The Glickenhaus Racing team will not return to racing in the FIA WEC for 2024 with its Hypercar. Team founder Jim Glickenhaus revealed to Motorsport.com that he does not intend to submit one or more entries for next year’s championship before the closing date of November 20.
The news follows the team’s decision to once again skip the Asian leg of the WEC, consisting of Fuji in September and Bahrain in November, with the 007 LMH entered for the full season.
After his absence from the list of participants at Fuji, Glickenhaus explained that he would only continue to participate in the series if sponsorship was found for 2024.
“To date no sponsorship has been found and it is unrealistic to think that it will emerge, so we will not participate, in the end it makes no sense,” Glickenhaus told Motorsport.com.
“To be competitive we would have to make an evo version of the car and race with two examples. This is not feasible for a private individual: the only way we could do it would be with a sponsorship or if a customer wanted to race by putting together a program with the our car.”
#706 Glickenhaus Racing LLC SCG SCG 004c: Thomas Mutsch, Felipe Fernandez Laser, Franck Mailleux, Richard Westbrook
Photo by: Andreas Beil
The priority for his Scuderia is now the production of road vehicles, including the 004 sports car based on the GT seen at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring.
“We have a certain potential and we have sales already set up to the established ceiling, but even if we could build more, racing in the WEC will not help us sell them. This is why I say that, as we are a small company, competing in the WEC has no sense”.
Glickenhaus stressed that a return to the Nurburgring-Nordschleife is expected sooner or later with the SCG 004C having contested its last race in the SP-X class in 2022.
“One day we will return to the ‘Ring, because we will promote what we sell.”
Glickenhaus added that he believes Glickenhaus Racing will retire from the WEC with an enviable record, which includes a podium at Le Mans in 2022.
“We made a legitimate effort and did very well for a privateer. We got on the podium in 2022 and this year we beat the likes of Porsche and Peugeot to finish sixth and seventh: there’s nothing better! We were a important part of the championship when we were needed.”
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