SMP to Make ELMS Return in 4H Red Bull Ring

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

SMP Racing returns to the European Le Mans Series grid this weekend with its Dallara P217 Gibson making its series debut at the Four Hours of Red Bull Ring, which features 36 total entries for the third round of the season.

Matevos Isaakyan and Egor Orudzhev will pilot the car, which will be the fourth Dallara in the 13-strong LMP2 grid. 

Both young Russians currently drive with SMP in the World Series Formula V8 3.5 and Isaakyan leads the standings after taking a win at the Nürburgring last weekend.

The team entered its Dallara in the 24 Hours of Le Mans last month with Mikhail Aleshin, Sergey Sirotkin and Viktor Shaytar driving.

ENTRY LIST: 4H Red Bull Ring

Other changes to the top class for the third ELMS round of the season include Gustavo Yacaman subbing in for Franck Matelli at Graff and Nicolas Minassian replacing the Super GT-bound Ryo Hirakawa in the G-Drive Racing entry.

Duqueine Engineering has replaced one if its Ligier JS P3 Nissans with a Norma M30 Nissan, bringing the total number of Normas up to three while the remaining 14 LMP3 cars are all Ligiers.

Ricky Capo has switched from M.Racing – YMR’s Norma to join Andrea Dromedari and James Dayson in the No. 12 Eurointernational Ligier, while Dennis Lundberg replaces Henry Hassid at Duqueine.

The GTE class returns to six cars with Larbre Competition’s Corvette C7.R only making an appearance at Monza in May in preparation for Le Mans.

Red Bull Ring will be JMW Motorsport’s first ELMS race with its new Ferrari 488 GTE it acquired in time for Le Mans, having won at Monza on the Ferrari F458 Italia GTE’s final appearance.

Jonny Cocker remains with the team alongside Rob Smith and Jody Fannin, after subbing in for Rory Butcher initially just for the Monza race.

Track action in Austria gets underway on Friday with the race scheduled for 1 p.m. local time on Sunday.

Jake Kilshaw

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