ELMS – 30 cars on track for the 4 Hours of Imola

Of the 30 due to take the start, 17 are prototypes and 13 are GTs.  The current LMP2 points leader, the No.41 Greaves Motorsport Gibson 015S-Nissan, driven by the Gary Hirsch, Jon Lancaster and Björn Wirdheim, will be determined to remain at the forefront.  However, the second-015S Gibson Nissan on the grid, that of the No.38 JOTA Sport (Simon Dolan, Harry Tincknell and Felipe Albuquerque) which won the last LMP2 6 Hours of Spa WEC and the Italian round in 2014, will be keen to retake the upper hand and maintain its dominance in Emilia Romagna.  Holders of third place in England, Tristan Gommendy, Ludovic Badey and Pierre Thiriet will from their side do all they can to get the sole ORECA 05 Nissan (No.46 Thiriet by TDS Racing) onto the top step of the podium in Italy. The only JS P2-Judd on the grid, operated by the American Krohn Racing team (No.40) finished just off the British podium and the Swedish-American-Brazilian trio of drivers will be hoping to be in the mix at the front following a very pleasing first race by Tracy Krohn, Nic Jönsson and Oswaldo Negri.

The Eurasia Motorsport team (5th at Silverstone) will be entering the No.33 ORECA Nissan 03R, driven by the Chinese Pu Jun Jin and Dutchman Nico Pieter de Bruijn, while the second ORECA Nissan 03R of Murphy Prototypes (No.48) will once again be driven by Nathanaël Berthon, Michael Lyons and Mark Patterson. After a hard race in England, which saw the No.29 Morgan Nissan fall victim to an accident not of its own making, Pegasus Racing will be hoping to build on the hard work done by the team at Silverstone in order to allow Léo Roussel, David Cheng and Julien Schell to achieve better results at Imola.  The two Ibanez Racing Nissan ORECA 03s, No.44 and No.45, will respectively be in the hands of Italian Michele La Rosa and Japanese Yutaka Yamagishi, and Pierre Perret/Jose Ibanez and another Italian, Ivan Bellarosa, for his home race.  Absent from the first round, the Russian SMP Racing team has carried out over 6000 km of testing with the Nissan BR01 to get ready for Imola and Le Mans.  The team’s two new cars will be entered in Italy as follows: No.27 for Maurizio Mediani, David Markozov and Nicolas Minassian, and the No.37 for Mikhail Aleshin and brothers Anton and Kirill Ladygin.

Six LMP3s on track

Among the prototypes entered for Imola, in addition to the 11 LMP2s listed above, will be six LMP3 cars. Winner of the top two places on the first podium of the season, Team LNT seems determined to continue in the ELMS as it has started.  Sir Chris Hoy and young Charlie Robertson will drive the No.3 Ginetta Nissan while the No.2 will be in the hands of Michael Simpson and Gaëtan Paletou. The University of Bolton team’s No.7, third at Silverstone, will be driven by Briton Rob Garofall and Dane Morten Dons.  The Spanish SVK by Speed ​​Factory team, which finished just off the podium at Silverstone, will enter the No.15 Ginetta Nissan for Latvian Konstantin Calko, Spaniard Jesus Fuster and Lithuanian Dainius Matijosaitis.  Lanan Racing, less lucky in England, will be back on the grid with the No.11 Ginetta Nissan for British trio Alex Craven, Joey Foster and Charlie Hollings.

They had to miss the first race of the season, but will be present in full force for their home race in Italy:  Villorba Corse will run Italian driving duo Giorgio Sernagiotto and Roberto Lacorte in the No.5.

Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Aston Martin: four manufacturers in GT

In the LMGTE category, five Ferraris will be aiming to score maximum points in their home country. The No.51 and 55 AF Corse entries will want at all costs to be at the sharp end with their colourful mix of driver line ups:  Raffaele Giammaria, Matteo Cressoni and Peter Mann in the No.51, and Britons Duncan Cameron and Aaron Scott as well Irishman (and 2013 LMGTE class champion) Matt Griffin in the No.55. AT Racing (No.56), Formula Racing (No.60) and JMW Motorsport (No.66) will enter the other three F458s in the category for respectively Alexander Talkanitsa Senior and Junior, alongside Alessandro Pier Guidi, Johnny Laursen, Mikkel Mac and Andrea Rizzoli (No.60) and the British trio of George Richardson/Robert Smith and Sam Tordoff, who clinched second place at Silverstone.

The No.86 Gulf Racing UK Porsche, currently leading the overall standings after victory in England, will be in the hands of Mike Wainwright, Adam Carroll and Phil Keen. The second Porsche 911 RSR on the grid, run by Proton Competition, will be driven by Richard Lietz, Marco Mapelli and Christian Ried (No.88).  Finally, the solo BMW Z4 in LMGTE, that of Team BMW MarcVDS (No.52) will again be in the hands of Touring Car champion Andy Priaulx, Frenchman Henry Hassid and Finn Jesse Krohn.

Five cars and three constructors in GTC

The winners of the first round, Franck Perera, Dino Lunardi and Eric Dermont (TDS Racing – No.59 BMW Z4 GT3), will of course wish to repeat that performance in Italy. However, local favourite AF Corse will be there in force with three F458 Italia GT3s which will be entrusted to Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci and Stuart Hall in the No.62, Giorgio Roda, Ilya Melnikov and Marco Cioci at the wheel of the No.63 and finally Mads Rasmussen, Felipe Barreiros and Francisco Guesdes in the No.64, the latter duo having been second at Silverstone. The only Aston Martin Vantage GT3 on the grid will be the one of Massive Motorsport, in the hands of the Danish trio of Casper Elgaard, Kristian Poulsen and Simon Moller.

Provisional entry lists HERE

Twelve days to go until the 4 Hours of Imola

Track action at Imola will begin on Saturday, May 16th at 10h30 with a first free practice session of 90 minutes. The second session will take place between 15h00 and 16h30.

Everyone will be back on track on Sunday for GT qualifying at 10h00 and then the LMPs at 10h30. The 4 Hours of Imola will start at 14h00.

For the full programme, click HERE

Press release ELMS