Long gone are the days when the ELMS struggled for entrance, as once again across the three classes there’s quality and quantity. With 36 entries this year, and within that the largest LMP2 field on the planet, it’s going to be quite a season for the ACO’s European-based sportscar series.
Here’s who is set to take part in the 2017 season, class by class:
LMP2: New cars, new stars
With 13 cars set to take part in the 2017 ELMS LMP2 class, it’s a massive success.
Not only do we have new teams, but a mixture of Orecas, Ligiers and Dallaras on the list, which should make for an incredibly competitive season. The spread sees is pretty even, with four Orecas, four Dallaras and five Ligiers. No Rileys feature here though.
In terms of newcomers, Tockwith, Villorba Corsa, High Class Racing, Graff, Racing Team Nederland and United are all making their ELMS LMP2 debuts.
Of that bunch, Graff is set to field two cars – Oreca 07s – as a big step up from the LMP3 class.
The big surprise here is G-Drive Racing, which is entering an Oreca 07 Gibson with Memo Rojas as the confirmed driver. This programme once again give the Russian effort two parallel programmes across the ACO’s main series.
SMP Racing’s Dallara entry is also unexpected, with Mikhail Aleshin named as the team’s driver. The Russian effort will also race at Le Mans with its new car.
LMP3: Ligier dominance once again
The LMP3 category was expected to see at least three brands take part, but once again Ligier’s JS P3 rules the roost, with 14 of the 16 entries. The other two are Normas, one from M.Racing YMR and one from former Renault Series Oregon Team managed by Giorgio Testa and Jerry Canevisio. The team’s M30 will be driven by Davide Roda and Andres Mendez.
No Ave Riley, Ginetta or Adess presence here.
2016 season champion United Autosports meanwhile is back with two cars headed by ex-Graff racer John Falb and the ageless Mark Patterson, making its total car count three with the addition of its LMP2 programme.
Main competition this season should come from the Asian Le Mans Series champion Tockwith Motorsport, VdeV LMP3 champion Inter-Europol Competition and Yvan Muller Racing with Alexandre Cougnaud.
French teams Duqueine Engineering, Panis Barthez Competion or British team RLR Motosport with drivers Morten Dons, John Farano New, Alex Kapadia should also be ones to consider for top championship positions.
2016 championship challengers Graff meanwhile will race only in LMP2, the French outfit putting forward no LMP3 cars this year. It’s a similar story with TDS and RML, both of which were expected to feature in LMP3, TDS with a Norma and RML with a Ligier; but there’s no sign of either team’s LMP3 programme just yet.
Spanish team Speed By Factory with drivers Tim Müller and, Jürgen Krebs meanwhile will be back in the ELMS for a second consecutive season.
And finally, AT Racing has stepped up into LMP3 after racing in GTE previously with Ferrari.
GTE: Seven quality entrants
The GTE class in the ELMS is the only class here which is single digits, but with seven cars it’s set to be a highly competitive class once again.
Three Ferraris are on the list, two 488s from AF-run Spirit Of Race and one 458 from JMW, which means the older car will get one last run out it seems!
Proton meanwhile has two Porsches listed for Christian Ried and Wolf Henzler, and TF Sport and Beechdean AMR make up the count to seven with Aston Vantage GTEs. TF Sport representing another team graduating from the GT3 Le Mans Cup last year.
