Tom Jackson will be living the dream this season as he joins the European Le Mans Series grid with Speed Factory.

Jackson has been dreaming of racing in endurance racing for many years and this season he will do just that, piloting an LMP3 Ligier.

Speaking to Kent Sports News a delighted, Jackson said: “It has always been my aim since I started racing to compete at the Le Mans 24 hours, and I might not be able to achieve it this year but it is one step closer to achieving that.

“The LMP3 car is a stepping stone to Le Mans and a higher category of prototypes in future years, and the class this year is very competitive. There will be 22 cars on the grid at the first round at Silverstone, which is the biggest class in the ELMS.

“It is not going to be easy to show my name and my potential, although I can show my potential, it is just putting my stamp on stamp on it, because there is going to be so many people. I have never done endurance racing before and it will be a whole new scenario and environment that I am going to have to learn.

“I have to do a two hour stint in one go, I have never done that before I have only done 20 minute sprint races. Doing two hours straight in one go, is something that I am going to have to adapt to very quickly. I haven’t got the money to go testing the car at all, so I will rock up at the first weekend with two days under my belt and go racing. It will be the same situation that I have had previously with my career, I have just got to do the best that I can and hope for the best.”

It will be a challenge for Jackson without being able to test the car on a regular basis, but one that he will certainly be up for. The recent two day test with his new team will help Tom as he gets set for the season start in a months’ time.

He added: “The cars are eligible to base in a Spanish championship called VdeV and a couple of the teams have raced the car in the championship, so there are people who have been on the race track before the rest of us have even started our season.

“They will have a lot of laps under their belt, the two days at Paul Ricard definitely helped, I learnt how the tyres go off and with high and low fuel loads. There is a lot of information that I have learnt in such a short space of time. It is was very valuable track time that I had, people will realise that the car and my name isn’t out there testing as much, so when they do see me in qualifying and in the race and that I am up there running it is going to show that I must be good at pedalling the car somehow. I must be able to adapt to it quickly with the limited amount of time in the car.”

Once again Tom will be looking to adapt quickly to the Ligier that he will be driving, which he has had to do throughout his career.

“We went to Ginetta Juniors as it was a great platform to get kids into racing and it taught me a lot about racing and race craft. Then I always knew that my goal was prototypes and I wanted to race Le Mans with those cars.

“The next stage was to go to F4 and get some slicks and wings knowledge and get some understanding of overtaking using the aero and braking techniques. Accumulating all the knowledge that I have gained in the four years in the different types of cars and use to my benefit in this new car.”

Tom will take the guidance of his team as he finds his way in the LMP3 category, although it is also their first season with the Ligier as well.

He said: “It is going to be a whole new ball game, I don’t know most of the tracks that we will be racing at this year. It is going to be a lot for me to learn in the practice sessions, but Speed Factory they have raced in the European Le Mans series last season with a Ginetta.

“Again this is new for them and they have got to quickly learn how to set the car up on the tracks, they can’t use the set-up from the Ginetta last year as the Ligier handles differently. My teammates that have raced in the Radical European Masters, so they have a good understanding of the European tracks.

“Even though I am considered the pro driver in the team, on some of the European circuits I will be looking for some knowledge and expertise from my teammates that know these tracks better than I do, and can teach me a thing or two.”

It is very much a team game for Tom this season and that is something that he is going to have to get used to fairly quickly, having been used to setting up cars just for his style of driving.

“The thing that I have to learn now is that it is a team race, you can’t set the car perfectly just for you and how you drive. You have to look at the bigger picture, it isn’t just you doing the full four hours and you need the other two guys to be quick in the car as well. They want to be comfortable in the car as well.

“In testing you need to make sure that you have a set-up that is comfortable for all three drivers, and allow all three of us to be quick with. We found out in Paul Ricard that Alvaro was adapting to how the car handled being quicker, he wasn’t comfortable with the car being quicker, but at the end of the day it was quicker and he was slowly adapting. I am sure with that sort of progression we will all be able to find a happy medium.”

It is clear talking to Tom that he is excited to get out on track for that first race weekend of the European Le Mans Series at Silverstone.

He added: “I am absolutely buzzing! I am nervous as hell and there is a month to wait, I have to put a lot of time and commitment in at the gym to prepare myself ready for it. I have to do a lot of studying of the track and watching old races and see how people deal with traffic.

“There are a lot of things that will go into the first race weekend and the whole season that I need to learn that are different from what I have previously learnt. It is a challenge and if racing was easy then everyone would do it, I have to get to grips with it quite quickly.

“Supporting the World Endurance Championship as well at Silverstone, I have never seen LMP1 cars before, so I am going to be watching my career goal driving around in front me. That is going to be a great bit of motivation for me to work harder and one day achieve those goals of racing in the LMP1 cars.”