Algarve Pro Racing are again a two-car team in the European Le Mans Series in 2023 with a car apiece in the main LMP2, and the LMP2 Pro-Am class for crews featuring at least one Bronze-ranked driver.
The LMP2 crew is a very strong one with current Cadillac factory driver Alex Lynn teamed with Rolex 24 Hours LMP2 winning James Allen and Indy NXT racer Kyffin Simpson.
And the newly revealed LMP2 Pro-Am squad is a potential winning combination too with another Rolex 24 LMP2 winner, Bronze-ranked Fred Poordad linking up with current Lexus GTD factory driver Jack Hawksworth and soon to be GTP Porsche driver Tristan Vautier.
Lynn adds the ELMS programme to his current full FIA WEC duties with Cadillac Racing as the Englishman looks to build on a career that already features three class wins in the FIA WEC, including the GTE Pro win at Le Mans in 2020. He has extensive experience in LMP2 with two seasons in the WEC with United Autosports and prior seasons with both G-Drive Racing and Manor.
Allen meanwhile will likely be keeping a low profile for the first few days of his Asian Le mans Series campaign with Algarve Pro this week after taking the Rolex 24 class victory by pipping the Crowdstrike racing Oreca to the post by 16 thousandths of a second! The #04 Crowdstrike car was ruin by Algarve Pro!
Kyffin Simpson ended his 2022 on a high with a GTD class win at Petit le Mans in a Gradient Racing Acura NSX. He too raced at the Rolex 24 with pace that impressed. This will be his first season in ELMS.
Hawksworth, a Lexus Racing factory driver in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTD Pro class, and prior to that a standout talent in IndyCar, returns to a sports prototype for the first time since 2016 when he drove an Oreca FLM09 in IMSA racing.
Hawksworth has spent over a decade racing in North America, first on the ‘Road to Indy’, securing a record eight victories en route to the 2012 Star Mazda title and further race wins the following year in the 2013 Indy Lights Series.
Those successes paved the way to the top tier of American open-wheel racing, the IndyCar Series, which includes the world famous Indy 500.
His notable results with the Lexus GTD programme in what is now a seventh season, include the GTD pro class win at Petit Le Mans last year.
“I am really excited to be joining the Algarve Pro Racing team for the 2023 European Le Mans Series,” said Hawksworth. “It’s going to be a lot of fun to be doing some racing in Europe again and I have only heard great things about the ORECA 07 LMP2 car and the team. I have two great teammates in Tristan (Vautier) and Fred (Poordad) and we will be working hard alongside the team to get some strong results.”
Like Hawksworth, Vautier’s career path took him from Formula Renault in his native France onto the ‘Road to Indy’ in The States, although that period also featured sporadic appearances in FIA Formula 2 and Formula Palmer Audi, as well as a full season in the French GT Championship.
The 2010 Star Mazda Series was lucrative, but four race wins, six podiums, four pole positions and four fastest laps led him to championship glory the following year in 2011, which preceded a title-winning rookie campaign in the 2012 Indy Lights Series.
Naturally, this served as a springboard into the IndyCar Series, but the Frenchman also dipped into sportscars on both sides of the Atlantic and has since made a career in international endurance racing, therefore he brings a wealth of GT3 and prototype experience to Algarve Pro’s 2023 ELMS line-up.
“I’m very happy that things worked out for me to join Algarve Pro Racing in the 2023 European Le Mans Series,” said Vautier. “We were in close contact throughout 2022, I really enjoyed the interaction and it has been great to see the team doing so well in LMP2 all around the world.
“I look forward to working with such strong teammates in Jack (Hawksworth) and Fred (Poordad). I’ve shared a track with Jack for several years, but we have always been in different classes. Nevertheless, we have similar backgrounds in single-seaters and there’s a lot of mutual respect. As far as Fred is concerned, we only met at the Rolex 24 at Daytona but I’ve seen what he has done from a distance and I’m excited about partnering up with him for his ELMS debut. Thanks to Algarve Pro for trusting in me. I’m hopeful we will deliver some great results.”
Completing Algarve Pro’s Pro-Am roster is San Antonio-based Bronze Poordad, who began racing Ferrari F430 Challenge and Porsche GT3 Cup cars in Grand-Am and IMSA GT3 Challenge respectively between 2010 and 2013.
Although he continued competing on home soil as part of the IMSA package and in the likes of GT World Challenge America, Poordad broadened his horizons by entering the Bathurst 12 Hour in Australia, rounds of the CREVENTIC 24H Series and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
However, the 58-year old had only ever raced GT machinery until his maiden LMP2 outing in last month’s IMSA Rolex 24 at Daytona (28-29 January), which he says was always intended as a “warm-up” for his debut season in the ELMS. He, together with team-mate James Allen, came home from Daytona with the class-winners Rolex watch!
“I’m very excited to be joining Algarve Pro Racing, Tristan (Vautier) and Jack (Hawksworth) as part of this LMP2 effort in the European Le Mans Series,” said Poordad. “I’m fresh from the IMSA Rolex 24 at Daytona, which was intended as a warm-up, to get used to the ORECA 07 LMP2 after last year’s official FIA WEC test in Bahrain. Those experiences have given me confidence but there’s still a lot to learn and I’m hoping to test some more before the season, during which my role will be to grow, make as few mistakes as possible and ensure Tristan and Jack are in a position to finish the races strongly. I’m hopeful we can do well against what will undoubtedly be a high quality field.”
