LMP2 Pro/Am adds a further eight ORECA 07 Gibsons to the 13 in the top LMP2 class. In fact, the only difference between the two classes is that Pro/Am MUST feature at least one Bronze-ranked (non-professional) driver.
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History has taught us that if a race sees early interruption, then a Pro-Am car can be right in the thick of things for overall honours.
The LMP2 Pro/Am grid will see double class champions AF Corse back to try and make it three in a row for François Perrodo.
2024 champions Perrodo, current Alpine reserve Hypercar driver Matthieu Vaxiviere and Ferrari factory GT driver Alessio Rovera return in an unchanged line-up in the #83. They are always tough to race and tough to beat.
2024 ELMS LMP2 Champions AO by TF move to the LMP2 Pro/Am class in 2025 and bring ‘celebrity’ ORECA Spike to the ELMS for the full season.
‘Spike’s dad, PJ Hyett, will run dual ELMS and IMSA programmes in 2025 in pursuit of a top step on the podium to improve his record of second-place finishes in the FIA WEC and at Le Mans!
Joining PJ in the #99 ORECA are a pair of world-class racers: reigning (and three-time) overall IMSA champion Dane Cameron, plus three-time ELMS champion (and 2023 WEC LMP2 champion, plus Sebring and Petit Le Mans overall winner Louis Delétraz.
2018 ELMS LMGTE champion Giorgio Roda took five pole positions from six attempts in LMP2 Pro/Am last season and swept the qualifying board over the winter in the Asian Le Mans Series. The #77 Proton Competition scored a victory in the final race of the 2024 ELMS season in Portugal alongside teammates Bent Viscaal and René Binder, who all return in an unchanged driver line-up.
2024 ELMS LMP2 Pro/Am championship runners-up Kriton Lentoudis and Alex Quinn return in 2025, and they are joined by fellow Asian Le Mans Series race winner Olli Caldwell in the #20 Algarve Pro Racing entry.
2023 LMP2 drivers champion and Rolex 24 Hours LMP2 race winner James Allen will race with Nielsen Racing in its #27 ORECA this year, with former MLMC LMP3 Champion Tony Wells and F2 race winner Sérgio Sette Câmara from Brazil.
United Autosports has championship-winning form in FIA WEC, Asian Le Mans Series and European Le Mans Series, but is chasing a first ELMS LMP2 Pro/Am crown with the #21 car.
Bronze-ranked Brazilian Daniel Schneider starts his third season with United in the category in search of consistency and the results that come with that.
Oliver Jarvis joins him and has one of the most varied CVs in the entire field, racing successfully as a Pro in GTs, LMP2 and LMP1 as part of the fabled Audi Sport squad.
His past also includes four overall podiums at Le Mans, including one (in 2017) that also saw the first of his two class wins in LMP2. He has two overall race wins in the WEC and has finished as runner-up in the championship in both LMP1 and LMP2, as well as finishing second overall in the ELMS championship in 2023.
North America has been proportionately kinder with an overall win at the Rolex 24, two wins at Petit Le Mans and the IMSA Championship for Acura in 2022. He has been a factory driver for Audi, Bentley, Acura and McLaren.
Marino Sato was the 2019 Champion in Euroformula Open and shared the 2023 ELMS runner-up slot with Jarvis. He’s a current FIA WEC LMGT3 driver in a United Autosports McLaren too.
TDS Racing took the overall ELMS title back in 2012 and brings the #29 Oreca to LMP2 Pro-Am this season as it fights to capture a long sought second Championship.
Leading the charge will be Mathias Beche, who was part of that 2012 ELMS title-winning line-up. He has LMP2 race and class wins in the ELMS in double figures as well as an overall FIA WEC race win with Rebellion Racing.
Clément Novalak was BRDC British Formula 3 Champion in 2019 and has had an F2 race win since then, with a second-place finish in LMP2 at Le Mans in 2024.
Bronze-ranked Rodrigo Sales was Asian Le Mans Series champion with Nielsen Racing back in 2022 and went well with TDS racing throughout 2024.
DKR Engineering boasts a trio of LMP3 titles in the Michelin Le Mans Cup and another in the ELMS back in 2021 too. This season it is pushing to add to its tally, which also includes a first LMP2 championship in 2021 in the Asian Le Mans Series and three consecutive third places at Le Mans in LMP2 Pro-Am.
Its #3 ORECA is the real ‘old lady’ of the field, famously the oldest 07 still racing. Chassis 05 is of 2017 vintage and has raced every year since then in the ELMS and at Le Mans though the latter record looks set to be truncated this year after a record eight consecutive Le Mans starts with the car listed as third reserve.
Laurents Hörr has LMP3 title-winning form and is a fierce and rapid competitor in LMP2. Georgios Kolovos, the crew’s Bronze-ranked driver, has shown real speed since stepping aboard an LMP2 car midway through the 2024 season.
Finally, it’s a welcome return to the cockpit for Thomas Laurent, the now 26 year-old back in the ELMS paddock for the first time since 2022.
He hopes to add to a racing CV that includes race wins in LMP3, an ELMS championship in LMP2 and a class win and overall podium at Le Mans with Jackie Chan DC Racing in 2017 with an overall WEC race win coming the following season with Rebellion Racing.
Remarkably, Thomas raced this very chassis with Graff Racing back in 2020 – a lucky omen? Well see!
