38 Cars for ELMS at Red Bull Ring

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

The European Le Mans Series restarts its season later this month, with the Four Hours of Red Bull Ring at the flowing central Austrian circuit.

ENTRY LIST: Red Bull Ring

The main story in the top LMP2 class is a reduction in grid size since the last round, held at Imola in May.

The Ligier JS P2 Judds of So24! by Lombard Racing and IDEC Sport Racing have both been dropped off the entry list, as has Race Performance’s Oreca 03R Judd.

This leaves a total of 11 cars battling for overall honors. There have also been some driver changes amongst the remaining entrants.

Andrea Pizzitola is in for Chris Hoy at Algarve Pro Racing, while Parth Ghorpade returns having not driven at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Hoy is expected not to do any more ELMS rounds this season, owing to his commitments in the Olympic Games.

Meanwhile, Tracy Krohn retakes his seat in his No. 40 Krohn Racing Ligier JS P2 Nissan after missing the last race. There is a TBA third spot at Greaves Motorsport, following the departure of Kuba Giermaziak prior to Le Mans.

Murphy Prototypes has also had a slight switch-around in its Oreca 03R Nissan. While Sean Doyle stays on, Guglielmo Belotti joins the team, while the third driver is yet to be announced.

With the absence of the same team’s LMP3 entry, the second class has been reduced by one to 19 cars.

Murphy was expected to run its new Ave-Riley AR-2 for this race, after competing in other cars so far this season, but so far it has no LMP3 car listed on the provisional entry list.

Other news sees Alain Costa replace Alvaro Fontes in the By Speed Factory Ligier JS P3 Nissan, while Enzo Guibbert’s seat in the No. 9 Graff car is now TBA.

Andrea Roda has replaced Roman Rusinov in Eurointernational’s No. 12 Ligier, leaving a space in the team’s No. 11 car, while Ross Warburton and John Hartshorne will join Morten Dons at RLR Msport, in place of Ossy Yusuf.

The GTE class stays at eight cars, but Alessandro Pier Guidi is in for Davide Rigon at AT Racing, while Matteo Cairoli takes over from Klaus Bachler in the No. 88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR.

The four-hour race will take place on Sunday, July 17, with track action beginning on Friday, July 15.

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.