ELMS provides more than 30% of the grid at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

After a hard fought 2013 ELMS season, we will have the opportunity and honour to see five ELMS title winners on the 2014 grid for the 24 Hours alongside the direct entries.

Winner of the 2013 championship, Signatech Alpine has therefore won its place in the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Alpine A450 Nissan of the Philippe Sinault-run team. The prototype which will carry No.36, will be driven by 2013 LMP2 champion Nelson Panciatici alongside 2013 LMPC champion Paul-Loup Chatin. The two Frenchmen will be supported by Briton Oliver Webb.

In the LMGTE category, the British Ram Racing team claimed the famous ‘door-opener' by winning the 2013 title, with the German Proton Competition team in second place.  Now both full time entrants in the WEC, Ram and Proton therefore receives automatic entries – the British team featuring a Ferrari 458 Italia in the LMGTE Pro (No.52) and LMGTE Am (No.53) and Proton with the No.88 Porsche 911 RSR in LMGTE Am.

The team that won the GTC class in 2013 is SMP Racing from Russia.  It will be therefore be entering the No.72 Ferrari F458 Italia for Andrea Bertolini and Aleksey Basov in this year's event, the Italian-Russian duo teamed alongside the 2013 GTC champion, Viktor Shaitar.

And which are the other ELMS entries at Le Mans?

In addition to the four teams who were offered the invitation to the greatest endurance race in the world, 16 other entrants from the European Le Mans Series will be on the grid for the start of the 2014 event.

In the top ELMS category, LMP2, the British JOTA Sport team – victorious in the most recent round at Imola at the beginning of the month, will line up for the start with its No.38 Zytek Z11SN.  Drivers will be Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell as well as 24 Hours regular, Marc Gené who has participated seven times at Le Mans, including winning the 2009 edition with the Peugeot Sport team. Note too that another ELMS JOTA Sport driver, Filipe Albuquerque, will be at Le Mans at the wheel of the No.3 Audi R18 e -tron quattro of Audi Sport Team Joest.

Sébastien Loeb Racing, a newcomer to the series and second in the race at Imola, will be entering its No.24 Oreca 03 Nissan, driven by Vincent Capillaire and Jan Charouz. They will be joined by René Rast for the race and by Laurens Vanthoor in testing next Sunday.

The NewBlood by Morand Racing team is more fired up than ever for its participation in the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Swiss team's No.43 Morgan-Judd will be in the hands of 2013 LMPC champion Gary Hirsch who will make his debut in the world famous race. He will be partnered in this new adventure by Austrian Christian Klien and Frenchman Romain Brandela.

The No.34 Oreca 03 Judd of Race Performance has had a very good start to its ELMS campaign and is also on the 24 Hours entry list. Team owner Michael Frey of Switzerland will be driving at the test as well as in the race alongside Frenchman Franck Mailleux and Briton Jon Lancaster, while the French Pegasus Racing team, new to the ELMS this year but accustomed to endurance racing having participated in several races of the former Le Mans Series, will enter the No.29 Morgan Nissan for Julien Schell, Nicolas Leutwiller and Léo Roussel.

The French Thiriet by TDS Racing team is prepared to take any number of risks this year but is determined to be among the cars at the head of the LMP2 class. It began the ELMS season with a Morgan Nissan and claimed victory at Silverstone and a fifth place at Imola. Currently leading the overall 2014 ELMS standings, it will be with the new Ligier JS P2 that it will contest the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans. Pierre Thiriet, Ludovic Badey and Tristan Gommendy are the team's French trio of drivers who are definitely ready for the challenge and, after carrying out several runs with the new car, they are motivated and confident for the coming race. British team, Greaves Motorsport, will enter two Zytek Z11SNs itself and Caterham Racing. The No.41 Greaves car will be driven by four British men this Sunday: Michael Munemann, Alessandro Latif, James Winslow and Dan Norris -Jones. The second car, which will run under the banner of Caterham Racing will be driven by the youngest driver ever to have raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Matthew McMurry, who at 16 years of age beats the absolute record for the youngest entrant at Le Mans since its inception in 1923. The American will be well supported since his compatriot Chris Dyson and a former LMP2 class winner, Briton Tom Kimber-Smith, will be at his side for this extraordinary journey.

The Irish Murphy Prototypes team will enter the No.48 Oreca 03 Nissan for four drivers this Sunday:  Rodolfo Gonzalez, Karun Chandhok, Nathanaël Berthon and the team's reserve driver Alex Kapadia, while the final ELMS LMP2 entrant on the Le Mans grid will be the No.50 Morgan-Judd of Larbre Compétition in which 2013 ELMS LMP2 champion Pierre Ragues can be found alongside Japanese driver Keiko Ihara, the only female on the grid, and American Ricky Taylor.

Finally, the IMSA Performance Matmut team which has two Porsche 911 GT3 RSR entries this year in the ELMS will also be a part of this June's main event.  Frenchmen Erik Maris and Eric Hélary are named for the No.67, while the No.76 will be driven by the all-French trio of Raymond Narac, Nicolas Armindo and David Hallyday.

Of the 56 cars due to take the start for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2014, 18 competitors are currently racing in the 2014 European Le Mans Series, more than 30% of the entrants. 

See you on Sunday, 1st June in La Sarthe for the Test Day in which our ELMS teams and drivers will be taking part.

24 Heures du Mans Test-day entry list HERE