Tom Kimber-Smith to chase Le Mans 24 Hours hat-trick with Greaves

The 28-year-old, who won the P2 class at Le Mans in 2011 with Greaves and in 2012 with Starworks, has been announced as a Greaves driver for the American Le Mans Series opener at Sebring next month.

He has also agreed terms to drive one of the British team's pair of Zytek-Nissan Z11SNs at Le Mans.

Kimber-Smith, who raced for Greaves in last year's truncated European Le Mans Series but not at Le Mans, said: "Sebring is confirmed and we have agreed Le Mans as well, and there is also the possibility of more races.

"It is good to be going back to Greaves, because I feel very comfortable there. I also wanted to pay them back for what they have done for me.

"The 2011 season would have been another year out for me but for Greaves, and they were very good to release me to drive for Starworks at Le Mans and Bahrain [World Endurance Championship fixture] last year."

Kimber-Smith's deal to drive for Greaves in the ELMS precluded him racing against them in P2, but the team waived the clause in his contract when the chance to race the Starworks HPD ARX-03b came up.

The odds of a hat-trick of P2 wins at Le Mans are slim, according to Kimber-Smith.

"I'm going there to win, but you need luck to win Le Mans and a lot of luck to win it twice in a row, so the chances of doing it three times in a row have to be remote," he said.

The solo Greaves Zytek will be raced at the Sebring 12 Hours on March 16 by Kimber-Smith, team regular Christian Zugel and ALMS regular Eric Lux.

Kimber-Smith's main drive for 2013 is in the ALMS with the US CORE Autosport squad, which is expected to race its GTE class Porsche 911 GT3-RSR for the first time in the Laguna Seca round in May.

Kimber-Smith's Le Mans Record

2006 Team LNT Panoz Esperante GT-LM 1st in GT2
2007 Team LNT Panoz Esperante GT-LM Retired
2011 Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan Z11SN 1st in P2
2012 Starworks Motorsport HPD ARX-03b 1st in P2