TDS Racing Eyeing Additional WEC and GTE Programmes
Thiriet by TDS Racing are leading the 2016 European Le Mans Series but looking to a potential four strand 2017 campaign.
In LMP2 TDS Racing are considering a dual WEC and ELMS campaign with one new car joining the current Oreca 05 in the team’s inventory, upgraded to 07 specification. Budgetary considerations are clearly the determining factor!
The team’s proposed LMP3 campaign in the Asian Le Mans Series has been canned though, the first car taking longer than planned to reach TDS, “We should start developing it towards the end of the year and enter one or two cars in the ELMS next season,” Team Manager Xavier Combet told DSC at Spa.
And neither have the team given up on the possibility of rejoining the GT racing marketplace, a potential Aston Martin GTE effort in the ELMS falling victim to no arrival of sponsor funds at the start of the year, a Le Mans entry for the car also falling foul of the fiscal failure.
Spa Controversy, TDS Dodge A Bullet
The team’s current #46 scored a podium finish in Sunday’s 4 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, extending the points gap in the Championship to nearest challengers G-Drive Racing.
But the race’s finish under Full Course Yellow conditions (for the recovery of the #25 Algarve Pro Ligier from the gravel trap at Campus Corner after a clash with the #46 when battling for third) saw Mathias Beche exceed his permitted drivers hours, the car putting in a 5 minute, 17 second final lap under Full Course Yellow.
Two final laps in 3:10 and 5:17 put the Swiss driver over his permitted 90 minutes by over 4 minutes, the caution period beginning with the TDS Oreca in Sector 2 on the penultimate lap, Beche passing the line to start his final lap with, DSC believes, just over a minute of driving time remaining, but with a FCY lap still ahead of him.
For whatever reason the team decided not to pit to ensure that he did not exceed the hours.
It seems though that the introduction of the late FCY has persuaded the race Stewards to take a very liberal view in this instance. The result stands.
