Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, its two 007 LMH race cars, and drivers will not be taking part in the opening round of the FIA WEC on May 1st, despite having been included on the entry list. This week Jim Glickenhaus confirmed to motorsport.com that his team will be sitting out of the series until after it has had an opportunity to run a 30-hour endurance test to finalize the car’s specification before it is locked into homologation.
Instead of heading to Spa Francorchamps, the team will instead be running a lengthy wind tunnel test at Sauber’s facility before transporting the whole kit and caboodle to Vallelunga for a quick shakedown, and then over to the Aragon circuit for that aforementioned 30-hour test. Instead of kicking off the season at the Belgian opener, SCG will instead opt to run its first race at Portimao in June. Add in the event at Monza in July, and the team will only have two races worth of experience before jumping right into the top flight class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which has been postponed to August.
This is the second time that SCG has announced it would be postponing the start of its season. The first time, back in January, Glickenhaus mentioned that the car would not be ready for the season opening 1000 KM of Sebring. That event was later cancelled due to COVID-19, giving the team two additional months to get its ducks in a row. Unfortunately they still aren’t lined up, so another postponement has come about.
From Jim’s perspective, this postponement is reasonable because once the specification of the car has been given a homologation by the FIA, it’ll be locked into that spec for the next five seasons of racing. The goal of this ruleset is to reduce operating costs and keep the playing field as level as possible, but the fact that the car still isn’t ready despite having been in development for a year and a half.
I really hope I’m wrong, but the last time a team tried to get a brand new chassis together to try to take the fight to Toyota it all imploded around an unprepared Nissan. I’d hate for a similar fate to befall this plucky American squad.
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