Torquay talent takes on 24 Hours of Le Mans

HOMEGROWN racing star Scott Andrews has got the nod for the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans car race.

“I’ve dreamt of doing this race since I was a child. After a successful race at Portimao (Portugal) with this team, I was extremely excited and honoured to be included in the Le Mans 24 driver line up,” Scott said.

Andrews is sponsored by CarGuy and Kessel Racing and will be competing in a Ferrari 488 GTE.

24 hours of Le Mans is the biggest endurance race in the world and the 89th edition will take place from August 21 to 22.

The race has been held annually since 1923 near the town of Le Mans in France and is the setting for James Mangold’s 2019 film Ford v Ferrari, where American car designer Carroll Shelby (played by Matt Damon) and driver Ken Miles (played by Christian Bale) battle to defeat Ferrari in 1966.

In January, the Surf Coast native and his team won their class at the prestigious Rolex 24 at DAYTONA.

Scott raced for the Riley Motorsport – Robinson Racing team and took out the LMP3 category in a Ligier JS P320-Nissan.

The team of three drivers completed 757 laps over 24 hours to take out the win in what was Scott’s debut at the event. It was Scott’s first 24-hour event.

Fast-forward six months and Scott says being selected for Le Mans 24 hours is a dream come true.

“The atmosphere is amazing at this race, there’s not a lot like it. We had a productive low downforce test at Paul Ricard a few days ago so we hope that can translate into some good speed at Le Mans,” he said.

The Paul Ricard Circuit is a French motorsport race track in Le Castellet, Var, near Marseille.

It’s not Andrews’ first time at the track, in 2018 he set the official LMP3 race lap record.

His teammates will be Takeshi Kimura (CarGuy) and Mikkel Jensen (a factory Peugeot HyperCar driver).

“A massive thanks to CarGuy and Kessel Racing for believing in me. I look forward to doing our best job and seeing how we end up.”