High Class Racing will enter the FIA World Endurance Championship 2021, with three Danes in the car.
The Danish team will run with Jan Magnussen, Dennis Andersen and Anders Fjordbach, at the 6 races in the 2021 season. The car will once again be their ORECA 07 Gibson in the LMP2 category with Goodyear tires.
Magnussen tested the car in December 2019, and was initially on the reserve list for the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2020, but when the team was called up with their second car (in addition to their FIA WEC car already entered), they were not able to find the budget needed.
The budget is now secured, so Magnussen will be joined by Fjordbach and Andersen, who had raced together in the European Le Mans Series throughout the years 2017-2020, plus at their Le Mans debut in 2019. This will be the first FIA WEC season for Dennis Andersen, while Anders Fjordbach participated throughout the 2019/20 season alongside Japanese driver Kenta Yamashita plus South African racer Mark Patterson.
While Yamashita and Fjordbach were quick in the car, it was tougher for Bronze driver Patterson. That, in addition to being unlucky regarding Safety Car periods and pit strategy, meant that the team finished last in the standings, out of the eight teams entering the FIA WEC 2019/20. They did opt to sit out the final round, since they wouldn’t be able to advance in the championship anyway.
Graphics: High Class Racing
Dennis Andersen will be the Bronze-rated driver in the car, and he showed a very impressive speed during the 2020 ELMS season, where the team was leading the Monza round for most of the race, finishing up in third place, which was their first overall podium since Silverstone 2017. He will be able to resume the fight with Frits van Eerd, who is another Bronze rated driver. Van Eerd and Racing Team Nederland do however have the advantage of already having raced five of the six the circuits. Andersen hasn’t been to Sebring, Fuji or Bahrain, but does know Spa, Le Mans, with the latter being unraced in LMP2 for van Eerd.
High Class Racing will run car #20 in the LMP2 category in the FIA WEC, where they are expected to run against two United Autosports cars, 2 from JOTA, one from Racing Team Nederland, one from DragonSpeed, and a single entry from Inter Europol Competition, who already have confirmed their entries.
The team hasn’t confirmed yet, if this is the end to their ELMS participation, or if they are going to run a programme parallel to the FIA WEC season.
