Extreme Speed to partner with OAK for 2016 WEC LMP2 programme

Team boss Scott Sharp said that its pair of Ligier JSP2s, which are constructed by OAK's sister company Onroak Automotive, will be run by the French organisation under the ESM banner.

The partnership follows ESM forging closer links with OAK and Onroak from the Austin WEC round in September with a loan of a works engineer.

"It will be a combination of their guys and our guys," Sharp told Autosport.

"The relationship has been working really well and the opportunity was there, so we decided to take it for a mixture of financial reasons - flying 25 guys around the world is expensive - and sporting reasons."

Sharp said that it had yet to be determined whether ESM's pair of Ligiers would continue with HPD Honda power or switch to the Nissan V8s used in the OAK cars run under the G-Drive banner this year.

G-Drive Racing's plans for 2016 remain fluid, although it is known to have had discussions with Jota Sport about linking up with the British team for its first full WEC campaign.

ESM will enter the first two rounds of next year's IMSA SportsCar Championship at Daytona and Sebring with a solo Ligier.

Sharp explained that the team could potentially expand its programme to include the other two rounds of the North American Endurance Cup, which is backed by the team's primary sponsor Tequila Patron, should it score good results in the first two long-distance races.

ESM's driver line-up for next year is not set, but Sharp said that it would include the "usual characters".