16 ELMS teams selected for the 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours

Russian team G-Drive Racing, the 2016 ELMS champions, has an entry in Le Mans with Memo Rojas as the first driver to be named. The Mexican, who is a three times winner of the Daytona 24 Hours, competed at Le Mans for the first time last year with Greaves Motorsport.

In the LMP2 class we can also find the LMP3 ELMS champions, United Autosports, the Anglo-American team received an invitation by the ACO following their successful debut ELMS campaign. Tockwith Motorsport, the Asian Le Mans Series Champions, will also compete in Le Mans, with Nigel Moore who made his debut in La Sarthe for the first time at the age of 17 in 2009. 

French soccer legend, Fabien Barthez, will be back in Le Mans for the second time at the wheel of a prototype with Panis-Barthez Competition, while all eyes will be on the return of Dutch outfit Racing Team Nederland whose driver line up includes 1988 Le Mans winner Jan Lammers and Brazil’s F1 race winner Rubens Barichello. 

French team Graff will have a two car effort with their Oreca 07-Gibson driven by James Allen and Enzo Guibbert, two rookies in Le Mans. The Italian team Cetilar Vilorba Corse will realise its dream by participating for the first time at the French race with Roberto Lacorte at the wheel of the n°47 Dallara P217 Gibson.

DragonSpeed, that had a promising first season in European Le Mans Series last year will race at Le Mans for the first time. Nicolas Lapierre, double winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in LMP2, won’t be part of the Le Mans adventure with Dragonspeed as he will race with the team he races for in the WEC, two time ELMS championship winners Signatech Alpine.

Finally, Algarve Pro Racing and Idec Sport racing will complete the ELMS class in Le Mans with one Ligier JSP217- Gibson each.

In LMGTE Am, five ELMS cars have been selected. Beechdean AMR, the 2016 ELMS LMGTE champions and TF Sport, the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup winners, have both been invited following successes last season, both running the Aston Martin Vantage.

JMW Motorport, the closest rival of Beechdean AMR in ELMS will be at Le Mans with the Ferrari F458 n°84 driven by Rob Smith. The other ELMS Ferrari in Le Mans will be the F488 of Spirit of Race with Duncan Cameron behind the wheel. Finally, Proton Competiton will run its Porsche 911 RSR n° 88 with Wolf Henzler.

RLR M Sport, who have an entry in the LMP3 class in the 2017 ELMS, is the first of the reserve cars in LMP2.  The Porsche 911 RSR of Mentos-Proton Racing, the team that competed in the inaugural season of the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup, is also on the reserve list for the race on the 17/18 June 2017.