Nick Foster replaces Daniel Gaunt at Eurasia for Spa
Nick Foster has been called up to compete with Eurasia Motorsport in this weekend’s FIA WEC TOTAL 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps. The Australian takes the place of Daniel Gaunt who is unable to take part, due to travel complications from his native New Zealand.
Nick joins Japanese Gentleman driver Nobuya Yamanaka and former Formula 1 driver and returning WEC LMP2 driver Roberto Merhi in the #35 Ligier JSP217 for Saturday’s six-hour event as the team continue preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Currently racing in the I-PACE eTrophy with Jaguar China Racing in Berlin, Nick is no stranger to the team having last competed with them in the 2019-20 Asian Le Mans Series. There he raced alongside Roberto on his way to three straight podiums in Shanghai, The Bend and Sepang and third position in the championship.
Mark Goddard, Eurasia Team Principal: “We’re fortunate in having such a talented race driver in Nick Foster available to us at such short notice. In an ideal scenario, I would not want to call him in so late, but we are in a very fluid situation due COVID-19 and the problems associated with the movement of people around the world.
“We at Eurasia are doing everything in our power to field a strong package and we hope that there will be no further hurdles for us to overcome over the coming week. Our plans for the 24 Hours of Le Mans next month remain on track, but we obviously must be mindful the global situation. We hope to proceed with the drivers as planned, but we need to be realistic and ready to react should we need to do so.”
Nick Foster: “I’m looking forward to jumping back into the LMP2 car and to have a good strong weekend in the FIA World Endurance Championship. It has been a pretty crazy year for everyone, I didn’t know what was coming up next. To be re-joining the team that first put me in the prototype and in which helped me to my first P2 podium is special.
“FIA WEC is a step up from the Asian Le Mans Series but the team has plenty of experience from Le Mans and we’re looking forward to doing the job for Nobuya and everyone involved. So, we have to roll with it and have a really good race weekend.”
New Look For Project 1 #56 Porsche
The #56 Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR will race at Spa in a new Mentos livery (pictured top and below), this one of the products of the family-owned company of driver Egidio Perfetti.
Perfetti shares the drive with Laurents Hörr and Matteo Cairoli.
First WEC Outing For New Goodyear LMP2 Tyre Spec.
Goodyear introduced its third LMP2 tyre spec in the ELMS race at Circuit Paul Ricard in July, and this B-spec (medium) compound will be brought to Spa along with the softer A-spec tyre.
At every other race so far this season, teams have run the A (soft) and C (medium-plus) spec tyres.
Mike McGregor, Goodyear Manager, Race Sales, Testing and Track Support: “Spa is a true old-school circuit and it’s very aggressive to the tyres so we need to make sure we’re good on durability throughout the long race,” explains McGregor. “It’s so much more aggressive than other tracks. Shanghai is the closest to this on the WEC calendar and it was there that we scored our first win, so we’ll use those learnings this weekend.
“Even though Spa is aggressive, we saw at Shanghai that you can still get the performance out of the softer A-spec compound if you manage the tyre right. That’s something we’re working closely with teams on, and the learnings from Sunday’s ELMS race will help more.”
Goodyear’s full wet tyres haven’t raced yet, but the intermediates were used at Silverstone in September, where they proved useful for mixed conditions, which are very likely this weekend.
Goodyear development driver Jon Lancaster forms part of the driving squad for guest entry Algarve Pro Racing this weekend.
