EXR SERIES DRIVER’S FEATURE: MEET PIERRE PREVILLE

“Preville won his first EXR Series race on his first participation.”

EXR Series Driver’s Feature: Pierre Preville

Las Vegas, NV – March 9th, 2017
What brought you to the United States and to the EXR Series?
“After a career in Europe where I’ve been involved in many different series including Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, VdeV Series and European Le Mans Series, I needed a new challenge and road racing in the U.S. has always been a dream. I heard about the EXR Series, and the fact that they were using European cars seduced me because I knew every driver were discovering the car. So it was all about driving skills, everyone has the same car and nobody had experience with the car, not even me. I took my chance and I’m glad I did.”

How it feels like to win your first race on your first participation?
“It was not as easy as it looks. The level was surprisingly high with Romain Thievin having a great deal of wins and Sheng Ping Yuan who raced in the Asian Le Mans Series. I took the lead after the first corner, but lost it to Romain at the end of the first lap. Then at the end of the race I was closing the gap to Romain and Sheng was closing the gap to me. That’s when it all became interesting! The last lap was crazy: I took the lead with a late-braking move and then I almost ran off the track twice during the last lap. It was so stressful! The close finish was as good as it gets with Romain, Sheng and I within the same second.”

What is the best car you drove?
“Racing LMPC prototypes was the most fun I ever had. When you start racing in karting you can only dream about driving an ultimate racing car like this with carbon brakes and a lot of downforce.“

Preville in a Le Mans Prototype Challenge (LMPC) car

How did you start racing?
“My dad has always been a car enthusiast, he was into Formula One too. I attended my first Monaco GP at 3 years old, later he bought me a go-kart and that is when I took it seriously. It was pretty expensive for us and I had to wait until I was 13 years old to participate in my first race. The level of karting in Europe is pretty fierce and that’s the best memories I have. I had no idea at that time I was going to race single-seaters, prototypes and GT cars all over the world.”

What is next for you?
“Besides my daily racing instructor position I’ll keep racing in the EXR Series when I can. I will do some testing with Quest Racing on a Mercedes-AMG GT4 too. They are racing in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge this year with Alex Premat and Mark Ramsey, 2 drivers that were EXR Racing Series regulars.“