Chandhok to race for JRM Racing in FIA World Endurance C'ship

New Delhi: Desperate to be in a racing seat this season, Karun Chandhok has signed a one-year deal with JRM Racing for the resurrected FIA World Endurance Championship, which will include historic Le Mans 24 Hours, world’s oldest sports car race in endurance racing.

The frustration of watching F1 races from sidelines has finally got to him and Chandhok chose to move to Endurance races, keeping his options in F1 open. And it could not have been sweeter as he will not only be racing, but will get financial rewards too.

“For a change I will get money directly from my team. In F1, the money came only from endorsements and not from team. So it will be nice to race and get paid for it,” Chandhok told PTI, without revealing the sum.

Chandhok will be the third driver for the UK-based JRM Racing, which had won the 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship with Nissan.

For World Endurance Championship they will partner with Honda Performance Developments.

Apart from Chandhok, David Brabham and Peter Dumbreck are the two drivers attached with JRM Racing. “At the moment, it is not possible to race in F1 this year. The only option is to test. At the end of the day, what I really enjoy is racing. And outside F1 it is the best and biggest championship and I am looking forward to it,” Chandhok said.

The series that will feature multiple classes of cars competing, JRM has entered the Championship in the Le Mans Prototypes class with other categories being LMP2 prototypes and the GTE, which is further divided into GTE Pro for teams with professional driver line-ups, and GTE Am for teams featuring a mix of amateur drivers.

In Endurance races, the endurance level of drivers and the cars are tested. More than one driver share the same car for the team as the races sometimes last more than six hours and could go up to 24 hours like the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France.

“It will be exciting. You will be sharing your car with a teammate, you will race in night,” Chandhok said.

JRM Racing Team owner James Rumsey said, “Together with his F1 experience, he will bring a new dimension to the team and, alongside David and Peter, we now have a very strong line-up for the World Endurance Championship.

“Although this will be Karun’s first year in sportscars, I have all the confidence that he will be one of the quickest drivers on the grid.”

This is the first endurance series of world championship status since the World Sportscar Championship, which ended in 1992.

The season will begin with Sebring 12-Hours in the USA on 17 March and culminate in November with China 6-Hours.

Le Mans 24 Hours will be held in June and will be third in eight-race championship.

PTI