GP3 racer and 2013 Audi R8 LMS Cup winner Adderly Fong has this evening confirmed that he’ll join Ho Pin Tung and David Cheng in the first ever all Chinese driver line-up for the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The trio will share the #33 Oak Racing entered HPD engined Ligier JS P2 Coupe with backing from Chinese concerns providing the funding.
The car will carry the red and blue Total colours of Total Lubricants China, and Michelin China that has just joined the programme.
Orsun, a diversified Chinese Group involved in real estate, cinema production, commerce, education, tourism and finance and Sculfort, a firm specialised in the manufacturing of machine tools for railway maintenance, are also bringing their backing to this wide-ranging programme.
At the start of this week these partners held press conferences and meetings with motor sport fans in Shanghai, Beijing and Wuhan, the Chinese capital of the motor car, to announce their partnership with the French team.
Patrice Devemy, General Manager of TOTAL Lubricants China Co Ltd: “One year ago, we decided to become partner of OAK for the first-ever asian endurance championship, to eventually win both the team and pilot titles in Sepang in Dec 2013. A great challenge ahead of us in 2014, with the obvious objective of defending our titles but as well of a good result in Le mans for the 24H. I am very pleased that we could further extend our cooperation for this event, having a squad of 3 chinese pilots the year of the 50th anniversary of the cooperation between France and China.”
Patrick Dias, Directeur Motorsport Asia Pacific Michelin: “The press conference in Beijing was a great event in which the fans and Chinese bloggers invited were able to take advantage of the availability of the three Chinese drivers of OAK Racing Team Asia. OAK Racing and Michelin China explained how this exciting project, which will bring a 100 per cent Chinese team to the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time, was mounted. ”
Wu Jian Gang, Chairman Orsun Group: “We are very happy to once again partner with OAK Racing. 2013 brought with it a fantastic result and I’m confident we will continue our success in the 2014 season with David Cheng and the All Chinese driver line up.
“Orsun has a long tradition in support of and promoting Chinese sport and culture, not only in Motorsports. Orsun has produced many award winning movies and tv series. The Orsun group is comprised of 6 core businesses ranging from Property Development, Cinema production, commercial retail, education, tourism and finance. Orsun’s goal is to improve the quality of life and happiness for the people of Wuhan and for its country. Also to show the international community Wuhan’s and China’s beauty. ”
Adderly Fong: “Thank you OAK Racing for giving me the opportunity to race this year in the great event that is the Le Mans 24 Hours. It is truly a pleasure and a highlight in my career thus far. Life is down to a few moments and this is certainly one of them. I feel the Ligier JS P2 car is a great car to drive. It handles very similarly to an F3 car. Having driven 4 years, in 2 variations of F3, I quickly adapted to the Morgan LM P2 when I came at the Paul Ricard circuit for some tests. The Ligier JS P2 is a closed prototype, which increases the downforce significantly.
“Thanks to Michelin for supplying the big fat sticky tires and to Honda for providing us a new spec engine. Thanks also go to Total Lubricants, Partner of OAK Racing since 2013 and my personal Partners Sino Vision Racing, and Sculfort.
“I look forward to joining this campaign and to represent China well through hard work, determination and passion to conquer the Le Mans 24 Hours with OAK Racing Team Asia.”
