Gary Horrocks caught up with ESM team boss Scott Sharp at Road America, and took the opportunity to ask about the now much discussed future plans for the team – Is the WEC entry at COTA for Extreme Speed a toe in the water for something different in the future, or simply a diversion to their season in TUSCC?
Time will tell, but at Road America, team owner Scott Sharp was excited about what the future holds for the team. “First of all, the announcement that we will be entering a car at the COTA round of the WEC is what it is – an opportunity for us to try something different. But it is also what we hope is the next step for as a team to race at Le Mans.”
Earlier, ESM had plans to compete at Le Mans, but the timing was not right. The team hopes 2015 is the year for the team to make their appearance, but it won’t be easy. It is a whole different world and the team knows they have a lot of work ahead of them, which is why they entering the upcoming WEC race. “It will give us an opportunity to compete with different regulations – the regulations in which we’d compete at Le Mans with. We’ll probably be using Dunlop tires at COTA, so we’ll have to make adjustments to do that. We’ll also have to do some minimal aero changes as well as changes in electronics and the restrictor. We have some time before the race in order to test and get ready.”
The TUSCC season has had its ups and down, with some of the issues having been related to gearbox problems. It has cost them some momentum during the season, as well as some race finishes. “The problem is behind us now. Hewland simply had a bad batch of bevel gears. They’ve addressed it and we should be OK now. It is not a problem with strain on the gearbox due to power changes as has been previously reported.”
The entry at COTA is for one car only – Johannes will be the anchor in the single entry for the TUSCC race. But Scott hopes that the team will be able to enter 2 cars at Le Mans, which will indeed be the new HPD coupes. “We expect the first of the new cars to arrive late November and take to the track in early December. We know we will be getting the first car and then either the second or the third car, with the other car coming later.”
”We bought them to run here in TUSCC, but for sure we want to run them at Le Mans.” Scott is “still excited for racing in North America, but the bringing the two series together has been a larger undertaking than most expected. It’s never had to be done before.” It hasn’t been easy for the series, but it obviously hasn’t been easy for ESM as well as the other P2 spec competitors, which still see themselves at a racing disadvantage when compared to the DP competitors.
“While the series has done a pretty good job responding to the necessary changes, where we compete next season really depends on how the new HPD coupe works out.” Whether that is about how the car works, literally, or how it works in relation to the class competitors is something unsaid – make your own conclusion.
No matter what was meant, the team has options. A full season of TUSCC and competing at Le Mans will be difficult, to fit the now mandatory test days fitting into the full season schedule. It could be done, and Scott is working on sorting that. But there are other options that could see the team step back in commitment to North America and to concentrate on the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Challenge, or to step into the WEC or even the ELMS.
It will be an important rest of the season and off season for the team as well as TUSCC.
