Thiriet by TDS Racing has chosen the ORECA 05 for an ambitious programme !
Thiriet by TDS Racing, one of the leading endurance teams in the LM P2 class, comes back to ORECA ! Indeed, the team founded by Xavier Combet and Jacques Morella has chosen the new ORECA 05 LM P2 for the 2015 season. On top of the European Le Mans Series, the squad has also submitted an application to participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the fourth time in a row. With a brand new closed-cockpit prototype designed by ORECA Technology, the team is ambitious.
Hugues de Chaunac : “Thiriet by TDS Racing’s experience and talent will be decisive !”
The cooperation between Thiriet by TDS Racing and ORECA started in 2011, as the ORECA 03 LM P2 was taking its first steps. At the time, the Hérault-based team which had just embarked on its new endurance programme, was also one of the first to have chosen the French prototype. A few months later, at the 6 Hours of Spa, it stood as the first team to have taken the ORECA 03 to the highest step of the podium. That was the first of 23 successes notched up by an ORECA chassis between 2011 and 2014 ! Following on another win in Estoril at the end of that first season, Thiriet by TDS Racing then clinched the European titles in 2012 and ended up vice-champion in 2013 (behind Signatech-Alpine which also relied on an ORECA chassis). After a break in 2014, Xavier Combet and Jacques Morello’s team is now about to enter an ORECA prototype again. This time it will be an ORECA 05, powered by a Nissan V8 which is prepared in the workshops of ORECA’s engine department in Magny-Cours.
Thiriet by TDS Racing will take part in all of the European Le Mans Series races and has applied for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Ludovic Badey and Pierre Thiriet will be at the wheel, with a third driver to be named.
“It’s with great pleasure that we return to collaborating with the ORECA group” explain Xavier Combet and Jacques Morello, heads of TDS Racing. “When we had to make a choice on the new car, ORECA quickly made its way to the top of the list. The company’s technical expertise has been proven time and time again. And the relationship we have with them has given us some very good results. Seamlessly, the work has begun anew in the best possible way. Our two outfits are working hand in hand to attain one goal : winning.”
“I am happy to welcome Thiriet by TDS Racing within ORECA again” says Hugues de Chaunac, CEO of ORECA Group. “The technical skills and sporting qualities of the team are obvious. They are the kind of teams that we’d rather have with us than against us ! The history we share together is lovely – the first win and the first ELMS title – and I am convinced that some more successes are ahead of us. This will be the ORECA 05’s first year, therefore we have to remain moderate, but we have one goal in common : to win, and especially at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Together with Xavier Combet and Jacques Morello, we’ve already found our working habits again. Actually, it’s as if we’ve never stopped working together.”
Closed-cockpit prototype designed by ORECA Technology’s R&D and manufacturer departments, the ORECA 05 will take to the track some time in the first term of 2015 and will first compete at Silverstone as part of the FIA World Endurance Championships’s and the European Le Mans Series’s first rounds. The ORECA 03, 23 times a winner in LM P2 and successful worldwide in 2014, will still be on the tracks.