Mr Versatile handed drive in Le Mans car

1:29pm Wednesday 23rd April 2008

Versatility is proving Ewell driver Duncan Tappy's forte and his latest opportunity is a drive in one of the leading Le Mans prototype cars.

Tappy will drive the Rollcentre team's Pescarolo - the car that finished fourth at Le Mans last year behind the Pescarolo and Peugeot factory teams.

He will drive the 630bhp car in the 1,000km/six- hour race with Martin Short, Rollcentre team owner, and Vanina Ickx.

Rollcentre's regular driver Joao Barbosa will miss the Monza race, the second in the Le Mans Series calendar, due to a clashing GrandAm race commitment.

Short decided to use the seat vacancy to give a young driver a step up the motor racing ladder and, as a BRDC member, called on BRDC Superstars director Tim Harvey for help in his choice.

Since winning the 2007 Formula Renault UK title last year, Tappy has taken to the track in an impressively broad range of cars.

He spent two days testing with World Series by Renault and has gone on to test a Porsche Carrera Cup car in preparation for a guest appearance at the Thruxton round next month, where he will compete against Harvey himself.

He dominated his first round of the Time Attack series in the Autosportif Subaru Impreza and has now represented his country twice as rookie driver for A1 Team Great Britain.

Harvey said: "I'm delighted that Superstars has been able to help Duncan. This is what the Superstars programme is all about.

"He fully deserves this opportunity and I'm sure he'll make the most of it."

Tappy added: "I'm very excited. I'm very grateful to Martin for giving me this opportunity and to Tim for his support.

"I'm very fortunate to be able to benefit from the Superstars programme. I knew I'd get support and advice but to get a drive as good as this is way beyond my expectations.

"It's going to be very different from any racing I've done before. The car has power steering but even so it will be very demanding physically but that's what I train for. I'm not used to pit stops and driver changes so I'll be making the most of every opportunity to practice. "

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