Kyle LeDuc has told DirtFish it was “intimidating” to get the call from Chip Ganassi Racing to compete in Extreme E.
LeDuc, son of motorsport legend Curt LeDuc and brother to champion racer Todd, is a leading name in off-road racing with eight titles and more than 100 race victories to his name.
However this year he will compete with Chip Ganassi in XE alongside Sara Price.
LeDuc said that while he was initially taken aback to receive the call to race for the legendary American outfit, he soon came to realize that the nod was earned as a result of his – and his family’s – years of dedication to the off-road racing cause.
You kind of get smacked in the face with it, but then once it kind of sets in it really just needs to be lifeKyle LeDuc on racing for Chip Ganassi
“We all watched the Indy 500 and know of Ganassi,” LeDuc said. “I mean, who doesn’t watch motorsports and know that name?
“To get a phone call and sit in an office with someone like that is obviously, call it intimidating, but it’s definitely like ‘alright, this is where we are these days’.
“All the dedicated hard work in short course and desert and building our own trucks, to managing our own programs has gotten to a point where we’re now sitting at a table with Chip Ganassi and Mike Hull so it’s definitely good to see that come to a level of reality.”
LeDuc, who brings his own experienced off-road racing crew with him to the Ganassi fold, is now focussed on the job at hand.
LeDuc's "killer program"
LeDuc speaks to DirtFish about the upcoming XE season and how he has been preparing
“Now we just need to treat it as if it’s our normal reality and our job is to win races for myself, my team, and him, and all the sponsors involved,” he said.
“So once it happens, you kind of get smacked in the face with it, but then once it kind of sets in it really just needs to be life and it just needs to be the job at hand and that’s what we’ve got to do.”
The Extreme E season begins next week in Saudi Arabia for the Desert X-Prix on April 3-4.
