Barnicoat, Hawksworth to Miss Spa; Rovera, Viscaal Sub Again

Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth will both miss their second consecutive European Le Mans Series race, sitting out this weekend’s 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

As shown on a 41-car entry list for the event, both British drivers will not be part of their respective LMP2 Pro-Am lineups at AF Corse and Algarve Pro Racing.

The duo told Sportscar365 that they will forego the Spa race in order to take part in a test with Vasser Sullivan at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta to prepare for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship finale at Motul Petit Le Mans.

Barnicoat and Hawksworth have all but clinched the GTD Pro class title aboard the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 and will only need to start the race at Road Atlanta in order to win the championship.

Similarly to Aragon, which the duo missed because of clashing commitments with the WeatherTech Championship round at Virginia International Raceway, Alessio Rovera and Bent Viscaal have been brought in as replacements.

Rovera joined Francois Perrodo and Matthieu Vaxiviere aboard the No. 83 AF Corse Oreca 07 Gibson to take a Pro-Am class victory at Aragon, while Dutch racer Viscaal will continue aboard the No. 25 APR entry alongside Bronze-rated driver Fred Poordad and Tristan Vautier.

The Pro-Am class is down to ten cars due to the withdrawal of United Autosports’ No. 23 car due to injury for Jim McGuire.

Elsewhere in the class, both Nelson Piquet Jr. and Tom van Rompuy return after missing Aragon, while in LMP3 Francois Heriau has been listed aboard the No. 10 Eurointernational Ligier JS P320 Nissan alongside Glenn van Berlo.

The French LMP2 racer was due to compete with TDS Racing at last weekend’s Battle of the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but was instead replaced by Rodrigo Sales.

The GTE category sees one change compared to Aragon, with Daniel Serra replacing Davide Rigon to partner Takeshi Kimura and Scott Huffaker aboard the No. 57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.