ELMS Heads to Paul Ricard to Start Second Half of Season

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

The European Le Mans Series returns next weekend with the Four Hours of Le Castellet at Circuit Paul Ricard on Aug. 27, with a 35-car field set for the fourth round of the season.

ENTRY LIST: 4H Le Castellet

The entry list is largely unchanged since the last round at Red Bull Ring, although has been reduced by one car with the withdrawal of Tockwith Motorsport, with the British team shelving its prototype program for the remainder of the season.

G-Drive Racing drivers Leo Roussel and Memo Rojas currently lead the standings by four points over United Autosport’s Will Owen, Hugo de Sadeleer and Filipe Albuquerque. 

The LMP3 category sees another entry changing from the Ligier JS P3 Nissan to Norma M30 Nissan, with Duqueine Engineering making the switch with its No. 8 car after running one of each model in Austria.

It will be the fourth Norma in the 17-strong field, joining entries from M.Racing – YMR and Oregon Team as well as the sister Duqueine car. 

The standings is currently tied between John Falb and Sean Rayhall’s United Autosport entry and the Ultimate crew of Jean-Baptiste Lahaye, Mathieu Lahaye and Francois Heriau, with both on 45 points.

There are no changes to the GTE field with the three full-season Ferrari 488 GTEs set to battle the pair of Aston Martin Vantage GTEs and single Porsche 911 RSR once again.

TF Sport drivers Salih Yoluc, Euan Hankey and Nicki Thiim hold a six-point lead over JMW Motorsport’s Jody Fannin and Rob Smith heading into the French race.

ELMS action at Paul Ricard will get underway on Friday, Aug. 25, with the four-hour race starting at 12 p.m. local time on Sunday, Aug. 27.

Jake Kilshaw

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