“I will miss the WTCC as it is a great racing series. I enjoyed my 4 seasons there and had some close races and gained valuable experience,” said Darryl, who had six class wins in his time in the WTCC, including a highlight double victory at the Race of Macau back in 2012.
Being a two-time competitor at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, O’Young is of course no stranger to endurance racing. “I had success at the Le Mans 24 last year and some big career victories including 2 wins at the Bathurst 12hrs and a win at the Sepang 12 Hours, so I hope to take all this experience and turn it into a successful campaign together with my teammates in the WEC. It will be a very tough season as the driver line-ups in the GTE Pro class are the best in the world, but I am confident that if we all work together as a team, we can come out on top,” said O’Young, who finished second in the LM GTE Am class of Le Mans 24 last year.
The 2014 WEC season will consists of eight races covering Europe, USA, Middle East, Asia and South America. Seven of those races are six hours long, while the prestigious Le Mans will run for 24 hours. The season opener will be held on the 20th of April, at the Silverstone Circuit in England.
Darryl’s World Championship campaign is made possible with the support of his long time sponsors, LKM, FUSPEED, and INTERUSH. Please follow live as his entire race season will be broadcasted live on EUROSPORT for the entire duration of the year.
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