It’s a scorcher here at Paul Ricard as the European Le Mans Series meeting gets underway, the temperature climbing above 30 degrees by midday.
Several teams though have already been here for a day or two, with a test day available on Wednesday that saw some 20 cars on track.
LMP2 notes
There was big trouble this morning in the bronze test session for Pu Junjin in the #33 Eurasia Oreca 05. The car clattered the apex kerb at Signes, lost downforce and hit the barrier on the outside very hard.
Junjin was helicoptered to the local hospital and has been diagnosed with a shoulder injury and some cranial bruising, not of a serious nature thankfully. It is hoped he may be released from hospital tomorrow, but he is clearly out of action for the weekend. The car meanwhile sustained heavy damage, particularly on the right-hand side and rear.
The car was stripped down by mid morning (above) with an Oreca representative on hand to assist with any replacement parts that might be required, Oreca’s factory is just moments away from the circuit gates of course. The team though were looking at any potential chassis damage before making a decision on the remainder of the weekend.
Should they be able to continue it will be as a two-man squad, the team not requiring a further driver as Nico Pieter de Bruijn is silver-ranked.
Aside from that, there are four driver changes to report. Possibly the most significant in championship terms is the substitution for this race only of Ryo Hirakawa (busy in Super GT action this weekend) by Toyota LMP1 factory driver Mike Conway in the #46 Thiriet by TDS Oreca.
That could be a very significant change indeed in championship terms with Conway’s known LMP2 form a further fillip to the #46 crew’s ongoing duel with the #38 G-Drive Gibson boys.
Andrea Roda is confirmed in the #25 Algarve Pro Ligier replacing Michael Muneman, the Italian stepping over from Eurointernational’s LMP3 effort (based in the adjoining garage here).
The final two changes are both aboard the Murphy Prototypes Oreca: Sean Doyle continues, but is joined by So24! refugee Jono Coleman and LMP2 newcomer (and ex-GP2 and GP3 racer) Kevin Cescon (below).
Also back after missing the previous round in Austria is the IDEC Sport Ligier Judd, the #28 car ensuring that the all-Nissan powered grid from last time is avoided here, the sonorous Judd V8 featuring on the entry again.
LMP3 Notes
The biggest news here is the addition of Tockwith Motorsport to the entry, the first graduates from the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup, the Yorkshire-based team opting to step up immediately to the bigger show whilst being somewhat unhappy with the BoP applied to their previous-generation Audi R8 LMS in the GT3 series.
The team was present at the test day on Wednesday and both Nigel Moore and Philip Hanson are happy with their apparent level of competitiveness here in the #26 Ligier.
The Graff Racing team have their third chassis here, this the car (chassis 02) that made the Ligier’s debut racing appearance in 2015 at Estoril. It is now more usually seen in VdeV.
RLR MSport have their brand-new second Ligier here too (chassis 043) with interest already shown for the car in both ELMS and the forthcoming British Prototype Cup.
United Autosports have had a busy few days with a number of the crew here having come straight to Paul Ricard from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and the Monterey Motorsports Reunion – watch this space for a run-down of their adventures Stateside!
Aside from that little lot, there are relatively few changes in LMP3 to report. John Hartshorne is back in the #5 By Speed Factory Ligier with Alex Kapadia here too on driver-coaching duty with the team.
EuroInternational have added Fabio Mancini to the already-announced Rik Breukers in their #12 Ligier.
GTE Notes
A trio of driver changes to confirm here:
The #56 AT Racing Ferrari, initially announced as having Davide Rigon replacing Alessandro Pier Guidi now sees Pier Guidi back aboard.
Mikkel Jensen replaces Christina Nielsen in the #60 Formula Racing Ferrari 458 GTE, Christina busy at VIR this weekend defending her IMSA GTD Championship lead.
And David Jahn makes his GTE racing debut in the #88 Proton Porsche. The current racer with Timo Bernhard’s GT3 team in ADAC GT Masters will be an interesting one to watch.
Beechdean Motorsport meanwhile have the Anglo-French roof vinyl applied (as previously announced) on their #99 Aston Martin.
