Two invitations to the 24 Hours of Le Mans were already granted after the 4 Hours of Spa Francorchamps: One invitation in the LMP2 category for United Autosports after the American flagged, UK based team won the LMP3 category of the 2016 ELMS Championship. The second invitation is effectively awarded to JMW Motorsport in the 24 Hours of Le Mans GTE Class, given that the team can not finish lower than second in the GTE class of the ELMS Championship.
The third invitation is now awarded to the winning team of GT3 Michelin Le Mans Cup, TF Sport clinching the Teams Championship with an excellent run from both Salih Yoluc and, as the rain came, and went, and came again, Euan Hankey.
The team are then set to receive an invitation in the LM GTE AM category for the 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Team boss Tom Ferrier was pleased to confirm to DSC that the team would, of course be working to make the Le Mans campaign happen:
“The plan was to win this and go on to Le Mans and now we’ve delivered on part one the work starts to deliver on the Le Mans part of the programme.
“We won’t do it with anyone other than Aston Martin. They have been hugely supportive in the journey that has brought us here in just three years.
“The plan is that the two drivers here will be part of the effort too, of course there is a lot of commercial work to get through but that, again, was always the plan.
“I’m delighted with the way that both have performed. Salih in particular has made massive progress in the two years he’s been with us. He’s committed hugely in both financial and personal terms, he’s put the work in week after week and has improved massively.
“Euan has worked with him extremely well too and the results speak for themselves.
“I’m particularly pleased for the boys in the team too, these guys work so hard and this kind of result provides a huge boost to a small and relatively new team.
“Adding this to the British title (TF Sport won the British GT Championship this year too with Jonny Adam and Derek Johnstone, below) makes this really quite a year!”
Salih Yoluc then looks set to become, we believe, the first ever Turkish driver at the Le Mans 24 Hour, and TF Sport the second rookie team of the three confirmed entries so far, with JMW Motorsport amongst the most experienced!
