Le Mans Monday Notebook

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

***Monday’s activities in downtown Le Mans saw the final group of teams pass through scrutineering, featuring the factory efforts from Porsche, Toyota and Aston Martin. There were also a number of other U.S. teams present, including Corvette Racing, Scuderia Corsa, Riley Technologies and Extreme Speed Motorsports.

***Ford has confirmed that it will be making a “major Ford Performance news announcement” on Friday at 3 p.m. France time. Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford, President and CEO Mark Fields and Group Vice President and Global Product Development Raj Nair will be in attendance for the event.

***The announcement, which will officially confirm Ford’s return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016 with a factory effort run by Chip Ganassi Racing, will be streamed live at http://bit.ly/FordPerformanceSpecialEvent

***Strakka Racing has confirmed that it will not make a bid to become a LMP2 constructor in 2017. The British squad, however, remains fully committed to its Dome S103 for the remainder of this season and into 2016, with a decision to be made on its future plans this summer.

***In addition to the unveil of the Aston Martin Racing art car, the No. 55 AF Corse Ferrari arrived at scrutineering this afternoon also sporting a revised livery that it ran at the test day. The GTE-Am entry will be driven by Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin and Alex Mortimer.

***The Ligier JS P3 will be revealed on Thursday. The Onroak Automotive-designed LMP3 car is expected to make its debut in the European Le Mans Series season-ending Four Hours of Estoril in October.

***Two-time and reigning Asian Le Mans Series champion David Cheng told Sportscar365 that the Ligier would be a “good option” for his targeted return to the series this year. Cheng said he’s evaluating multiple team and chassis options.

***Based on the level of interest, it’s understood there could be as many as six LMP3s on the grid in Asia this year.

***Fujifilm has joined forces with the FIA WEC to offer the overall winner of the 2015 Fans Photo Competition with a professional camera kit worth $4,500, which will be presented to the winner at the season finale in Bahrain. Click Here for more details and how to enter the competition.

***Longtime motorsports photographer David Stephens, a contributor to Sportscar365, passed away suddenly at the age of 53. Our entire staff sends our condolences to David’s family at this very difficult time.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John