The First Indian to drive in the historic race held anually since 1923, Karun Chandhok has confirmed his return to the iconic Le Mans 24 hours race, to be held on the 13th/14th of June, 2015. The 13.6 kilometres long circuit at Le Mans winds through the French countryside, with cars touching top speeds of 315km/h. The race distance is more than 5000 km, which is equal to about 16 F1 races. It is widely regarded as part of the three Crown Jewels of Motorsport, along with the F1 Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500. Competing in Murphy Prototypes Oreca 03R Nissan-powered LMP2 car, Karun will go back to one of the most prestigious racing venues in the world with a firm target of a podium finish. He will be joined by GP2 driver Nathaniel Berthon and the experienced Mark Patterson.
Supported by JK Tyre, AVT Premium, Sidvin and Tag Heuer, Karun reiterated his conviction on the Le Mans 24hours being one of the most exciting races in the world. In his words, “Le Mans is one of the greatest races in the world and my ambition to be the first Indian on the podium is still burning strongly within. I am happy to be back with Murphy Prototypes as we have always worked really well together. Nathanael (Berthon) was very quickly up to speed last year and now has a year of sportscar racing under his belt and Mark (Patterson) has improved a great deal from when we raced together in 2013, so I think we’ve got a strong line up. We had a lot of speed and potential in the last two years there but the results didn’t work out for variety of reasons. Hopefully third time lucky!”
Team owner Greg Murphy was excited about having Chandhok back with the team for another assault on the Le Mans 24Hours. He said “I’m really happy to have Karun back with us again. We work well together and we also drive each other mad, but it’s because we have an equally strong ambition to succeed at the biggest race in the world. Apart from obviously being quick, Karun has proven to be a real team player for the past two years at Le Mans for us and this is the main reason I keep pushing for him to join the team. For the first time, we are heading to Le Mans with all three drivers having previous Le Mans experience and this is very important I think.“
Chandhok, who has a highest finishing position of 6th place, will return to the La Sarthe circuit where the race traditionally starts at 3pm on a Saturday and finishes at 3pm on the Sunday.