Le Mans 24 Hours entry list revealed with Wayne Taylor Racing making its debut

Wayne Taylor Racing will contest the Le Mans 24 Hours for the primary time this 12 months as a part of a four-car Cadillac assault on the World Endurance Championship’s blue-riband occasion. 

The maiden participation at Le Mans for a crew that has gained the Daytona 24 Hours 4 occasions has been confirmed together with a return of the Motion Categorical Racing crew with its Cadillac V-Collection.R LMDh for a 3rd consecutive season. 

WTR and Motion Categorical, Cadillac’s companions within the IMSA SportsCar Championship in North America, will be part of the 2 full-season WEC entries from the British Jota crew, which has taken over from Chip Ganassi Racing because the Common Motors model’s consultant within the sequence. 

Affirmation that there will probably be 4 Caddys on the grid at Le Mans on 14-15 June got here on Monday when race organiser the Car Membership de l’Ouest printed the total 62-car entry checklist for the race. 

The WTR and Motion Categorical crews are joined as extra automobiles on prime of the common 18 WEC entries by a 3rd Porsche 963 LMDh fielded by the manufacturing facility Penske crew. 

Porsche Penske Motorsport has taken up the automated entry it claimed for profitable final 12 months’s IMSA title, which suggests it is going to have a trio of automobiles on the grid for the third 12 months in succession. 

The additional entries carry the Hypercar class entry checklist as much as 21 automobiles at Le Mans. That’s down from final 12 months’s 23 when there was yet another full-season WEC entry and 4 extra entries for the 24 Hours.  

WTR has named Ricky and Jordan Taylor, the 2 sons of crew founder Wayne, in its V-Collection.R together with Filipe Albuquerque, who has been on the crew’s books since 2021. 

Motion Categorical has listed full season driver Jack Aitken in its entry together with Frederik Vesti and Felipe Drugovich. 

Vesti is contesting the enduros alongside his Method 1 reserve position at Mercedes, whereas Aston Martin F1 reserve Drugovich raced for the squad at Le Mans final 12 months and Daytona within the January simply gone. 

Earl Bamber, who’s Aitken’s common accomplice in IMSA, will probably be on responsibility for Jota at Le Mans. 

Nick Tandy and Felipe Nasr will race the extra Penske Porsche Motorsport entry at Le Mans for a 3rd 12 months in a row. The third driver is but to be confirmed and PPM must usher in somebody from outdoors of its common eight-strong LMDh roster.  

Pascal Wehrlein, who made his sportscar debut for the client JDC-Miller crew at Daytona, is believed to be one of many main candidates.

#85 JDC Miller MotorSports Porsche 963: Tijmen Van Der Helm, Gianmaria Bruni, Pascal Wehrlein, Bryce Aron

Picture by: Andreas Beil

The lowered Hypercar entry has resulted in yet another automotive apiece in LMP2 and LMGT3 in comparison with final 12 months. 

There at the moment are 17 automobiles, all ORECA-Gibson 07s, within the secondary prototype class, two up on the 15 to which the ACO dedicated when the category disappeared from the total WEC schedule forward of the 2024 season. 

9 are entered within the Professional-Am sub-class, which calls for a bronze-rated driver reasonably than a silver within the line-up.

The LMP2 subject contains 5 invited entries gained for achievement within the European and Asian Le Mans Collection. 

They embrace the British RLR M Sport squad, which claimed its grid slot for profitable the LMP3 class in final 12 months’s ELMS and is returning to the 24 Hours for the primary time since 2019.

Included within the subject are two automobiles every from United Autosports and Inter Europol, winners in school at Le Mans in 2024 and 2023 respectively. 

Algarve Professional Racing has named the 2023 F2 champion and Peugeot Hypercar reserve Theo Pourchaire in one among its pair of ORECAs as a part of a full programme encompassing the ELMS.

Theo Pourchaire, Peugeot Sport

Picture by: Peugeot Sport

The entry additionally contains the IDEC Sport ORECA fielded along with Hyundai Motorsport, as a part of its so-called trajectory programme forward of the beginning of sister marque Genesis’s LMDh undertaking in 2026. 

Jamie Chadwick is the one identify within the automotive thus far after ex-F1 driver Logan Sargeant dropped out of the programme.

There are three automobiles with auto invitations in LMGT3, together with the Sky Tempesta Ferrari 296 GT3 that claimed its entry for profitable the GT World Problem Europe Bronze Cup. 

Its AF Corse-run automotive is now entered below the Ziggo Sport Tempesta banner. 

The ACO has additionally revealed a six-car reserve checklist together with a Porsche 963 from Proton Competition and second entries from the British Vector Sport and JMW Motorsport groups competing in LMP2 and LMGT3 respectively.