Photo: Adrenal Media/ELMS
***Plans for an all-Dutch LMP2 entry for the 24 Hours of Le Mans have been scrapped. Jos Verstappen and Jan Lammers were to be part of the effort backed by the JUMBO supermarket chain and its owner Frits van Eerd. The date clash with the Formula One race in Baku, where Verstappen’s son, Max, will compete, has been blamed as the official reason.
***The GTC class will be eliminated from the European Le Mans Series due to the arrival of the new Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup, which will be contested on ELMS weekends. The automatic invite to the 24 Hours of Le Mans rewarded for the GTC champion, however, will carry over into the new standalone GT3 series.
***Speaking of Le Mans invites, the following teams have secured entries for 2016 due to their results in the ELMS this year. Greaves Motorsport (LMP2), Formula Racing (GTE), Marc VDS Racing (GTE) and Team LNT (LMP2).
***The one-hour Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup race at Le Mans will be limited to 45 cars. In addition to GT3 machinery, the support race to the 24 Hours of Le Mans will be open to full-season ELMS and Asian Le Mans Series LMP3 cars as well.
***The date of the ELMS pre-season official test has been moved to March 22-23 due to Easter weekend. There is now a one-day gap between the ELMS and FIA WEC tests, which occurs on March 25-26.
***Charlie Robertson (Team LNT) has been named 2015 ELMS Rookie-of-the-Year, while Sam Hignett (Jota Sport) picked up “Man of the Year” honors and “Team of the Year” went to TDS Racing and team manager Xavier Combet.
***Multimatic has continued its testing and development program with the Ford GT, which has been turning laps at Sebring this week. It comes on the heels of a two-day test at Daytona, which saw the debut of a second chassis, run by Chip Ganassi Racing.
***Several FIA WEC teams tested at Motorland Aragon for a Michelin tire test. It included Porsche, which racked up more than 1,100 miles with drivers Neel Jani and Brendon Hartley over the two-day test.
***Mitch Evans completed a simulator session in a Porsche 919 Hybrid this week ahead of the Kiwi’s test debut in the LMP1 contender next month in Bahrain. The WEC LMP2 race winner, a protege of Mark Webber, was one of three drivers selected by the WEC for the LMP1 Rookie Test.
Laurent Mercier and Marcel ten Caat contributed to this report
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