Upon hearing the news about Effort Racing ceasing its 2016 Pirelli World Challenge campaign this morning, DSC spoke to Porsche factory and Effort Racing diver Pat Long about the situation.
“I heard officially yesterday,” Long told to DSC. “Obviously it’s a real shame for me and it’s a lot worse for the people in that team.
“They’re a great, small team, who do a lot with a little, so this news doesn’t surprise me if I’m perfectly honest.”
With Effort, Long currently sits fourth in the PWC standings, winning the opening round of the season at CotA and putting himself in with a shot at the title. It’s temporarily put his chances of taking the title in jeopardy, but despite the team pulling the plug, he remains confident about the season.
“Personally, I am still working on something,” Long confirmed. “Which will keep me in the championship fight. I can’t tell you who or when, but let’s just say I’m glad the season is on a break right now, so I have time to plan ahead. I’m also lucky to run multiple programmes when something like this happens.
“I haven’t spoken to Michael (Lewis) yet about his movements for the rest of the season.”
As part of his full-season campaign with the Chicago-based team, Long had to skip the FIA WEC opener at Silverstone because of a clash, which ended his chances of taking the GTE Am title with Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing. The news has therefore made that aspect of his 2016 season disappointing.
“Missing Silverstone to do PWC was a shame, because I feel in my WEC programme I’m in it to support my team and teammates more than anything else, so to miss a round is never good anyway.”
