Amputee Frederic Sausset to debut Le Mans car at ELMS Silverstone
Quadruple amputee Frederic Sausset will give his Garage 56 Le Mans 24 Hours racer its competition debut at the Silverstone European Le Mans Series round in April
The Silverstone ELMS event on the World Endurance Championship bill over the weekend of April 16/17 will be one of two races Sausset will undertake ahead of his Le Mans assault in June at the wheel of the SRT41 project's Morgan-Nissan LMP2.
Sausset told Autosport: "It is important that we do some races before Le Mans.
"We would like to do Imola [round two of the ELMS in May], but it is a question of budget."
Sausset explained that he and 11-time Le Mans participant Christophe Tinseau, who is acting as his driver coach, will also contest a round of the VdeV Endurance GT series as part of the team's Le Mans preparations.
The SRT41 Morgan with its system of controls to allow Sausset to drive ran for the first time on the Maison Blanche training circuit at Le Mans last week.
Testing of the car, which is being run by OAK Racing, continued on Bugatti circuit at Le Mans on Monday and will move to Barcelona later this week.
Tinseau said that more work was required on the power steering system to give Sausset, who steers with a single prosthetic arm, more feel in fast corners.
Plans to use an engine supplied by Audi, a version of its DTM V8, were abandoned because of the cost of converting the car from Nissan power, but the German manufacturer remains on board as a sponsor.
Sausset started racing last year in the VdeV Endurance Proto series at the wheel of a Ligier-Honda JS55 Group CN car last year.
His Le Mans programme marks the return of a Garage 56 entry, which is reserved for an innovative project showcasing new technology, after a year's absence.
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