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Strakka Racing cuts short WEC season due to engine issues

FIA World Endurance Championship - Six Hours of Silverstone

NORTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - APRIL 17: The Strakka Racing Gibson Nissan of Nick Leventis, Danny Watts and Jonny Kane drives during the FIA World Endurance Championship Six Hours of Silverstone race at the Silverstone Circuit on April 17, 2016 in Northampton, England. (Photo by Ker Robertson/Getty Images)

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Strakka Racing will take no further part in the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship season due to engine issues.

Strakka has raced in the LMP2 class throughout 2016 with a Nissan-powered Gibson car, recording a best finish of fourth at Le Mans, the Nürburgring and in Mexico.

However, ongoing engine issues, - the most recent occurring in Fuji two weeks ago - difficulties getting a new engine into China for the upcoming 6 Hours of Shanghai and the severity of a possible penalty in Bahrain have prompted the British team to end its season early.

“The engine problem experienced in Japan, related to crankshaft pressure build up, is the fourth the team has encountered since the Bahrain rookie test last November and left the team with no spare units for the final round,” a statement from Strakka reads.

“With customs regulations making it near impossible to ship another engine to China and, having already exhausted its allocation of engines for 2016 with a pre-season issue and a further retirement at Spa, the team would have to take a three-minute stop and go penalty in Bahrain, effectively preventing any chance to be competitive.”

“It’s very sad that we have not been able to complete the championship due to issues beyond our control,” team principal Dan Walmsley added.

“I’d like to thank the WEC organizers, the logistics team and the engineers at Gibson for their efforts to try to get us back out on track but it just wasn’t feasible to get an engine to China and taking the penalty in Bahrain would have seen us nowhere near the rest of the P2 runners.

“We did consider all options, including trying to borrow a unit from another team but the specific fitting kit for the Gibson and the fact we’d still have to take a penalty meant we had to take the tough decision not to race.

“We’d like to apologize to our sponsors, fans and supporters not to be out racing but we will soon be announcing, before the end of November, our plans for 2017.”

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