Chadwick switches to ELMS with LMP2 seat for 2025

Jamie Chadwick will return to sportscar racing in 2025 after signing a deal with the IDEC Sport LMP2 team in the European Le Mans Series.

The three-time W Series champion was announced on Tuesday as part of the 44-car ELMS grid at the French team, which won the ELMS title in 2019 with Paul-Loup Chatin, Memo Rojas and Paul Lafargue.

Chadwick has spent the last two seasons racing in Indy NXT for Andretti Global, scoring a successful win at Road America and finishing seventh in the standings.

The 26-year-old conducted her first IndyCar test at Barber Motorsport Park in September Told Autosport that progression to the top level of US open-wheel racing was a “realistic possibility”But will now begin his first full season in sportscars since 2015.

That year he teamed with Ross Gunn on a Beechdean Aston Martin Vantage to claim the GT4 title in British GT.

Chadwick previously tested LMP2 machinery for the Richard Mille Racing team in 2021, when he completed 26 laps in the World Endurance Championship post-season rookie test in Bahrain.

Lafargue will also campaign a second IDEC entry in 2025, as part of a 21-car LMP2 grid of Oreca-Gibson 07s split between 14 Pro entries and seven Pro-Am entries.

The 2024 ELMS P2 champion, AO by TF, will switch to the Pro-Am class with PJ Hyett switching from the IMSA SportsCar Championship. It will face the AF Corse squad that won the Pro-Am division this year, which includes returnees Francois Perdow, Alessio Rovera and Mathieu Vaxivier.

Alpine WEC drivers Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi are the first nominated drivers for Nielsen Racing and VDS Panis Racing respectively.

WEC LMGT3 champion Alexander Malykhin will make his Prototype debut and switch to ELMS with Nicolas Lapierre’s newly renamed CLX Motorsport squad, formerly known as Kool Racing, following a revised driver grading from bronze to silver.

Two-time World Touring Car Cup champion Yann Erlacher meanwhile will return to ELMS for the first time since 2019, and will drive a Ligier for his uncle Yvan Muller’s M Racing outfit in LMP3.

The third-tier Prototype class next year will feature a new spec Toyota twin-turbo V6 engine built by ORECA, replacing the outgoing Nissan units powering the LMP3 cars from 2020.

The class will also feature a new chassis following the end of the previous homologation cycle, allowing Ginetta to return to the championship with DKR engineering for the first time since 2016.

The LMGT3 class will feature Mercedes-AMG GT3 for the first time – the Iron Lynx squad has committed to a single entry with former Peugeot Hypercar racer Gustavo Menezes as its first named driver.

McLaren will also be present in LMGT3 with a single 720 Evo courtesy of United Autosports, joined by factory driver Marvin Kirchhoffer. The British squad has also committed two LMP2 entries, with team regular Ben Hanley set to lead their Pro Class attack.