Greaves Motorsport will welcome Matt McMurry to join the team at the European Le Mans Series Official Test Days to be held at the Paul Ricard Circuit, Le Castellet, France an April 1st and 2nd. This is the latest step in the collaboration between Greaves Motorsport and Dyson Racing’s Junior Development Programme.

The full story is told below courtesy of RACER.COM and .

Matt McMurry has been conducting private testing in a variety of prototype machinery, including the ORECA FLM09 PC chassis and Greaves Motorsport’s Zytek-Nissan LMP2 car (ABOVE). The USF2000 graduate will make his public debut with Greaves early next month at the Paul Ricard circuit in France during the European Le Mans Series Official Test, giving a glimpse of what the Dyson Racing Junior Development Program has to offer.

“I definitely feel like I’m stepping into something that is well prepared because it’s obviously set up by Dyson Racing, and they’ve had tons of experience,” said the high school student-turned-racecar driver. “I feel like this experience is going to prepare me well just because of how much experience the Dyson’s bring to their program.”

Like choosing the right university for his son, Chris McMurry felt building on Matt’s wealth of amateur experience – almost 60 races in a two-year span – required an environment where he could learn by example from distinguished professionals.

“Anybody in the sport knows being associated with the right people who have the right equipment makes a huge difference on your growth and performance,” said the elder McMurry. “I think the big challenge that a lot of young drivers face, and even for their parents, is you can get overly excited about the fact that your child has a chance to move up.

“You might be quick to act on those opportunities when it’s better served to work through a detailed process like the Dysons have outlined, and make gradual progress every step of the way. Every young driver wants to make it to the top, but without the right environment to learn and the right decisions about when and where to go, the risks are rather high. Those are the things we’re here to make sure Matt avoids.”

Under the tutelage of Chris Dyson and fellow Dyson Racing driver Tom Kimber-Smith, the Phoenix, Ariz.-based 16-year-old can expect a steady stream of driver coaching and career advice as he tests in Europe, and also during his full-season effort in IMSA’s Cooper Tires Prototype Lights series.

“I think the choice to race this year in IMSA and to bring Matt over to run in Europe will really broaden his horizons, and it fits a twofold objective,” Dyson explained. “The first of which is we’re going to see him racing in a super competitive environment with a lot of young drivers just like him. We’re sharpening a young driver’s competitiveness, which you need, and I think it’s also good to get outside the comfort zone earlier rather than later in your development, and that’s what the ELMS testing can do for him. It will pay dividends for Matt.”

Looking ahead, Dyson anticipates moving McMurry up the ladder once Dyson Racing confirms its domestic plans.

“This development program is something I’ve been discussing for a while, and when we started to think about it, we thought this was a great place for Matt where he could be alongside Tom Kimber-Smith and myself in a team with proven equipment and a great competitive backdrop,” he noted. “And during the time when the organization is really forming its long-term plans we want to be building our basic plan. We’ve identified Matt as the base of our future here. That’s why we’re committed to putting him in our junior development program – and our first member of such a program.”

News regarding the team’s racing activities will follow at a later date, according to Dyson.

“As you may imagine, we are fielding a lot of questions from many parties over the Dyson Racing Team’s plans for domestic competition,” he said. “This year was always going to be a transition year for us, but I am excited by the interest shown in the team by some serious manufacturer and commercial partners. We are assessing our options now and we are targeting a longer-term program that will have us returning to racing in the latter part of this year.”