It’s a 20-car grid for the opening round of the 2017 Michelin Le Mans Cup with all cars present and correct upon DSC’s arrival Thursday evening in the paddock ahead of the overnight rain storms.
Livery tweaks in the GT field
The Gulf Racing UK Porsche will join the grid from the Road to Le Mans onwards but the grid stays at 20 thanks to the late addition of KEO Racing with a Ligier LMP3 car.
The Mercedes AMG pair were going through scrutineering as DSC arrived at the circuit, the RAM Racing car featuring a new grey/ orange livery with Lee Mowle’s red-liveried car on the ramp behind (Featured).
Optimum Racing’s Audi R8 LMS has a mildly revised livery, and Ebimotors’ ex-Rolex 24 Hours Huracan continues to look splendid in the team’s deep blue and pearlescent gold colours whilst the SVC (Scuderia Villorba Corse) Management car is in a vivid orange!
A tour of the LMP3 tents
The 15-car LMP3 entry presents a colourful paddock spectacle.
United Autosports’ pair of Le Mans Cup cars features the (now familiar, but still lovely), Gulf Marine liveried Ligier and the Aero paint liveried/Andy Blackmore designed new look for the #22 Ligier (below).
The Le Mans Cup pair makes it five Ligier prototypes racing here for United!
The sole Norma is with ex-LMP2 and GT outfit DKR Engineering, another orange based livery for the #3.
RLR MSport is also fielding a car apiece in ELMS and Le Mans Cup, Alex Kapadia the only driver doing double duty here and joined in the Le Mans Cup in the #14 Ligier by fellow Britain Ross Warburton.
M.Racing YMR is also in both, its #53 Ligier sporting a near livery to its ELMS counterpart. The team’s Le Mans Cup programme brings the total of YMR cars at each ELMS round going forward to three, with the team racing a Norma M30 in the ELMS also.
Duqueine Engineering is the only other team with representation in both series’ fielding a single JSP3 here for the all-American duo of Jerry Kraut and Joël Janco alongside the team’s pair of ELMS entries.
Spirit of Race meanwhile will compete in both series, though it will field a Ligier JS P3 in Le Mans Cup alongside its ELMS GTE representatives (the AF Corse team also looking after the ELMS AT Racing Ligier). Maurizio Mediani joins car owner Claudio Sdanewitsch in the car.
Graff Racing too has cars in both races, one of last season’s ELMS Ligiers moving to the Le Mans Cup as the team steps up to a two car LMP2 effort in the ELMS.
That leaves seven newcomers to the ACO rules fold on the international front!
The #33 Ibran Pardo Javier Ligier (below) attended the ELMS Prologue here (together with the United and Duqueine cars).
Spanish outfit SPV Racing fields the #44 Ligier.
Peter Kox and Nico Pronk join the Le Mans Cup in 2017 with Pronk’s #48 Ligier operated by Kox’s team. They have already won this season, racing in the 24H Proto demo races at Dubai back in January.
Nielsen racing too already has racing success with its #79 Ligier, the Ecurie Ecosse-liveried car won both opening races of the Henderson Insurance Brokers LMP3 Cup at Donington Park last month.
KEO Racing’s late entry for the #43 Ligier sees Aussie Scott Andrews join Japanese racer Mori Yoshiharu.
Andy Meyrick and Eric de Doncker are ready to rumble in the attractively liveried Motorsport98 Ligier.
Finally N’Race steps up from VdeV with its #99 Ligier.
The first on-track session for the Le Mans Cup is Free Practice 1 at 10:05am local time in Monza.
