Le Mans – Five packages for as many draftees

The list of entrants for the next 24 Hours of Le Mans (June 14-15) no longer includes reservists. The latest version, made official a few moments ago, in fact reports five packages, and therefore as many competitors drafted.

If nothing has changed in LM P1, the Lotus T129-AER still being present, the two Oreca 03-Nissans from Millenium Racing have disappeared in LM P2. This is not a surprise, the Dubai team having already given up the first two rounds of the WEC. But it is a considerable loss for the world championship ofEndurance, because it is a safe bet that we will not see this season the troops of Simon Dowson and his luxury pilots responding to the names of Mike conway, Oliver Turvey, John Martin and Shinji Nakano. Bad news which affects the #50 Morgan-Nissan of Larbre Compétition and the #11 Zytek Z42SN-Nissan lined up under the Caterham Racing banner.

In GTE Pro, it’s theAston Martin Vantage n°89 which no longer appears on the entry list. The Gaydon firm also lost two cars in GTE Am, the No. 87 from Craft Racing and the No. 96, entered directly by the parent company. THE Porsche 911 GTE RSR n°76 and n°79, which respectively defend the colors of the Team Imsa Performance Matmut (Narac-Armindo-Hallyday) and Prospeed Compétition (X. Maassen) benefit from this. The list of GTE reservists being empty, the governing bodies looked to the last substitute LM P to compensate for the third loss to be deplored in Grand Touring, namely the No. 20 Morgan-Nissan of Pegasus Racing.

Let's hope that no more competitors decide to throw in the towel, at the risk of finding themselves with fewer than 56 competitors at the start on June 14, with the reserve lists now being empty. Note that the LM P2 and GTE Am categories are the most supplied with 18 units compared to 9 in the GTE Pro and 10 in the LM P1. And this without forgetting the Nissan Zeod RC, which competes outside the classification.