Mansell in contention for Jaguar drive

Former Champ Car World Series co-owner Gentilozzi has made it clear that he wants a British driver to race one of the new GT2 machines, unveiled during the Petit Le Mans event at Road Atlanta, and is hoping to entice the 1992 Formula 1 world champion into his squad.

"I ran in to Nigel Mansell at Le Mans this year, and we knew each other from our Champ Car days," Gentilozzi told AUTOSPORT. "He said 'I'm excited to hear about what you are doing' and so on. So I said 'You should come race with us' and he said 'I'd love to, are you serious?'

"We'd always talked and when I was in TransAm, Nigel always wanted to come and drive our car, because they are great fun and have loads of power. And at Le Mans he told me that he wanted to come back and with his son. They would like to race in the US.

"We've had a talk, we are going to talk more and it may just end up as that, a talk among friends. We will see."

Mansell, who raced a Ginetta LMP1 prototype alongside his son Greg in the recent AUTOSPORT 1000km at Silverstone, is not the only British driver in the frame.

Vastly experienced GT racer Johnny Mowlem is also believed to have been in talks with the squad.

"We have talked to a lot of British drivers," said Gentilozzi. "Johnny Mowlem is here [at the launch], we have talked to drivers all over the world, but our intention would be to have a British driver."