Photo: Dirk Bogaerts/SRO
Reigning GT Sports Club champion Jens Reno Moller has revealed plans to move his team up to GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup with a Honda NSX GT3 Evo.
The Danish driver, who dominated the 2019 Sports Club season with his Honda, is planning to enter the Reno Racing car into 2020’s long-distance races as a Pro-Am entry.
At present, it looks set to be the only Honda confirmed for the five-round GTWC Endurance championship, which gets underway at Monza in April.
Moller told Sportscar365 that he is currently in the stages of finalizing the driver lineup for the entry, which will include another Bronze-rated competitor in addition to himself and a professional racer who will most likely have a Honda factory affiliation.
“We have been working for a month on a project where my team will step up a little bit for next season to run in the Endurance series of GT World Challenge,” he said.
“Right now, I am building a project together with JAS [Motorsport] for a Pro-Am team. The first idea was to do an Am entry, but I’m finding it hard to find two other Bronze drivers.
“We are working very hard to place one of the works drivers from JAS or Honda in the car and I’m still looking for the last Bronze driver.
“I’m sure that one of the drivers in the car will have no NSX experience, which is why I’m really trying to close a deal with a driver who has experience in the car.
“It’s a step up from GT Sports Club to Endurance: it’s nearly four and a half times the budget, around €800,000 for an Endurance season with the right test program and all the other things.
“It’s a big step for us but I think it’s still realistic. We still have one and a half months to go and I’m in contact with some drivers who are right now doing their best to find the budget.
“We don’t want to make an entry just to be seventh or tenth; it must be a podium potential entry. If we can have a good Bronze and a works driver from Honda, it could be really competitive.”
Moller had initially hoped to assemble an all-Danish driver lineup but constraints over availability mean this is unlikely to materialize.
The Dane wanted his FIA Motorsport Games co-driver, Christina Nielsen, to come on board for the full season, but two date clashes between GTWC and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship have rendered Nielsen unavailable.
It’s understood that a British GT front-runner was also in line for the second Bronze driver seat alongside Moller, but a potential deal fell through last week.
Moller explained that he looked at other GT3 championships in Europe before settling on the GTWC Endurance Cup, which includes the Total 24 Hours of Spa.
“We have been looking at all the race series, from [Michelin] Le Mans Cup to GT Open and the GTWC Sprint series,” he said.
“I think the reason why we are looking into Endurance Cup is that, first of all, it’s much more of a challenge but we like a challenge.
“We really think that if we want to build a proper racing team over the next three years, we need to jump into the big scene from day one.
“The Endurance Cup costs more [than other series] because of Spa, but it’s also easier to find budgets from drivers.
“If you want to go to GT Open, it’s very difficult to find a Pro driver with the budget for that race series. For Le Mans Cup, I would need to find a Silver driver with a budget, which is not so hard, but for me, all the focus of the Le Mans Cup is on the LMP3 cars and not GT3.
“Of course, the benefit is that you could have a Le Mans entry if you win, but Honda is not making any cars for that race. It’s not really in my interest.”
Reno Racing’s Honda Evo is currently being converted into endurance spec by JAS Motorsport, which directs the Japanese brand’s European GT3 program.
Moller plans to get the car into a pre-season testing regime at Monza, which is located near JAS’ headquarters, ahead of the official series test at Paul Ricard in March.
Daniel Lloyd is a UK-based reporter for Sportscar365, covering the FIA World Endurance Championship, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, among other series.
Source link : https://sportscar365.com/sro/world-challenge-europe/sports-club-champion-moller-set-for-gtwc-endurance-move/
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Publish date : 2020-02-05 08:00:00
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