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European Le Mans Series

44 Full Season Entries for ELMS

Heavy field of Ligiers populate 44-car field for ELMS…

Photo: DPPI

Photo: DPPI

The European Le Mans Series continues to grow, with a field of 44 cars confirmed Friday during the ACO press conference in Paris.

Onroak Automotive comprises the majority of the field, with six Ligier JS P2s, one Morgan and no less than 19 Ligier JS P3s (pictured above), meaning the manufacturer has 26 of 44 full-season entrants.

READ: 2016 24H Le Mans Entry List Revealed

Nonetheless, it’s not all Onroak, with the Oreca 05 and 03R, BR01 and Gibson 015S peppered in in LMP2, and with a single Riley-AR2 the lone non-Ligier in LMP3.

There’s 15 LMP2 and 20 LMP3 cars, with the remaining nine spots for GTE, following the end of GTC in this series. Michelin and Dunlop are split in LMP2, with all LMP3 cars on Michelin and all GTE cars on Dunlop.

Ferrari is the dominant manufacturer in GTE with five F458 Italias entered, along with two Aston Martins and two Porsches.

Given the huge grid within ELMS, not all ELMS entries within LMP2 or GTE have earned trips to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

SO24! by Lombard, Panis-Barthez, Eurasia, Race Performance, G-Drive Racing (run by Jota Sport), Krohn Racing, Greaves’ No. 41 entry, Thiriet by TDS and Murphy Prototypes are the nine of 15 LMP2 cars in ELMS that have earned trips to Le Mans.

In GTE, the No. 55 AF Corse, No. 59 TDS Racing, No. 60 Formula Racing, No. 88 Proton Competition and No. 99 Aston Martin Racing entries have also received Le Mans bids, with Proton switching numbers for Le Mans from 88 to 89.

LMP2 (15 Entries)
1 – Greaves Motorsport – Gibson 015S Nissan – Gary Hirsch
21 – DragonSpeed – Oreca 05 Nissan – Henrik Hedman
22 – SO24 by Lombard Racing – Ligier JS P2 Judd – Vincent Capillaire
23 – Panis-Barthez Competition – Ligier JS P2 Nissan – Fabien Barthez
25 – Algarve Pro Racing – Ligier JS P2 Nissan – Michael Munemann
28 – Idec Sport Racing – Ligier JS P2 Judd – Patrice Lafargue
29 – Pegasus Racing – Morgan Nissan – Ines Taittinger
32 – Courage – BR01 Nissan – Andreas Wirth
33 – Eurasia Motorsport – Oreca 05 Nissan – Pu Jun Jin
34 – Race Peformance – Oreca 03R Judd – Nicolas Leutwiler
38 – G-Drive Racing – Gibson 015S Nissan – Simon Dolan
40 – Krohn Racing – Ligier JS P2 Nissan – Tracy Krohn
41 – Greaves Motorsport – Ligier JS P2 Nissan – Memo Rojas
46 – Thiriet by TDS Racing – Oreca 05 Nissan – Pierre Thiriet
48 – Murphy Prototypes – Oreca 03R Nissan – Greg Murphy

LMP3 (20 Entries)
2 – United Autosports – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – Alex Brundle
3 – United Autosports – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – Mark Patterson
4 – OAK Racing – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – Jean-Marc Merlin
5 – By Speed Factory – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – Jesus Fuster
6 – 360 Racing – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – Terence Woodward
7 – Villorba Corse – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – Roberto Lacorte
8 – Race Performance – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – Nicolas Leutwiler
9 – Graff – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – Eric Trouillet
10 – Graff – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – John Falb
11 – Eurointernational – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – Constantino Peroni
12 – Eurointernational – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – Jay Palmer
13 – Inter Europol Competition – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – Jakub Smiechowski
14 – Murphy P3-3Dimensional.com – Riley AR-2 Nissan – Tony Ave
15 – RLR MSport – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – Ossy Yusuf
16 – Panis-Barthez Competition – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – Eric Debard
17 – Ultimate – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – Jean-Baptiste Lahaye
18 – M.Racing – YMR – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – Thomas Laurent
19 – Duqueine Engineering – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – David Hallyday
20 – Duqueine Engineering – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – TBA
24 – OAK Racing – Ligier JS P3 Nissan – Jacques Nicolet

GTE (9 Entries)
51 – AF Corse – Ferrari F458 Italia – Pierguiseppe Perazzini
55 – AF Corse – Ferrari F458 Italia – Duncan Cameron
56 – AT Racing – Ferrari F458 Italia – Alexander Talkanitsa
59 – TDS Racing – Aston Martin Vantage – Eric Dermont
60 – Formula Racing – Ferrari F458 Italia – Johnny Laursen
76 – JMW Motorsport – Ferrari F458 Italia – Robert Smith
77 – Proton Competition – Porsche 911 RSR – Marco Seefried
88 – Proton Competition – Porsche 911 RSR – Gianluca Roda
99 – Aston Martin Racing – Aston Martin Vantage – Andrew Howard

Tony DiZinno (@tonydizinno) is Sportscar365's North American Editor, focusing on coverage of the IMSA-sanctioned championships as well as Pirelli World Challenge. DiZinno also contributes to NBCSports.com and other motorsports outlets. Contact Tony

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