Following two weeks of assembly work at Strakka Racing’s Silverstone workshop, Jonny Kane has just completed a thorough systems check on the car at the Turweston Airfield. “The Gibson went together well and as a proven car, we didn’t experience any issues during build up and this initial running,” said Technical Director Jay Davenport. “We now go straight to the Nürburgring test on 26 July before returning to the UK to paint it and apply the livery ahead of the race weekend.”

With this change of chassis, Strakka Racing could well put the cat among the LM P2 pigeons in the five remaining rounds of the WEC season. In the colours of another leading British outfit, Jota Sport, the Gibson 015S-Nissan has already finished class runner-up at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans and followed up by winning the third round of the 2015 European Le Mans Series (ELMS) at the Red Bull Ring in Austria shortly afterwards. Under its previous name, Zytek, this chassis pulled off two LM P2 class wins at Le Mans in 2011 and 2014, while Strakka Racing still holds the class distance record at Le Mans since its 2010 victory with a Honda HPD. All eyes will therefore be on the team at the next WEC race – the 6 Hours of Nürburgring – on 30 August where the Gibson 015S-Nissan will be driven by Strakka’s usual trio of Jonny Kane, Danny Watts and Nick Leventis.

The Strakka Dome S103 chassis that started the season will now be used for development as the British team hones its plans to join the LM P1 ranks for the 2017 WEC season with a prototype of its own design.

Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO
Translated from French by David Goward

Photo: BRACKLEY (NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, UK), TURWESTON AIRFIELD, TUESDAY 21 JULY 2015. Jonny Kane wraps up a conclusive first run for Strakka Racing’s new Gibson 015S chassis.