JACKIE CHAN DC RACING X JOTA SPORT TOPS LE MANS TEST DAY
JACKIE CHAN DC RACING X JOTA SPORT completed a strong official test day at Circuit de la Sarthe, with Ho-Pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry in the #Mighty38 car fastest in LMP2 class, ahead of the 87th edition of 24 Hours of Le Mans and the finale of 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship.
The sky remained bright and sunny through the eight-hour limited track time and temperature reached as high as 32 degrees Celsius, providing an ideal condition for all 62 entrants to prepare for the most important race of the year.
Toward the end of the traditional pre-event test, #Mighty38 in the hand of Tung recorded a lap time of 3:28.504, outpacing the early benchmark in LMP2 field set by #31 DragonSpeed car by over two tenths, and remained unchallenged in the remaining minutes.
The sister car #Fortunecat37 shared by David Heinemeier-Hansson, Jordan King and Ricky Taylor ended 12th in the class, with the Danish driver producing a lap time of 3:31.641 before the test day concluded.
Tung, Richelmi and Aubry, who already won three WEC rounds in the Super Season, clocked up 91 laps on a trouble-free day, as the trio returned to the world-class circuit for their second Le Mans attempt since they started the Super Season journey 14 months ago.
In the other garage, Heinemeier-Hansson, King and Taylor, who shared the driving duties at Circuit de la Sarthe for the very first time, well recovered from an early stoppage caused by an electrical issue in the morning session and registered 50 laps under their belts.
Given Sunday’s test being the only chance for teams and drivers to experience the famous 13.626km circuit ahead of the race week, the 2017 Le Mans class winning squad conducted a comprehensive programme during the two four-hour test sessions and ticked all the items on the extensive to-do list for both ORECA 07s powered by Gibson.
With all the data and notes taken from the test, the Chinese team operated by JOTA Sport now will focus on the final preparation, before the action begins on 12 June with practice and first qualifying. Meanwhile, the six determined and skilful drivers will keep training in order to return to the cockpit in their best shape for the showdown of the WEC Super Season, when Jackie Chan DC Racing and JOTA Sport together will fight for another Le Mans victory and WEC LMP2 Championship.
David Cheng, co-founder of Jackie Chan DC Racing
“I am really pleased for the test day before the final race of the Super Season. The day started out with some electrical issues for #Fortunecat37 but the team worked extremely well. By the end of the day, the fasted lap time in LMP2 class set by Ho-Pin was a reflection of the focus of the entire team. Overall, it was a positive test.”
Sam Hignett, director of JOTA Sport
“On reflection the test day was very productive although it didn’t seem that way at times! We were hindered by an electrical issue with #Fortunecat37 but better to get these gremlins out the way during the test. The #Fortunecat37 drivers then did a great job to get up to speed despite the interrupted day. The #Mighty38 side of the garage worked through the entire scheduled test program with Ho-Pin Tung setting the fastest LMP2 time of the day in the process. Now the crew will shift their focus to race prep with race week just around the corner.”
