PORSCHE SPRINT CHALLENGE FRANCE
The SD teams-backed Porsche 992 GT3 R will be part of a 58-strong entry for the second event of the Le Mans Cup season, titled the Road to Le Mans, which will be split into two hour-long sprint races around the epic 8.5-mile Circuit de la Sarthe. All LMC sessions will take place around those of the Le Mans 24 Hours runners, allowing Jones and Malvern to get a first-hand taste of the challenges presented by the world’s biggest endurance race.
The car will once again be fielded by Team Parker Racing, and will be up against 19 other GT3 cars, with the draw of the event bringing in a host of guest entries. Most notable among the new cars will be a Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 which will be raced by MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi.
While this will be the first time Pro driver Malvern has tackled the Circuit de la Sarthe, Jones has some impressive form around the venue having raced as part of the Porsche Sprint Challenge support race during each of the last two years. Jones won the GT3 class on both outings last year, backing up a podium finish from his debut in 2021.
The pair also go into round two on strong form, having finished second in the season-opener at Circuit de Catalunya Barcelona back in April. The championship was then due to head to Imola in Italy, but that event was shelved due to delays in paddock construction work. Instead, the pair took in the British GT Championship’s Silverstone 500 to gain additional milage and knowledge of the new 992-generation Porsche 911 GT3 R ahead of giving the car its Le Mans debut.
PORSCHE SPRINT CHALLENGE FRANCE
“This week is going to be huge. You can hardly call yourself a racing fan if you don’t get excited for Le Mans week, and to be a part of it all for a third successive year is a huge privilege. I absolutely loved doing the Porsche Sprint Challenge events in recent years, and was fortunate to enjoy a lot of success from them, but this will be a whole new challenge. The entry for the Road to Le Mans race is huge and packed with talent, so we’ll definitely have a fight on our hands. But I have every faith in the technical crew at Team Parker Racing and Scott – for once I go into an event with more track experience than him, which is new! The circuit is just amazing. It lives up to everything you ever heard about it with the huge speeds on the Mulsanne Straight and the fast changes of direction of the Porsche Curves. It’s just magical and there are so many fans – the grandstands are packed morning, noon and night! To get to race in front of that is really something special. I can’t wait.”
PORSCHE SPRINT CHALLENGE FRANCE
“I’m ridiculously excited to be racing at Le Mans. It’s a career-long aspiration about to come true. I’ve never driven the circuit before, but I’ve done loads of sim work to help prepare and it’s a magical track. It will also be my first time going to Le Mans, so I’m hugely excited to experience it all and take in as much as I can. It will be great to share the track with Valentino Rossi, and the grid this weekend is huge with a lot of additional entries. We know we have a great car and team behind us, but Le Mans is a unique sort of place with the really long straights and high-speed corners. Nick’s driven there before and won so he’ll have great confidence going into this one. At this stage in my career it’s not often I get to go and learn a new circuit, especially one as epic as Le Mans. I just can’t wait to get there and get going.”
