17-year-old Brit, Phil Hanson is set to become the youngest ever competitor in the World Endurance Championship since its inception (outside of the Le Mans 24 Hours) in today’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
Racing for Yorkshire-based LMP2 outfit Tockwith Motorsport this weekend, Phil will join Karun Chandhok his regular ELMS co-driver Nigel Moore in the team’s Ligier JS P217 Gibson. In the process, Hanson will be part of the Ligier JS P217’s FIA WEC debut as a chassis in the LMP2 class.
Phil’s rise through the motorsport ranks has been meteoric. Just four years ago he started racing karts, and today he will start his first World Endurance Championship race.
For Tockwith it is also their debut FIA World Endurance Championship appearance, the team using the valuable experience part of its preparations ahead of their maiden Le Mans 24 Hours effort next month.
Phil Hanson:
“To have the opportunity to race at this level is very exciting, but I also realise I have a lot to learn. I have settled into the car quickly, and the team has been a great support as always. We have more to find with the car, and a few gremlins to sort out, but I am looking forward to my WEC debut!”
Nigel Moore:
“This weekend is all about getting everything sorted ahead of Le Mans – from the car set up, to driver changes and pit stops. It’s our first race all together and we are working through everything so we are in the best place possible for our biggest race of the year next month.”
Karun Chandhok:
“I am really pleased to be here with Tockwith ahead of our run at the Le Mans 24 Hours! It is great to get back out on track and the new LMP2 cars are a lot of fun to drive! I had a run in the LMP3 last week just to shake off the cobwebs and get used to a coupe style car. LMP2 is a tough class and this is very much a learning weekend for me with the team but we should learn a lot in the race.”
The team will line up 6th in class for today’s 6 hours of Spa-Francorchamps, which is set to get underway at 14:30 local time in Belgium.
Introducing Philip Hanson (Phil)
Date of birth: 05/07/1999
Nationality: British
Home town: Sunningdale
First race in WEC: Spa 6th May 2017
Race history:
2013 – Novice in karting in the latter part of the year.
2014 – First full season of kart racing. Won the Whilton Mill Kart Club Championship.
2015 – Super One British Junior x30 Kart Champion
2016 – Made the step up into car racing.
– Debut in GT3 Racing in an Audi R8 LMS GT3.
– Won the first round of the Dunlop Endurance Championship, and went on to win the GT3 Championship.
– First ever pole sitter for the new British LMP3 Cup, setting pole by 8 tenths of a second.
– First ever winner of the LMP3 Cup. Comfortably won the race after pulling out an 8 second lead in the opening 2 laps .
2016/2017 – Asian Le Mans Series LMP3 Champion
2017 – European Le Mans Series LMP2 and selected World Endurance Championship rounds.
– Youngest ever WEC competitor in his debut race at Spa.
Best racing moment so far:
My favourite race weekend so far was my LMP3 Cup weekend at Snetterton. We were able to absolutely dominate, and I thoroughly enjoyed racing the LMP3.
Favourite race / track:
So far it has to be Spa! This place is utterly amazing! It was the first European track I visited. We drove here at a test in 2015 in the Audi R8 LMS GT3.
Bucket list of must do race tracks / events:
Le Mans is absolutely on top of my list – I cannot wait to get out there!
I also really want to do Daytona, Nurburgring 24 Hour, and the Spa 24 Hour.
