Round Two of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship, the 8 Hours of Portimao on 13 June. The provisional entry lists 33 cars with the headline being the addition of the #709 Glickenhaus 007 Hypercar for Romain Dumas, Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe, the top class up to four cars with the Glickenhaus joining the pair of factory Toyota GR010s (which have tested at Portimao – above) and the Alpine A480.
The second Glickenhaus is currently being shaken down during the 30-hour test for the sister car at Motorland Aragon today and tomorrow.
LMP2 sees a range of changes with Felipe Albuquerque, Renger van der Zande and Loic Duval absent from the #22 United Autosports, #34 Inter Europol Competition and #70 RealTeam Racing Orecas respectively, all three on IMSA duty at Belle Isle after the Portimao race date was switched from 4 April, the Portuguese round itself a replacement for the cancelled 1000 Miles of Sebring. Albuquerque is replaced by Paul di Resta, and van der Zande by Louis Deletraz. Mathias Beche replaces Duval at realteam.
Elsewhere there’s the expected drafting in of Oliver Webb in the #44 ARC Bratislava Ligier, the ex ByKolles LMP1 driver tested the car at the Spa Prologue but had a clashing engagement in the UK for race weekend. Webb joins Miro Konopka and Tom Jackson in the Ligier.
The additional entries at Spa from PR1 Motorsport and G-Drive Racing were one-offs prior to Le Mans.
GTE Pro is back to four cars after the factory Corvette C8.R made its planned pre-Le Mans appearance in Belgium.
Both factory-entered Porsche 911 RSR-19s field the third drivers that will contest Le Mans with the #91 adding Fred Makowiecki to the regular pairing of Gimmi Bruni and Richard Lietz and the #92 adding Michael Christensen to the regular 2021 crew of Kevin Estre and Neel Jani.
There are multiple changes in GTE Am which numbers 13 cars with the addition of a car entered by Kessel Racing, this the Car Guy collaboration (as raced in the Asian Le Mans Series in a GT3 Ferrari) that will race at Le Mans for Takeshi Kimura, Mikkel Jensen and Scott Andrews, who replaces the initially nominated Davide Fumanelli.
There’s bad news though at Project One with the #46 Porsche a late withdrawal as the teamwork to recover from a disastrous Spa meeting that saw both cars badly damaged after accidents. The #46 for Anders Buchard, Dennis Olsen and Axcil Jeffries was initially listed for Portimao but has now been removed from the entry list.
Dempsey-Proton Racing meanwhile add 75-year-old Dominique Bastien in the #88 Porsche together with Julien Andlauer and Marco Seefried as part of his preparation for a second run at the Le Mans 24 Hours, extending his record as the oldest ever starter.
