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WEC Spa-Francorchamps

PR1/Mathiasen to make WEC debut in Spa opener

IMSA LMP2 squad PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports will make its FIA World Endurance Championship debut in the opening round of the season at Spa in preparation for its maiden assault on the Le Mans 24 Hours.

#52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07: Ben Keating, Mikkel Jensen, Scott Huffaker

PR1 was named on an expanded entry list for the Spa 6 Hours on Friday, and is one of three additional entries for the LMP2 class for the May 1 event.

American racer Patrick Kelly, who earned a Le Mans auto-invite for winning last year's Jim Trueman Award by virtue of his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship LMP2 title, was the sole driver listed for the team's Oreca 07.

European Le Mans Series regular G-Drive Racing will also be fielding two of its Aurus-branded Orecas, run by the Algarve Pro Racing squad, at Spa.

Team patron Roman Rusinov shares one car with silver-rated Argentine Franco Colapinto, who will be making his WEC debut, and ex-Formula 1 racer Roberto Merhi, while the second car is shared by John Falb, Rui Andrade and Pietro Fittipaldi, who are racing as a trio in the ELMS this year.

The presence of PR1 and G-Drive pushes the size of the LMP2 grid up to 14 cars, all bar one of which are Orecas.

Combined with an additional entry in the GTE Pro class for Corvette Racing, as previously announced, it means 37 cars are entered for the curtain-raiser.

Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus is provisionally listed with its two 007 LMH contenders in the top Hypercar class alongside rivals Toyota and Alpine, despite Jim Glickenhaus voicing his doubts over whether the new car can be homologated in time amid COVID-19 induced delays.

Exact driver line-ups are also yet to be determined, beyond Gustavo Menezes and Ryan Briscoe driving the #708 and #709 cars respectively.

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ARC Bratislava, the only team running a Ligier in LMP2, and several GTE Am squads - Team Project 1, Cetilar Racing, Dempsey-Proton Racing and Aston Martin Racing - have also yet to finalise their driver rosters for Spa.

Among the GTE Am teams to have completed their line-ups in recent weeks are GR Racing, which has added Tom Gamble to its squad, and Aston customer team D'station Racing, which has recruited Andrew Watson.

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