54-year-old Warren Hughes will return to full-season motorsport for the first time since 2014, as the late replacement for Felix Porteiro in the #98 99 Racing Oreca 07 for the 2023 Asian Le Mans Series.
Hughes arrived in Dubai last night, and is set to take the wheel of the #98 Oreca for the first time as the mandatory Bronze driver in qualifying.
The move comes as the team were forced to find a replacement Bronze graded driver following Spanish racer Felix Porteiro’s effective elimination from the series after a late decision from the FIA to reclassify him as Silver – and to backdate that decision to 2022. Asian Le Mans Series driver rankings are drawn from the previous calendar year.
The Panel of Stewards have determined that 99 Racing’s circumstance is a case of force majeure and have permitted Hughes’ appointment, pending administrative and driver equipment checks. He is also not permitted to drive at night (past 18:25 for Race 1, and 18:27 for Race 2).
Warren Hughes’ career goes back to the early 1990s with success in single seaters, touring cars, GTs, and sports prototypes including an LMP2 class win at Le Mans in 2005 (with RML), race wins in F3 and F3000 machinery, and the only ever international race win for TVR (with Team LNT in the Le Mans Series). He also had a stint as a factory driver for MG in the BTCC and in their Lola-built LMP900 prototype at Le Mans.
Whilst Warren has made some one-off appearances in the intervening years,
including a one-off appearance last year in the British GT Championship, his last full-season championship appearance was in 2014 in the British GT Championship with Trackspeed. He had previously taken the 2012 hampionship win in a Team WFR-run Ginetta.
His last outings in sports prototypes came in 2012 too, with a three race campaign in the WEC with Murphy Prototypes in their Oreca 03.
