{"id":34518,"date":"2023-05-04T16:00:24","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T16:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/motor-racing-nascar-le-mans\/"},"modified":"2023-05-04T16:37:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T16:37:49","slug":"motor-racing-nascar-le-mans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/motor-racing-nascar-le-mans\/","title":{"rendered":"Motor racing-NASCAR Le Mans entry can be springboard for Button and Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alan Baldwin<\/p>\n

LONDON (Reuters) – Former Formula One champion Jenson Button wants to drive a Hypercar at Le Mans next year and says he would be up for a full season of the world endurance championship if the right opportunity comes along.<\/p>\n

The Briton will be taking part in the 24 Hours race at the Sarthe circuit on June 10-11 this year as part of a special NASCAR entry with seven times NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and former Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller.<\/p>\n

The trio will share a modified Hendrick Motorsports Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 stock car as a ‘Garage 56’ entry highlighting future technology <\/p>\n

Le Mans, the jewel in the crown of sportscar racing, is celebrating its 100th birthday while U.S.-based NASCAR has turned 75.<\/p>\n

Johnson, 47, has never been to Le Mans while Button, 43, endured a short-lived debut in 2018 with the Russian-backed SMP team. Both drivers are keen to parlay this year’s appearance into something more competitive.<\/p>\n

“I would like to race there in a Hypercar next year: I still have the hunger, I still have the fitness, the reactions, and when you have that, why not?,” California-based Button told reporters this week on a video call.<\/p>\n

“I don’t want to do 10 or 15 races a year. I can’t, I’m too busy doing other things. But if I could find a drive that suits my needs and it’s fun and enjoyable, I’m up for it.<\/p>\n

“Endurance racing for me is fun because you get to work with great drivers, great teams and it’s such an emotional rollercoaster.” <\/p>\n

The World Endurance Championship (WEC) has seven rounds, including Le Mans, while the North American IMSA series has 11 but is nearer to home.<\/p>\n

“I would be open to both,” said Button.<\/p>\n

Johnson has retired as a full-time driver but still has a bucket list to work through.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m running out of items, especially in a major professional setting,” said the Californian, who was never able to race Le Mans previously due to calendar clashes with NASCAR and IndyCars.<\/p>\n

“Although we\u2019re not racing for a GT win or a prototype win at least I get to go over and experience the event truly being in the race,” he told Reuters. “And who knows, maybe next year I can land a proper ride.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m open to many more, without a doubt. I love being behind the wheel and I love marquee events. Hopefully I can parlay this into something more.<\/p>\n

“I do feel there are opportunities in LMP2 (second tier) and GT that I could pursue pretty quickly. The top division with Hypercar would be a little more of a stretch but only time will tell.”<\/p>\n

\n

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ken Ferris)<\/p>\n

\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ430OC-VIEWIMAGE\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alan Baldwin LONDON (Reuters) – Former Formula One champion Jenson Button wants to drive a Hypercar at Le Mans next year and says he would be up for a full season of the world endurance championship if the right opportunity comes along. The Briton will be taking part in the 24 Hours race at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":34519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportSportsNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ430OC-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34520,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34518\/revisions\/34520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}