One of the two LMP1 privateer teams to enter the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship is Strakka Racing. The British team recently confirmed that all three of its 2012 drivers, Nick Leventis, Danny Watts and Jonny Kane, would once again be competing together in an upd Honda Performace Development ARX-03c prototype, and has also announced a boost to their engineering team with the arrival of Jay Davenport.
Located at a workshop facility just two kilometres from the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, Strakka Racing was formed in 2007 with the original aim of providing a platform for 21-year-old Nick Leventis to compete in GT racing. Nick was a respected downhill ski racer when a serious back injury forced him out of the sport he loved so he turned to motorsport to satisfy his competitive edge. The name Strakka comes from Cyprus and is an estate belonging to his grandmother which produces olive oil!
After a successful couple of years on the international stage, Strakka moved into the LMP1 category in 2009 with an entry in the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Ginetta-Zytek. Leventis and Danny Watts claimed pole position in Spain and a run to 14th in class at the French classic.
A new partnership with Honda Performance Development was formed in 2010 and Strakka entered the Le Mans Series with an LMP2 HPD-Honda, taking pole position in all five rounds and winning the category three times but narrowly missing out on the class Championship title. The highlight was the 24 Hours of Le Mans when Strakka took LMP2 pole and won the class, recording the highest-ever overall finish for an LMP2 chassis – 5th.
Fast forward to 2012 and the introduction of the FIA WEC. Strakka Racing, with its all-British driver line up and proudly sporting the Union Flag on the HPD’s engine ‘fin’, the team ended the year as vice-champions in the FIA Endurance Trophy for Private LMP1 Teams by finishing on the podium in all eight rounds – a great record of reliability and consistency.
Messrs Leventis, Watts and Kane, together with the entire Strakka Racing team, will be hoping for more of those values in 2013 as they prepare to start their assault on the small, but fiercely competitive, LMP1 privateer category.