LM GTE Am: 6 cars
50 | M | Larbre Competition | Yutaka Yamagishi,Paulo Ruberti, Pierre Ragues | Chevrolet Corvette C7.R
78 | M | KCMG | Christian Ried, Wolf Henzler, Joel Camathias | Porsche 911 RSR
83 | M | AF Corse | François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard, Rui Aguas | Ferrari 458 Italia
86 | M | Gulf Racing | Michael Wainwright, Adam Carroll, Ben Barker | Porsche 911 RSR
88 | M | Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing | Khaled Al Qubaisi, David Heinemeier Hansson, Patrick Long | Porsche 911 RSR
98 | D | Aston Martin Racing | Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda | Aston Martin V8 Vantage
There’s only one change to the GTE Am class’ driver pool as the runners gear up for their trip to Belgium. Patrick Long, who is in for the remainder of the season, will be driving the #88 Abu Dhabi Proton Porsche in place of Klaus Bachler, after a clash with PWC on the Silverstone weekend forced him to skip the opening round.
Long will join the team’s pair of full-season entrants Khaled Al Qubaisi and David Heinemeier Hansson who are looking to bounce back from a disappointing result at Silverstone. After scoring its first pole position in the WEC, and holding the class lead for the majority of the race, a suspension failure in the final half hour put the team a lap down and last of the classified runners.
KCMG’s Porsche also had a tough outing at Silverstone, suffering from an identical issue to Proton, in its run to the flag. Only time will tell what sort of results that the Chinese-entered 911 is capable of this year. But with Christian Ried, Wolf Henzler and Joel Camathias at the wheel, counting them out would be a mistake to say the least.
Inheriting the win at Silverstone was the #83 AF Corse Ferrari, which François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Aguas drove practically faultlessly all weekend.
Last year at Spa, the #83 AF boys finished second in the class, and they will look to move up a step on the podium for 2016 and head to Le Mans as favourites for the Am title.
Another team that ran well at Silverstone was the sole Aston Martin Racing entry in the class, which came home second in its first race on the new Dunlop tyres.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the #98 fares at the second round of the season though.
Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda all know their way round Spa quickly, winning GTE AM last year in the race. The new rubber on the Vantage may well be a key factor in the Ardennes however, as rain, sleet, hail, mist and fog are always on the cards at Spa and the 2016 GTE Dunlops are still very much in the development phase.
After running well throughout the weekend at Silverstone, Gulf Racing UK will be looking ahead to Spa with confidence. The incident with Brendon Hartley aside (and it was a VERY big aside!), Adam Carroll, Mike Wainwright and Ben Barker had a lot of positives to take from their home race.
Interestingly, the last time Gulf Racing made the trip to Spa was back in 2011 and things back then were very different; the WEC didn’t exist, and the team were running Aston Martin in the ILMC.
The sixth car on the entry is Larbre Competition, which heads to Spa after a quiet but successful outing in Northampton finishing on the podium.
With their first full race meeting in the C7.R under their belts, Yutaka Yamagishi and Pierre Ragues have the potential for another solid points haul before Le Mans alongside Paulo Ruberti.
