Capacity 54-Car Entry for Petit Le Mans

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

A capacity 54-car entry is set for next weekend’s Motul Petit Le Mans, which will close out the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and Michelin Endurance Cup seasons.

Released on Wednesday, the entry list is comprised of 11 GTP and LMP2 entries, 14 GTD Pro cars and 18 GTD machines.

The two prototype classes feature no major surprises, with third drivers coming back into the GTP class, for most teams, since the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Matt Campbell is set to make his final outing for Porsche Penske Motorsport in the No. 6 Porsche 963 alongside Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor, who returns to the team after giving up his seat for GTP title hopeful Laurin Heinrich.

Heinrich will be back in the team’s No. 7 Porsche, which he won the Rolex 24 at Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring with, alongside Felipe Nasr and Julien Andlauer.

Kaylen Frederick returns to JDC-Miller Motorsports’ privateer Porsche with Nico Mueller and Tijmen van der Helm, while Fred Vesti is back in the points-leading No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, which could win the title with Jack Aitken by finishing ninth or higher in the race.

Will Stevens (No. 10) and Colton Herta (No. 40) are back in the pair of Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillacs, while Alex Riberas is again the third pilot in Heart of Racing Team’s Aston Martin Valkyrie.

BMW M Team WRT, fresh off a breakthrough first WeatherTech Championship win, will see Robin Frijns and Kevin Magnussen rejoin the Nos. 24 and 25 BMW M Hybrid V8s, respectively.

Scott Dixon and Alex Palou, meanwhile, will help bring Meyer Shank Racing’s GTP involvement with Acura to an end, completing the Nos. 60 and 93 lineups, respectively.

Of note, Petit Le Mans will mark Dixon’s final outing in a Honda/Acura-powered car as the Kiwi is off to Arrow McLaren next year in the NTT IndyCar Series.

LMP2 sees the Battle on the Bricks class-winning Era Motorsport squad revert to its usual Endurance Cup lineup of Ferdinand Habsburg, Jacob Abel and Naveen Rao.

There are no other changes to the teams’ typical third drivers that were last in action at Road America in August.

GTD Pro will see the return of Marvin Kirchhoefer (No. 3) and Nico Varrone (No. 4) to the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports lineups for the first time since Sebring, while Dan Harper is back in the title-contending Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO for the first time since winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January.

As previously reported, DragonSpeed will re-enter the GTD Pro class, for its final scheduled series outing, with Sebastien Bourdais joining its season-long lineup of Giacomo Altoe and Casper Stevenson.

The third driver in Car Blance’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo will be Mattia Drudi.

McLaren factory driver Benji Goethe, meanwhile, will make his debut with RLL Team McLaren, with ex-Porsche factory driver Mathieu Jaminet drafted into the No. 911 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo lineup in place of Ricardo Feller.

In GTD, Magnus Racing will be making its first start since the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen with Mario Farnbacher, Spencer Pumpelly and John Potter at the wheel of their Aston Martin.

As previously reported by Sportscar365, Alec Udell will be the third driver in Conquest Racing’s Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, as Fran Rueda fills in for Ollie Millroy in Inception Racing’s Prancing Horse.

Mercedes-AMG factory driver Luca Stolz has replaced Scott Andrews in the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Jan Heylen’s two-drivers in the No. 28 RS1 Porsche, are yet to be determined, and the only TBAs on the list.

Track action begins next Thursday with three practice sessions followed by qualifying on Friday and the ten-hour enduro getting underway Sat. Oct. 3 at 12:10 p.m. EST, with live coverage on network NBC and Peacock, as well as internationally on IMSA’s YouTube channel.

Source: Sports Car 365