The 24 Hours of Le Mans is getting closer, so the teams are busy finalizing their driver line-ups.
Eurasia Motorsport will run the same three drivers, which competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship round at Spa Francorchamps this past weekend. Roberto Merhi, Nick Foster and Nobuya Yamanaka will be the three drivers, racing the black Ligier JS P217 Gibson.
The team had to change two of the three original drivers due to the COVID-19 situation, and the related travel restrictions. Shane van Gisbergen and Daniel Gaunt was the original pairing with Yamanaka, but they have to stay home in Australasia.
Three drivers had a tough weekend at Spa, with especially Yamanaka lacking speed at the technical track. Foster and Merhi were teammates in the Asian Le Mans Series, while Japanese driver Yamanaka was racing the other car in the team.
Photo: JJ Media
Algarve Pro Racing has their three drivers signed. Simon Trummer and John Falb are the regular drivers on the ORECA 07 Gibson #25, and they will be joined by Matt McMurry, who has previously raced for the team in the European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series.
McMurry is the younger driver in history to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but that record was posted six years ago, and since then, he has been part of several victories, and not least the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship LMP2 title in 2019. He is competing in GTD for Meyer Shank Racing Acura this year but rejoins prototype racing now. The IMSA title was also won in an ORECA 07.
The APR team hit a bump on their way to Le Mans last week, where the team had planned to participate in the FIA WEC race at Spa Francorchamps, following their ELMS weekend. Instead, they had to stay at the hotel, due to one of their ELMS drivers, Gabriel Aubry being tested positive for COVID-19 after the weekend, sending the rest of the team into isolation, even though everybody but three had negative test results.
There are just a few seats left for this years 24 hours race – unless there are some sudden cases of isolation appearing in the days leading up to the race. But nobody can control that.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans 2020 will be run on 19-20 September.
