French Driver Replaces Departed Priaulx for Road America Weekend
AO Racing has named Julien Andlauer as co-driver of the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R alongside full-season driver Laurin Heinrich for next week’s IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America, the eighth event of the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. Andlauer replaces Sebastian Priaulx, who the team announced earlier this week was leaving to fulfill his growing commitments with Multimatic Motorsports.
Andlauer and Heinrich will drive the No. 77 Porsche that’s featuring the “Roxy” the pink dinosaur livery for the first time this season. Racing thus far this season with the green “Rexy” livery, the No. 77 has won twice and leads the GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) standings.
“We are excited to welcome Julien to AO Racing for Road America,” AO Racing team principal Gunnar Jeannette said. “We’ve raced against him in many championships across the globe and can’t wait to see what he can do with Roxy at our home race.”
The French Porsche driver and former Porsche Junior Driver is a prominent name in the motorsport community, with wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in the FIA World Endurance Championship, the Asian Le Mans Series and the European Le Mans Series. He is a championship-winning driver in both the Porsche Carrera Cup France (2017) and Porsche Carrera Cup Germany (2019).
“I’m super excited to be back in IMSA, and to join the AO Racing Team which has been very successful so far,” said Andlauer, who has 10 career WeatherTech Championship starts. “I’m really looking forward to jumping in the car and giving the maximum to give my best effort for the team to have a good chance for the championship. I don’t know Road America yet, but it looks to be an amazing track, and I hope it can suit our beautiful Roxy. I will fight well and look forward to being there and working with the entire team.”
The IMSA SportsCar Weekend runs Aug. 1-4 at the track in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.