JMW Motorsport, runners up in their debut Le Mans Series GT2 season in 2009, will be competing with the Aston Martin Vantage GT2 in the 2010 Le Mans Series and Le Mans 24 Hour, having become Aston Martin Racing’s official global GT2 Development Partner.

The Essex based team, headed by Team Principal Jim McWhirter, will become an official Aston Martin Racing partner and will work closely with the Banbury-based team on a three year programme to help develop the Vantage GT2.

JMW Motorsport are retaining their strong partnership with Dunlop who have renewed their long term commitment to the team as Development Partners in the GT2 programme. The JMW Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT2 will feature in Dunlop’s 2010 Le Mans Design Competition.

The core team, which took JMW Motorsport to 4th at Le Mans in 2009, remains with Tim Sugden as Team Manager and Steve ‘Doc’ Bunkhall as Technical Director, ably backed by Davey Nicholas, Duncan Ritchie and Ian Jones.

The UK’s Rob Bell, twice LMGT2 Champion, shall once again be part of a formidable driver line-up to be finalised shortly.

An intensive testing programme begins in January ahead of the opening Le Mans Series race on 9-11 April – the 8 Hours of Le Castellet, France. Participation in a number of selected high profile events may be added to the team’s calendar at a later date.

George Howard-Chappell, Aston Martin Racing Team Principal: “We have focussed considerable engineering resource on improving the performance of the Vantage GT2. While we offer cars in every class from LMP1 to GT4, the GT2 car is probably the most important customer car and the one where we can make the most improvements. Working with a top professional team like JMW with their resources and commitment will mean we will be able to really challenge for GT2 honours in 2010.”

Jim McWhirter, JMW Team Principal: “This is a very exciting development for our team and reflects the efforts invested over the past seasons. This may be a new car for JMW, but the same desire, commitment and perseverance is still there and we are confident we shall be in the mix from the start.

“Dunlop have been an integral part of our success and it is extremely rewarding that they are joining forces with JMW and Aston Martin Racing in this challenging new adventure.”

Jean-Felix Bazelin, General Manager Dunlop Motorsport Europe: “We have worked very successfully over the last four years with Jim McWhirter, winning the Championship twice, and being runner-up once, in the very competitive Le Mans Series GT2 category. It is therefore an obvious decision for Dunlop Motorsport to follow JMW Motorsport in their new challenge with a new car.

“Being associated with Aston Martin, the most prestigious English sports car manufacturer, is an honour and a thrilling prospect for Dunlop. It is also an opportunity for our designers to demonstrate their ability to be successful again with the same partner but another car. I am convinced that the ‘Best of British’ partnership of JMW, Aston Martin, Rob Bell and Dunlop can compete for the 2010 Le Mans Series podiums and stand out in the prestigious Le Mans 24 Hours.

“In addition to our full technical support, we will put all our enthusiasm and passion into this fantastic new project. We want to contribute toward making the JMW-Aston Martin the winning package for 2010.”

Tim Sugden, JMW Team Manager: “This is an exiting new chapter for JMW Motorsport and one which cements the team’s desire not only to be at the forefront of racing, but it’s commitment to, and enthusiasm for, development. The greatest sense of competition for JMW comes not from others, but from within and with this new partnership with Aston Martin Racing, the team has the perfect platform to showcase that amazing level of drive and determination.”

Steve ‘Doc’ Bunkhall, JMW Technical Director: “The opportunity to become the GT2 development partner with Aston Martin Racing was too hard to resist! It is going to be very demanding on JMW and we will have to step up, but these are the challenges we relish.”

Rob Bell, JMW Driver: “I am so excited about this new challenge, the only way I can describe it is I feel rejuvenated. As a driver, the opportunity not only to race the Aston Martin Vantage GT2 but to play such an integral part in the development of the car fires me up.

[Source: Aston Martin]

News has come that Aston Martin Racing will not be entering the 2010 Le Mans series in order for the team to focus on their 2011 competitor. However, French private racing team Signature-Plus has said that they will be running an LMP1 class car in 2010 driven by Pierre Ragues and Franck Mailleux.

Aston Martin themselves have not confirmed their non-entry into 2010, but their initial reports indicate no likelihood of competing for the above mentioned reasons. Both Aston Martin Racing and the Signature-Plus team have been doing well in both their classes and overall standing during the 2009 season.

[Via: Autosport | Image: Aston Martin]

The Peugeot racing division has announced that they have entered two of their clean diesel-powered 908  Le Mans racers into the American Petit Le Mans event being held later this year. After the recent successes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans , they are hoping for another victory at the 1000 mile, 10 hour long race being held at Road Atlanta.

The four drivers carrying the cars through the day are Pedro Lamy, Nic Minassian, Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin.

On another note, Audi who lost their string of championships to Peugeot, have not decided whether or not they will be participating in this event with the new R15 TDis.

Via: Peugeot | Image: Claude Saulnier/DPPI

Audi Le Mans racer, Alan McNish believes that Audi needs to allow them to drive the new R15 more, because they need the chance to learn to car in an effort to possibly reclaim the title from the current champions, Peugeot. He says this after their few test runs were curtailed because of weather conditions, basically putting them at a serious disadvantage.

“I think it’s a good thing in a way, because it’s the first time they [Audi] have had a punch in the nose for a wee while and it is quite good just to refresh everybody’s memory,” said McNish. “Peugeot will be back to defend the honour so that sets us up pretty well, but there is no question that we have got to be better than we were to put them under the pressure that we need to do.

“You do need to race, that’s why it is called motor racing. We have never, not with the R8 or the R10, raced between Sebring and Le Mans with that car. It has only ever been testing, so that wouldn’t have changed this year. If we were racing with the R10 we wouldn’t have learned anything extra as to what we did in our testing.

“The main problem with our testing was that it was rained out most of the time and when it wasn’t we had two shunts. One at Sebring and one at Ricard, which then put us 30 hours behind. So we were a little bit late, and that is just a fact of life. But of course we have to race, you cannot, as a driving crew or a team, go from Le Mans to Le Mans without being out there and going for it. That doesn’t work, the competition is too high.”

Via: Autosport | Image