The European Le Mans Series have presented their entry list for the upcoming 2018 season.
The list contains a lot of returns, but also brand new teams who have stepped up to the European sportscar series.
41 cars have entered for the full season, which is five more compared to 2017.
17 LMP2 cars, 18 LMP3 cars and 6 GTE cars are on that particular list.
The defending LMP2 Champions G-Drive Racing #26 are back once again, but with a brand new driver line-up. Roman Rusinov will be joined by Matthieu Vaxiviere, and Jean-Eric Vergne, while the team enters an extra car in the shape of #40 driven by James Allen, Enzo Guibbert, and Jose Gutierrez.
United Autosports will double up their LMP2 programme with Phil Hanson and Filipe Albuerquerque driving car #22, while Will Owen and Hugo de Sadeleer will be driving #32.
Four will race the Dallara P217 – Gibson chassis, while ORECA has seven cars, and Ligier delivering six cars.
Algarve Pro Racing enters two cars. Mark Patterson and Ate De Jong will be driving in a Ligier JSP217 – Gibson #25, while Harrison Newey, Richard Bradley and Thomas Laurent will pilot an ORECA 07 – Gibson #31. That is a bit nontraditional for the same LMP2 team to enter two different chassis’, so that will be interesting to follow throughout the season.
Photo: JJ Media
If we look at the LMP3 category, the defending Champions United Autosports are once again back with two cars – with Champions John Falb and Sean Rayhall in car #2, while Tony Wells and Matt Bell will be driving #3.
M-Racing – YMR will enter two cars again, but just like Algarve Pro Racing, it’s going to be two different brands in the shape of a Ligier JS P3 – Nissan and a Norma M30 – Nissan.
LMP3 is once again dominated by Ligier JS P3 cars, with just three Norma M30 breaking that mold.
There is a lot of well known names in the GTE category. JMW Motorsport Ferrari #66 won the Championship in 2017, and stays loyal to the series, competing against Spirit of Race Ferrari #55 and Proton Competition Porsche #77 once gain. Proton Competition will even enter two cars, with Ebimotors enters a third of the latest 2017 models.
Krohn Racing returns to the ELMS, but this time they will race in a Ferrari 488 GTE. The team has previously contested in the LMP2 category, but the GTE cars fits Tracy Krohn a bit better, who will once again be joined by Nic Jönsson – with Andrea Bertolini as the third driver.
Photo: JJ Media
There are a few things that is a clear change, especially on the GTE list. There are only Ferrari and Porsche cars in the category, so no Aston Martin, that we saw from both TF Sport and Beechdean AMR in 2017. Those are expected to be found on the FIA World Endurance Championship entry list tomorrow.
There are still a few open spots on the list, with Mr. TBA occupying one or two seats in almost half of the cars.
The European Le Mans Series will have their first race of the season at Paul Ricard on 15 April.
The full entry list can be found here.
