First 42 Entries Confirmed for 24H Le Mans

A total of 42 cars have been confirmed for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, in the first draft publication of the entry list on Monday.

It sees 34 full-season FIA World Endurance Championship entries as well as eight additional cars that have taken up automatic invites by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest for the French endurance classic.

The preliminary list covers 70 percent of the final car count but features eight fewer cars than expected, with the ACO initially announcing plans to reveal 50 of the 60 entries in the first wave of its release.

Eight of the full-season LMP1 runners, including the ByKolles Racing ENSO CLM P1/01 NISMO, which is set to miss the upcoming WEC round at Sebring, are listed.

Toyota Gazoo Racing, Rebellion Racing and SMP Racing all have their three-driver lineups set in stone, with Jenson Button slated to return to the No. 11 SMP BR1 after being forced to miss Sebring and Spa due to his Super GT commitments.

The provisional LMP1 entry does not include either of the formerly TRSM Racing-operated Ginetta G60-LT-P1 chassis that appeared at the start of the 2018-19 campaign.

The ten ‘Super Season’ GTE-Pro cars have also been confirmed, with Aston Martin Racing, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing UK still to announce third drivers for their pairs of entries.

Ferrari and Porsche have already named their three-man crews, while BMW has only confirmed Nicky Catsburg and Augusto Farfus in its Nos. 81 and 82 cars, respectively.

So far the only non-ORECA LMP2 entries in the field are Larbre Competition’s Ligier JS P217 Gibson and the Dallara P217 Gibson entered by Racing Team Nederland.

G-Drive Racing and RLR MSport have both assumed positions on the grid after winning last year’s European Le Mans Series class titles with Oreca 07 Gibson machinery.

A total of 15 cars, meanwhile, are listed in GTE-Am, including two auto-invites taken up from Proton Competition and Ferrari 488 GTE entries from Kessel Racing, JMW Motorsport and WeatherTech Racing.

Keating Motorsports, which holds the other auto-invite awarded by IMSA, has been confirmed as the first customer Ford GT entry with Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Felipe Fraga as drivers.

The full 60-car list, plus reserve entries, will be confirmed on March 1 and will include auto-invites from the 2018-19 Asian Le Mans Series which concludes later this month.

Entries from Corvette Racing, as well as additional factory Fords and Porsche 911 RSRs from the companies’ U.S.-based teams, are expected to feature on the next copy.

Provisional Le Mans Entry List: