Two seats remain for 24 Hours of Le Mans
Saturday, 13 May 2017
By Stephen Kilbey / Image by JEP/LAT
Just two seats are left to be confirmed for the 85th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans after multiple announcements this week at the European Le Mans Series meeting at Monza – in addition to JMW Motorsport confirming to
RACER its three drivers for Le Mans yesterday.
French team GRAFF has confirmed to
RACER that its full ELMS driver squad of 2015 LMP2 Le Mans winner Richard Bradley, ex-Formula Renault racer James Allen and Franck Matelli will drive the team's No. 40 ORECA Gibson. In the second (No. 39) car, Asian Le Mans Series regular James Winslow will drive alongside Enzo Guibbert and Eric Trouillet.
Proton Competition, meanwhile, has just one driver left to confirm for its three-car GTE Am effort in the French endurance classic. Team owner and driver Christian Ried told
RACER that Nick Yelloly and Stephane Lemeret will drive in the No. 88 Porsche 911 RSR, with the third seat still open. Porsche factory driver Wolf Henzler, initially named against the car, will not drive for the team at Le Mans.
The No. 93 Proton Competition Porsche will see Californian Porsche factory driver Patrick Long return for his 14th consecutive Le Mans 24 Hours, with Saudi driver Abdulaziz Al Faisal and K-PAX Racing Pirelli World Challenge driver Mike Hedlund, who will make his debut at the race after competing in the Road to Le Mans support race last year.
The team's third car – the No. 77 – will race with its full-season FIA WEC trio of Matteo Cairoli, Ried and Marvin Dienst.
SMP has also announced its lineup. This year the Russian team will race with a Dallara P217 at Le Mans in the LMP2 class, and at the remaining four ELMS races of the season. For the 24 Hours it will field Schmidt Peterson IndyCar driver Mikhail Aleshin, Renault Sport Formula 1 Team reserve driver Sergei Sirotkin and team regular Viktor Shaytar.
The only other seat left to fill is in G-Drive Racing by DragonSpeed's No. 22 ORECA 07 Gibson, the Russian-flagged, American-run car only having Mexican driver Memo Rojas and Toyota Gazoo Racing LMP1 reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa fully signed up for the race.
The 85th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours is set for June 17-18 at the Circuit de la Sarthe.