24h Le Mans
For reigning LMP2 title holder, Jackie Chan DC Racing, the 24 Hours of Le Mans did not run quite as smoothly as in 2017. The Chinese team’s two full-season Orecas finished sixth and eighth in class, before the disqualification of two higher-placed rivals. Meanwhile, only one of the two Ligiers entered by the team saw the chequered flag.
The Jackie Chan DC Racing outfit had a mountain to climb to emulate its 2017 result when it claimed first and second in LMP2, and second and third spots on the overall podium. The driver line-ups have since changed in the two Oreca 07-Gibsons entered for the full World Endurance Championship (WEC) season. For the first time in Le Mans history, an all-Malaysian crew (Jazeman Jafaar, Weiron Tan and Nabil Jeffri) lined up in car #37. Meanwhile, in car #38, only Ho-Pin Tung competed in 2017. He now shares the wheel with Stéphane Richelmi, LMP2 class winner two years ago for Signatech Alpine, and youngster Gabriel Aubry.
The highest ranked of the two Orecas was car #37 which recovered from a radiator issue in the opening hour of the race to finish sixth, despite the drivers running off track on a number of occasions. For the #38 sister car, two punctures dented the crew’s hopes. The flat bottom and front axle of the car had to be changed, forcing the car into the garage for 50 minutes. The race thus lost, the #38 crossed the finish line in eighth place in the LMP2 class.
The Chinese outfit also fielded two Ligier JS P217-Gibsons at Le Mans. Nicholas Boulle, Jacques Nicolet and David Cheng drove car #33 to a tenth-placed finish while engine failure on car #34 brought the race of Ricky Taylor, David Heinemeier Hansson and Côme Ledogar to an early end.
Jackie Chan DC Racing will focus its attention on its pair of Oreca 07-Gibsons for the third round of the 2018-19 World Endurance Championship (WEC) Super Season to be held at Silverstone (UK) on 19 August.
Video: YouTube – Jackie Chan DC Racing
