Recollections of his first participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1996 (Riley and Scott Mk III with Wayne Taylor and Jim Pace, retirement due to transmission problems): "So many things come to mind. What marked me the most was being able to race at such an incredible and legendary track! Every lap is pure happiness."

Why he hadn't returned since 1996: "Afterwards, I rolled in IndyCar quite a lot and when you compete in that championship, it is very difficult to do Le Mans at the same time. Then, there was the Highcroft episode and Le Mans was not on the agenda. We tried with Extreme Speed Motorsports to return to Le Mans through Ferrari entries in GTE which turned into entries in LM P2. Unfortunately, we not able to honour those invitations. Now, we are here and happy about it."

On the creation of Extreme Speed Motorsport: "My father also had his own team (he is the son of Bob Sharp who created the Bob Sharp Racing Team, editor's note). During my career as a driver, I would have never thought I myself would become an outfit owner. But Ed Brown put forward the idea of creating our own outfit."

First impressions of the Ligier JS P2: "I am truly impressed by this car, from A to Z! Its design, Onroak Automotive's organization and the "client service" that supports us, everything is great. Also, we got the car late, it's our third chassis this year. The Extreme Speed Motorsports team is a little tired, I have to admit. Now, we have to get used to this new car but we have already seen its potentiel at Spa-Francorchamps. We are happy with the Ligier/HPD combination."

His goals for this edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans: "Of course we want to win. We have a lot to learn. We are approaching the 24 Hours of Le Mans a little like the 24 Hours of Daytona or the 12 Hours of Sebring. If we continue like we are, if we don't have any problems, if we are pretty reliable and our pace is good, we can achieve a good result."

Two hats, driver and team manager: "I saw how my dad's team worked. I surrounded myself with good people to manage the outfit and when I'm on the track, I am a driver and no longer the team manager. When I am at the workshops or away from the races, I play my role. But when I am in the car, I have to focus solely on that."

Le Mans for an American driver: "It's a shame the U.S. doesn't acknowledge the greatness of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It should! If it's not the biggest event of the year, in any case it's one of them. I am not sure the majority of the U.S. knows of Le Mans and it's too bad. For us it's a huge honour to come here and we hope by our presence that Le Mans will get more exposure there."

Le Mans/Indianapolis 500 comparison: "I just watched the Indianapolis 500 on T.V. I still have a lot of friends there. The Indy 500 is a big event in the U.S. From the point of view of the teams and drivers, the aura of these two races is almost the same. When you participate in one or the other, you are aware you're taking part in a world event. But to be honest, I think Le Mans attracts more people and more television coverage. Le Mans is more important and bigger than Indianapolis. It's too bad but the Indy 500 has lost some of its notoriety the last 10 or 15 years."

David Bristol / ACO - Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO

Photo: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, MONDAY JUNE 8 2015, SCRUTINEERING. Scott Sharp.