Simon Trummer: Early title chase in Asia 🎥
NEW PROJECT Hardly crowned LMP2 champion in the USA, Simon Trummer is looking ahead to his first goal of the season for 2021. In February, he will contest the Asian Le Mans Series, which consists of four races in eight days. No Swiss motorsport athlete traveled to the USA as often as Simon Trummer last year, which brought drastic travel restrictions due to Corona. [...]
No Swiss motorsport athlete traveled to the USA as often as Simon Trummer last year, which brought drastic travel restrictions because of Corona. Thanks to a sportsman's visa and the mediation of IMSA, the governing body responsible for staging the North American sports car championship, this was possible.
Paving the way for title win
This allowed the man from Kandertal to travel to the U.S. and back to Switzerland as often as he wanted without quarantine obligations and thus drive for the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsport LMP2 team. Three class wins and other good placings earned his teammate Patrick Kelly, who was the only one to compete in all the rounds, the IMSA LMP2 drivers' title.
Trummer himself was runner-up and won the separate IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup for LMP2 drivers solo. This included the four major endurance races on the calendar. The late season highlight for Trummer and his team was victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring in mid-November.
Two more victories in the Daytona and Road Atlanta classics ("Petit Le Mans"), both within his grasp, slipped through his fingers only in the closing stages after he had been leading for a long time.
Good performance at Le Mans and the Nürburgring
In Europe, Trummer raced in an identical Oreca 07-Gibson fielded by a Portuguese team in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. There, the team finished seventh among 24 LMP2 competitors and was the best Pro-Am team behind six professional squads.
Trummer also had time to drive Octane126's Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo at the Nürburgring. The Zurich-based team, which cooperates closely with Maranello, took its first race win, which was subsequently disallowed due to an error in the designation of a Goodyear tire that was not the driver's fault.
Hotel room instead of race track
His effort with assignments in the U.S. and in Europe had thus paid off, even if it was associated with unusual strains. One weekend, however, was an absolute zero.
Simon Trummer: "From countless Corona tests, infected teammates, empty long-haul flights as well as hours of waiting at the airport, everything was there. At Spa, the whole team was ready when one of my teammates fell ill and tested positive for Covid-19. As a consequence, we all had to get tested, stay in the hotel room for 24 hours, and go home again without having driven a single lap despite testing negative."
Compact Asia Championship
The ongoing Corona measures are already affecting this year's racing events. For example, the 2021 Asian Le Mans Series, which is run according to ELMS regulations, will take place on two consecutive weekends in February in the Middle East.
The first two four-hour races at the Dubai Autodrome are scheduled for February 13 and 14, 2021, followed a week later by Rounds 3 and 4 at the Yas Marina Circuit in neighboring Abu Dhabi.
In the previous five seasons, the AsLMS always included four races in three to four different countries in faraway Asia and even in Australia. Now it will be held exclusively in two Arab Emirates in order to avoid the strict worldwide travel restrictions for all participants and also to save costs.
Chasing titles with Phoenix
The compact format attracts a record number of participants of around 40 cars from the LMP2, LMP3 and GT categories. The Phoenix Racing team, familiar from DTM and GT3, is taking part for the first time with a sports car.
The Eifel-based team has signed Simon Trummer and Matthias Kaiser from Liechtenstein as regular drivers on the number 5 Oreca. In Dubai, GT World Champion Nikki Thiim from Denmark will be the third man, in Abu Dhabi Audi factory driver Kelvin van der Linde from South Africa.
The Oreca 07-Gibson Phoenix Racing for the AsLMS. It will be used for the first time in four races in February.
The Swiss pro and his new team have the same objectives, of which he makes no secret.
Simon Trummer: "As I now have a lot of experience in LMP2, I hope to be able to make an important contribution to winning the title. This would come with a guaranteed grid spot for Le Mans. As a new team, Phoenix would like to compete there in June. In the long term, they then plan to enter the new LMDh category with an Audi."
Le Mans instead of title defense
The Bernese will not defend his IMSA Endurance title, but will continue to contest isolated races in the USA if possible. Since the team will receive a fixed grid slot for Le Mans in 2020 as a reward for the IMSA championship title, this first appearance of the Americans with Patrick Kelly and also with Trummer as spearhead has priority this year. Linked to this is the world championship round at Spa in preparation for the 24 Hours.
The experienced endurance and former GP2 driver is also available to Octane126 as a driver again. However, a continuation of the ELMS commitment is not yet planned.
Truck instead of race car
So Simon Trummer doesn't get bored - and not apart from racing. The professional racer, who lives in Steffisburg, drives four- or five-axle trucks for Vigier Beton. But he doesn't plan to do it as often as he did in 2020 during the several-month lockdowns without any motorsport.
