Record breaking 62 car grid for Le Mans: High Class Racing and United Autosports receive extra invite

The 87th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the finale of the FIA World Endurance Championship will have a record breaking grid of 62 cars on June 15th.  The Automobile Club de l’guest announced the expansion of the grid today, and confirmed High Class Racing and United Autosports as the 2 extra invitees for the 24 hour race. 

To accommodate the extra cars, the pitlane will be extended with 2 temporary garages. They will be set up next to the first ones, towards the entrance of pit lane, inbetween the module sportif (tower) and the first 2 pitboxes (which were used by Toyota in the past years). Work on extending the pitlane began several weeks ago, in time for the test day on June 2nd. 

The 13.626-kilometre track will therefore welcome a record 62 competitors on 15 June. Since 2016, a maximum of 60 garages accommodated the teams. 

Pierre Fillion, President of the ACO said: “In February, the selection committee faced a harder task than it has in many years. There were 75 applications – all of a high standard – and it was particularly difficult to choose 60, only 60 of them should I say. We quickly came to the conclusion that we had to find a way of accepting additional competitors, and our crews confirmed the feasibility of adding two garages to pit lane. We knuckled down and are overjoyed to be able to accept 62 entrants for the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans. It’s a record number and a sign that this race is as popular as ever.”

For High Class Racing, this will be their first appearance at Le Mans, after missing out an invite in the past 2 years. The Danish team is now in its third year in the European Le Mans Series, and switched from the Dallara P217 to the Oreca 07 this session.  Anders Fjordbach and Dennis Andersen will drive the car with the third driver still to be announced. 

“It’s a huge surprise to be granted an entry to the 2019 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours,” said Anders Fjordbach, who was a reserve driver for SMP Racing the past two years at Le Mans. While it was originally disappointing to be turned down for a second year running when the first list came out, we understood the ACO’s decision and remained patient, expecting to have a greater chance in 2020."

“However, this new plan by the ACO has given us the chance to make our debut in the race this year, and race as part of a record-breaking 62-car entry at the event with our new ORECA 07 Gibson. Although there isn’t much time to plan our trip to France in June, we will be working extremely hard over the coming weeks to ensure we are ready and have the best chance of scoring a strong result in our first attempt. It’s been a dream for us, long-term, to race as a Danish team at the Le Mans 24 Hours, and add to our country’s ever-growing heritage at the race. We thank the ACO for its support in this process and can’t wait to hit the track at Le Mans in two months time.”

United Autosports wasn’t too happy after the release of the initial entry list for this year’s Le Mans.  Despite the teams’ wlarge involvement in the ELMS, Michelin Le Mans Cup and Asian Le Mans Series, only the auto invite they received by winning the Asian Le Mans Series was granted to the American team.  With the addition of two extra entries, United Autosports now gained a second invite in the LMP2 class.

ELMS regulars Ryan Cullen and Alex Brundle will be joined by a third driver who is still to be confirmed. They will join Phil Hanson, Filipe Albuquerque and Paul Di Resta as part of the team’s two driver line ups. Alex Brundle has raced at Le Mans five times, finishing on the podium in both 2013 and 2017, while this year marks Ryan Cullen’s Le Mans 24 Hours debut. 

Zak Brown, Team Owner and Chairman, United Autosports said: “I’m really pleased United have been given a second entry into the Le Mans 24 Hours. It’s the greatest race in the world and to have a two-car entry for the second year running is fantastic.”

Richard Dean, Team Owner and Managing Director, United Autosports: “The ACO have worked hard to make this happen and we are very pleased for United to have both our Ligier JS P217s in the race. Hopefully we can get another great result like we did last year – or even go two spots better.”

5 teams remain on the reserve list for the 24 Hours: 

- Eurasia Motorsport - Ligier JSP217 (LMP2)

- Panis Barthez Competition - Ligier JSP217 (LMP2)

- IDEC Sport - Ligier JSP217 (LMP2)

- Team Project 1 - Porsche 911 RSR (LMGTE AM)

- TF Sport - Aston Martin Vantage (LMGTE Am)

The new, updated entry list can be downloaded here

Kristof Vermeulen. 

ELMS: Norman Nato and G-Drive on pole for the first race of the season

Defending Champions G-Drive Racing will start in pole position for tomorrows 4 Horus of Le Castellet after a thrilling end of the 15 minute qualifying session.  Last year's race winner Norman Nato put the #26 G-Drive Aurus 01 on pole just ahead of Paul Loup Chatin in the #28 IDEC Sport. 

With another lap record for the LMP2 class, the third one this week and the second one today, the Frenchman secured pole position in 1.40.052, just 25 thousands of a second faster than Paul Loup Chatin in the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca.  What better way to start the season with a pole position in the first race for the re-badged Aurus 01 ?  A top result too for Nato who replaces Jean-Eric Vergne who is racing in Formula E this weekend. 

Paul Loup Chatin secured the second spot on the front row of the grid, ahead of Alex Brundle who had a very strong outing in the #32 United Autosports Ligier, splitting up the top 4 Oreca’s.  His best laptime of 1.40.293 was 0.241 second off Nato’s pole time, but a big improvement from the times the Ligiers set earlier this week(end). Rounding out the top 5 were Nico Lapierre in the #37 Cool Racing Oreca and Ben Hanley in the #21 Dragonspeed. 

In LMP3, Oregon Team secured their first ever pole position in the championship thanks to Damiani Fioravanti who has been quick all week here at Paul Ricard.  After a session which saw several drivers on top of the timetable, the Italian took pole position in his final lap with a 1.49.686.  Matthieu Lahaye had been on provisional pole until the dying moments of the session in the #17 Ultimate Norma, but eventually lost out 0.128 seconds to Fioravanti.

In an ultimate effort at the end of the session, Lucas Légeret got up to third position in the #19 M.Racing Norma, despite being briefly held up a bit by another car. 

(Dempsey) Proton Competition seemed to be on its way to lock out the front row with Thomas Preining in the #88 ahead of Matteo Cairoli in the #77 Porsche 911 RSR.  However, when Alessandro Pier Guidi dived 0.030 seconds under Preining’s  time in the final minute of the session it seemed like the experienced Italian would snatch the pole away from Porsche and hand it to Luzich Racing in their first race in the series.  

Matteo Cairoli did save the best for last though.  In his final lap, he went pushed his Porsche round the track in 1.52.499, shaving off an extra 0.273 seconds off Pier Guidi’s provisional pole time and giving Proton Competition its first pole of the season. 

The 4 Hours of Le Castellet will start at 12h30 tomorrow, and will be broadcasted live on the ELMS website and social media feeds.  

Qualifying results LMP2

Qualifying results LMP3

Qualifying results GTE

Kristof Vermeulen. 

ELMS: IDEC Sport and Dragonspeed set the pace in first practice sessions at Le Castellet

For the second time this week, the lap record at Circuit Paul Ricard was broken in the LMP2 class.  Monday night Anders Fjordbach set a new record in his #20 High Class Racing Oreca 07, this morning Paul Loup Chatin shaved another 0.068 seconds from his time to set the new record at 1.40.336 in the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca.  

Nico Lapierre was second fastest this morning in the #37 Cool Racing, just under half a second behind his fellow Frenchman. Ben Hanley - who set the quickest time yesterday - got himself into third place with a 1.41.227.  The Oreca’s dominated the LMP2 class again, while Paul Di Resta was the fastest of the Ligier drivers for the second time this weekend, putting his #22 United Autosports Ligier JSP2 on sixth place, 1.6 seconds off Chatin’s record lap. 

David Droux was the first driver to beat Damiani Fiorivanti in the LMP3 class since Monday evening.  Droux’ lap of 1.51.449 was just 0.051 seconds quicker than the Italian, but enough to put his #9 Realteam Norma on top of the list this morning.  Nigel Moore was third fastest in the #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier, breaking through yesterday’s domination of Norma in the class. 

The Proton Competition Porsches continued to set the pace in the GTE Class.  Thomas Preining in the #88 took the honours for the fastest lap in 1.53.473, holding off Matteo Cairoli in the #77 Porsche and Michelle Gatting in the #83 Kessel Racing Ferrari. 

Ben Hanley was the fastest man on track yesterday morning, the Englishman setting a time of 1.41.227 in the #21 Dragonspeed Oreca 07. Arjun Maini didn’t miss his debut in the LMP2 class, immediately putting the #43 RLR Msport Oreca on second place, 0.858 seconds behind Hanley.  Job Van Uitert obviously feels right at home in the LMP2 machinery, setting exactly the same time on the board as Maini in the #26 G-Drive Aurus 01. 

More Oreca’s followed with an impressive Antonin Borga setting the fourth time in the #37 Cool Racing, holding off new lap record holder Anders Fjordbach in the #20 High Class Racing Oreca 07. 

United Autosports took command of the Ligiers with Paul Di Resta in seventh position; 1.42.288 his best lap in the #22 Ligier JSP2. Leo Roussel was the second fastest Ligier driver with the #34 Inter Europol Competition in 10th place overall.  The sole Dallara on the grid of Jack Manchester, Olivier Pla and Ben Barnicoat only managed three outlaps yesterday morning, leaving the #45 Carlin on last place after the first practice session.

Norma was on top in the LMP3 class, with four Nissan powered M30’s quickest overall. Domiani Floravanti continued to impress in the #10 Oregon Team Norma with another fastest time in 1.50.592.  For Florivanti the fourth session in a row where he’s fastest since setting the lap record in an LMP3 car on Monday evening.  The Italian driver was 0.782 seconds faster than David Droux in the new #9 Realteam Norma, followed by Yann Ehrlacher and Lucas Legeret in the #19 M.Racing.  Both team mates within 0.16 seconds from each other which might give them a big advantage during the race on Sunday. Jean-Baptiste Lahaye in the #17 Ultimate Norma was fourth fastest on Friday morning. 

Best of the rest was Wayne Boyd in the #2 United Autosports Ligier with a best tome of 1.52.068, over 1.3 seconds off the pace of the quickest Norma. He was followed by Ross Kaiser, the only driver to go round in the #6 360 Racing and Colin Noble in another Norma, the #7 of Nielsen Racing. 

Contrary to the results of both test days, Porsche took the GTE class in hand yesterday with a clean sweep of the first three places. Proton Competition took the first two spots with Matteo Cairoli quickest in the #77 911 RSR (1.54.473), ahead of Thomas Preiling in the #88 sister car (+0.048). Jörg Bergmeister completed the top 3 for Porsche in the Team Project 1 Porsche (1.54.679). 

Aaron Scott in the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari was the fastest non-Porsche driver, leading a pack of 3 Ferrari’s.  His best laptime of 1.55.332 was just under a second slower than Cairoli’s.  The #83 all female Kessel Ferrari and last year’s runner up JMW Motorsport 488 GTE rounded out the top six of the GTE Class. 

The Bronze driver test on Friday afternoon was run in wet conditions, but still saw 22 cars venturing out on track.  John Falb was quickest in the #25 Algarve Pro Oreca 07 in 2.02.588, with John Farano about 0.250 second behind him in the #43 RLR Msport Oreca.  Alexandre Coigny made it an Oreca top 3 in the #37 Cool Racing. 

Paul Scheusner set the pace in the LMP3 class with the #14 Inter Europol Ligier (2.08.349), followed by the youngster of the field, Gustas Grinbergas in the #10 Oregon Norma.   Fastest in GTE was WEC driver Egidio Perfetti in the Project 1 Porsche (2.10.786).