Williamson to make WEC debutposted in WEC21 | 07 | 2016

    HIGHLAND RACER LEWIS Williamson will make his sportscar debut with the Strakka LMP2 team in the Nurburgring World Endurance Championship round this weekend.

    The 26-year-old from Golspie, and ex-Formula Renault 3.5 and GP3 driver, will take the place of team regular Danny Watts for the German event on Sunday.

    Williamson, the 2010 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner, will share the Strakka Racing Gibson-Nissan 015S with team owner Nick Leventis and Jonny Kane.

    And Williamson, who tested the Strakka Gibson in Bahrain at the end of last year, described the drive as "an immense opportunity".

    "Strakka has given me a chance very few drivers get and I intend to make the very most of it," the Dundee-born Scot, who races for the British outfit in the Renault Sport RS01 Trophy, said.

    Related: Williamson returns to racing

    “I’ve done well in the past at the Nurburgring; picking up a second in GP3, and the Gibson was the fastest car on last year’s test day, so I reckon we should in the mix.

    “The weather always plays its part at the Nurburgring and whilst it was hot last year, I know it could also be foggy and raining. You just don’t know.”

    This weekend’s race marks a welcome turn in fortunes for the talented young Scot whose career was halted when he was mysteriously dropped from the Red Bull Young Drivers’ Programme in 2012.

    But Williamson has been given a significant vote of confidence by Strakka team principal Dan Walmsley.

    "We felt we could use this weekend to put Lewis in a race weekend and gauge his performance against one of the most competitive LMP2 fields we have witnessed in sportscar racing in recent times,” Walmsley said.

    “Lewis’s pace in the RS01, his approach in the simulator and his efforts at the factory are worthy of an outing in WEC and we want to see how he performs.

    "We are in the process of evaluating all our options for 2017; our race programme, drivers, the lot."

    Related: Chris Hoy — My amazing Le Mans debut

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    Jim McGill

     

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