Petit Le Mans 2012 Entry list discussion/speculation

[Dyson Mazda]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Black Swan <-> Corvette tie-up is fabulous news... forcing GTE-AM into series aint. Now if only can they be as good customers as Larbre...

I'd THINK that those seven ELMS teams are

TDS
Oak
Loeb
Greaves
Pecom / Status / Murphy
AF Corse
IMSA

I would think that it would probably be Murphy because Pecom has the 2 WEC rounds and Status has to be struggling with the Lola situation. Also you would expect the AF Corse entry to be run by Waltrip, wouldn't you?

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Dyson Mazda

Also you would expect the AF Corse entry to be run by Waltrip, wouldn't you?

It's the ELMS entry, so it'll be completely Italian (apart from an Irishman perhaps).

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Chiana

I'd THINK that those seven ELMS teams are

TDS
Oak
Loeb
Greaves
Pecom / Status / Murphy
AF Corse
IMSA

According to Autosport, both AF Corse and IMSA will take their GTE-Am cars, and the LMP2 teams that will take one car each there are TDS, Status, OAK, Greaves and Murphy.

[The Badger]

Its already been said that Greaves are taking both cars .

Delighted that Murphy are going ..... love to see them take that win .

[The Badger]

Dempsey Racing/Lola
Conquest Endurance/Oak
Level 5 Motorsports/Honda
Level 5 Motorsports/Honda
Greaves Motorsport/Zytek
Greaves Motorsport/Zytek
Pecom Racing/Oreca
Status GP/Lola
Murphy Prototypes/Oreca
OAK Racing/Oak
TDS by Thiriet/Oreca

I reckon Murphy have the best driver pairing out there at presant .

Kinda surprised no mention from Signatech .

So , this is what the P2 entry will look like . This is shaping up to be an excellant P2 field !!!

Any news if Starworks will run , or any other WEC P2 teams ?

[Victor_RO]

Probably no WEC P2 teams, there's too little time between Fuji and Road Atlanta. Pecom were doing a WEC+ELMS schedule this year, and their absence at Petit would indicate that WEC P2 teams will most likely not make the trip unless they have more cars and personnel available (Pecom only have one chassis).

[joeb]

Earlier there was talk of Oreca running an Oreca Nissan for a sales pitch, but that may be off the table now that others will be running that combo at Petit.

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Its already been said that Greaves are taking both cars .

Where/when was this confirmed? I highly doubt they'll be bringing 2 cars as the Zugel/Gonzalez/Julian car is entered in the WEC and as said the schedule will be too tight with Fuji just the week before.

You might be confused with the Silverstone WEC entry where Greaves is bringing 2 cars.

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

You might be confused with the Silverstone WEC entry where Greaves is bringing 2 cars.

Actually , I think you may be correct . I think I got the races mixed up , sorry for the confusion .

Dempsey Racing/Lola
Conquest Endurance/Oak
Level 5 Motorsports/Honda
Level 5 Motorsports/Honda
Greaves Motorsport/Zytek
Pecom Racing/Oreca
Status GP/Lola
Murphy Prototypes/Oreca
OAK Racing/Oak
TDS by Thiriet/Oreca

Still a brilliant entry .

I took the liberty of removing Libra off the list , for valid reasons .

[Fogelhund]

Originally Posted by Invicta on ALMSfans.com

Print edition of Autosport this morning pretty much confirms what we've speculated about the identity of the 7 cars- OAK, Murphy and TDS/Thirion Orecas, Greaves Zytek and the Status Lola, plus AF and IMSA MATMUT in GTE-Am.
No indication of whether AF will be their regular ELMS car or the Waltrip one.

[Victor_RO]

Even though it's over the pond compared to the other races, I suspect that they'll be bringing out their ELMS squad, don't forget that the AF-Waltrip car is a WEC entry and it will be in Fuji the week prior to Petit.

[Dyson Mazda]

AF-Corse has more than one Ferrari though

[Jonerz]

Originally Posted by Dyson Mazda

AF-Corse has more than one Ferrari though

They're only bringing one, it seems. They are stretched thin with WEC and Petit in consecutive weeks on opposite sides of the globe.

Chris

[Rodger Davies]

Originally Posted by Jonerz

They're only bringing one, it seems. They are stretched thin with WEC and Petit in consecutive weeks on opposite sides of the globe.

Chris

I doubt they'll have a huge problem running on consecutive weeks. After all, they're scheduled to run 4 cars in the Blancpain Endurance Series at Navarra on the same weekend as the Fuji WEC round but have the entire month free of GT Open commitments.

[The Badger]

How many people do they employ ?

[Articus]

Its a little disappointing not to get to see Bruni and Fisichella(+Vilander?) in a 458 around here again. They romped to victory here last year in the 458. With the updated car im sure it would be much of the same.

[Victor_RO]

Confirmed through a news story on Endurance-Info, the AF Corse crew that is making the trek to Road Atlanta is the Cioci-Perazzini-Griffin squad.

http://www.endurance-info.com/versio...nce-12445.html

[Jonerz]

Originally Posted by Rodger Davies

I doubt they'll have a huge problem running on consecutive weeks. After all, they're scheduled to run 4 cars in the Blancpain Endurance Series at Navarra on the same weekend as the Fuji WEC round but have the entire month free of GT Open commitments.

I mean in terms of chassis availability in addition to engineer and mechanic availability. But Badger brings up a good question, how many people do they employ and how much overlap is there between GT Open, WEC, ELMS, FIA GT3/GT1 and so forth? Presumably the sprint series require fewer mechanics...

Originally Posted by Articus

Its a little disappointing not to get to see Bruni and Fisichella(+Vilander?) in a 458 around here again. They romped to victory here last year in the 458. With the updated car im sure it would be much of the same.

They'd certainly be very competitive, no doubt. But they would still have to compete against the best of ALMS GT in the overall, and those teams haven't been standing still.

Chris

[Fogelhund]

Originally Posted by Articus

Its a little disappointing not to get to see Bruni and Fisichella(+Vilander?) in a 458 around here again. They romped to victory here last year in the 458. With the updated car im sure it would be much of the same.

Romped? You mean outqualified the competition by 0.086 seconds, and finished on the same lap as the Lizards?

[Articus]

Will there be a GTE-AM class at Petit? or will the ELMS guys who normally run GTE-Am run in the same class?

[911targa]

There'll be a ELMS GTE-AM class, 2 entries so far, Perazzini--Cioci--Griffin for AF Corse & Pons--Armindo--Narac for IMSA Matmut

http://www.europeanlemansseries.com/...it_le_mans.pdf

[MitchZ06]

Black Swan has said they'll debut their car for next year at PLM so maybe they'll race in the same GTE-Am class?

[Deleted]

Whatever the case, hopefully IMSA integrates the ELMS cars to the ALMS grid like in the past and doesn't mess up everything like FIA did at Sebring... otherwise we'll unnecessarily have seven classes (P1/ P2 / LMP2 / PC / GT / LMGTE-AM / GTC) and a dilemma with automatic invites.

Dagys made an interesting point on his SPEED article. It would seem as JMW won't be getting automatic LM invite for 'winning' PRO because they aren't doing full ELMS season now!! Same with LMPC

though I'm pretty sure JMW still gets an invite despite this (because of their history), it is still a big risk as ACO can quickly forget them if someone else offers enough cash... as IMSA, Larbre and others have witnessed in the past. Hell, even works Aston and Lotus were left to reserve list this year...

[Deleted]

So... a little over two months to go

Red & Bold = Confirmed or about as confirmed as it gets
Red= Not officially confirmed but 95% quaranteed
Normal = Maybe, probably
Grey = Distant possibility



P1
Cytosport Pickett HPD ARX
Dyson Lola Mazda
Dyson Lola Mazda
** ??? **

P2
Level 5 HPD ARX *
Level 5 HPD ARX *
Conquest Oak-Pescarolo
Status GP Lola Judd [ELMS LMP2]
Oak Oak-Pescarolo [ELMS LMP2]
Murphy Oreca Nissan [ELMS LMP2]
TDS Oreca Nissan [ELMS LMP2]
Greaves Zytek Nissan [ELMS LMP2]
Dempsey Lola Mazda
Greaves Zytek Nissan
Oak Oak-Pescarolo
Starworks HPD ARX
Libra Radical SR9

PC (max 10?)
CORE Oreca
CORE Oreca
Merchant Services Oreca
Rocketsports Oreca
Dempsey Oreca
Performance Tech Oreca
PR1 Oreca
Merchant Services Oreca
PR1 Oreca
Pickett Oreca

GT
P&M Corvette C6.R
P&M Corvette C6.R
SRT Viper GTS-R
SRT Viper GTS-R
ESM Ferrari 458
ESM Ferrari 458
RLL BMW M3
RLL BMW M3
Lizards Porsche 911
Lizards Porsche 911
Falken Porsche 911
Paul Miller Porsche 911
AJR Lotus Evora GTE
IMSA Porsche 911 [ELMS GTE-AM]
AF Corse Ferrari 458 [ELMS GTE-AM]
Black Swan Corvette C6.R
AMR / Fernandes AM Vantage
AMR / Fernandes AM Vantage
Risi Ferrari 458
Krohn Ferrari 458

GTC (max 10?)
AJR Porsche
Green Hornet Porsche
GMG Porsche
TRG Porsche
JDX Porsche
Truspeed Porsche
Green Hornet Porsche
Competition Porsche
NGT Porsche
NGT Porsche
AJR Porsche
TRG Porsche

Starters
"Confirmed": 37-ish
Realistic: 45
Optimistic: 50
Unrealistic(?): 53 after pre-quali

* Assuming Chief Tucker fields both cars, and is still a free man

[Deleted]

I guess IMSA could also run a second, non-championship car if they're after automatic invites. It's not like LM entries are quaranteed... even for French teams

By the way both IMSA and AF Corse have already quaranteed automatic invites for LM with these participations (first and second in ELMS standings), whether they finish the race or not.