Duncan Ende will partner Henri Richard in the newly formed Silicon Tech/Dempsey Racing LMP Challenge entry in the 2012 American Le Mans Series. The team made its official announcement of entry two weeks ago, and confirmed Ende as a full-season driver alongside Richard on Tuesday.
The two drove a handful of events together in the GT Challenge class in 2010 with TRG and won at Petit Le Mans. Ende remained in GTC with TRG for the full 2011 season and finished second, with Spencer Pumpelly, to Black Swan Racing's Tim Pappas for the class championship.
Ende has some prototype and single-seater experience, dating to several starts in the Skip Barber National Series and Formula Atlantic championships (ABOVE). He moved into IMSA Lites in 2006 and won five races.
“It was a difficult decision to move away from GTC but everything fell into place to run LMPC and I'm really looking forward to this new incredibly competitive challenge,” Ende said. “I want to thank TRG and particularly my friend Spencer Pumpelly for a great 2011 season.”
“I'm very excited to see Duncan rejoin our team for the 2012 season,” Richard added. “We had a great time driving together in 2010 at Sebring and Petit Le Mans, and obviously the results at Petit spoke for themselves. Duncan is a young, talented, and extremely affable young man, and I believe he will represent the Silicon Tech Racing brand very well.”
The team's third driver for endurance races is still yet to be determined, although Dempsey Racing co-principal Patrick Dempsey won't be that driver. Dempsey's insurance policy prohibits him from driving any open-cockpit prototype. It's unlikely that Joe Foster, the second Dempsey co-principal, will either, although his participation is not limited by an insurance policy.