LMP3
DKR Engineering confirmed to DSC this morning that their intended 2022 ELMS entry in LMP2 will not happen, the team only currently plan to run in LMP2 with the automatic invitation that they gained from their 2021 ELMS LMP3 Championship win.
The multiple title-winning squad will though be back in LMP3 with a single car effort in the ELMS and a two-car squad in Michelin Le Mans Cup currently on the cards as well as a likely two-race effort in IMSA with Road America and Petit Le Mans currently targeted.
Konrad Motorsport has added a third driver to the crew for the #21 Ginetta, Shaun Thong back in the Asian Le Mans Series after last racing in the Series in the K2 Uchino Racing Oreca just before the COVID pandemic struck.
The team manager meanwhile for the effort is none other than Ralf Juettner, now retired but leaving his pipe, slippers and tartan rug at home for a couple of weeks to run the Konrad effort (That’s Ralf at the left rear of the car en route to Scrutineering.
Franz Konrad also confirmed to DSC that the team has posted an entry for the ELMS for 2022 with the Ginetta (Correction – it seems that Franz misspoke – the entry is believed to be for the Michelin Le Mans Cup).
Koiranen Kemppi Motorsport make their first race appearance in sportscar racing under their own name, the Finnish outfit though were the background brains behind the Icelandic Team Their effort in Le Mans Cup last season.
The Finnish team are believed to be the first from their nation to enter a modern era ACO rules race in any class.
Bronze ranked driver Toni Veijaleinen was delighted to meet a figure from his racing past in the Dubai paddock, the Finn contested the 1991 Formula Ford Festival against, amongst others, Asian Le Mans Series TV commentator and Corvette Racing legend Oliver Gavin!
And, by the by, the Finn was no also-ran, in fact he finished third behind Marc Goossens and Warren Hughes, Ollie, at 18 years old, finished a highly creditable 6th!
Audunn Gudmundsson of Team Thor meanwhile was good enough to contact the DSC Editor in recent days to update us on his 2022 plans, after telling DSC last year that he was not going to return in 2022 he has changed his mind, Team Thor will be back in Michelin LM Cup but with High Class Racing now providing the logistical and technical support.
Inter Europol Competition also have a driver change – in this case though a switch from James Dayson to locally-based bronze driver Alex Bukhantsov for the first race weekend of the season in Dubai after the Canadian returned a positive COVID test.
Dayson will be back in the car with Nico Pino and Guilherme Oliveira in time to race the last two races in Abu Dhabi.
Alex Buhkantsov: “I hope that James will recover quickly, but I am excited to be here. If you told me last week I was going to race in the Asian Le Mans Series, I wouldn’t have believed it. But here I am. Last weekend I won the Gulf Radical Cup race and this weekend I will race in an LMP3! I am new to this car, but I know the circuit well. I am sure I will have a lot of funin this steep learning curve.”
The #8 Nielsen Racing Ligier for 2019/20 Asian Le Mans Series Champions Tony Wells and Colin Noble is the first for the team in a new livery for 2022 replacing the team’s 10th anniversary gold and white colours for 2021.
The #26 Graff Racing-entered Ligier is now a G-Drive Racing entry and carries the full and very familiar livery of the Russian fuel station brand. DSC believes the move will be repeated in the 2022 ELMS with a car entered by Eurointernational, part of a two-car effort in the class by the previously Championship-winning team.
