Four Ford GTs will race at the Le Mans 24 Hours this June on the 50th anniversary of the manufacturer’s first victory at the French event.
The participation of the two GTs competing in the IMSA SportsCar Championship alongside Ford’s World Endurance Championship cars was confirmed when race organiser the Automobile Club de l’Ouest published the 60-strong entry list for the 24 Hours on Friday.
The four cars entered in the GTE Pro class will all compete at Le Mans under the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing banner.
The cars have have been given the races numbers #66 through to #69 to recognition of the four consecutive years that Ford won at Le Mans with its Ford MkII, the MkIV and the GT40.
The drivers listed for the two US-entered Fords are Marino Franchitti (#66) and Olivier Pla (#67), and the pair in the two WEC entries being run from premises in the UK are Joey Hand (#68) and Ryan Briscoe (#69).
The entry will be 60 rather than 58 cars after the ACO brought forward its expansion of the pitlane.
It had originally been intended to expand by two pits for 2016 and two for ’17.
Porsche has also been allocated two entries in GTE Pro despite its withdrawal of its full-factory Manthey team from the WEC.
Drivers listed against Manthey’s pair of 911 RSRs are Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki.
Two full WEC entries from each of the factory AF Corse Ferrari team and Aston Martin Racing, plus the two Corvette Racing Chevrolets bring the GTE Pro entry to 14 cars.
The LMP1 entry is headed by three pairs of factory cars from Porsche, Audi and Toyota.
Porsche and Audi have downscaled their respective Le Mans campaigns from three to two cars, a joint cost-cutting move announced last November.
They are joined by privateer P1 entries from Rebellion Racing and the ByKolles team.
A total of 22 LMP2 cars are on the expanded entry.
The Manor name will be one of those with an ORECA-Nissan, the running of which will be overseen by founder John Booth.
Tor Graves, who previously competed in Formula Renault and Formula 3 in the UK with Manor, is the team’s first confirmed driver.
The entry includes reigning WEC class champion G-Drive Racing, which has moved from OAK Racing to the British Jota Sport team in a deal that incorporates one entry for an ORECA 05 in the full world championship and one Gibson in the European Le Mans Series.
Michael Shank Racing will field a Ligier-Honda JSP2 with assistance from the car’s manufacturer, Onroak Automotive.
European Le Mans Series entrant Greaves Motorsport has two entries, one for a Ligier and one for a Gibson, while it will also provide support for the Krohn Racing Ligier.
The Panis-Barthez Competition team will have an LMP2 entry at Le Mans run in conjunction with Tech 1 Racing. It will field both an LMP2 and LMP3 in the ELMS, with Barthez among the LMP2 drivers.
The Riley Motorsports squad is only seventh on the reserve list with its Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R in GTE Am.
Fourteen cars make up the GTE Am class, which includes a pair of Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantages for Paul Dalla Lana and Andrew Howard.
LMP1
1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid (Timo Bernhard)
2 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid (Romain Dumas)
4 ByKolles Racing Team CLM P1/01-AER (Simon Trummer)
5 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050-HYBRID (Anthony Davidson)
6 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050-HYBRID (Stephane Sarrazin)
7 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 (Marcel Fassler)
8 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 (Lucas di Grassi)
12 Rebellion Racing Rebellion R-One-AER (Nicolas Prost)
13 Rebellion Racing Rebellion R-One-AER (Matheo Tuscher)
LMP2
22 SO24! By Lombard Racing Ligier JSP2-Judd (Vincent Capillaire)
23 Panis-Barthez Competition Ligier JSP2-Nissan (Fabien Barthez)
26 G-Drive Racing ORECA 05-Nissan (Roman Rusinov)
27 SMP Racing BR01-Nissan (Nicolas Minassian)
28 Pegasus Racing Morgan-Nissan (Julien Schell)
30 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier JSP2-Nissan (Scott Sharp)
31 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier JSP2-Nissan (Ryan Dalziel)
33 Eurasia Motorsport ORECA 05-Nissan (Pu Junjin)
34 Race Performance ORECA 03R-Judd (Nicolas Leutwiler)
35 Baxi DC Racing Alpine Alpine A460-Nissan (David Cheng)
36 Signatech Alpine Alpine A460-Nissan (Gustavo Menezes)
37 SMP Racing BR01-Nissan (Vitaly Petrov)
38 G-Drive Racing Gibson 015S-Nissan (Simon Dolan)
40 Krohn Racing Ligier JSP2-Nissan (Tracy Krohn)
41 Greaves Motorsport Ligier JSP2-Nissan (Memo Rojas)
42 Strakka Racing Gibson 015S-Nissan (Nick Leventis)
43 RGR Sport by Monrad Ligier JSP2-Nissan (Ricardo Gonzalez)
44 Manor ORECA 05-Nissan (Tor Graves)
46 Thiriet By TDS Racing ORECA 05-Nissan (Pierre Thiriet)
47 KCMG ORECA 05-Nissan (Tsugio Matsuda)
48 Murphy Prototypes ORECA 03R-Nissan (Greg Murphy)
49 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JSP2-Nissan (John Pew)
GTE Pro
51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE (Gianmaria Bruni)
63 Corvette Racing-GM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R (Jan Magnussen)
64 Corvette Racing-GM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R (Oliver Gavin)
66 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford GT (Marino Franchitti)
67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford GT (Olivier Pla)
68 Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA Ford GT (Joey Hand)
69 Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA Ford GT (Ryan Briscoe)
71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE (Davide Rigon)
77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR (2016) (Richard Lietz)
82 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE (Giancarlo Fisichella)
91 Porsche Motorsport Porsche 911 RSR (2016) (Partick Pilet)
92 Porsche Motorsport Porsche 911 RSR (2016) (Frederic Makowiecki)
95 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage (Nicki Thiim)
97 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage (Richie Stanaway)
GTE Am
50 Larbre Competition Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06 (Yutaka Yamagishi)
55 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia (Duncan Cameron)
57 Team AAI Chevrolet Corvette C6-ZR1 (Jun-San Chen)
58 Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 Italia (Mok Weng Sun)
59 TDS Racing Aston Martin V8 Vantage (Eric Dermont)
60 Formula Racing Ferrari 458 Italia (Johnny Laursen)
62 Scuderia Corse Ferrari 458 Italia (Bill Sweedler)
78 KCMG Porsche 911 RSR (Christian Ried)
83 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia (Francois Perrodo)
86 Gulf Racing UK Porsche 911 RSR (Michael Wainwright)
88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR (Khaled Al Qubaisi)
89 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR (Gianluca Roda)
98 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin V8 Vantage (Paul Dalla Lana)
99 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin V8 Vantage (Andrew Howard)
Garage 56
84 SRT41 By OAK Racing Morgan LMP2-Nissan (Frederic Sausset)
Drivers named are for entry list purposes only and could change
