Le Mans 2017: Tony Kanaan to replace Sebastien Bourdais in the #68 Ford GT

Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Driver Tony Kanaan will replace Sebastien Bourdais in the #68 Ford GT, joining Joey Hand and Dirk Müller at Le Mans 24 Hours. 

© Ford

Indycar champion and Rolex 24 At Daytona winner Tony Kanaan will join Joey Hand and Dirk Müller in Ford Chip Ganassi Racing’s #68 Ford GT at the Le Mans 24 Hours next month as the team looks to defend its 2016 GTE Pro Class victory. The Brazilian fills the seat left vacant by Sébastien Bourdais, who was injured during qualifying for the Indianapolis 500. 

“We’re very pleased we are able to get a driver of Tony’s experience and talent in the No. 68 Ford GT for the Le Mans 24,” said Dave Pericak, global director, Ford Performance. “It’s certainly not the ideal situation and we’re heartbroken that Sébastien won’t be back to defend his race victory, since we know how much that race means to him personally. He is an important part of our family, and we look forward to him making a complete recovery.”

This will be Kanaan's first 24 hours of Le Mans. The Brazilian driver who signed up with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2014, has spent significant time in the Ford GT this year. He drive the #69 Ford GT at the Rolex 24, where he joined fulltime drivers Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell to finish fifth in GTLM. Kanaan spent just over seven hours, 30 minutes in the No. 69 Ford GT during the race alone and was the third-quickest driver in the category, behind Ganassi teammates Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe.

“It’s an honor to be named a part of the Ford GT lineup for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing at the Le Mans 24,” Kanaan said. “It’s obviously an unfortunate situation that brought us to this point with Sébastien’s injuries, but I’m going to do my best to take his place and try to help win this amazing race for the team again this year. This race has definitely been on my bucket list for a long time, so I’m thankful that Chip and our partners at Ford have given me this opportunity.”

Kristof Vermeulen.

Group C Racing at Spa Classic

Last weekend at the Spa Classic meeting organised by Peter Auto, the Group C racing class was one of the main attractions, reviving the golden years of sportscar racing in the 80's and early 90's. 

From 1982 to 1994, the Group C racing class led to the production of legendary cars that wrote some of the most glorious pages in the history of endurance racing and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Ford and Porsche were the first constructors to enter the new series, and were later on followed by other manufacturers like Jaguar, Mercedes, Nissan, Toyota, Aston Martin, Peugeot ... Not only the big manufacturers raced in the Group C class, as the likes of Cougar, Spice, Rondeau and other also competed and even were able to fight with the big guns due to the regulations.

By the end of the 1990's Group C was at its peak, challenging Formula 1 to be the greatest and most popular racing class. At Le Mans top speeds like a staggering 400 km/h were reached on the Mulsanne straight. A new formula and new regulations installed by the FIA made Group C racing a lot more expensive with F1 based engines. Manufacturers and privateer teams left the class due to the high cost. The 1992 championship was the last one, at Le Mans the Group C cars would race until 1994.

Over the years, the magic of the Group C racing cars stayed in the heart of sportscar fans, while more and more cars were being raced again in classic racing events. In 2016 the Group C Racing came under the Peter Auto banner, joining in several classic racing events by the French organiser.

The full gallery can be viewed on the link below.



Kristof Vermeulen.

Le Mans 2017: Official entry list revealed

The Automobile Club de l’Ouest, creator and organiser of the Le Mans 24 Hours, has revealed the official list of the 60 cars and full driver line-ups who will take part in the pinnacle of the FIA World Endurance Championship on 17 - 18 June.

While many teams had already communicated their drivers for the different Le Mans-type championships, they had until 11th May at midnight to send in the final line-ups for the Le Mans 24 Hours. After carrying out the usual checks, this list now has been officially revealed today by the ACO. 

The last announcement came from Toyota as Argentinean José-Maria Lopez, who was initially down to drive no. 7, has moved across to no. 9 and exchanged his seat with Stéphane Sarazzin. The only team which has not yet finalised its third driver is Proton Competition entered in LM GTE Am. The Mentos-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR is the only car remaining on the reserve list, should there be a last minute withdrawal from the race by another team.

The 179 drivers which have been announced so far have licences issued by 31 different countries, and the 60 cars represent 41 teams and 16 nationalities. Cars running under American licences are the most numerous, while France and Britain supply the most drivers with 34 each. 

This year there will be only one woman driver at the start, 25-year-old Christina Nielsen from Denmark, back for her second outing in the Le Mans 24 Hours in the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 in GTE Am. 

The list of entrants breaks down as follows: 6 cars in LM P1, 25 in LM P2, 13 in LM GTE Pro and 16 in LM GTE Am. Mentos Proton Racing is still on the reserve list should one of the official entries withdraw.  

Download the entry list here

We will take a closer look into the entry list in the run up to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 

Kristof Vermeulen.

Le Mans 2017: Toyota Gazoo Racing announces driver line-up adjustment

This morning, Toyota Gazoo Racing confirmed a modified driver line-up to optimise its competitive level in next month’s Le Mans 24 Hours, the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi will now share the #7 TS050 Hybrid with Stéphane Sarrazin for Le Mans, recreating the line-up which finished second last year at La Sarthe on its way to third in the drivers’ World Championship.

José María López has been able to complete only a handful of racing laps in WEC following his accident at Silverstone and resulting injury, which prevented him driving at Spa. He will now team up with Nicolas Lapierre and Yuji Kunimoto in the #9 car.

The line-up of the #8 TS050 Hybrid remains unchanged, with Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima competing together at Le Mans for the third successive year.

After Le Mans, the team reverts to a two-car entry and José María will return to the cockpit of the #7 car, alongside Mike and Kamui, for the remainder of the season.

Toshio Sato, Team President: “Our circumstances have changed over the last few weeks as a result of the injury to José María. He is in the unfortunate position of having completed very few racing laps this year in WEC, so we all felt it was appropriate to adjust the driver line-up. I am very confident that Stéphane will fit well into a #7 line-up which can fight for the win. José María, like Yuji, will learn a lot at Le Mans this year, familiarising himself with the track and the event in general, and this is an important step for the future as well.”

ELMS 2017: 4 Hours of Monza track action starts this afternoon

Endurance racing returns to the Autodromo Nazionale in Monza this weekend with the second round of the 2017 European Le Mans Series. After the prologue late March, this will be the second outing for the 36 car strong field on the Italian temple of speed.  The season opening race at Silverstone was a thriller to the end, will the long Italian straights give us the same exciting racing on Sunday ?

LMP2

A very competitive field again in LMP2 with 12 cars and 3 different manufacturers at the start.

United Autosports took a rather surprising win last month, when Filipe Albuquerque passed Ryo Hirakawa when the G-Drive Oreca struggled with sever tyre degradation in the final part of the race. An unexpected result for the American team in their first LMP2 race with a rather unexperienced team (except for Albuquerque then).

G-Drive will be out for revenge, as will Dragonspeed who claimed pole position and dominated the race with Ben Hanley behind the wheel at Silverstone until gearbox issues got the car back in the pits, ultimately finishing six laps down. Tyre degradation screwed up G-Drive's finish last month, but the #22 didn't lack the speed to go for the top spot on the podium. Both Oreca 07's run by Dragonspeed will be out for the win on Sunday.

No Matthieu Vaxiviere at Panis-Barthez Competition, due to his accident in training a few weeks ago. The #23 Ligier will be driven by Fabien Barthez and Timothé Buret.  Olivier Pla will race with IDEC Sport for the first time this season in the #28 Ligier JSP217. Pla will remain with the team for the rest of the season, except for Le Mans where he'll be racing with the Ford GT. Tockwith Motorsport arrives at Monza immediately after the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, which hasn't been a smooth weekend for them. Phil Hanson and Nigel Moore will drive the #34 Ligier. Karun Chandhok will join the team again at Le Mans next month.

Algarve Pro Racing was one of the frontrunners at Silverstone and seemed sure of a podium finish, until a mid-race gearbox issue dashed their hope for a strong finish. The team already showed some steady pace at the prologue in Monza, they'll be out for a good finish this weekend. Graff returns with their 2 Gibson powered Oreca's to Monza. The #40 of Richard Bradley and his co-drivers will be the one to watch after an impressive run at Silverstone, from last on the grid to the lead. 

Newcomers High Class Racing from Denmark impressed also at Silverstone with a third place finish in their first ever LMP2 race. Anders Fjordbach and Dennis Anderson drove a very steady race and showed some good speed and consistency throughout the 4 hours. Will they be able to go on like this and challenge for the podium again ?  The Dallara finishing third also meant 3 different manufacturers were on the podium in Silverstone.

For Cetilar Villorba Corse, Monza is their highly expected home race.  Roberto Lacorte, Giorgio Sernagiotto and Andrea Belicchi will be out for a good fiinsh in their #47 "Italian Spirit of Le Mans" Dallara P217. When electrical gremlins shook up their qualifying session, the Italians never were really in the mix for a top finish. If Monza treats them right, they should be in for a top 5 finish.

Racing Team Nederland is the final team in LMP2, and the third Dallara P217. Despite an extensive test programme over the winter, the car lacked speed to be really competitive last month. Frits Van Eerd still has some work to do to really get up to speed, where as sportscar veteran Jan Lammers already showed he's still fast around any racetrack. No Rubens Barichello yet in the bright yellow Dallara, he will join the team at Le Mans next month.

LMP3

17 LMP3 prototypes appear on the entry list for the 4 Hours of Monza. 2 Norma's will take up the competition of the Ligier JSP3's.

United Autosport will be - once again - the team to beat in the class. John Falb & Sean Rayhall lapped every other competitor in Silverstone and seemed to cruise to victory. The second UA Ligier of Mark Patterson, Wayne Boyd and Christian England came home third last month. French team Ultimate also had a good start of their season, finishing second in Silverstone inbetween both United Autosport Ligiers.

Ultimate are expected to be one of the main challengers again this weekend. Behind United Autosports there's a few teams racing really close and ready to take up the challenge for a podium finish or even an outright win. AT Racing showed some great speed in their first LMP3 race with pole position and a fourth place finish. The #18 M.Racing/YMR and the #6 360 Racing are always in the running for a top 5 finish, don't expect anything else this weekend. The yellow/green Ligier of Inter/Europol competition finished sixth in Silverstone. After winning the VdeV round in Barcelona recently, Jakub Smiechowski and Martin Hippe are out for a good result on Sunday and might have a shot at a podium finish.

A few driver changes have to be noted in the class. Mikkel Jensen is racing at Silverstone this weekend and will be replaced by Maurizio Mediani in the #9 AT Racing Ligier. The Austrian team of father and son Talkanitsa took pole position in their first LMP3 race at Silverstone, and just missed the podium after 4 hours. In the #4 Cool Racing by GPC Ligier, Alexandre Coigny joins Iradj Alexander and Gino Forgione for the race in Monza. No Yann Erlacher in the #19 M.Racing/YMR Norma M30 this weekend, leaving Ricky Capo and Erwin Creed on driving duties. At Duquiene Engineering, Lucas Legeret joins the #8 crew.

GTE

TF Sport arrives in Monza with a dominant win in Silverstone under their belt. Salih Yoluc took some big steps ahead as a bronze driver over the winter, and with Euan Hankey & AMR factory driver Nicki Thiim next to him the #90 Aston Martin has got a very strong and fast driver line-up.  The second Aston Martin Vantage of Beechean AMR might well be the biggest competition for TF Sport. After a collision early in the race at Silverstone, the #99 just came 1 second short to take second place. The #99 has the most experienced team in class and will be out to challenge for their first class win in 2017.

Proton Competition's Porsche 911 RSR took second place in Silverstone, taking full advantage of the Beechdean AMR falling back and Ferrari's fading away during the race.  The trio of Ried, Camathias and Cairoli will have their hands full to compete against an array of newer cars. If they can keep up with the pace of the newer Ferrari's & Astons on Monza's long straights, the highly talented Matteo Cairoli will be one of the drivers to watch though.

Home race for Ferrari with 3 prancing horses on the entry list this weekend. The pair of Spirit of Race F488 GTE's and the JMW F458 Italia. The 488's were in the mix in Silverstone at the start of the race, but faded away as the race went by & never could challenge the leading cars. Monza might be another story though, the high speed track more suitable for the raw power of the turbo-charged F488. The third Ferrari is the #66 JMW F458 Italia. No Rory Butcher behind the wheel of the yellow Ferrari as he is on driving duties in the Blancpain Series. He will be replaced by Jonathan Cocker. Although the F458 Italia showed some good outright speed and competitive laptimes during the prologue, the question remains if the older Ferrari will be able to keep up with the new turbo powered F488's.

Larbre Competition adds some spice to the GTE grid this weekend, with their Corvette C7-Z06 in preparation for Le Mans. Christian Philippon and Romain Brandela will be on driving duties this weekend. Fernando Rees joins the team here in Monza and for the 24 Hours of Le Mans next month. A return for Rees to the FIA WEC and the team which he drove for from 2010 to 2012.

The ELMS action starts this afternoon with the first 90 minute practice session at 15h55. 

Useful links for the 4 Hours of Monza;

Entry List

Timetable

Spotter Guide

Kristof Vermeulen.

FIA WEC 2017 - Toyota win the WEC 6 hours of Spa Francorchamps

After a tense last half hour, the #8 Toyota of Buemi, Davidson and Nakajima took the chequered flag to win the 2017 WEC 6 hours of Spa. 

In second place was the Toyota #7 of Conway and Kobayashi

In LMP2  G-Drive converted their pole position into a class win for Rusinov, Thiriet and Lynn in the #26 Oreca 07 - Gibson

In GTE Pro AF Corse converted the pole position of the #71 Ferrari 488 GTE of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird. In second place the #51 AF Corse Ferrari of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi. In third was the #66 Ford GT.

Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana in the Aston Martin #98 also won their class from pole position in GTE Am

Full results HERE Detailed race report to come tomorrow.

 Dave DAVIES

FIA WEC 2017 - 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps: Practice gallery

Click below for the complete gallery