MLMC/Le Mans: 50 cars on the grid for the 2019 Road to Le Mans race

Curtain-raiser to the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the third round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup, the 2019 Road to Le Mans boasts an impressive 50-car grid of 17 GT3s and 33 LMP3s, including 34 cars from the Michelin Le Mans Cup, 12 cars from the European Le Mans Series and participants from the Asian Le Mans Series and the FIA World Endurance Championship. 

The glittering GT3 cast comprises Mercedes, Ferrari, Bentley, Lamborghini, Aston Martin and Porsche, with Ligier and Norma in LMP3. Managed by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and its event organisation branch Le Mans Endurance Management, the Michelin Le Mans Cup is a series for both GT3s and LMP3s run alongside the European Le Mans Series at Le Castellet, Monza, Barcelona, Spa and Portimão stages. 

Racing often runs in the family and Road to Le Mans welcomes Yann Ehrlacher, son of Cathy Muller and nephew of Yvan Muller, Freddie Hunt, son of 1976 Formula One world champion James Hunt, two drivers that will represent Frédéric Sausset’s team and finally Jan Lammers, who celebrated his 24th Le Mans 24 Hours last year and who took part to the first edition of Road To Le Mans in 2016. 

Road to Le Mans takes he form of two 55-minute races on the Thursday and Saturday immediately before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, taking advantage of the same 13.626-kilometre circuit as the 62 competitors in the top-of-the-bill race that takes place over the weekend of 15-16 June. The support race lives up to its name, with many would-be 24-hour drivers revelling in the chance to drive on the legendary circuit cheered on by its world-famous crowds. They are right to dream of greater things: French driver Thomas Laurent won Road to Le Mans in 2016 and has taken up residence on the 24 Hours of Le Mans podium ever since.

The Road to Le Mans entry list automatically includes full-season Michelin Le Mans Cup participants and the selection committee extends invitations to other deserving teams with priority given to endurance series competitors such as the European Le Mans Series, the Asian Le Mans Series and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. 

Download the provisional entry list here

Road to Le Mans: 50 cars on the grid

Fifty cars will take part in the 2018 ‘Road to Le Mans’ race this year. The race, which forms part of the Michelin Le Mans Cup series, is designed as a part of the ACO’s ‘Endurance Pyramid’ to give drivers a taste of racing at Le Mans in LMP3 and GT3 machinery before graduating to GTE, LMP2 or LMP1 cars. 

The race runs the full 13.6km of the world famous Sarthe ‘Circuit des 24 Heures’ and consists of 27 teams fielding 100 drivers covering 26 nationalities! In the LMP3 ‘Prototype’ class Norma, Ligier and Ginetta, line up looking for the overall win whilst Ferrari and Porsche will be fighting for the top step of the podium in GT3; however, the odds are stacked against the Porsche with a 7-1 advantage to Ferrari! 

In 2017 Ligier and Norma took a win each over each of the two 55 minute races, while it was a double for Aston Martin in GT3, so which brand will be victorious in 2018? 

Le Mans is a fast, low-downforce track so the Ginetta could be in with a fair chance having set the top speed through the speed-trap at the Monza round of 279.1 kph. Porsche was quickest of the GT3 machinery with a 275.5 kph, 1.4 kph faster than the Ferrari.

Many of the names will be familiar to those of us who follow the European Le Mans Series with 11 of the full-time teams choosing to attend the ‘one-off’ event this week. That said, many of the driver lineups have changed slightly; some like AT Racing merely dropping a driver (fielding their usual father and son team of the Talkanitsa’s with Mikkel Jensen stepping back), others such as M RACING – YMR fielding entirley changed lineups with Jonathan Bennett and Niclas Jönsson (ELMS regular in the Krohn Ferrari) in the #15 Ligier (#18 in the ELMS) and an all-French pairing of Laurent Millara and Natan Bihel in the #16 Norma (ELMS #19). 

Hong Kong based Win Motorsport are the only Asian Le Mans Series entrant to make the journey to the Sarthe fielding a Ligier JS P3 for William Lok and Jim Michaelian and we see eight entrants, 7 LMP3s and a single Ferrari GT3, who don’t regularly race in any of the ACO series (ELMS, ALMS or MLMC). 

The first practice session for the Road to Le Mans kicks off at 8.30 pm local time today where the drivers have sixty minutes to get used to the circuit and get the car set up just right.

Thursday sees Free Practice 2 first thing in the morning with the two qualifying sessions running from 1.30 pm – 2.25 pm later in the day. The green flag drops for the opening race at 5.30pm and the second race runs Saturday morning at 11.30am. 

Download the entry list here

This article was originally published by our friends at sportscarglobal.com