The first “Road te Le Mans” race, ahead of the 24 Hours on Saturday has a starting field of no less than 39 cars. This race combines the LMP3 prototypes racing in the ACO sanctioned series (ELMS and AsianLMS) and the GT3's of the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup.
In LMP3, 22 prototypes will be driving in Le Mans. 20 of those are Ligier JSP3/Nissan's, 1 Ginetta Juno LMP3 and 1 Adess03/Nissan complete the field. The grid consists of a large number of teams competing in the European and Asian Le Mans series and teams who have received an invitation from the organiser.
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| © United Autosports |
United Autosports leads the LMP3 field, after winning the first 2 races in the European Le Mans Series this year. Martin Brundle returns to Le Mans toe race on of their Ligiers together with his son Alex. Brundle has already been testing the car at Snetterton yesterday
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| © Racing Team Holland |
Another Le Mans “veteran” will make his return to the famous track : Jan Lammers, who won the 24 hours in 1988 with Jaguar. Lammers will race in the #9 Racing for Holland Ligier, with Bernhard Van Oranje-Nassau, member of the Dutch royal family.
Graff Racing and Duquiene Engineering will have athird car on the startgrid. Murphy prototypes will race in the Ligier, as in Imola last week. The Ave-Riley LMP3 should make its debut at the 4 Hours of the Red Bull Ring in Austria. Other ELMS regulars are OAK Racing with 2 cars, Yvan Muller racing, Silverstone polesitters 360 Racing, Race Performance, BySpeed Factory Racing and Scuderia Villa Corse. Asian Le Mans Series contenders DC Racing and Wineurasia Ltd will also be at Le Mans in their Ligiers.
Finnish team PS Racing ltd will enter its Adess03/Nissan. This will be the first time we'll see an Adess take on the Ligiers of the ELMS championship. Lawrence Tomlinson, owner of Ginatta and Team LNT and succesfull racing driver has entered a Ginetta Juno LMP3.
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| © Adrenal Media |
GTE has a field of 17 cars, with a big diversity in models and makes : Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes and Porsche for the first GT3 race in 10 years on the 24h circuit.
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| © Adrenal Media |
Imola winners TF Sport are fielding a second Aston Martin at Le Mans. Larbre Competition and AF Corse combine the “Road to Le Mans” race with the 24 hours. Larbre is fielding a Mercedes AMG GT3, AF Corse a Ferrari 458 Italia for Rui Aguas who's also on double duty during the weekend. All 10 full season entries for the inaugural season of the Michelin GT3 Le Mans cup are present.
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| © Adrenal Media |
FFF Racing and Barwell Motorsport puts a Lamborghini Huracan into the mix. FFF will also race their McLaren 650S. A BMW Z4 GT3 will be fielded by DKR Engineering. The opening race of the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup saw 10 cars at the start, let's hope this race at Le Mans will attract more teams in this new championship.
The “Road to Le Mans” teams will have a one hour free practice session on Wednesday (20h30) and Thursday (14h30) and a 30 minute qualifying also on Thursday (18h). The race will be run on Saturday, June 18th at 11.10h.
Kristof Vermeulen.