ELMS final with 36 entries

The European Le Mans Series have 36 entrants for the season finale, which will run at Portimao in Portugal this weekend.

The LMP2 has shrunk back to the 14 cars, that all have done the full season. DragonSpeed will run with neither car 21 nor 27. The American team has had a really bad season, starting out with the owner of the car, Ryan Cullen, deciding to end the deal after Round 2 of the championship. They went on to race with another chassis provided by Racing Engineering, that had been used for ELMS a couple of seasons ago. That didn’t boost their results either, so they decided to pull car 21 after Round 3, and instead enter car #27 at Monza. That went a slight bit better, since they crossed the line in third position – only to be disqualified due to an irregularity on the car’s diffusor.

Inter Europol Competition #34 will have to race without Matevos Isaakyan, since he had to stay home due to being sick. The team does however express, that it’s not COVID-19 related.

United Autosports #22 has already won the title, while their teammates in #32 are currently in a quite comfortable second position. Graff #39, Panis Racing #31, G-Drive Racing #26, and potentially Cool Racing #37 and Duqueine Team #30 all have a shot for P2, if everything goes their way.

The LMP3 category has once again had a bit of musical chairs, but it’s still the same 12 entrants. Luis Sanjuan has jumped out of Graff #5, so Eric Troulliet and Sebastien Page will pilot that car alone.

Dino Lunardi has kept the seat at Inter Europol Competition #13, next to Martin Hippe, without giving any further explanation to why Nigel Moore was send home from Monza, without having done a single meter in the car.

Lorenzo Veglia is new at RLR MSport #15, next to Malthe Jakobsen and James Dayson. That is the 4th co-driver to Jakobsen og Dayson in 5 races. It’s going to be interesting to see, exactly how Veglia does compared to the three previous teammates. He raced for BHK Motorsport #16 at Monza, so he has quite recently done the LMP3 category. He ran the same pace as Jakobsen and the man he replaces at RLR MSport, Gustas Grinbergas.

The BHK Motorsport #16’s wheel of fortune has ended on Tom Cloet, Julius Adomavicius and Alex Fontana this time around. Cloet is the only one of the three, who did the Monza race, which is so far his only race for the team. Fontana did the first two rounds, but skipped the second Paul Ricard race and Monza.

United Autosports #2 is currently first in LMP3, but Inter Europol Competition #13, Realteam Racing #8 and Eurointernational #11 all have a chance to beat them, if not fight for the other podium positions.

The GTE category has AF Corse Ferrari #51 back in the field. Christoph Ulrich, Alexander West and Steffan Görig are all ready again, following the crash of West at Le Mans.

AF Corse will also run car #88, which is the #83 from the FIA WEC. Francois Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard are joined by Alessio Rovera, who runs instead of Nicklas Nielsen, since he is rated as Gold in the ELMS, and therefore not eligible alongside Collard. It was Harrison Newey who replaced the Dane at Spa Francorchamps.

Gulf Racing Porsche #86 is also present with their FIA WEC car, with their three WEC regulars Michael Wainwright, Ben Barker and Andrew Watson.

Kessel Racing Ferrari #74 currently leads the standings, ahead of Proton Competition Porsche #77. Iron Lynx Ferrari #83 is sitting third, but without a chance of winning the title. However, they still have a very theoretical chance of grabbing second place. But #77 will have to retire, and #83 has to win the race, in order to do so. Spirit Of Race Ferrari #55 is just a single point behind the three ladies in #83, but it has to go really bad for them, for Proton Competition Porsche #93 and JMW Motorsport Ferrari #66 to have a go at the third place.

The weekend’s race starts at 12.00 CET on Sunday, and can be viewed on the European Le Mans Series YouTube channel.