Simon Trummer: Promotion to the US top league
VEHICLE CHANGE Simon Trummer continues his career in the 2019 American Sports Car Championship. His team is switching to prototypes from Cadillac. Trummer's chances of top results are also increasing thanks to his new teammates. Still active in an LMP2 team in the WEC last year, Simon Trummer switched to the American IMSA Sports Car Championship in 2018. At JDC-Miller MotorSports, the 28-year-old from Thun drove [...]
Still active in an LMP2 team in the WEC last year, Simon Trummer switched to the American IMSA sports car championship in 2018. At JDC-Miller MotorSports, the 28-year-old from Thun drove an Oreca-Gibson LMP2.
Overwhelmed teammate
The former GP2 driver was always one of the fastest LMP2 drivers. In terms of Trummer's speed, a top-five result or two would have been feasible amid the dominating Daytona Prototypes (DPi) from Cadillac, Acura, Nissan and Mazda.
But his regular partner Robert Alon was not on the same level as the professional Swiss in terms of driving. The American could be very fast on a lap, but did not feel comfortable in traffic. Accordingly, the incidents and time losses in the races increased.
At least the man from Kandertal was able to put an exclamation mark on one or the other. At Elkart Lake, on one of the most primitive natural race tracks in the USA, Trummer set a new lap record in practice. Alon then achieved pole position in qualifying, but collided with a GT car while leading in the race.
Further progress as a driver
The best result for Trummer right at the start of the season remained a sixth place at the 24 Hours of Daytona.
Simon Trummer: "We could have finished on the podium at least three times in other races. But endurance races are team sports, so we hardly had any results to show for it. At least I was able to show my potential on one or two occasions. In terms of driving, it was my best racing season so far. I made further progress and got faster."
Change to the winning model of the championship
This was also noticed by the team owners. So the Bernese was able to agree with them in recent days on a further cooperation. For 2019, JDC-Miller has purchased two new Cadillac DPi-V.R.
These are Dallara chassis with 6.2-liter V8 engines from the Cadillac Northstar (around 700 to 800 hp, depending on classification). The GM brand won the drivers' and manufacturers' titles with its customer teams in 2018.
Star parade in Daytona
Trummer will be joined by South African Stephen Simpson as his new regular partner. For the four long races, Chris Miller (USA) joins him, and at the 24 Hours of Daytona the trio is additionally supported by Colombian Juan Piedrahita.
The second Miller Cadillac will be driven by former GP driver Rubens Barrichello at Daytona. With Fernando Alonso and Kamui Kobayashi, two other F1 stars will also be driving a Cadillac DPi-V.R from another track team.
Happy about this chance
Preparations for the marathon at the end of January will start as early as next week with tests at Sebring in which the Swiss will also take part.
Simon Trummer: "I'm happy and looking forward to the new task. Apart from GP2, I've never driven at such a high level. Stephen Simpson is a good teammate and I know Dallara from GP2. In terms of the material, we have it in our hands to drive for top positions. IMSA is one of the greatest championships. I'd like to thank everyone who helps make it possible. Next year will be exciting."
sportscarchampionship.imsa.com
