Can somebody stop Ferrari’s winning streak?
This year’s 94th edition of le 24 Heurs du Mans
commences over June 13-14 with 62 entries. With 18 Hypercars, 19 LMP2 and 25
LMGT3 entries.
As typical, I won’t try covering the entire
grid, just what caught my No. 4 wire. Initially being most interested in how
the two Genesis Magma Racing GMR-001 entry’s fare upon their Circuit de la
Sarthe debut; Nos. 17, 19.
As the No. 17 of Pico Derani, Mathys Jaubert
and Andre Lotterer are currently 13th overall, having scored Genesis’s first
top-ten finish at Spa. (8th )
While the Seester’ No. 19 of Paul-Loup Chatin,
Mathieu Jaminet and Daniel Juncadella languishes in P19 overall, with a best
finish of 13th at Spa.
The other 16 Hypercars cast includes two Alpine
A424’s, two Aston Martin Valkyrie’s, two BMW M Hybrid V8’s and three Cadillac
V-Serie’s.R’s. Plus three Ferrari 499P’s, including the defending No. 83
winner. Two Peugeot 9X8’s and two Toyota TR010’s.
As the No. 8 Toyota won the season opener 6
Hours of Imola, with the No. 20 BMW M Team WRT winning the 6 Hours of Spa.
The No. 38 Herst Team Jota Caddy’ sports Jack
“Achey Breaky” Aitken, Earl Bamber and le Hamburglar’, nee Sealmeister B’,
SeaBass or simply Sebastien Bourdais. With the No. 101 Cadd-Oh-lacc’ being the
IMSA entry of Wayne Taylor Racing. Having Filipe Albuquerque and the Jordan
Brothers at its controls, i.e.; Jordan & Ricky.
The LMP2 field is chock-Oh-block with
impressive entries, including the nine Pro Am (PA) entrants. As Luxembourg’s
No. 3 VKR Engineering features Renger van der Zande, John Farano and Sebastian
Alvarez. While the No. 4 CrowdStrike by APR features Laurin Heinrich, George
Kurtz and Alex Quinn.
Another IMSA entry is the No. 14 TDS Racing
with Mathias Beche, Tobias Lutke and Kevin Estre.
The No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing features somebody
by the name of Enzo Trulli, son of Former F1 Pilote Trulli Scrumptious’, ergo
Jarno Trulli.
Romain Dumas and Tristan Turbo’ Vautier anchor
the No. 48 RD Limited, with Fred Poordad being the Amateur.
And the reigning Pro Am class champion AO by TF
will introduce it’s brand new No. 99 Rockie the Pegasus entry, returning with
Dane Cameron, P. J. Hyett and James Allen.
You can never count out United Autosport in the
“Pro” P2 category, with the No. 22 including former Indy Lights driver Rasmus
Lindh being part of the ten P2 contingent.
The No. 24 Nielsen Racing entry sees former
Alpine Formula 1 driver Jack Doohan making His Le Mans debut.
Former F1 and IndyCar driver Pietro Fittipaldi
is part of the No. 26 Vector Sport entry.
The No. 30 Duqueine Team features a stout
line-up, with Julien Andlauer, Femme Fatale Doriane Pin and Richard Verschoor.
Whilst the defending class champion No. 43
Inter Europol Competition entry remains intact with Nick Yelloly, tom Dillmann
and Jacub Smiechowski.
In LMGT3, nine marques make-up the 25 entries,
i.e.; 3 Aston Martin’s; 2 BMW’s; 4 Chevrolet Corvette’s; 5 Ferrari’s; 2 Ford
Mustang’s; 2 Lexus’s; 2 McLaren’s; 3 Mercedes and 2 Porsche’s.
The class defending No. 92 The Benz Mantey Racing
Porsche 911 GT3 R once again is anchored by Richard Lietz, seeking an
unprecedented seventh class win! Along with Riccardo Pera making up two-third’s
of last year’s winning driver’s trio. While Bronze rated Aussie’ Yasser Shahin
replaces Ryan Hardwick.
Interestingly, Yasser is of Australian-Palestinian
nationality, and was part of Manthey’s 2024 winning LMGT3 entry alongside
Lietz. While Yasser and His brother Sam (also a racing driver) own a number of
Australian businesses including The Benz Motorsports Park, a repurposed
Mitsubishi test track Down Under.
The runner-up #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296
GT3 Evo returns with Simon Mann, Alessio Rovera and Francois Heriau, and
presumably will once again harry the Manthey Racing Porsche for victory.
One of three former Formula 1 driver’s
offspring features Lorenzo Patrese driving the No. 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari,
with la Scuderia having the largest class entrants.
The 13 Autosport’s No. 13 Corvette IMSA entry
sees Matt Bell’s name ringing a bell for Mwah, pun intended! As part of the
driver trio.
Whilst TF sport runs a trio ‘O Corvette Z06.R
GT3’s, the Nos. 2, 33; the latter seeing Nicky Catsburg, Johnny Edgar and longtime
IMSA “Gentleman” racer Ben Keating at its controls.
TF Sport will also campaign a third NO. 34 Vette’
under the auspices of Racing Team Turkey by TF. Seeing Irish drivers Charlie
Eastwood and Peter Dempsey and Turk’ Salih Yolic behind the keyboard.
Totally forgot that Dempsey had raced in Star
Mazda and Indy Lights between 2011-2013; winning the 2013 Freedom 100, the
series closest finish ever in a four-wide photo finish!
Proton Competition will run its usual brace ‘O
Ford Darkhorse Mustang GT3 Evo’s, the No. 77 with Steven Priaulx, Eric Cowell,
and Ben Tuck. While the No. 88 sees Stefano Gattuso, Giammarco Levorato and
former Williams F1 driver Logan Sargeant at the reigns.
The Heart of Racing Team features two Aston
Martin Vantage AMR GT3 entry’s, the Nos. 23, 27. With the#23 including Eduardo
Barrichello.
Team boss Ian James, Zacharie Robinchon and
Mattia Drudi return in last year’s #27 LMGT3 polesitter.
Italy’s Iron Lynx runs a brace ‘O Mercedes AMG
GT3’s, the Nos. 61-62 and 79. With the #62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx being the
most interesting of this trio of Merc’s. With Qatari Addulla Al-Khalaifi,
Julian Hanses and Guiliano Alesi, son of “Mean Jean” Alesi.
Team WRT pair of BMW M4’s sees the No. 69 entry co-driven by former Indy Lights and ex-Vasser Sullivan Racing IMSA driver Parker Thompson. Having won this year’s 6 Hours of Imola LMGT3 category.
