Ram Racing withdraws 2013 Le Mans entry

British GT team, Ram Racing, has withdrawn its entry to the 2013 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and therefore taken itself off the reserve list for the event due to be run in France on 22nd/23rd June.

About to make its debut in the 2013 European Le Mans Series with two Ferrari 458 Italias, the team informed the Automobile Club de l’Ouest of its decision at the end of last week.

Team Principal Dan Shufflebottom explains Ram Racing’s reasoning: “When we set up the team it was with a philosophy of “if you’re going to do it, do it well" and so far we’ve managed to achieve that in every area.

"Of course the proof will be in competition, from next week onwards, but we’re confident we’ve properly prepared technically, have the right drivers and personnel to succeed, and put in place all that’s necessary to fulfill our objectives.

“Even if we are relatively close to getting a firm entry for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans by being near the top of the reserve list, there’s only 10 weeks to go until the official test day and – in our opinion – that doesn’t give us enough time to properly prepare for our first 24 Hours of Le Mans.

"When the time comes we’ll put in an entry for 2014 and hope that our results this year will mean the ACO will look on it favorably. We certainly haven’t given up on our Le Mans ambitions, we’ve merely postponed them."

The first round of the ELMS will be the 3 Hours of Silverstone in the UK on 12-13 April and Ram Racing will have two entries in the LMGTE category: No.52 – Johnny Mowlem (GBR) and Matt Griffin (IRE), No.53 – Gunnar Jeannette (USA) and Frankie Montecalvo (USA).