[IIVVX]

Le Mans Series news: Klien to race in Spa 1,000km - GPUpdate.net Le Mans Series



Christian Klien is to take part in this year's 1,000 km of Spa in June, and as a consequence will be missing the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend. The BMW test and reserve driver will be competing in the endurance race for Peugeot, as well as taking part in the legendary Le Mans 24 Hour later in the season.

Already scheduled to drive for Le Mans, the Spa announcement came as a surprise for Klien, who will be competing in the team with fellow Austrian and former F1 star Alexander Wurz. Due to his duties as BMW reserve driver, however, Klien will be required to dash back from the Ardennes to Barcelona in the event of either Heidfeld or Kubica missing the Spanish Grand Prix.

"It was a bit of a surprise to me as well, but a very welcome one," he said. "As a racing driver, you cannot get enough racing miles under your belt. The important thing is to follow our preparation path very strictly - we have a clear goal, and that is winning at Le Mans in June. By then we must have a race winning operation in every field; people in Austria seem to put a lot into me racing against Alex Wurz, but endurance racing is a team sport and we really need to progress together as a team before we can think of racing one another for victories on the road."

Sharing car number 7 with Klien will be Nicolas Minassian and Simon Pageneaud, with Wurz driving in number 8 with two other former F1 racers in David Brabham and Marc Gené.

[Alzilla]

He's a fantastic endurance driver, especially at the helm of the Peugeut 908i.

[JC919]

I really wish we could watch these races live in the US. What I would give or do for Motors TV over here.