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Le Mans / ALMS
LE MANS: JRM Pulls LM24 Entry
Lack of sponsorship puts British team's HPD ARX-03a on sidelines for 2013...
JRM Racing has pulled its entry request for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. (Photo: John Dagys)
JRM Racing will not be on the grid in this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the British squad pulling its entry request for its LMP1-class HPD ARX-03a due to lack of sponsorship.
The team, which also opted to not return to the FIA World Endurance Championship, withdrew its request today, on the eve of the entry list announcement for twice-around-the-clock endurance classic.
"We'll continue to work on it this season but motorsports is a really tough business to be in at the moment," JRM team principal James Rumsey told SPEED.com. "The sponsorship, in particular, is much harder to achieve than it was 10 years ago. It's something we'll continue to work on this season. But if we'll be back, it will need to be with commercial partners."
Following a dominant year in the FIA GT1 World Championship with Nissan, JRM stepped up to the WEC in 2012 with a prototype program for drivers David Brabham, Peter Dumbreck and Karun Chandhok.
The team finished third in the LMP1 Privateers Championship, highlighted by a sixth place overall finish at Le Mans in its debut, but was left looking for commercial partners in order to continue in 2013.
"It's a difficult time, I think, particularly for P1 because of the expenses in doing it," Rumsey said. "It's really a tough category to try and be a privateer team in. Rebellion obviously have it tied up very well and I'm sure they'll do a great job again this year and Strakka are no doubt financially secure but I think the other teams are probably in a similar situation to us.
"Nobody wants to go there just to be there. They want to compete for wins."
While JRM evaluated a potential program in the American Le Mans Series, Rumsey admitted their costs would have been similar to a WEC campaign.
"ALMS would have represented a good alternative to the WEC for us," he said. "Your'e fighting for overall wins but the costs for us, for a team not located in the States, would have been very similar to that of WEC.
"We could have partnered up with other teams over there, but at the same time, the time scale just wasn't there to put together the commercial package to support that."
Instead, its main focus for 2013 will be on the continued customer support for the JRM-built Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3, which will see a production run of nine cars this year.
"The first and foremost thing is the customer support of the GT3 teams," Rumsey said. "We need to help those guys and get them to where they want and need to be in order to fully demonstrate the potential of the GT-R as a viable GT3 customer package.
"We've been working with NISMO pretty hard over the last 12 months developing the upgrade. We're keen to just bring new teams on board and expand the customer base."
John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at
The team, which also opted to not return to the FIA World Endurance Championship, withdrew its request today, on the eve of the entry list announcement for twice-around-the-clock endurance classic.
"We'll continue to work on it this season but motorsports is a really tough business to be in at the moment," JRM team principal James Rumsey told SPEED.com. "The sponsorship, in particular, is much harder to achieve than it was 10 years ago. It's something we'll continue to work on this season. But if we'll be back, it will need to be with commercial partners."
Following a dominant year in the FIA GT1 World Championship with Nissan, JRM stepped up to the WEC in 2012 with a prototype program for drivers David Brabham, Peter Dumbreck and Karun Chandhok.
The team finished third in the LMP1 Privateers Championship, highlighted by a sixth place overall finish at Le Mans in its debut, but was left looking for commercial partners in order to continue in 2013.
"It's a difficult time, I think, particularly for P1 because of the expenses in doing it," Rumsey said. "It's really a tough category to try and be a privateer team in. Rebellion obviously have it tied up very well and I'm sure they'll do a great job again this year and Strakka are no doubt financially secure but I think the other teams are probably in a similar situation to us.
"Nobody wants to go there just to be there. They want to compete for wins."
While JRM evaluated a potential program in the American Le Mans Series, Rumsey admitted their costs would have been similar to a WEC campaign.
"ALMS would have represented a good alternative to the WEC for us," he said. "Your'e fighting for overall wins but the costs for us, for a team not located in the States, would have been very similar to that of WEC.
"We could have partnered up with other teams over there, but at the same time, the time scale just wasn't there to put together the commercial package to support that."
Instead, its main focus for 2013 will be on the continued customer support for the JRM-built Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3, which will see a production run of nine cars this year.
"The first and foremost thing is the customer support of the GT3 teams," Rumsey said. "We need to help those guys and get them to where they want and need to be in order to fully demonstrate the potential of the GT-R as a viable GT3 customer package.
"We've been working with NISMO pretty hard over the last 12 months developing the upgrade. We're keen to just bring new teams on board and expand the customer base."
John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at
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