Sunday 4 February 2018

FIA WEC: Renger van der Zande joins Dragonspeed in the BR1

Dragonspeed completed its driver line-up for its first season in the FIA World Endurance Championship.  Renger van der Zande will join Henrik Hedman and Ben Hanley behind the wheel of the Gibson powered BR1 LMP1 prototype. 

© van der Zande/facebook


Signing for Dragonspeed means a return to the team van der Zande already raced for in the 2013 American Le Mans Series with an Oreca FLM09 in the LMPC class.  He moved up the prototype category where he won at Laguna Seca last season with Marc Goossens in the Visit Florida Ligier .  This year van der Zande got a seat in the Wayne Taylor Cadillac DPi and immediately set pole for last months 24 hours of Daytona. 

The Dutch - gold rated - driver has raced one before in the FIA WEC in 2012 with a Lotus/Lola coupe at the 6 hours of Spa-Francorchamps.  He will make his debut at Le Mans in June.  It's unclear yet if will be able to race at Spa in May, since the opening race of the WEC season clashes with the IMSA race at Mid-Ohio. 

The US based team will also remain active in the LMP2 class of the European Le Mans Series. Drivers for their Gibson powered Oreca07 still to be announced.