43 Cars For Petit Le Mans
There are 43 cars listed with titles in all five classes of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on the line in the 2022 season finale, the historic 25th Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on Oct. 1.
DPi: 7 Cars
The DPi class features seven starters for its final competitive outing with Acura heading for Championship glory and Cadillac looking to snatch the case’s final ‘classic’ from their grasp.
The pair of Acuras see Brandon Hartley joining Wayne Taylor Racing in the #10 ARX 05 and Hello Castroneves once again in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing machine.
In the Cadillac pack, extra punch is added to the #01 and #02 Cadillac Racing/ Ganassi cars by Scott Dixon and Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Mike Conway once again joins the #31 Action Express/ Whelen effort with Loic Duval joining the #5 JDC Miller/ Mustang Sampling car.
The class field is completed by the return of the #48 Ally/ Action Express car for Jimmie Johnson, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Rockenfeller
LMP2: 6 Cars
It’s six for the LMP2 class after the withdrawal of the #29 Racing Team Nederland entry after the arrest, and more recent release, of Frits van Eerd as part of an ongoing Dutch investigation into money laundering allegations.
Aside from that enigma, the remaining six have the requisite trio of drivers listed.
Sebastian Montoya returns as planned for the #81 DragonSpeed effort. Rui Andrade is back with the #8 Tower Motorsports ORECA, Tristan Nunez continues in the #11 PR1 Mathiasen car, Fabio Scherer once again boosts the High Class Racing #20 and thee’s a new face at Era Motorsport as Kyle Tilley steps aside, his regular seat taken by 2020 Indy Lights race winner Christian Rasmussen from Denmark.
LMP3: 8 Cars
LMP3 was initially boosted to 11 cars for the season finale but is now down to 8.
The AWA racing/ Forty 7 Motorsports squad initially combined a total of three Duqueines (the entry as a whole has 6 Ligiers and five Duqueines) – Matt Bell, Anthony Mantella and Wayne Boyd were listed in the now withdrawn #7 Forty 7 entered car with all three also listed in one or other of the AWA entered cars.
Also withdrawn from the initial entry are Muehlner Motorsport’s Duqueine and FastMD Racing, which had been set to see the IMSA debut of Colin Noble.
Chilean ELMS racer Nico Pino joins the #33 Sean Creech Motorsports effort.
GTD Pro: 7 Cars
A third class that numbers seven cars, GTD pro is boosted by the (re-)addition of the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG with Michael Grenier, Maxi Bühk and Maxi Götz combining in an effort to take a double PLM win for the team.
Also back for more at Road Atlanta are the Risi Competizione Ferrari squad, the #62 Ferrari 499 GT3 fielding Davide Rigon, James Calado and Daniel Serra in an other high quality effort.
Corvette Racing are again bolstered by Nicky Catsburg in their solo entry with Felipe Nasr on parallel duty again with Pfaff Motorsport in the #9 Porsche.
Kyle Kirkwood rejoins the #14 Lexus effort with Jesse Krohn added to the #25 BMW Team RLL squad.
Finally, the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin sees Tom Gamble switched from GTD enduro duties to GTD Pro.
GTD: 15 Cars
Once again the numerically largest class on the grid, 16 cars featuring nine different GT3 manufacturers will make for the regular dollop of GT racing entertainment.
Acura is represented by the returning Gradient Racing team, completing their Michelin Endurance Cup programme, the #66 NSX GT3 Evo2 again piloted by Kyffin Simpson, Lola owner Till Bechtolsheimer and Mario Farnbacher.
A pair of Aston Martins sees the #44 Magnus Racing Vantage also completing their Endurance campaign, Spencer Pumpelly rejoining the team after Andy Lally and John Potter added an appearance at VIR last month to the team’s programme.
Heart of Racing stick with the planned trio in GTD after a minor early season reshuffle (see above in GTD Pro), Roman de Angelis looking to secure the GTD drivers title in the #27.
There are a pair of BMW M4 GT3s, one apiece from Paul Miller Racing and Turner Motorsport with no surprises amongst the driver line-ups.
There are a pair of Ferraris too, AF Corse’s #21 488 GT3 returning, as confirmed earlier this week on DSC and the planned completion of the Cetilar Racing programme in the last appearance for the team of their 488 before an already confirmed switch to a new 296 GT3 for next season. Ulysse de Pauw will replace Antonio Fuoco in the Cetilar line-up
Lamborghini is represented by the #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Huracan (Robert Megennis, Corey Lewis & Jeff Westphal) and the #42 – NTE Sport/ SSR Performance car for Jaden Conwright, Marco Holzer AUT and Don Yount
The Vasser Sullivan Lexus squad field their regular trio in the #14 RCF GT3 alongside the GTD Pro effort
Crucial Motorsports are a late withdrawal in their #59 McLaren
Inception Racing meanwhile have brought in Seb Priaulx alongside Brendan Iribe and Jordan Pepper in their #70 McLaren.
Mercedes AMG also have a pair of cars on the entry with the #57 Winward Racing car for Russell Ward, Philip Ellis and Marvin Dienst and the #32 Team Korthoff car of Mike Skeen, Stevan McAleer and Dirk Mueller
Finally, Porsche too has a pair of customer cars, the #16 Wright Motorsport 911 GT3 R for Ryan Hardwick USA, Zacharie Robichon and Jan Heylen and the returning #99 Team Hardpoint car for Rob Ferriol, Katherine Legge and Nick Boulle.
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