Doran mounts Anglo-French attack on US

Liam Doran has announced that he will be competing in America in 2012 and has unveiled a programme of 13 events combining the Global Rallycross Championship, X Games, Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series and a bid on the, in 2012 for the first time in its history going over 100% tarmac, Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

Doran has created a new team with which to compete in the American Rallycross events, pulling together French car builder Mtechnologies and English engine tuner Julian Godfrey Engineering to produce a Citroën C4 Supercar. “The C4 is still a great car, but we were sure that there was more to come from the engine. There’s no-one better than Julian Godfrey to get the most out of an engine and he’s been working on the Citroën for three months now so we’re well ahead with that part of the plan. I know that I can win in America and this new partnership means I’m going there with the best European engineering in the car,” said Doran.

As a winner in last year’s X Games, Monster Energy driver Doran is guaranteed an invitation to this year’s prestigious event in Los Angeles.

The rest of his season will involve tackling the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), the 90th running of the so-called ‘Race To The Clouds’, on July 8 at the wheel of a Ford RS200 owned by his father Pat, and more short course off-road truck events. “We’ve wanted to do Pikes Peak for years but it’s never quite happened even though the car has been ready. Monster is interested in going there and it’s an amazing event that fits in with everything else I want to do,” said Doran who will return to race trucks with Stronghold Motorsports in a programme shared with Supercross rider Jeremy McGrath. “I’m going to do five of the eight rounds in the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series and Jeremy McGrath will drive in the other three events so the truck can score points in all rounds. I raced at Phoenix, Arizona in December and had some very positive results so I want to go back there and build on that,” said the 24-year-old Englishman.

Doran was the first European to take part in a Rallycross in America, racing in the earliest US events at New Jersey at the end of 2010, but drove in just one GRC event last year (in a rented Subaru rally car) before winning X Games in a Citroën C4 Supercar.

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