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Tincknell and Westbrook join Aston Martin for Le Mans

Image courtesy of Aston Martin Racing
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emailBy: Stephen Kilbey | 10 hours ago

Former Ford GTE/GTLM drivers Harry Tincknell (pictured at right, above) and Richard Westbrook (left) have found a new home for the Le Mans 24 Hours. They will return to the GTE Pro ranks in 2020 with a new factory team, Aston Martin Racing.

Westbrook, a regular in IMSA who has class wins at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Sebring 12 Hours, will race in the No. 95 Vantage AMR alongside Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen. The Danish duo currently lead the GTE Pro world championship after two wins in the 2019 leg of the 2019/20 FIA WEC season.

“I think for anyone, racing for Aston Martin is something you can be extremely proud of but being British makes it that little bit more special,” said Westbrook. “Aston Martin Racing is leading the world championship and they are an elite team, with the best quality engineers and mechanics all the way through. And the car is really singing on top note right now, so it’s a good time to be joining.

“I’m excited to be working with Nicki again — we raced together in the Nurburgring 24 Hours in 2014, and I found that we were quite similar in the way we worked and what we wanted from the car. I’ve never driven alongside Marco, but I have raced against him and I’ve only ever heard and seen good things. I know I am going to fit right in, and that is really important at a race like Le Mans.”

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Tincknell, a class winner at Le Mans on his race debut in LMP2 back in 2014 with Jota Sport, has been a regular factory driver since. He has driven for Ford and Nissan in the FIA WEC in recent years and still competes with Mazda Team Joest in IMSA. He will race at La Sarthe as the third driver in the No. 97 alongside fellow Briton Alex Lynn and Belgian ace Maxime Martin.

“I’m going to try and support Aston as best I can — Max and Alex are right up there in the championship. I’ll be available for the other races if required; we’ll wait and see,” Tincknell told RACER. “It’s a busy time of the year for me right now, but we’re going to make a plan. There will be some testing involved beforehand.

“Last year when I was racing against the Vantage AMR it appeared that its weakness was in the tire, whether or not they could hang on for a whole stint. But the new tire looks like it suits the car better — it’s an all-round car now. It’ll be interesting to get behind the wheel — I haven’t driven a front-engined car since the Nissan LMP1 days.”
The Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT program may be gone but its influence is still being felt, Tincknell says. Image by JEP/LAT

Tincknell says he is pleased that some of his other former teammates from the Ford GT program are finding new homes for 2020.

“This is great for Westy too to be in the No. 95. He did a great job in IMSA the last four years. As for my other Ford teammates, Ryan’s (Briscoe) is in the No. 10 (Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac) car in IMSA and Seb (Bourdais) also is now in IMSA as well. Andy (Priaulx)’s coming to form in World Touring Cars as well.

“It (Ford Chip Ganassi) was a really high-level program — we learned masses from it, not only in experience but also just in how to communicate with the team, how to how to set a car up, how to develop a car. Hopefully I can bring some of this to Aston.”

Aston Martin’s GTE Am line-up for its No. 98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage remains unchanged for Le Mans. The full-season trio of Paul Dalla Lana, Darren Turner and Ross Gunn will race in France as planned.

Last year at Le Mans 2017 GTE Pro Le Mans winners Darren Turner and Jonny Adam were Aston Martin’s nominated third drivers for the 24 Hours. While they won’t return to GTE Pro in June, both will drive Aston Martins in the race, with Turner in the No. 98 and Adam in TF Sport’s GTE-Am Vantage.

The FIA WEC returns to action next month in the first of two races in the United States in the second half of the current WEC season. The championship heads to Circuit of The Americas on February 22-23 before the teams head to Sebring for another doubleheader with IMSA. The 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans takes place on June 13-14.



Le Mans/WEC

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ACO postpones Le Mans bikes; 24 Hours still on

Image by Rainier Ehrhardt/LAT
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emailBy Stephen Kilbey | March 11, 2020 10:49 AM

The 24H Moto event at Le Mans has become the latest significant motorsports event to be affected by the COVID-19 situation worldwide. The ACO has postponed the race, which was originally due to run from April 18-19, to September 5-6. The event forms part of the FIM’s Endurance World Championship.

The “Pre-Mans” tests ahead of the original event, scheduled to be held from March 31-April 1, have been cancelled.

There have been no changes as yet to the status of the ACO’s flagship event, the Le Mans 24 Hours in June. As it stands, the ACO’s events in Europe prior to the Le Mans 24 Hours — the European Le Mans Series/Le Mans Cup events in Barcelona (April) and Monza (May), are also still scheduled to go ahead as planned, although the rapidly changing situation is being constantly monitored with weekly meetings of a senior management group gathering the latest data and advice.

LMEM (Le Mans Endurance Management) contacted the teams ahead of the ELMS and Michelin Le Mans Cup meeting in Spain, including the pre-season tests for both series, on Tuesday. It confirmed that there are currently no changes announced for the event, with teams set to arrive from March 29 for testing ahead of the race weekend on April 4-5.

More Le Mans/WEC!

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However, other sports car championship organizers in Europe and beyond have had to take action as the number of sporting events affected globally continue to increase.

The SRO’s World Challenge Europe (Formerly Blancpain GT) season opener at Monza (originally set to run next month) has been cancelled. The 24H Series race at Monza has also been postponed and replaced by a race at Estoril, Portugal.

The FIA WEC teams, meanwhile, head to Sebring this weekend for the pre-Sebring 1000 Miles test ahead of race week. There is currently no plan to cancel, postpone or run the IMSA-WEC doubleheader next week without crowds, as some global sporting events (including Formula 1’s Bahrain Grand Prix) are doing. However, Italian LMP2 team Cetilar Racing has reportedly decided to withdraw from the Sebring race. Instead, the team — whose WEC program is run by AF Corse, which intends to be present at Sebring to run its GTE Pro and Am programs — will donate the money it will save from not racing at Sebring to Italian hospitals that are working to curb the spread of the virus in Italy and treat those infected.

This brings the number of LMP2 teams set to race down to six, and the total number of WEC entries for the Sebring race down to 29.



ACO, Coronavirus, Le Mans, Le Mans/WEC

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Association SRT41 withdraws from Le Mans

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emailBy Stephen Kilbey | April 14, 2020 5:23 AM

Association SRT41 has become the first outfit to withdraw from the 2020 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours, which is now set to take place in September due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The French team had been due to run a Garage 56 (Invitational) entry in this year’s race with a specially adapted ORECA 07 driven by three physically impaired drivers.

Team owner Frederic Sausset, who competed and finished the 2016 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours as a quadruple-amputee, said the team has filed an entry into the 2021 edition of the race.

“After much discussion with my drivers Takuma Aoki, Nigel Bailly, and Snoussi Ben Moussa, Team SRT41, the heads of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and the ELMS, the presidents of the FIA and the FFSA, and everyone contributing to the success of our extraordinary project to be the first team of disabled drivers to ever race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, I have made the difficult decision to withdraw from the legendary race this coming September 19 and 20 due to the current COVID-19 pandemic,” Sausset said in a statement.

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“The upheaval and interruption of our scheduled plans caused by the lockdown in France mean that we would not be able to adequately prepare for and compete in such a challenging race in optimum conditions.

“After having carefully weighed all of our options, taken into account the human and financial costs of this terrible crisis, and considered the values that I have strived to uphold since the beginning of the SRT41 adventure, I have come to the conclusion that withdrawing from this year’s race is the sensible thing to do.

“I have immediately submitted to the ACO our request to compete in the 2021 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. I am hoping that by then this pandemic will be behind us and that the challengingnew era ahead will be one in which sports, human achievement, and the exhilaration of regained freedom will be shared by all.

“We will continue to keep everyone who has supported our unique project informed about our progress through regular updates on social media. The team had been busy preparing for the race before the COVID-19 situation put motorsport on hold back in March. Its three drivers all tested the team’s ORECA at Paul Ricard over multiple days in early March (pictured above). RACER understands that the car ran flawlessly and all three drivers showed solid pace.

Subject to confirmation by the ACO of the withdrawal, Spirit of Race’s No. 55 Ferrari 488 GTE is first reserve and will therefore be handed the opportunity to compete.

Le Mans 24 Hour, SRT41, Le Mans/WEC

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Corvette Racing withdraws from Le Mans

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emailBy Marshall Pruett | 5 hours ago

Corvette Racing has withdrawn its new mid-engine C8.Rs from September’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. The decision follows a similar one from the Porsche GT Team, Corvette’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans rivals, which confirmed its exit from the French endurance racing classic last week. RACER has also learned the ACO, organizers of the Le Mans event, were notified of the team’s change of plans weeks ago.

Both withdrawals come in reaction to the impact made by the coronavirus. With numerous furloughs and layoffs affecting the domestic and international auto industry, the calls to cut expensive international marketing campaigns like those involving trips to Le Mans fits the need to reduce expenditures.

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“Corvette Racing has a long history of competing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, so our decision to not participate in this historic race this year was not an easy one,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President – Performance and Motorsports.

“Several factors played into our decision, including current conditions and the rescheduled timing. We’re proud Corvette Racing has been invited to the 24 Hours of Le Mans over the past 20 years and regret that we won’t be participating this year. We hope we have the opportunity to race at Le Mans again.”

The pride of General Motors’ racing endeavors made its factory debut at Le Mans in 1999 and completed 20 consecutive visits to compete at the 24-hour race, earning eight class victories, with the most recent captured in 2015 with Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner, and Jordan Taylor.

Like the Porsche GTLM team, Corvette Racing is expected to focus the remainder of its season on IMSA, which completed Round 1 at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January before the championship was paused due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

Corvette Racing, Le Mans 24 Hour, IMSA, Le Mans/WEC

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IMSA Porsches withdrawn from Le Mans

Image by JEP/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Stephen Kilbey | May 8, 2020 9:00 AM

The CORE autosport-run factory GTE Pro Porsche 911 RSR 19s have been withdrawn from the 2020 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours, RACER has learned. They join the Garage 56 Association SRT41 effort in withdrawing from the race, which has been pushed back to September due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The move brings the GTE Pro entry for Le Mans down to nine cars.

Porsche’s decision to scale back its effort is understood to have been prompted by the need to reduce the cost of running at the event amid COVID-19 restrictions. The manufacturer’s two FIA WEC full-season cars, which are fighting for the GTE Pro world championship, will race as planned with their six previously confirmed drivers. In the No. 91 Gianmaria Bruni will race with Richard Lietz and third driver Fred Makowiecki. The sister No. 92 Porsche will compete with reigning GTE champions Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen, alongside Laurens Vanthoor in the third seat.

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The six drivers set to race with CORE in the IMSA full-season 911s, though, are not currently down to race in the French endurance classic. Previous overall Le Mans winners Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy, and 2018 GTE Am winner Matt Campbell — who were due to drive the No. 93 — are off the list, as are Julien Andlauer (who would have been making his GTE Pro Le Mans debut along with Campbell), Mathieu Jaminet and Patrick Pilet, who were set to race in the No. 94.

Porsche’s decision opens the door for three cars from the reserve list to be promoted to the official entry. Spirit of Race’s No. 55 Ferrari (headed by Duncan Cameron) is understood to be ready to race as first reserve, while the ByKolles CLM LMP1 is second on the list and IDEC Sport’s second ORECA 07 Gibson is third. It would be the French IDEC team’s first time at Le Mans with two cars.

Le Mans, Porsche, IMSA, Le Mans/WEC

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Risi confirms 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans entry

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emailBy Marshall Pruett | May 21, 2020 10:15 AM

Houston-based Risi Competizione has confirmed its intent to accept the ACO’s invitation to compete in September’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. The news comes after Corvette Racing and the Porsche GT Team, two of its primary GT Le Mans rivals in IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, announced their plans to skip the trip to France for the rescheduled endurance race.

“We were happy to receive the acceptance of our entry for Le Mans once again this year, as you can never take this for granted,” team owner Giuseppe Risi said in reaction to the changes caused by COVID-19. “The world got a little crazy in March, so we just sat back and waited to see what would happen. Le Mans is a very important race in the world, and the biggest in sports car racing. Although some other teams have pulled out this year, we intend to race as planned.

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As previously announced, Le Mans native Sebastien Bourdais will be joined by countrymen Olivier Pla and Jules Gounon in the No. 82 Ferrari 488 EVO.

“Our all-French driver line-up might be a little unexpected for my Risi team, but these are all talented drivers who have proven their worth at Le Mans and elsewhere in racing,” Risi added. “Olivier Pla and Sebastien Bourdais drove against our team in the past few years and they both have strong history at Le Mans and a great knowledge of the circuit. Olivier is a strong and strategic driver. Le Mans is Sebastien’s hometown; he knows the track so well and has had success with past teams. Jules did a good job last year for us, so he was invited back to drive again alongside his fellow Frenchmen. Le Mans is always a very special race for our team and this year is no exception.”

Le Mans 24 Hour, Risi Competizione, IMSA, Le Mans/WEC

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Revised entry, schedule for Le Mans 24 Hours

Rainier Ehrhardt/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Stephen Kilbey | June 18, 2020 4:27 AM

A revised version of both the entry list and race week schedule for the 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours has been released by the ACO today. The schedule tweak was made to reduce the cost of competing in the event, which is is still set to run with a 62-car field over a four-day timetable.

The 88th edition will run from Thursday to Sunday, September 17-20. Scrutineering kicks off the week at the circuit before the cars embark on four free practice sessions, qualifying, the ‘Hyperpole’ session and a warm-up, ahead of the 24-hour endurance race itself.

The race itself will start at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, with a 62-car, maximum capacity grid.

Following the withdrawal of the Association SRT41 innovation entry and two factory GTE Pro cars apiece from Corvette Racing and Porsche North America, a record five cars have been elevated onto the full list from the reserves. The entry now features the GTE Am class Duncan Cameron-led Spirit of Race Ferrari as well as an additional Porsche from Proton Competition, two additional LMP2 (ORECA) entries from IDEC Sport and High Class Racing and the ByKolles CLM P1/01, which will return to WEC action to race in LMP1.

This leaves four cars on the reserve list, headed by DragonSpeed’s second ORECA, followed by a Ferrari from ELMS team Iron Lynx, a Porsche from WEC regular Project 1, an Aston Martin from Japanese-based Asian Le Mans Series and Super GT outfit D’Station Racing.

Additionally, there has been a change in class for the Gear Racing Ferrari, where Christina Nielsen is the sole driver currently named. The team’s Ferrari 488 GTE EVO been moved from from GTE Am to GTE Pro.

Click here for the full revised entry list.

Beyond the 24 Hours itself, support action will include Porsche Carrera Cup and Road to Le Mans (GT3 and LMP3) races.

It remains to be seen whether or not fans will be allowed to attend the event in some capacity. The ACO stated that “more details concerning spectator access and what will be on offer for them will be provided on June 30.”

Le Mans, Le Mans/WEC

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Le Mans to run with spectators

Image by JEP/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Stephen Kilbey | 16 hours ago

The 2020 edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours, which has been delayed from its traditional slot in June to 19-20 September, will run with spectators on site to watch the action.

The ACO said that ticket sales have been ‘suspended until further notice, pending government announcements and according to the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic’. However, anyone who has already booked tickets will be allowed to attend the event.

“Ticket sales have been suspended in the hope that conditions improve, enabling current restrictions on large crowds to be lifted,” the statement reads. “Only ACO members and anyone who already holds a ticket for the race will be admitted to the circuit as a spectator.

“ACO members, spectators and authorized resellers who have already booked and paid for grandstand tickets, camping areas, parking spaces or ACO member hospitality areas may purchase the corresponding tickets for the race.”

At the event, the ACO will also pay tribute to frontline workers.

Pierre Fillon, President of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, organiser of the 24 Hours of Le Mans said:“At the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year, solidarity and responsibility will be more than mere words. The principles form the foundation of an event that will celebrate togetherness and fraternity.

“We will be paying tribute to the heroes of the crisis and saluting the commitment of the members of our club, volunteers, teams, partners, institutions, media and fans – without whom this race could not take place and who have already made it a memorable occasion.

“We have always been at the forefront of technological innovation to improve safety and sustainable mobility. Responsibility is one of our founding principles. We are therefore sure that our loyal spectators will understand our position and support our decision. We will not be breaking any attendance records this year.

“However, all the magic of the race will remain intact and the spectator experience – trackside or from a distance – will remain world-class.”

There is no word on how many spectators had already made bookings for this year’s race.

Le Mans 24 Hour, Le Mans/WEC

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