Alongside the already announced Roberto Lacorte, Scuderia Villorba Corse has this morning officially confirmed that ex Rebellion Racing star Andrea Belicchi and current LMP3 driver Giorgio Sernagiotto will team up to drive the Italian team’s new Dallara LMP2 prototype in the 2017 European Le Mans Series campaign.
Lacorte and Sernagiotto have already raced in the LMP3 category for the last two seasons, sharing the “Road to Le Mans” project.
For its jump to LMP2, the team led by Raimondo Amadio completes its driver line-up with Belicchi.
The 40-year-old driver from Parma tested the first Gibson V8 engined LMP2 Dallara on the Varano de’ Melegari circuit at the end of September (seen above in a recent Autosprint magazine exclusive).
“This entire Italian project (car, team and teammates) is really fascinating, Belicchi says, I missed such an experience in my career as I have always driven for foreign teams. I have known Sernagiotto for a long time and also the first contact with Lacorte was very positive. I immediately felt good within the team and during the first shakedown I was impressed by the new Dallara. I can’t wait to start such a fantastic adventure”.
Lacorte and Sernagiotto (below left and right respectively) have been racing together since 2012, first in the Italian Touring Endurance Championship, then in the VdeV Endurance Series and finally in ELMS with Villorba Corse;
“LMP2 is a big step in my racing career Sernagiotto explains. A target that I have chased for years, built with Roberto Lacorte since 2011 and finally it came true. For the first time in my career I will be able to express myself at the highest levels! I have to thank Roberto for everything we have done together so far and we will do in the coming years, Andrea Belicchi, a friend since our karting days, for accepting this all-Italian challenge and Villorba Corse, a true excellence in Italian motorsport”.
Team principal Amadio ends; “We confirm Sernagiotto with immense pleasure and 2017 will be the third season in a row together. His presence in our new LMP2 programme is very important as he has been living the ‘Road to Le Mans’ project since the very beginning so, in and out of the cockpit, he will contribute to the success of this new step forward for sure. The joining of Belicchi as reinforcement and support for the whole squad gives Villorba Corse a good reason to be proud. His career and his palmares can not be questioned and our team could and should learn a lot from his deep experience in endurance racing”.
