United Autosports will expand their sportscar programme to include the US.
The Anglo-American team has had a base in England until now, where they moved into a new and much bigger location last summer.
They were active in the US back in 2018, where Andretti Autosport was helping them out with storage of the cars. They participated in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, entering a bit of an all-star team, with names like Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris, and Paul Di Resta in the cars.
They have got their own location now in Palm Beach, which will be their new American base.
The team is confirmed for the Sebring 12 Hours, which is the second round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
They mention the possibility to include Watkins Glen and Petit Le Mans, and potentially even more races to their 2021 schedule.
Photo Courtesy of IMSA / Jake Galstad
Jim McGuire will be the gentleman driver in the car, while Wayne Boyd and Guy Smith will be the two experienced drivers in the ORECA 07 Gibson LMP2 car.
This is the first time for McGuire to race an LMP2 car, after having racing LMP3 for many years under the UA colours. He is the man behind AERO Sustainable Paint Technology, that has a very special kind of paint, that UA uses on all their cars. He is already announced to do the Asian Le Mans Series next month, and the ELMS from April onwards – both in the LMP3 car.
Boyd has switched forth and back between LMP3 and LMP2 at United Autosports. He is the defending LMP Champion in the European Le Mans Series, but have had a couple of seasons in the LMP2 car in the ELMS.
Smith has raced the 12 hours race at Sebring a total of 13 times. His probably most memorable achievement was at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2003 in a Bentley, that he shared with Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen. Bentley competed at Sebring that year too, but the majority of his Sebring experience is from Dyson Racing, where he was a full-season driver for many years. He returned to Bentley, when they started their GT3 programme, and raced for them until his retirement as a professional driver. He was part of the Team LNT LMP1 programme through half of the 2019/20 FIA WEC season, until the programme closed down, after just four races. This will be his first race for United Autosports.
United Autosports raced at Sebring in 2018, where Phil Hanson, Paul Di Resta and Alex Brundle, were the three drivers of the car. Back then, the team still ran a Ligier JS P217 Gibson. They hadn’t entered the series yet, when the FIA WEC was racing there in 2019, and missed both the 2020 and 2021 races due to the COVID-19 cancellations. They will make up for that, by participating in the IMSA race – probably as a warm-up for 2022, where the FIA WEC is expected to return to the track again.
The 12 Hours of Sebring will be run on 20 March 2021.
