Hypercar in 2026/ 2027
DSC sources have confirmed active plans for 2-3 European-based cars to enter the Series when the class for Pro-Am hypercar is introduced for 2026/ 2027.
Those entries are set to feature cars built by two current hypercar manufacturers.
Quinn to Join APR attack
As revealed by DSC last week, Algarve Pro Racing has extended Alex Quinn’s contract for the 2026 season.
This renewal means the 24-year-old will compete with the Portuguese-flagged team in the Asian Le Mans Series this winter, as well as the ELMS next year. It is not yet determined which APR ORECA he will drive.
Demand for Entries 2025/ 2026
Paddock sources have suggested to DSC that 14-16 cars, principally from GT3, were turned away as full-season entries before the series organisers settled on the 48-car provisional full-season list for the coming season.
DSC also believes that the February races in the UAE are set to see additional entries (as has been the case in previous years), principally in the GT class.
Al Qubaisi Family Values
Amongst those additional entries in the UAE could be a car for the Al Qubaisi sisters, Hamda and Amna, currently sharing a Team Virage car in the Ligier European Series. And they may race together with their father, WEC race-winning GTE Am driver Khaled Al Qubaisi.
Khaled was on-site at Silverstone last weekend and told DSC that he was keen to make the Asian LMS programme happen, with an eye to having an opportunity in the future to race at Le Mans with his daughters.
LMP2
There are some new names to the class in a packed 16-car LMP2 entry for 2025/ 26 – a record entry for the Series.
Rinaldi Racing LMP3 regular and current LMP3 Pro-Am points leader in Le Mans Cup, Stefan Aust is set to step across to the top class together with his regular Pro Felipe Laser. They’ll join ELMS regular Jonas Ried in one of a pair of Proton Competition Orecas.
Whether we are set to see Aust’s regular Carrera/ Revell livery on the ORECA is yet to be confirmed.
We do, though, look set to see another current Michelin Le Mans Cup livery on track in LMP2, with strong suggestions that the second Proton ORECA, set to feature two more LMP2 debutants, Horst Felbermayr and his son Horst Felix, will be liveried in their iconic family colours.
Returning Asian LMS LMP3 Champion Jens Reno Moller will be yet another Bronze-rated LMP2 debutant, this time in a High Class Racing effort. He is set to be joined by 2016 WEC LMP2 Champion and Le Mans class winner, WEC LMP1 overall race winner and later Peugeot and Glickenhaus Hypercar driver Gustavo Menezes.
Newcomer Ponos Racing from Japan bolsters the LMP2 field. It is the only Asian-based team across the two Prototype classes this coming season, the team adding LMP2 to its current GT300 and GT3 programmes with Ferrari.
Team owner/ driver Yorikatsu Tsujiko is joined by ex WEC racer Kei Cozzolino and by current WEC LMGT3 United Autosports McLaren driver Marino Sato.
Amongst the other notables are two drivers returning to LMP2 in the Series, Miro Konopka and Roberto Lacorte.
Konopka has missed a couple of seasons of the series after being a stalwart contender in Asia across multiple classes for around a decade. His ARC Bratislava squad is set to return to the fray in its familiar yellow-liveried Oreca.
And Roberto Lacorte returns to an ACO/LMEM-organised race for the first time since Le Mans in 2023, his only previous race in an ORECA 07. His previous LMP2 outings had all been aboard his Dallara P217 (above) before his Cetilar Racing team’s main focus switched to GT in both GTE and later GTD with Ferrari.
Part 2 follows tomorrow covering LMP3 and GT
