When an edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans ends, the next one already starts, as it is with any big name endurance race, and while halfway home to June 2018, the 60 names eligible for the French race were announced in the ACO press conference at Paris.
The list consists basically of the automatic entries of those entering the FIA WEC whole season, as well champions and runner-ups of the ACO sanctioned competitions around the world and IMSA’s entries at large, and last year’s class winners in France hold their places too if they’re returning. The only 2017 class winner that will not return is exactly the overall winner from Porsche, as the program shut down when the season ended.
Now that the basic was explained here’s a rundown through all the classes, their entries and a quite popular reserve list.
LMP1 - 10 cars
No surprises in the LMP1 grid other than the increase in privateer entries boosted by TRS Manor, SMP Racing, Dragonspeed and the return of Rebellion Racing to the top class, as all ten cars come from teh FIA WEC.
Toyota appears as serious candidates if reliability is there, but those mentioned above can’t be ignored, and Dragonspeed and ByKolles may have problems with their single car entries, though the American squad will have the SMP Racing squad to work closely in the development of the BR1 as their trump card.
LMP2 - 20 cars
Unlike the Oreca domination in FIA WEC, the LMP2 class for Le Mans brings lots of Ligier JS P217 models. Despite the possibilities, Jackie Chan DC Racing will make use of its extra two slots acquired by winning the LMP2 and LMP3 classes in the Asian LMS, probably to used by any other team to run in partnership with them.
Worth notice is also that two LMP1 teams, Dragonspeed and SMP Racing, will have their entries in LMP2 also.
LMGTE-Pro - 17 cars
It’s an all out war in the top production class, as the standard factory entries from FIA WEC will be joined by extra factory entries coming from IMSA as well Corvette’s annual European one-off.
Repeating the dose, Ford Chip Ganassi brings both the Team UK and Team USA cars in a total of four, and Porsche followed the trend and will do the same, while AF Corse will bring an extra Ferrari to the show. Aston Martin, Corvette and BMW Team MTEK remain bringing their usual two cars which may put them a bit behind, specially BMW and Aston Martin which are bringing new cars.
LMGTE-Am - 13 cars
The FIA WEC regulars are followed by the European champions like JMW Motorsport and Ebimotors while Keating Motorsports comes as the only IMSA representative in the main list. Porsches and Ferrari are almost in even number as the majority of the field, while TF Sport and Aston Martin with Paul Dalla Lana comes as the Vantage GTE resistance.
Reserve entries - 9 cars
Six prototypes and three GTs will stay in the sidelines in case of one of the 60 entries relinquish their slots, with the other two at large entries from IMSA, KCMG and ARC Bratislava as the Asian LMS representatives and the rest being composed by ELMS and Michelin Cup teams like the F2 specialist Racing Engineering, which turned its attentions to sportscar racing this year.
The 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans will be held on June 16th and 17th.
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