Strakka Racing’s all-British driver line-up of Thame’s Jonny Kane, Nick Leventis (London) and Danny Watts (Aylesbury) and will be boosted by Olympic-style home support when the team’s Union Flag-flying Honda Performance Development ARX-03a contests its home round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the 6 Hours of Silverstone, on Sunday August 26.
The team is based just 3 miles (4.8kms) away from the Silverstone paddock, and with the support of family, friends and fans it hopes to continue its unblemished points-scoring record in this year’s WEC and maintain its challenge for the FIA World Endurance Championship for Privateers’ – where it currently lies in 3rd position.
It promises to be a fast and furious race, with 37 cars (seven in the top LMP1 category) fighting for WEC points around the 3.66 mile (5.89km) Grand Prix Circuit.
The 6 Hours of Silverstone also marks the halfway point in the WEC and the last European round before the series heads to Brazil, Bahrain, Japan and China. These five races take place within a nine week period – a week less than the gap between the last round at Le Mans and Round 4 at Silverstone – so Strakka Racing has spent the 10 week summer break meticulously preparing its 3.4-litre normally aspirated HPD V8 engined ARX-03a for a gruelling globetrotting end of the season.
Jonny: “As a team, we all know Silverstone quite well and the main thing is getting back in the car, feeling comfortable, getting down to a fast lap time as quickly as we can and working on a good set-up for the race. It’s been a long time since we were last in the car and I haven’t driven anything apart from my road car since Le Mans! We were running really quick and the car felt fantastic at Le Mans, so we’re looking to continue that pace and performance at Silverstone. As for strategy, we’ll continue to do what we’ve always done, and that’s try and do our own job the best we can and hopefully that will bring us out on top of the privateer petrol class. Without a doubt, scoring maximum points in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Privateers’ is our aim.”
Dan Walmsley, Strakka Racing’s Team Manager: “Silverstone is going to be an exciting race weekend because we’ve had a long summer break and after Le Mans, where we really made some big performance gains but couldn’t exploit them due to some misfortune during the race, we want to carry that pace all the way to the chequered flag. Silverstone is a circuit we know and love, and we have every reason to be confident about getting a good result there. We’re still very much in the hunt for the Privateers’ title – we’re heading to our home race and we know we have a very strong package in place for the remainder of the season, so we’re quietly confident. We hope we can put on a good performance for the British crowd at Silverstone and try to carry on some of this great Olympic spirit that’s around at the moment.”
The 6 Hours of Silverstone begins with two 90-minute practice sessions on Friday 24 August (starting at 11.30 and 16.00). A final 60-minute practice session begins at 11.00 on Saturday 25 August, followed by a 20-minute qualifying dash at 15.20. Race day on Sunday 26 August starts with a 20-minute warm-up at 08.55, before the start of the race at 12.00.
On Monday 3 September, Nick Leventis will abseil down The Shard in London, Western Europe’s tallest skyscraper, in an attempt to raise £25,000 for the Commando Spirit Appeal on behalf of the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund, a charity which benefits Royal Marines and their families in need. Those wishing to support Nick can make a donation at: www.justgiving.com/Nick-Leventis
