33 Cars on Provisional 8H Portimao Entry List

The FIA World Endurance Championship has released an initial 33-car entry list for the second round of the 2021 season at Portimao on June 13.

The field includes the series debut of Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus with a single Hypercar entry, which the American team confirmed last week, and the addition of a Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo in GTE-Am which is the largest category at 14 cars.

SCG’s non-hybrid Le Mans Hypercar machine joins the pair of Toyota GR010 Hybrids and the Alpine A480 Gibson LMP1 grandfathered car that contested the Total 6 Hours of Spa season-opener last month.

Ex-Ford GT drivers Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook will team up with 2016 World Endurance champion Romain Dumas in the No. 709 SCG 007.

Kessel Racing’s GTE-Am Ferrari will be driven by 2022 Peugeot LMH signing Mikkel Jensen, Silver-rated David Fumanelli and Bronze pilot Takeshi Kimura.

The Swiss team, which finished second in the European Le Mans Series GTE championship last year, is set to integrate the Portimao race into its preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in August.

Those two arrivals go part of the way to compensate for the loss of four cars that joined the grid at Spa as one-off entries.

Corvette Racing is not competing in Portugal, leaving Ferrari and Porsche to duel in GTE-Pro, while the two-car G-Drive Racing setup and PR1 Motorsports also ran Spa only.

The entry list also confirms some pre-announced driver lineup adjustments since the race in Belgium, including the addition of third drivers in the factory Porsche 911 RSR-19s.

In LMP2, Paul di Resta and Louis Deletraz replace Filipe Albuquerque and Renger van der Zande at their respective teams due to a date clash with the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round in Detroit. Both substitutions were previously declared.

Loic Duval is also impacted by the scheduling conflict, with the 2013 World Endurance champion’s seat in the Realteam Racing Oreca 07 Gibson shown as ‘TBA’ on the entry.

Oliver Webb is set for his first race outing in ARC Bratislava’s Ligier JS P17 Gibson after the Brit skipped the 6 Hours of Spa due to a clash with his domestic racing program.

The third ARC Bratislava co-driver alongside Webb and team owner Miro Konopka is not named.

GTE-Am outfit Dempsey-Proton Racing will run Dominique Bastien as the designated Bronze driver in its No. 88 Porsche alongside Julien Andlauer and Marco Seefried.

Absolute Racing customer Andrew Haryanto drove the No. 88 at Spa, sharing the wheel with Seefried and reigning ELMS GTE champion Alessio Picariello.

Bastien, 75, is returning to Dempsey-Proton after driving for the team at Le Mans last year. Haryanto is expected to switch back into the lineup for round three at Monza.

The 8 Hours of Portimao was introduced to the 2021 WEC calendar upon the cancelation of the 1000 Miles of Sebring back in January.

It was originally scheduled to take place on April 4 but was shifted to its current date when the 24 Hours of Le Mans was postponed from mid-June to August.

This adjustment put Portimao second on the schedule behind Spa, due to the Belgian circuit maintaining its initial May 1 slot.

The entry list issued on Monday is not to be confused with a provisional 32-car entry that was published prior to Portimao’s re-arrangement.