DSC believes that Jean-Philippe Belloc and Nicky Catsburg are set to replace the injured Paolo Ruberti in the #50 Larbre Competition Chevrolet Corvette C7.R for the Test Day as the Italian continues his recovery from a compound fracture of the lumbar vertebrae suffered after a driver coaching accident at Hockenheim this week.
Jon Lancaster (right) is here already ahead of his run with the Greaves Motorsport team in the #41 Ligier Nissan as Kuba Giermaziak scrambles to bridge an apparent sponsorship gap.
Erik Maris is confirmed as replacing Olivier Lombard at S024! for the Test Day and the Le Mans 24 Hours. A team source also suggests that this change will continue for the remainder of the 2016 ELMS season.
Gunnar Jeannette was unfortunate enough to bump into the DSC Ed and some of his Radio Le Mans colleagues in the pit lane this morning and revealed that he is here as a reserve driver for the #89 Proton/ WeatherTech Porsche after the dramas suffered in 2014 when Bret Curtis was counted out of the race after a practice shunt leaving the Prospeed team to race with just two drivers. Jeannette will run his required 10 laps in the Test.
The two Tequila Patron ESM Ligiers are resplendent in their (non-alcoholic) Paul Mitchell hair treatment livery and look splendid under the garage lights.
One problem emerged though soon after the livery was applied, the team washed the cars and found they couldn’t do a thing with them afterwards (hair product joke!)
Manor’s solo Oreca now sports the revised driver crew after the midweek driver reshuffle, Tor Graves will now be joined by regular #45 Manor men Matt Rao and Roberto Mehri in the #44.
The Team AAI Corvette was sitting on the pit apron with a delighted Oliver Bryant happy to chat about his forthcoming Le Mans debut: “It’s taken longer than it should have done to get here but it is great to be here, and in an awesome bit of kit!”
The Corvette is C7.R chassis 001, the GTE-Pro race winner from last year’s Le Mans 24 Hours.
First opportunity to see the Le Mans only Porsche factory entered 911 RSRs showed that the cars look, of course, beautifully prepared, and have of course, the standard Porsche corporate livery that has become such a fan favourite!
Over at Audi there was apparently an identity crisis afoot! It is a strange sight for Le Mans regulars to see just a pair of Audis here.
In contrast you can get tired walking past the Ford area of the pit lane, all four Ford GTs are together for the first time here.
The Aston Martin garage similarly has a quartet of GTE cars accommodated whilst the AF Corse ‘strip stretches off in the the distance, the Italian super-team running and/ or supporting no fewer than 8 cars this weekend (including Formula Racing and Clearwater Racing with a further batch also due to arrive for the Road to Le Mans support.
