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ELMS: Paul Ricard Prologue, The GTE Runners

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Seven of the nine full season GTE runners are here for the Test Days. We’ll follow up later what the story is with the absence of the TDS Racing Aston martin and the #88 Proton Porsche though neither car is, we understand, obliged to attend as the teams both have another car present.

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#51 AF Corse, Ferrari 458 GTE

Perazzini/ Cioci/ Aguas

There has seldom been a more ‘AF Corse-esque’ line-up than this, Perazzini the epitome of a happy team customer, Cioci and Aguas out of the top drawer of AF nominated drivers. Will be in the mix for sure!

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#55 AF Corse, Ferrari 458 GTE

Cameron/ Griffin/ Scott

Familiar car, familiar driver line-up, this is likely to be a real contender again as the British/ Irish crew look to claim the title they still feel they should have had from 2014!

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#56 AT Racing, Ferrari 458 GTE

Talkanitsa/ Talkanitsa Jr/ Pier Guidi

Improvements year on year keep seeing the Belarussian father and son team’s pace increasing and the addition once again of the very quick Alessandro Pier Guidi will only help the cause.

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#60 Formula Racing, Ferrari 458 GTE

Nielsen/ Mac/ Laursen

The 2015 GTE Championship winners return with Messrs Mac (a standout talent last year) and Laursen joined by fellow Dane Christina Nielsen, buoyed up no doubt by her win over the weekend in the 12 Hours of Sebring in the GTD class.

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#66 JMW Motorsport, Ferrari 458 GTE

Smith/ Butcher/ Bertolini

After the disappointment of the Le Mans entry list the ever loyal, and ever present, JMW squad return with the #66 car looking stunning and with a driver line-up that could be a real eye opener too. Robert Smith returns after some good progress shown last season whilst Rory Butcher is a welcome returnee too, his outings in the JMW car last season were very impressive. 2015 FIA WEC GTE AM Champion Andrea Bertolini is simply world class!

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#77 Proton Competition, Porsche 911 RSR

Hedlund/ Van der Zande/ Seefried

Now here’s a surprise driver line up – Marco Seefried is the name on the official entry but on the car his name is listed alongside the mercurial Renger van der Zande and Mike Hedlund! Yet more US racing regulars tempted by a very sensible ELMS package it seems!

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#99 Aston Martin Racing, V8 Vantage GTE

Howard/ Adam/ MacDowall

Still unconfirmed publicly but 2015 British GT Champion Andrew Howard will be joined by Jonny Adam and Alex MacDowall in the Beechdean Ice Cream liveried Aston Martin.

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Adam looks set to be a busy boy for the Silverstone weekend (as does Howard), both men slated to drive at the British GT Championship season opener at Brands Hatch as well as in the ELMS at Silverstone, with Adam also slated to drive in the WEC season opener on the Sunday too!

GG