Team WRT BMW Among 58-Car Road to Le Mans Entry

Team WRT will field a single BMW M4 GT3 EVO for Samantha Tan at Road to Le Mans as part of a 58-car entry for the main support races at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Tan will share the No. 38 BMW with Gustav Bergstroem, part of a 15-car GT3 entry for the pair of 60-minute races that serve as a warmup act for the French endurance classic.

Tan, who previously has been a regular in GT World Challenge America powered by AWS but is currently competing in the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, will make her first racing appearance at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

She will team up with Silver-rated Bergstroem, who made his WRT debut at last weekend’s GTWC Europe Endurance Cup opener at Paul Ricard.

For WRT, which also fields four cars in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the entry marks the fourth time it has competed in the Michelin Le Mans Cup, with its previous entries all coming as part of the Road to Le Mans field.

It fielded Audi machinery in both 2021 and 2022, while in 2023 the team notably completed a clean sweep of GT3 wins at the Circuit de La Sarthe with a pair of BMWs driven by Tim Whale and Max Hesse as well as Jerome Policand and Valentino Rossi.

Nearly half of the GT3 field consists of Ferrari machinery, with no fewer than four cars entered by AF Corse, while Kessel Racing is also represented with two entries.

Vincent Abril notably shares the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 with Laurent de Meeuss, while Kessel has tapped both David Fumanelli and former Rebellion Racing LMP1 driver Andrea Belicchi to lead its efforts.

American racers Anthony Bartone and Rory van der Steur are both also entered, with the former sharing a GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo with Steve Jans.

Van der Steur, who also competes in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup, will pilot the No. 11 Code Racing Development Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo together with Philipp Sager.

LMP3 runners make up the bulk of the entry, although they will be split into two separate categories for the first time as part of class overhaul introduced for the Le Mans Cup this year.

A new class solely for Silver and Gold-rated drivers was introduced alongside the existing Bronze-Silver/Gold format, with the latter renamed as ‘LMP3 Pro-Am.’

All four chassis manufacturers for the new generation of Toyota-powered LMP3 machinery are represented, although Ligier is by far the most popular marque as 31 out of 43 cars entered come from the French brand.

Duqueine is represented by eight D09 Toyotas, while Ginetta and ADESS have two cars each. The latter, while not present in the European Le Mans Series’ LMP3 field, is represented in the full Le Mans Cup season by a pair of entries from Nielsen Racing.

Notably, six ELMS LMP3 squads bolster the grid at Le Mans with additional cars, courtesy of Team Virage, WTM by Rinaldi Racing, CLX Motorsport, M Racing, DKR Engineering and High Class Racing all entering extra cars, as does Czech squad Bretton Racing.

Gebhardt Motorsport, which has picked up all but one LMP3 win in the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge so far this year, is present with its Duqueine for its regular pairing of Oscar Tunjo and Valentino Catalano.

Adrien Closmenil and Theodor Jensen, who won the LMP3 class in the opening ELMS round at Barcelona, share CLX Motorsport’s No. 37 Ligier.

Also of note is the two-car Forestier Racing by VPS effort, with the operating VPS Racing outfit co-founded by former Alpine Hypercar driver Matthieu Vaxiviere, who also serves as team principal.

In the LMP3 Pro-Am ranks, former Audi factory driver Pierre Kaffer shares an M Racing Ligier with Michael Doppelmayr while Felipe Fernandez Laser, another former Nürburgring 24 winner, forms part of Rinaldi Racing’s two-car effort.

Also represented in the Pro-Am class is ELMS LMP3 race winner Gillian Henrion, racing for Motorsport98, as well as Mark Patterson and Anders Fjordbach with High Class Racing.