Photo: John Dagys
***Shinji Nakano has landed a last-minute ride with Team Taisan. The Japanese driver, who took part in the test day in the team’s No. 70 Ferrari F458 Italia, replaces James Rossiter as the Gold/Platinum driver in the GTE-Am lineup. Nakano joins Martin Rich and Pierre Ehret in the car, which is being run with assistance of Farnbacher Racing.
***Mark Webber and Patrick Dempsey were the stars of scrutineering Sunday, with mobs of fans and media crowding both drivers. Dempsey, who makes his third start at La Sarthe, had no fewer than three security guards, plus his brother-in-law, in tow to help him navigate through the administrative checks.
***Dempsey Racing team co-principal Joe Foster said that efforts to field its Porsche 911 RSR in additional FIA WEC races has continued to gain traction, with the immediate attention on finalizing plans to run the car at the next round at Circuit of The Americas in September. However, no deal has been finalized.
***LMP1-H entries from Toyota and Porsche were taken to a local garage in Le Mans following scrutineering to examine the cars’ undersides via a car lift. It’s expected that all three Audi R18 e-tron quattros, that go through scrutineering tomorrow, will have the same process.
***Ho-Pin Tung was absent from his group photo with OAK Racing Team Asia Sunday as the Chinese driver, along with fellow Le Mans-bound driver Alexandre Imperatori (KCMG) were taking part in this weekend’s Porsche Carrera Cup Asia round at Fuji Speedway.
***Ricky Taylor, who makes his LMP2 debut in Larbre Competition’s Morgan-Judd, is carrying the backing of Konica Minolta and TMS Titanium, sponsors on his team’s Corvette DP in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. A number of guests from Konica Minolta, in fact, will be coming out to the race this weekend to cheer on the second-generation driver.
***A third Rebellion Racing entry was spotted in the pit lane at Le Mans this afternoon. A late entry to replace the withdrawn Millennium car? Not quite. One of the Anglo-Swiss squad’s Lola B12/60 Toyotas will be placed on display at a local department store!
Laurent Mercier contributed to this article
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