Automobile Club de l’Ouest has revealed the entry list for the 89th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which will run on 21-22 August 2021.
The list is once again 62 cars, with exactly half the field being LMP cars, and the other half being GTE cars.
The Hypercar category has no surprises. There are the five cars, which have entered the FIA World Endurance Championship, with two cars from Toyota Gazoo Racing, two from Glickenhaus Racing, and a single from Alpine Elf Matmut.
The LMP2 category is pretty much straight forward too. The 11 cars that were announced on the FIA WEC entry list are of course part of this list too. There are two extra entries from United Autosports, thanks to their automatic invitations, with all their 2020 successes. And most of the European Le Mans Series teams are on the entry list as well.
G-Drive Racing has two cars entered, which is both their ELMS cars, while PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports and Risi Competizione will bring some American flavour to the LMP2 category. The latter is a huge surprise, since that is the first time in more than 20 years, that Risi Competizione will enter anything but a GT car at Le Mans.
Another major surprise is High Class Racing getting two entries. They have only signed up a single car for the FIA WEC so far, but they will bring two cars to Le Mans, where they will split up their regular driver lineup, so Jan Magnussen and Dennis Andersen stays in the WEC car #20, while Anders Fjordbach will be running in car #49. Both cars will be participating in the Pro/Am part of LMP2, so they have to run a Bronze-rated driver in the car. Fjordbach is the only driver mentioned in #49 so far.
Racing Team India will get an entry, following their Asian Le Mans Series campaign. It won’t be with Algarve Pro Racing, who was running the cars in Asia, but with Eurasia Motorsport instead, with one of their Ligier cars.
The full LMP2 field, except ARC Bratislava and Racing Team India – Eurasia, will run ORECA-based cars, even though G-Drive Racing calls their chassis an Aurus.
That is a total of 25 cars in the LMP2 category.
SRT41 #84 is on the list, but under the category of what previously was called Garage 56 – i.e. a car that doesn’t fit into other categories. The team will run two drivers with a handicap this year, so they won’t be fighting against the other LMP2 teams, even though they will be running an ORECA 07 Gibson.
Photo: JJ Media
The GTE Pro category will have 7 cars running, with the familiar faces of Porsche and AF Corse, plus the two American Corvette Racing cars. WeatherTech Racing will join with their private Proton Competition-run car, just like in the IMSA series.
GTE Am has a total of 24 cars entered. The majority are the 13 FIA WEC entered cars, spiced up with the automatic invites from the Asian Le Mans, which are Inception Racing with a Ferrari, Herberth Motorsport with a Ferrari, and Rinaldi Racing with a Ferrari. There are European Le Mans Series regulars like Spirit Of Race, JMW Motorsport, and Iron Lynx all bring allowed to bring a single Ferrari from the ELMS, while Proton Competition has brought an extra car with the entry number #99 – a car number they usually bring to life for Le Mans.
In addition to those, we have Absolute Racing with a Porsche. They lost out on the Asian Le Mans Series, due to travel restrictions, but they have been allowed in anyway. Kessel Racing has a pair of Ferrari’s, with one of them being taken up by the Car Guy team, just like in the Asian Le Mans Series. Hub Auto Racing is also known from the Asian series, and they will bring a Porsche too.
No reserve list has been revealed yet, but the ACO will open for reserve entries from 12 to 26 March, with those being announced at a later date.
The full entry list for the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2021 can be viewed here.
