Gil de Ferran Brings Open-Wheel Spirit To ALMS

The only thing constant in life is change … and this saying applies to the recent commitments made by stand-out open-wheel racing champion Gil de Ferran.

Still known for being the driver that posted the fastest qualifying lap ever recorded on a closed course at slightly over 242 mph, California Speedway; Gil wants to bring his brand of competition to the discipline of racing team management as a driver/owner.

A little over three months ago, Gil announced the formation of his own team, De Ferran Motorsports, which will campaign an Acura ARX-01b in the American Le Mans Series. De Ferran confirmed details of the program in Long Beach over Grand Prix weekend, naming Frenchman, and CCWS refugee, Simon Pagenaud as his co-driver and Panasonic as the car's primary sponsor.

The team will be making its race debut at the next round in Salt Lake City at the Larry H Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix presented by The Grand and Little America Hotels, May 16-18, 1PM MDT.

Unification in the open-wheel racing series has opened up additional opportunities for young good drivers that were not able to make the transition either because the team they were attached to couldn't make it over to compete in the Indy Car Series, or due to the timing of the merger, just got caught out.

So where does one apply the unique talent and experience of driving really fast cars in competition and one does not have a ride at Indy? Why the American Le Mans Series, of course.

"These are really single-seaters with bodywork," Gil added. "They are high horsepower, high downforce cars. They're relatively light. The brakes have a very high capacity. For example at Sebring, we were pulling just over four Gs under braking through the hairpin, which is not dissimilar to what happens in an open-wheel car. To me, that's fascinating. To drive one of these cars quick is a huge challenge. And you can see it in the lap times. They are very close and sometimes faster than some open-wheel cars."

Here, at The EDJE, we will add the obvious ending tag to de Ferran's statement … especially the IndyCar Series Dallara's!

... notes from The EDJE