The 56 entries revealed Thursday for the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans features 14 LMP1, 20 LMP2, 9 GTE-Pro and 13 GTE-Am entries.
That number of 56 includes the full field of 35 cars competing in the full FIA World Endurance Championship, leaving only 21 at-large spots. Upwards of 70 cars were anticipated to file entry requests in December.
LMP1 will fill a quarter of the field for the first time in years. The 14-car LMP1 field includes the 11 full-season entries plus an extra third car apiece from Audi, Porsche and Nissan. This leaves Toyota the only factory entry running just two.
Defending race winners Jota Sport are back to bolster the LMP2 numbers, now with the updated Zytek Z11SN Nissan revised and renamed as the Gibson 015S Nissan.
Other additional LMP2 entries in the 20-car class include Thiriet by TDS Racing, now with an Oreca 05 Nissan, SMP Racing’s two BR01 Nissans, the Krohn Racing (Ligier JS P2 Judd), Ibanez Racing (Oreca 03R Nissan), Pegasus Racing (Morgan Nissan), Greaves Motorsport (Gibson 015S Nissan) and Murphy Prototypes (Oreca 03R Nissan).
In GTE-Pro, Corvette Racing makes its annual appearance at Le Mans with two cars to go alongside the seven full-season cars. Risi Competizione, meanwhile, will forego a run at Le Mans this year.
GTE-Am sees the full-season WEC entries joined by a number of extras, including the Scuderia Corsa effort that takes up its at-large bid from IMSA for the class.
Riley Motorsports-TI Auto is listed as the first reserve with Jeroen Bleekemolen in the Dodge Viper GTS-R.
In a change from past years, the reserve list is a single list rather than separate prototype and GTE lists. Six others are listed besides the Viper, which will move up to a grid spot if any of the 56 currently entered withdraw.
The other key piece of news from Pierre Fillon, ACO President, was that at some point in the near future the field will go from 56 cars up to 60. The new pits are expected to be built at pit out.
“We can’t do it in a few months. But the project is underway,” he said. “Very soon we will have 60 pits. There seems to be a bigger field at Le Mans every year.”
*Denotes full-season FIA World Endurance Championship entrant.
Article originally on SportsCar365.com.
