Tommy Erdos will finally be back behind the wheel of a race car in the European Le Mans Series 2019.
The 55 year-old Brazilian will drive for United Autosports in their Ligier JS P3 LMP3 #2 together with Wayne Boyd and Garett Grist.
This will be the first time since 2011, that he will do a full season. He has had a few guest starts in things like the British GT, but he is one of the drivers that was hit by the driver ranking system, when it was invented. He was counted as a Gold driver, which is a bit of a no man’s land, and a status that a lot of drivers, with quite a lot of experience, hate. The rules state that you get moved down one grade at 50, and then another one at 55. So now he has a status of Bronze driver, and that is very attractive to the teams.
Both Boyd and Grist are Silver ranked drivers, so they needed a Bronze in the car, to run in LMP3 – and now they have one of the best.
Tommy Erdos hasn’t spent the time at home, on the sofa. He has spend the last few years on coaching racing drivers. So he has still been in the driving suit – just not in races.
He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2005 and 2006 for RML, and won the Le Mans Series title in both 2007 and 2010 for the same team, which is probably what he is most known for. He did however win the British Formula Renault title in 1990, and has participated in the British Touring Car Championship and British GT amongst other things.
The European Le Mans Series 2019 starts on 14 April at Paul Ricard in France.