2026 24 Hours of Le Mans Preview

The opening practice sessions and first round of qualifying has already taken place from Circuit de la Sarthe, and next up will be the Hyperpole session to set the starting grid for the 94th 24 Hours of Le Mans. 

There has already been some surprises, and the defending race winner will have some work to do on race day. Sixty-two cars are entered across the three class, 17 of which are in the top class, Hypercar. LMP2 is home to 19 entries while LMGT3 is the largest class with 25 cars. 

With so little time until race day, we will look at each of the three classes and ask four questions.

Hypercar

Are we in for a surprise?

In qualifying, Alpine was fastest with the #35 Alpine A424 of António Félix da Costa, Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg topping the charts at 3:23.135 with the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota Cadillac of Louis Delétraz, Will Stevens and Norman Nato was second, 0.013 seconds slower. Wayne Taylor Racing took third with Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque in the #101 Cadillac, 0.188 seconds off the top time.

BMW picked up its first FIA World Endurance Championship overall victory in the last race at Spa-Francorchamps, and the Spa winning #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 oF Robin Frijns, René Rast and Sheldon van der Linde took fourth, 0.309 seconds off the top. Cadillac had all three of its cars in the top five with the #38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota entry of Sébastien Bourdais, Earl Bamber and Jack Aitken in fifth with the #15 BMW of Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor rousing out the top six.

Alpine has only won once in WEC with the A424. Milesi and Habsburg won at Fuji last year with Paul-Loup Chatin. Cadillac's only victory was last year at São Palou with Stevens and Nato winning with Alex Lynn in the #12 V-Series.R. The #12 Cadillac was on pole position last year for Le Mans and finished fourth. Cadillac's best Le Mans finish since its return remains third in 2023.

BMW had a double retirement in 2024 and last year its two cars were 16th and 17th. Alpine also double retired in 2024 and was only tenth and 11th last year. 

Where is Ferrari? 

The very back of Hypercar. Three of the 18 entries would fail to advance to the Hyperpole session set for Ferrari, and the defending race-winning #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye did not advance along with the two Peugeot 9X8s. The other two factory Ferraris were 14th and 15th in qualifying.

The #50 Ferrari led the way with Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina ahead of the #51 Ferrari of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guid and Antonio Giovinazzi. The good news is these two entries will have a chance to improve in the Hyperpole session and could be starting much better for race day.

Ferrari has won the last three years overall at Le Mans, and it is attempting to win the famed race in four consecutive years. It would be the ninth time a manufacturer has won Le Mans in four consecutive years. The Ferrari 499P is undefeated at Le Mans and in each of the last two years Ferrari has gone first and third. However, Ferrari has not won in the FIA World Endurance Championship since last year's 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Is there a dark horse?

Aston Martin was fastest on the test day and it showed respectable speed in qualifying. The #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie of Alex Riberas, Marco Sørensen and Roman De Angelis was seventh in qualifying while the #007 Valkyrie of Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble and Ross Gunn was ninth. The #007 Valkyrie was fastest on the test day. 

For all the hype around the Aston Martin program, results have been hard to come by. However, the team has finished in the points in four consecutive races dating back to last season. The #007 Aston Martin was fourth at Spa-Francorchamps last month.

What stories should we keep in mind?

Toyota driver Sébastien Buemi is a victory away from becoming the sixth driver to win five times at Le Mans. Buemi's most recent victory was in 2022. He won that race with Brandon Hartley, who has three Le Mans victories of his own, and Ryō Hirakawa, who fills out the #8 Toyota with Buemi and Hartley. This is the fifth consecutive year these three drivers are together. 

Genesis will become the first Korean manufacturer to start the 24 Hours of Le Mans. André Lotterer leads the outfit as a three-time Le Mans winner, but his most recent overall podium was third in 2015 with Audi. Pipo Derani is with his third manufacturer in Hypercar. Derani ran with Glickenhaus in 2021 and 2022 before two years with Cadillac in 2023 and 2024.

No French driver has won overall since Romain Dumas in 2016. Seven of the 18 Hypercar entries have at least one French driver. The #36 Alpine is an all-French lineup with Jules Gounon, Frédéric Makowiecki and Victor Martins. 

The last time a Le Mans winner had all its drivers from the same country was in 1980 when Jean Rondeau and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud won in the Rondeau M379B. Along with the #36 Alpine, the other Hypercar entry with all its drivers from the same country is the all-British #007 Aston Martin of Gamble, Gunn and Tincknell.

LMP2

Could the best story be in LMP2?

The #30 Duqueine Team Oreca-Gibson led qualifying with Doriane Pin, Julien Andlauer and Richard Verschoor. The #30 Oreca leads the European Le Mans Series championship after a pair of third-place finishes, and this team was fastest in qualifying for LMP2 with a top lap at 3:34.662.

Pin enters Le Mans doubling as a Mercedes-AMG F1 development driver, and she won the F1 Academy championship last season. This will be her Le Mans return as she did run in LMP2 in 2023 with Prema alongside co-drivers Mirko Bortolotti and Daniil Kvyat.

Ten women have won a class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but not since 1978 when Anny-Charlotte Verney won the GT 3.0 class with Xavier Lapeyre and Fraçois Servanin has her co-drivers.

This is also Verschoor's Le Mans debut having spent the last five years in Formula Two, and he finished third in last year's Formula Two championship. Andlauer opened this year with victories in the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring with Porsche Penske Motorsport. His only Le Mans class victory was on debut in 2018 in GTE Am with Dempsey-Proton Racing.

Is there a clear team to beat?

In recent years in LMP2, it has been Inter Europol Competition. The Polish team has won the class in two of the last three years, and Jakub Śmiechowski was one of the drivers in both winning teams. Last year’s winning team remains intact with Śmiechowski, Tom Dillmann and Nick Yelloly in the #43 Oreca. They were sixth in qualifying. 

The sister car was quicker. The #343 Oreca of Reshad de Gerius, Bijoy Garg and Nico Müller was third. Garg won on his Le Mans debut in 2024 with United Autosports in LMP2. Müller returns to Le Mans after a year on the sidelines. The Swiss driver ran for Peugeot in Hypercar in 2023 and 2024. This will be de Gerus’ fifth Le Mans start. He was third in LMP2 two years ago with IDEC Sport. 

Who is looking for redemption?

A cycling injury kept Ben Barnicoat from competing in last year's Le Mans where he was supposed to run in LMGT3 with Akkodis ASP Team. The good news is Barnicoat is with a familiar outfit.

Driving for AF Corse, this will be his third start with the team after having drove for them in 2023 and 2024. Barnicoat is back with François Perrodo, who was his co-driver in both those years, and they were the top LMP2 Pro-Am entry in 2024 with Nicolás Varrone. This Le Mans all have Matthieu Vaxivière as their third river. Vaxivière and Perrodo have previously been co-drivers four times at Le Mans, 2017 to 2019 and last year.

Since his injury, Barnicoat has only won one race across all competitions. On May 25, Barnicoat won the second race of the British GT Championship Oulton Park round with Morgan Tillbrook in the #88 Optimum Motorsport McLaren.

Is seasoned veteran returning from an absence?

Yes! 

For the first time since 2023, Romain Dumas is competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The two-time overall winner last competed in 2023 with Glickenhaus, ending a 23-year streak of starts.

In this year's race, Dumas is competing for RD Limited in the #48 Oreca-Gibson. His co-drivers are Tristan Vautier, who is making his fourth Le Mans start in five years, and Fred Poordad, who has competed in the Asian Le Mans Series the last two years.

For Dumas, this is only his third time running in the LMP2 class. He was tenth overall in 2017 driving for Signatech Alpine. In 2019, Dumas returned to LMP2 and was 12th overall.

LMGT3

Are there any notable second generation drivers competing?

A few, and they were toward the top of the speed chart.

The #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang was fastest with Eric Powell, Ben Tuck and Sebastian Priaulx with a lap at 3:55.951 seconds.

For Priaulx, this will be his first Le Mans experience since 2022 when he ran a Porsche for this organization. His father Andy never won at Le Mans, not even a class over six starts. Andy Priaulx was second in GTE Pro in 2017 driving a Ford GT for Chip Ganassi Racing. 

Heart of Racing team was 0.024 seconds off the top spot in LMGT3, which could have meant Eduardo Barrichello leading the car along since co-drivers Jonny Adams and Gray Newell. Barrichello leads IMSA's GT Daytona class championship as he has three podium finishes this season. We are nearly nine years removed from Rubens Barrichello's lone Le Mans start. It was in LMP2 with Racing Team Nederland. Jan Lammers and Frits van Eerd were Barrichello's co-drivers and they were 11th in class, 13th overall.

The #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari was fifth in qualifying, and it has Lorenzo Patrese sharing the seat with Dustin Blattner and Dennis Marschall. Patrese's father Riccardo made three Le Mans starts, two with Martini Racing and a Lancia in 1981 and 1982. The final start was with Nissan in 1997. Ricardo Patrese had three retirements in three Le Mans starts.

Giuliano Alesi will make his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut sharing the #62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG with Abdulla Al-Khelaifi and Julian Hanses. Alesi competes full-time in Super GT in Japan, and this is his fifth season in the GT500 class. Jean Alessi made two Le Mans starts 22 years apart. In 1989, he drove a Porsche 962C for Team Schuppan with Dominic Dobson and Will Hoy as his co-drivers. In 2010, Alesi returned to Le Mans to race alongside Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander in GT2. They were fourth in class, 16th overall.

Who could be the breakout performer?

Ayhancan Güven will make his Le Mans debut this weekend, and he has been off to a slow start in LMGT3. Joining Manthey DK Engineering this offseason, 

However, Güven stands out after his pass on the final lap of the Deutsche Tournwagen Masters season to take the championship. The Turkish driver is already a winner of the Bathurst 12 Hour, and he has been runner-up for the 24 Hour Nurburgring in 2024 and 2025.

Güven has Time Boguslavskiy and James Cottingham sharing the #91 Porsche. They were third in qualifying. 

Manthey has won the last two years in LMGT3, the only team to win in the class so far at Le Mans. Richard Lietz has been apart of both winning teams, and Lietz has a class victory in three of his last four Le Mans starts with six total class victories in his Le Mans career. Lietz is back in the #92 Porsche with Riccardo Pera, who he won last year with, and Yasser Shahin, who he won with in 2024. The #92 Porsche snuck through to Hyperpole as it was 14th in qualifying.

Who are some of the fun debutants?

Parker Thompson had never made a WEC start prior to the Imola season opener in April. Thompson start with a bang as the #69 Team WRT BMW took victory with Thompson joined in the car with Dan Harper and Anthony McIntosh.

Thirteen years ago, Peter Dempsey took victory in one of the most memorable finishes, a four-way photo for first in the Freedom 100. Since 2013, Dempsey has mostly not been competing, but working as a driver's coach in the American ladder system. He has dabbled in some Formula Ford competitions. This year, Dempsey returned to full-time competition at the bronze driver in the Racing Team Turkey Corvette. 

After stepping away from motorsports early in 2025 when lined up to possibly be a member of the Genesis program, Logan Sargeant is back for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Now a Ford factory driver, Sargeant is running the #88 Proton Competition Ford. While Sargeant was eighth at Imola, the team was 12th at Spa-Francorchamps.

Which manufacturer is facing an uphill battle?

The answer is Corvette. While TF Sport was not entirely on the bottom, all four Corvettes entered were in the bottom eight during qualifying, and none will run for Hyperpole.

The fastest Corvette was the #34 Racing Team Turkey Corvette, but the #34 Corvette was disqualified from qualifying after Peter Dempsey ran the fastest lap in the session at 3:55.744 seconds. The time was disallowed after excessive diffuser strake wear was found. 

The #33 TF Sport Corvette was 17th in class during qualifying, but that was not enough to advance to the Hyperpole session. While the #33 Corvette won last year in the Qatar season opener, its only other podium finish since then was second at Imola in April as Nicky Catsburg and Jonny Edgar were in that lineup with Ben Keating parachuting in for Le Mans as usual third driver Blake McDonald will not compete at Le Mans. 

From there, Corvette took the slowest two times on the speed cart. The #2 TF Sport Corvette of Ben Green, Lorcan Hanafin and Prince Jefri Ibrahim were ahead of the #13 13 Autosport Corvette of Grey Fidani, Matt Bell and Lars Kern. 

Thursday's on-track action will begin with a three-hour practice starting at 8:45 a.m. ET. The Hyperpole session will be held at 2:00 p.m. ET, first with the LMP2 and LMGT3 cars running simultaneously. Hypercar will close out the Hyperpole session at 3:05 p.m. ET. A one-hour night practice session will conclude Thursday at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Saturday's warm-up session will be at 6:00 a.m. ET. The 94th 24 Hours of Le Mans will begin at 10:00 a.m. ET on Saturday June 13.

2025 24 Hours of Le Mans LMGT3 Preview

We are wrapping up our 24 Hours of Le Mans previews with the LMGT3 class. Two-dozen entries are in the pro-am class that bring together nine manufacturers and 72 drivers from around the world. Including Hypercar and LMP2, 186 drivers will be competing in this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans.

A few drivers are going to be making their debut. A few drivers have famous last names. Some drivers we have seen for a number of years at Le Mans. 

Who Won Last Year?

Manthey Racing won last year for Porsche with Richard Lietz, Marris Schuring and Yasser Shahin, and that lineup is not together for this year's race. 

Lietz is still with Manthey, and he will be in the #92 Porsche but with Ryan Hardwick and Riccardo Pera as his co-drivers. Shahin has moved to Team WRT, which finished second to Manthey last year at Le Mans. Shahin will be in the #31 BMW with Augusto Farfus and Timur Boguslavskiy. Schuring does not have a ride at Le Mans this year. 

The #90 Manthey Porsche has Klaus Bachler, Antares Au and Look Hartog as its drivers. 

Proton Competition took third and fourth last year with its two Ford Mustangs. The #77 Ford will feature Ben Barker, Bernardo Sousa and Ben Tuck while Dennis Olsen, Stefano Gattuso and Gianmarco Levorato will drive the #88 Ford.

Who is Coming into Le Mans Hot?

The answer is nobody in the FIA World Endurance Championship. 

Three races, three different winners, nine different cars have finished on the podium through three races, and only three cars have finished in the top five in multiple races this season. Your guess is as good as anybody. There is no clear favorite. 

TF Sport leads the LMGT3 championship with 44 points as the #33 Corvette won at Qatar, but Jonny Edgar, Daniel Juncadella and Ben Keating were seventh and 13th in the next two races. AF Corse are four points back as the #21 Ferrari of François Hériau, Simon Mann and Alessio Rovera won at Spa-Francorchamps but retired from Imola while finishing fifth in Qatar. 

The #92 Manthey Porsche won the Imola round, but it has finished 12th (Qatar) and seventh (Spa-Francorchamps) in the other races. However, Manthey went 1-2 in the 2024-25 Asian Le Mans Series. Au and Bachler won the championship while Hardwick, Lietz and Pera were second. If there is any reason why Manthey should be excited, it is Bachler is showing up to Le Mans while leading IMSA's GTD Pro championship and he has won twice this season.

Even in European Le Mans Series competition, there have been two winners from the first two races.

Iron Dames won at Barcelona, but then Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Célia Martín were seventh at Circuit Paul Ricard. They will drive the #85 Porsche On the flipside, AF Corse won in France with Custodio Toledo, Riccardo Agostini and Lilou Wadoux but they were ninth at Barcelona in the #150 Ferrari. 

Is Anyone Heading to Le Mans Cold?

AWA Racing won the 24 Hours of Daytona in the GTD class, but since then Matt Bell and Orey Fidani have finished tenth or worse in the last three races. Bell and Fidani head to Le Mans to drive AWA's #13 Corvette with Lars Kern, who was also in the Daytona winner squad. 

While United Autosports was second at Qatar with the #59 McLaren, the team has not finished better than seventh this season. Sébastien Baud, James Cottingham and Grégoire Saucy were 14th and 15th in the last two races in the #59 McLaren. Sean Gelael and Darren Leung were second last year at Le Mans in this class with Team WRT. This year, Gelael and Leung are heading to Le Mans coming off a retirement at Spa-Francorchamps with Marino Sato in the #95 McLaren. 

Is Valentino Rossi Competing?

Yes. Rossi is in the #46 Team WRT BMW with Ahmad Al Harthy and Kelvin van der Linde. They were second at Imola. Van der Linde won the Bathurst 12 Hour earlier this year with his brother Sheldon, and with Augusto Farfus. Al Harthy was second in the GTE-Am class in 2023 driving an Aston Martin for TF Sport. 

Last year, Rossi, Al Harthy and Maxime Martin retired after completing only 109 laps. The #46 BMW was second at Imola, but was ninth at Spa-Francorchamps last month.

Which Drivers are Getting Unexpected Opportunities?

Jack Hawksworth wasn't supposed to be at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but an injury to Ben Barnicoat keeps Barnicoat sidelined while Hawksworth will be at Le Mans in the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus. He joins Finn Gehrsitz and Arnold Robin. The #78 Lexus has finished fourth, third and eighth this season. Hawksworth has finished second in three consecutive IMSA races in the GTD class. 

Injuries to Claudio Schiavoni has led to a complete line change in the #60 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG. Andrew Gilbert, Lorcan Hanafin and Fran Rueda will take over the #60 Mercedes-AMG for Le Mans. All three drivers will be making their Le Mans debuts. Gilbert and Rueda are co-drivers in ELMS with Miguel Molina in the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari. Hanafin drive the #63 Mercedes-AMG for Iron Lynx in ELMS, and he was second at Circuit Paul Ricard with co-drivers Martin Berry and Fabian Schiller. 

Are There Any Sons with More Famous Fathers Competing?

Yes, there are two. 

Eduardo Barrichello will make his Le Mans debut in the #10 Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin with Derek DeBoer and Valentin Hasse-Clot. Barrichello is competing in WEC for the first time after spending the last two seasons running in the Stock Car Brasil Series, and he was third in that championship last year. His father Rubens made only one Le Mans start. Rubens competed with Racing Team Nederland in 2017 with Jan Lammers and Frits van Eerd as co-drivers in the LMP2 class. They were 11th in class.

Eddie Cheever III is making his third Le Mans start. Cheever III ran in 2018 and 2019 with MR Racing. This year, Cheever III is driving the #193 Ziggo Sport - Tempesta Ferrari with Christ Froggatt and Jonathan Hu. They won the Bronze Cup championship last year in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.

Who Has Not Been Mentioned?

Seven cars in LMGT3 class.

Heart of Racing Team has the #27 Aston Martin entered for Mattia Drudi, Ian James and Zacharie Robichon. Heart of Racing is coming off its best finish of fifth at Spa-Francorchamps.

Francesco Castellacci, Thomas Flohr and Davide Rigon are together for their third consecutive year at Le Mans in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari.

Kessel Racing is running Takeshi Kimura, Daniel Serra and Casper Stevenson in the #57 Ferrari. Serra has two Le Mans class victories, both in GTE-Pro. Kimura is back in a Ferrari after running an Akkodis ASP Team Lexus in 2024.

There are two other Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMGs entered. Martin Berry, Lin Hodenius and Maxime Martin are in the #61 Mercedes-AMG. Brenton Grove, Stephen Grove and Luca Stolz are entered in the #63 Mercedes-AMG.

TF Sport have a second Corvette entered. Rui Andrade, Charlie Eastwood and Tom van Rompuy will share the #81 Corvette.

José María López leads the #87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus with Clemens Schmid and Razvan Umbrarescu as his co-drivers.

General Le Mans Facts to Keep in Mind

AF Corse also has at least one entry in each class, just like Proton Competition. AF Corse runs all three Ferrari 499Ps in Hypercar, it has the #183 Oreca entered in LMP2, and then its two entries in LMGT3. AF Corse has not won a GT class at Le Mans since it swept GTE Pro and GTE Am in 2021. 

In ten Le Mans starts, Davide Rigon has yet to score a class victory. Francesco Castellacci has not won a class in nine Le Mans starts and Thomas Flohr is 0-for-8 at Le Mans.

In eight Le Mans starts, José María López, has finished on the overall podium six times. 

Schedule

Sunday June 8 marks the Le Mans test day with two three-hour sessions, the first taking place at 4:00 a.m. ET and the second run at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Practice during race week will begin on Wednesday June 11. The first practice will be held at 11:00 a.m. ET and run for three hours. The first round of qualifying will take place at 12:45 p.m., beginning with the LMP2 and LMGT3 classes taking to the track to determine the Hyperpole participants. The first round of Hypercar qualifying will be held at 1:30 p.m. ET. Each session will be 30 minutes. Wednesday ends with night practice at 4:00 p.m. and running for two hours.

Another three-hour practice will run at 8:45 a.m. on Thursday June 12. Hyperpole qualifying will be run at 2:00 p.m. starting with LMGT3 and LMP2. Hypercar's Hyperpole session will run at 3:05 p.m. The final night practice will be a one-hour session held at 5:00 p.m.

The 15-minute warm-up session will be run at 6:00 a.m. ET on Saturday June 14 prior to the start of the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans at 10:00 p.m. ET.

2025 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 Preview

Hypercar is complete, and we move to the LMP2 category. Though no longer included in the FIA World Endurance Championship, 17 invitations were given out to LMP2 teams from across the European Le Mans Series, Asian Le Mans Series and IMSA. 

With no championship to worry about, Le Mans is all about the race victory for the LMP2 class, and these teams are turning out their best possible lineups for this one shot at glory in 2025.

How Deep is This Class?

An overall 24 Hours of Le Mans winner.

Six Le Mans class winners.

Five overall 24 Hours of Daytona winners

A Formula Two champion. 

A Formula E champion.

This is without mentioning the likes of Louis Delétraz, Ben Hanley, Pietro Fittipaldi, Jamie Chadwick, Job van Uitert, Luca Ghiotto, Tristan Vautier, Nick Yelloly and Matthieu Vaxivière are also competing in this class. 

LMP2 is 70% top-tier professional class with 20% quality amateurs and 10% regular amateurs. 

We must thank Honda for not bringing its GTP car to Le Mans, otherwise possibly four drivers would not be in this class and that only adds to its strength. There are plenty of exciting names in LMP2. 

André Lotterer is filling out the #18 IDEC Sport Oreca with Jamie Chadwick and Mathys Jaubert, and Chadwick and Jaubert lead the ELMS LMP2 championship through two rounds.

United Autosports won in LMP2 last year in Le Mans, and in its #22 Oreca it has put Fittipaldi, Renger van der Zande and David Heinemeier Hansson together while Hanley, Oliver Jarvis and Daniel Schneider are in the #23 Oreca.

Tom Blomqvist and Tristan Vautier are co-drivers in the #37 CLX - Pure Rxcing Oreca with Alex Malykhin. Antonio Félix da Costa is leading AF Corse's #183 Oreca will Vaxivière and François Perrodo. Vaxivière and Perrodo won the ELMS season opener in Barcelona. Delétraz is driving with Dane Cameron and P.J. Hyett in the #199 AO by TF Oreca.

Algarve Pro Racing has Théo Pourchaire with Lorenzo Fluxá and Matthias Kaiser in the #25 Oreca. Nielsen racing has Colin Braun, Cem Bölükbasi and Naveen Rao in the #24 Oreca. Patricio Pilet is in this class with RLR MSport along side Ryan Cullen and Michael Jensen. Frank Perera is in an LMP2 car for the first time in his career with VDS Panis Racing, and Perera is with a pair of children, 20-year-old Oliver Gray, making his Le Mans debut, and 20-year-old Esteban Masson, who made his Le Mans debut last year in LMGT3.

There are plenty of names in this class. There will be moments in this race where the battle in LMP2 will feel like it should be taking place in the Hypercar class.

Do the LMP2 Entries Have an Advantage Over the LMP2 Pro-Am Entries?

Probably not as big of an advantage as you think. In terms of sheer numbers, yes. Nine of the 17 entries are pro-am entries. 

AF Corse won the ELMS season opener at Barcelona as a pro-am lineup. Two of the three cars on the podium at ELMS' Circuit Paul Ricard round were pro-am entries. Last year, AF Corse was the best LMP2 Pro-Am entry and it was on the same lap as the LMP2 winning #22 United Autosports entry, finishing fourth in LMP2. The next two LMP2 Pro-Am entries were a lap off the class winner. 

The LMP2 entries should have an advantage, but considering that Hanley, Jarvis, Braun, Ghiotto, da Costa, Cameron, Delétraz and Nicky Catsburg are all in LMP2 Pro-Am entries, it would not be a stunner if one of those cars topped the LMP2 class at the end of 24 hours.

How Has the European Le Mans Series Season Been Going?

IDEC Sport leads the championship with Chadwick, Jaubert and Daniel Juncadella, who has LMGT3 responsibilities at Le Mans with Corvette. Second in the championship is Vector Sport, but Vector Sport was unable to secure an invite to Le Mans. That means two of its drivers, Cullen and Fittipaldi, have had to split to other entries. 

Gray and Masson are third in the championship with Charles Milesi as its third driver, but Milesi will be in the Hypercar class at Le Mans with Alpine. 

The top team from ELMS that had its lineup remain intact for Le Mans is the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Tom Dillman, Jakub Śmiechowski and Nick Yelloly. Inter Europol was fourth overall at Circuit Paul Ricard last month. 

In Pro-Am, Nielsen Racing leads the championship, but none of those three drivers are entered at Le Mans. TDS Racing has been third in LMP2 Pro-Am in the first two races, and that car remains unchanged for Le Mans. Mathias Beche leads the #29 TDS Racing Oreca with Clément Novalak and Rodrigo Sales. 

Are There Any Other Interesting Stories?

Proton Competition has entries in all three classes. It has the #99 Porsche 963 in Hypercar, Proton runs the two Ford Mustangs in LMGT3, and it has the #11 Oreca with René Binder, Giorgio Roda and Bent Viscaal in LMP2.

Of its four entries, I would say the LMP2 car is the third-most likely to win at Le Mans, behind the two Ford Mustangs but ahead of the Hypercar. 

Then there is the #9 Iron Lynx - Proton Oreca, which has an average age of 20 between its three drivers. Macéo Capietto turned 19 years old in January, Jonas Reid is 20 years old and Reshad de Gerus is 21 years old. Capietteo and Reid ran together last year at Le Mans with Bent Viscaal, but the car only completed 86 laps.

This will be Patrick Pilet's 18th Le Mans and he has yet to win a class. RLR MSport doesn't even run an LMP2 car in ELMS competition. It runs a LMP3 program and earned its invite off its 2024 ELMS LMP3 title. This is very much a one-off lineup and one of the more unlikely collection of drivers for Pilet to potentially claim his first Le Mans victory.

General Le Mans Facts to Keep in Mind

There have been four different LMP2 winners in the last four years at Le Mans (Team WRT, Jota, Inter Europol, United Autosports).

The last team to win the LMP2 class in successive years at Le Mans was Signatech-Alpine in 2018 and 2019.

Jean-Denis Déletraz won in the LMP2 class at Le Mans twice, in the 2001 and 2002.

Nicolas Lapierre leads with four LMP2 victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. No other driver has won the class more than twice.

This will be André Lotterer's 14th Le Mans appearance, and it is the first time Lotterer is not in the top class. 

This will be the third time in four years Pietro Fittipaldi and David Heinemeier Hansson are co-drivers at Le Mans, each in LMP2. United Autosports is Heinemeier Hansson’s fifth different team in his last five Le Mans appearances. 

Schedule

Sunday June 8 marks the Le Mans test day with two three-hour sessions, the first taking place at 4:00 a.m. ET and the second run at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Practice during race week will begin on Wednesday June 11. The first practice will be held at 11:00 a.m. ET and run for three hours. The first round of qualifying will take place at 12:45 p.m., beginning with the LMP2 and LMGT3 classes taking to the track to determine the Hyperpole participants. The first round of Hypercar qualifying will be held at 1:30 p.m. ET. Each session will be 30 minutes. Wednesday ends with night practice at 4:00 p.m. and running for two hours.

Another three-hour practice will run at 8:45 a.m. on Thursday June 12. Hyperpole qualifying will be run at 2:00 p.m. starting with LMGT3 and LMP2. Hypercar's Hyperpole session will run at 3:05 p.m. The final night practice will be a one-hour session held at 5:00 p.m.

The 15-minute warm-up session will be run at 6:00 a.m. ET on Saturday June 14 prior to the start of the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans at 10:00 p.m. ET.

2025 24 Hours of Le Mans Hypercar Preview

We are approaching the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans, and with a busy motorsports calendar, we preview the three classes at this year's race prior to the Le Mans test day. 

Sixty-two entries are spread across the three classes with 21 entries in the Hypercar category. Seven manufacturers are fielding cars in the top class. 

Who is the Favorite?

Ferrari. 

Winner of the last two years at Le Mans, Ferrari has started the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season exceptionally well with three victories from three races. At Qatar, Ferrari swept the podium. Ferrari went 1-2 at Spa-Francorchamps. The three Ferraris hold the top three in the championship. 

The #51 Ferrari of James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi has won the last two races. The #50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen won the opener at Qatar. AF Corse's #83 Ferrari of Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye are third in the championship.

The #50 Ferrari won last year and the #51 Ferrari won the year before that. The #83 Ferrari had a great run last year at Le Mans. Take your pick of the Ferraris. 

Who are the Contenders?

It feels like there is a gap between Ferrari and the rest of the field.

The #8 Toyota is fourth in the championship, but it has yet to finish on the podium. It does have three Le Mans winners with Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa. The #7 Toyota has Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries. You cannot rule Toyota out. 

Alpine has been the slight surprise this season with the #36 Apline A424 having finished third in the last two WEC rounds with Jules Gounon, Frédéric Makowiecki and Mick Schumacher. The #35 Alpine with Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi has not been quite as good with its best finish being eighth. 

BMW deserves a shout. The #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 was second at Imola with Robin Frijns, René Rast and Sheldon van der Linde. The two BMWs are tied on 27 points as #15 BMW with Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor have finished in the points in all three race this season. BMW has also showed great pace in IMSA competition this season.

Is There a Triple Crown in Play?

Yes, but do not hold your breathe.

Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor won the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring this year. Nasr and Tandy will be at Le Mans in the #4 Porsche 963. Vanthoor is in the #6 Porsche. Pascal Wehrlein rounds out the #4's lineup while Matt Campbell in Kévin Estre fill out the #6 Porsche. The #5 Porsche will have Julien Andlauer, Michael Christensen and Mathieu Jaminet. 

This year's title defense in WEC has been horrendous. Porsche hasn't finished better than eighth this season, a complete juxtaposition to this IMSA season where Porsche Penske Motorsport opened with four consecutive victories, eight total podium finishes and its worst race is finishing third and fourth at Detroit. 

Last year, Porsche was on pole position at Le Mans. This could be the the turning point of its season, for better or worse.

What Does the IMSA Contingent Look Like?

Besides, the #4 Porsche, there are two IMSA entries at Le Mans, both are Cadillacs.

Wayne Taylor Racing makes its Le Mans debut with the #101 Cadillc with Filipe Albuquerque, Ricky Taylor and Jordan Taylor. Action Express Racing is back with the #311 Whelen Cadillac and a lineup of Jack Aitken, Felipe Drugovich and Frederik Vesti.

Both Taylor brothers have run at Le Mans before. Ricky has made nine starts, but never in the top class. Jordan has also made nine Le Mans starts, all in GT competition. He won the GTE Pro class in 2015 and he has been on a class podium four times. Albuquerque made two Le Mans starts in LMP1 with Audi in 2014 and 2015. Since then, he has made nine LMP2 appearances and won the class in 2020.

Aitken and Drugovich drove together last year at Le Mans, and this will be Aitken's fourth Le Mans start. It was Drugovich's debut, and Vesti made his debut last year at Le Mans in LMP2.

Is There a Chance Felipe Drugovich Misses Le Mans to Make his Formula One Debut?

Why yes, because Drugovich is the Aston Martin reserve driver and Lance Stroll's status for the Canadian Grand Prix remains in question after a persistent wrist injury forced Stroll out of the car prior to the Spanish Grand Prix. 

If Stroll is unable to go and Drugovich gets the call, it is unclear who will fill the #311 Cadillac. It must be emphasized, as it currently stands, Drugovich will be at Le Mans.

What are the Best Stories?

Sébastien Bourdais is the native son of Le Mans. Bourdais is making his 18th Le Mans appearance. He has never won the race overall. Three times he was runner-up. He did win the GTE Pro class with Ford in 2016. That's nice. It isn't overall. 

Bourdais has two-time overall winner Earl Campbell and 2009 World Drivers' Champion Jenson Button as his co-drivers in the #38 Hertz Team Jota Cadillac. Button could become the fifth driver to win Le Mans and the World Drivers' Championship joining Mike Hawthorn, Jochen Rindt, Graham Hill and Fernando Alonso. How is that for company? 

If you like a story, the #38 Cadillac is for you.

It should be noted the #12 Hertz Team Jota Cadillac has scored points in all three WEC races and it has two-time Le Mans class winner Will Stevens (2017 - GTE Am, 2022 - LMP2) with another past Le Mans class winner in Alex Lynn (2020 - GTE Pro), and Norman Nato rounds out the lineup.

There is also the #83 AF Corse Ferrari and an overall Le Mans victory for Robert Kubica, even though he has been regularly competing for nearly the last decade and returned to Formula One in 2019, is still remarkable considering the rallying accident he had in 2011. 

Who is Happy Just to be There?

Peugeot's best finish this season in WEC is ninth. Aston Martin has failed to finish in the top ten this season. Peugeot has the chance to win over the home crowd with a stunning victory. The Aston Martin is loud... at least it has that going for it. 

There is also a fourth Porsche. Proton Competition has entered the #99 Porsche 963 for Neel Jani, Nico Pino and Nicolás Varrone. Proton has yet to score a point in the first three WEC races.

General Le Mans Facts to Keep in Mind

Ferrari reached 11 overall Le Mans victories last year, two behind Audi for second all-time. Porsche holds the all-time lead with 19. 

Toyota is one victory away from tying Bentley for fifth all-time on six.

The United Kingdom has produced the most winners, 42 drivers combining for 45 victories. France is second with 28 drivers combining for 42 victories, but the last French winner was Benoît Tréluyer in 2014.

Davy Jones is the most recent overall American winner, coming in 1996.

Alexander Wurz remains the youngest overall winner in the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at 22 years and 91 days old. Two drivers could break that record. Malthe Jakobsen will be 21 years, seven months and 17 days old on Sunday in the #94 Peugeot. Nico Pino will be 20 years, eight months and 25 days old in the #99 Proton Porsche.

There has never been a Brazilian to win overall.

The last time a Le Mans winner had all its drivers from the same country was in 1980 when Jean Rondeau and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud won in the Rondeau M379B. The only Hypercar entry with all its drivers from the same country is the all-British #007 Aston Martin of Tom Gamble, Ross Gunn and Harry Tincknell.

The race winner has started on the front two rows the last ten years. The last time a car started worse than row three was in 2005 when the #3 Champion Racing Audi of Tom Kristensen, JJ Lehto and Marco Werner won from eighth starting spot.

Last year's 311 laps completed were the fewest for an overall winner since the McLaren F1 GTR of Yannick Dalmas, JJ Lehto and Masanori Sekiya won in 1995 with 298 laps completed. 

Michelin will match Dunlop for most victories for a tire manufacturer with 34. This will be Michelin's 28th consecutive Le Mans victory. 

Schedule

Sunday June 8 marks the Le Mans test day with two three-hour sessions, the first taking place at 4:00 a.m. ET and the second run at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Practice during race week will begin on Wednesday June 11. The first practice will be held at 11:00 a.m. ET and run for three hours. The first round of qualifying will take place at 12:45 p.m., beginning with the LMP2 and LMGT3 classes taking to the track to determine the Hyperpole participants. The first round of Hypercar qualifying will be held at 1:30 p.m. ET. Each session will be 30 minutes. Wednesday ends with night practice at 4:00 p.m. and running for two hours.

Another three-hour practice will run at 8:45 a.m. on Thursday June 12. Hyperpole qualifying will be run at 2:00 p.m. starting with LMGT3 and LMP2. Hypercar's Hyperpole session will run at 3:05 p.m. The final night practice will be a one-hour session held at 5:00 p.m.

The 15-minute warm-up session will be run at 6:00 a.m. ET on Saturday June 14 prior to the start of the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans at 10:00 p.m. ET.

Musings From the Weekend: Foxy Lady Le Mans

Tires degradation was the name of the game in Texas. The Brits continue to dominant World Superbike. Lewis Hamilton won in Canada again. Martin Truex, Jr. won at Pocono. Russia had a very busy weekend and all eyes turn to France. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

Foxy Lady Le Mans
When Fox released their broadcast schedule for the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little disheartened.

It starts off nicely. Live from 8:30 a.m. ET to noon on Fox Sports 2 but then not back on television until 7:00 p.m. ET and only for one hour on Fox Sports 1. Then FS2 doesn't pick up coverage until 11:00 p.m. ET and runs until 12:30 a.m. ET Sunday morning. Just counting race time, only five and a half of the first 15.5 hours will be shown live on television.

The good news is the final five and a half hours will be shown live on television with a 30-minute post race show. Action returns at 3:30 a.m. ET on FS1 and will run until 7:30 a.m. ET. FS2 will then pick up the final 90 minutes of racing before FS1 shows the half hour post race show.

Looking at Fox's plate, it is easy to understand why less than half the race will be shown on television. Fox has the FIFA Women's World Cup from Canada and on Saturday the 13th, there are four matches, one at 1:00 p.m. ET, two at 4:00 p.m. ET and one at 7:00 p.m. ET. Then there is NASCAR coverage from Michigan with a Grand National race at 1:30 p.m. and a Truck race from Gateway at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday. Just when you think that is all, it isn't. Fox has the FIFA U-20 World Cup from New Zealand, which is why for the lack of overnight coverage. New Zealand is 16 hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone and the matches are at 9:00 p.m. ET Saturday and 12:30 a.m. ET Sunday. And on top of all that is the MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix is at 8:00 a.m. Sunday.

The good news is the entire race, from 8:30 a.m. ET Saturday to 9:30 a.m. ET Sunday will be streamed online and through the Fox Sports GO app. If you can't get the coverage online or through the app, there is always Radio Le Mans.

It does suck that so little of the race will be shown on television but this is a one-year thing. The Women's World Cup is every four years and will be in France ironically enough in 2019 and had the U-20 World Cup been held in Europe, the overnight windows would have been opened for Le Mans coverage. If we could just get NASCAR and MotoGP to take off Le Mans weekend (like every series should) then that would open up the Saturday afternoon time slots and clear up the final hours on Sunday. Michigan is one of the handful of tracks that don't need two NASCAR weekends anyway and Catalunya could be pushed back a week, forming a back-to-back with Assen.

The times are a changing. As much as we want the 24 Hours of Le Mans shown in its entirety on one network, that's not going to happen. With the media landscape changing, there are plenty of options to show an endurance race like Le Mans. The Internet is a wide-open range where the race can be shown and not take space from another event. Le Mans needs a good balance between the traditional television coverage and Internet streaming and I think Fox is doing a good job of providing that.

Could Virtual Safety Car Work On an Oval?
The IndyCar race had one caution for thirteen laps at Texas on Saturday night. It was for debris that may or may not have existed. If it did exist (and it very well could have), why not use virtual safety car? Instead of bringing the entire race to a standstill for an extended period of time, why not tell the drivers to slow to a decided pace that allows the safety workers to go out and retrieve said debris?

Obviously if there is an accident, a safety car would be necessary but if it's just debris, just slow the cars to caution pace, keep the pit lane open and make sure drivers don't pass each other. At Texas, they were running 100 MPH under caution. If IndyCar wanted to they could slow the cars to 60 MPH under VSC and make it slightly safer for safety crews to retrieve debris.

VSC is pretty much a pacer light system that can actually be enforced and doesn't involve flashing numbers on video boards. I am not against in IndyCar looking at improving the safety car procedures on both oval and road/street courses. In fact, IndyCar should be looking into improving safety car procedures. A thirteen-lap caution period for a single piece of debris is absurd. There is nothing wrong with breaking from the way things are done. If you can clean up an incident without having to release the safety car and close the pits than do it. People want to see as few laps under yellow as possible and VSC, whether it is used at an oval or on a road/street circuit could solve one of the lingering but fixable problems in IndyCar.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about Scott Dixon, Lewis Hamilton and Martin Truex, Jr. but did you know....

Nelson Piquet, Jr. won his second Formula E race of the season as he took the Moscow ePrix. Piquet, Jr. leads the championship with just the London doubleheader remaining on the schedule.

Jonathan Rea swept the World Superbike weekend at Portimão. Jules Cluzel ended Kenan Sofuoglu's winning streak in World Superbike. Cluzel picked up his second victory, Sofuoglu finished second and American PJ Jacobsen finished third in his first race for Core" Motorsport Thailand Honda. Jacobsen lost his ride with Intermoto Ponyexpres after the team lost their funding from Kawasaki.

Laurens Vanthoor and Robin Frijns swept the weekend in the #1 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT R8 LMS ultra at Zolder.

Yvan Muller and Tiago Monteiro split the WTCC weekend at Moscow Raceway. It was Monteiro's first victory since Shanghai on November 3, 2013.

Matt Crafton won the NASCAR Truck race at Texas, his third victory of the season.

Coming Up This Weekend
The 83rd 24 Hours of Le Mans.
IndyCar makes their annual trek to Toronto.
NASCAR goes to Michigan.
MotoGP is in Barcelona.
World Rally heads to the island of Sardinia.

Musings From the Weekend: Housekeeping

It was a dead weekend for motorsports, unless you count Formula One testing, but this will be the last dead weekend for quite sometime. Football season is now behind us and I bet next weekend will be tough for many but they will all recover. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

Housekeeping
With a lot of time on my hands, I used this weekend to do some housekeeping on the blog. First, you will notice I few changes with the pages at the top. I felt the Track Walks, Morning Warm-Ups and First Impressions pages were adding much to the blog and could be scrapped. They were just lists of links.

I decided to add two new pages, the first will be a page of many different championships if they used the 9-6-4-3-2-1 points system to determine their champions. So far the only two series up are Formula E and IMSA as they are the only series underway. More series will be added as NASCAR starts up in the next few weeks, Formula One is a little over a month and IndyCar... eventually start their season.

Back in September, I posed the question "how many hours of motorsports do I watch a year?" I also promised to track my viewing habits. Well, I dropped the ball on remembering to start prior to the Dubai 24 Hour but did remember for the 24 Hours of Daytona and plan on keeping track through the 2016 edition. You can follow along here.

I think these two new pages are a little more interesting and will be updated regularly and will give you something to follow over the course of the year.

American Silver
Scuderia Corsa is set to go to Le Mans this June with Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell. The one problem is the IMSA team needs a silver driver to round out the line-up for their Ferrari and they want an All-American driver line-up.

I thought I would give them a hand and go through the driver rankings and pick out some silver-rated Americans that could make excellent third drivers.

Eddie Cheever:
Positives: Has run Le Mans before. Indianapolis 500 winner who brings name recognition. Le Mans test day would force him to miss the ABC IndyCar race at Belle Isle and there be one fewer color commentators.
Negatives: Claims to have won at Le Mans but really didn't but that's another story. Do you really want Eddie Cheever apart of your team?

Eddie Cheever III:
Positives: Ran Petit Le Mans last year. Success in Italian Formula Three. Winner in NASCAR Euro Series.
Negatives: A Giuseppe Rossi-type of driver. American but is represented by the Italian flag. Lacks endurance race experience.

Duncan Ende
Positives: Has been successful in PC, GTC, Pirelli World Challenge. Driving for Scuderia Corsa in PWC this season.
Negative: Has never run Le Mans.

Ashley Freiberg
Positives: Winner in Continental Tires Sports Car Challenge and IMSA GT3 Cup.
Negative: Not a lot of endurance race experience.

Burt Frisselle
Positives: Lots of sports car experience. Class winner at 12 Hours of Sebring (PC 2012). Ten starts in 24 Hours of Daytona.
Negative: Has never run Le Mans.

Brendan Gaughan
Positives: Notable name due to NASCAR roots. Won at Road America. Class winner at 24 Hours of Daytona (GT 2011).
Negatives: NASCAR commitments. Second division races at Michigan same day as Le Mans.

Ben Keating
Positive: Just won GTD in this year's 24 Horus of Daytona.
Negatives: Drives for Viper and Riley Technology is working on their own Le Mans program. Keating might be busy.

Anthony Lazzaro
Positives: Raced for Scuderia Corsa at Daytona last month. Plenty of sports car experience. Has run Le Mans.
Negatives: None really. I would say he is the clubhouse leader.

Cooper MacNeil
Positives: Young driver with a respectable amount of sports car experience. Has run Le Mans the last two years.
Negatives: Could be lining up a Le Mans run with another team. Likely looking to drive a Porsche.

Justin Marks
Positives: Very experienced. Class winner at 24 Hours of Daytona (GT 2009).
Negative: Has never run Le Mans.

Gustavo Menezes
Positives: Up-and-coming American. Races in Europe full-time.
Negatives: Has never run at Le Mans. Limited endurance race experience.

Bryce Miller
Positives: Has run Le Mans twice. Won Petit Le Mans last season in GTD.
Negative: Stepped back from full-time driving for this season.

John Pew
Positives: Lots of prototype experience. Won 24 Hours of Daytona overall in 2012. Mike Shank wants to go to Le Mans in 2016. Would get Pew experience.
Negative: Shank probably would prefer Pew getting experience in LMP2 at Le Mans.

Boris Said
Positives: Not many more experienced silver-rated Americans than Said. Winner at Daytona, Sebring, Nürburgring.
Negative: Has one run Le Mans once and that was in 1994. Surprising, right?

Madison Snow
Positives: 2013 IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge champion. Has a fair amount of endurance race experience for a 19-year old.
Negative: Has never run Le Mans.

Jonathan Summerton
Positives: Once the United States' biggest hope for next Formula One driver. Class winner at 12 Hours of Sebring (GT 2012).
Negatives: Has never race at Le Mans and to be frank, hasn't run much of anything in the last two and a half years. What a shame.

These are just sixteen names I picked out. There definitely could be a silver-rated American not listed or one I missed that could be Scuderia Corsa's third driver at Le Mans.

I would say Lazzaro and Ende are the most likely candidates because of their association with Scuderia Corsa although I think Frisselle, Pew and Said would all be great choices as well.

Formula One's First Test At A Glance
Sebastian Vettel was fastest with Ferrari (1:22.620 seconds) with Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber 0.157 seconds back. Nico Rosberg was third but was on top most of the first day. Rosberg was just under a half second back of his fellow German. Vettel's former team was just over seven tenths back with Daniel Ricciardo. Valtteri Bottas was just over a second and a quarter back for Williams. Carlos Sainz, Jr. was just over 2.7 seconds back and the McLaren-Honda did just six laps with Fernando Alonso behind the wheel and has quite a way to go.

First thoughts from first test: It's still early. This doesn't mean we will see four-team battle at every race. I expect the Williams to be quicker over the next few days. Not surprised to see Sainz, Jr. struggle but I think Max Verstappen will do a little better when he gets behind the wheel. Not surprised the McLaren-Honda completed so few laps but they completed more laps than Red Bull did last year in the opening day and Red Bull ended up winning three races in 2014.

Grand Prix Viewing Notice
Turner Classic Movies will be airing arguably the best motorsports film, Grand Prix, at 11:00 a.m. ET  (8:00 a.m. PT) on Wednesday. I suggest those on the east coast, take an early and extended lunch and those in the Pacific Time Zone say they are working half a day.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about the New England Patriots but did you know...

Ryan Dungey won the Supercross race from Anaheim.

Coming Up This Weekend
The Bathurst 12 Hour.
AMA Supercross heads to San Diego.

Musings From the Weekend: Exhaustion

A terrific Le Mans weekend was cameoed with another MotoGP thriller and NASCAR. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

Le Mans

One of these days fortune will have me in France in June. After watching nearly 20 hours followed by a busy Father's Day with family, sleep deprivation is seeping in. It was worth it. Had I slept like a normal person I would have missed the #7 Toyota breaking down while comfortably leading, the battle between the #97 Aston Martin and #51 AF Corse Ferrari for the GTE-Pro lead, the turbo failure on the #2 Audi and the sun rise over the French countryside. Of course, I would have also missed Justin Bell's annual walk around the grounds, bumping into every inebriated individual with Grand Marnier pancakes and dressed up as if it was October 31st. 

It's hard to say the Indianapolis 500 is better than the 24 Hours of Le Mans or vice versa. Each one is uniquely great but share similarities that putting one ahead of another would be a complete disservice to each races' histories. Fortunately, we aren't forced to pick one over the other. We can enjoy both and sit the following day wondering what will be in store the following year. 

Code 60

The first time I saw the use of Code 60 was at the Dubai 24 Hours earlier this year. For those who do not know what Code 60 is, it pretty much a local yellow where cars are limited to 60 km/h (37.28 MPH) between the first double yellow (or purple flag, which has been used for Code 60s at other events) and the last double yellow (or purple flag) in that section of the race track. Once a driver has exited the Code 60 zone, they may continue at race speed before reaching the Code 60 zone on the following lap where they must once again drop to 60 km/h. Code 60s are used to prevent full-course cautions from slowing down a race while safely slowing cars down in the section of a track where an accident must be cleared. 

Could Code 60 be brought to other forms of motorsports besides sports cars? Why couldn't open-wheel series such as IndyCar and Formula One or touring car series such as DTM or even NASCAR adopt Code 60? Obviously for IndyCar and NASCAR, it wouldn't make much sense on ovals but for road/street circuits it would be feasible. My biggest gripe in IndyCar is the full-course cautions for something as simple as a car in the gravel trap or stalled in a run-off area. Instead of bringing the race to the stand still, slow the cars through the particular section and let them race elsewhere. 

Take this year's Barber race. When Takuma Sato had a lazy spin and stalled off course on the outside of turn ten or when Juan Pablo Montoya beached it in the same section of the track, instead of wasting even as little as two laps under caution, they could have place the part of the track between the exit of turn eight and the middle of the straightaway after turn 10 under a Code 60 and allow the cars to race outside of that zone while the car is either restarted or pushed further off course to a safer location. 

Code 60s will not totally eliminated full-course cautions. When Mikhail Aleshin's late accident caused damage to the tire barrier, a full-course caution must be thrown to fix the problem. But even after watching that incident again and thinking about it, couldn't a Code 60 have been used to push the car off track and get the barrier repaired? I guess a better example of where a full-course caution would be the only choice would be the start of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis where the track filled with debris after Sebastián Saavedra was run into by Carlos Muñoz and Aleshin.

Now for those wondering if this sounds like an evolution of the pacer lights system once used in the Indianapolis 500, it kind of does but unlike the 1970s where Bobby Unser could work the system to his favor and make up time, monitoring devices such as GPS are being looked into by the VLN (the German equivalent of SCCA) to keep teams honest as well as harsh penalties, such as those used at Le Mans, for those caught violating the Code 60. If a car was caught speeding in a Code 60, a team would've been penalized five seconds for each km/p over. So if a team was caught doing 100 km/p (62.13 MPH) in the Code 60, it would've been a 200 second penalty or 3 minutes and 20 seconds. If a team was doing 200 km/p (124.27 MPH), it would've been a 700 second penalty or 11 minutes and 40 seconds. To me, that seems like a fair enough penalty for the violation.

If Code 60s means keeping on-track action going while an minor accident can be taken care of at another part of the circuit, a series should consider using Code 60 for it's own benefit. It wouldn't hurt to try something new.

One Race Le Mans Weekend

When Le Mans weekend comes around each June, the French classic should be the only professional motorsports race on the planet taking place. I love MotoGP and this weekend's race between Marc Márquez, Dani Pedrosa, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo was spectacular, easily a potential Race of the Year nominee, but the two races should not be finishing within ten minutes of one another. Same thing with NASCAR at Michigan. If there is any track that should have one NASCAR race, it is Michigan. Take the weekend off. For years I've heard Jeff Gordon say he wants to run Le Mans. Take the week off and allow the few drivers who want to participate to do so.

I understand each series has to look out for themselves and shouldn't necessarily cater to other series but if it is one weekend a year, it shouldn't be a problem. Formula One has a gentleman's agreement not to run Le Mans weekend, IndyCar took off Le Mans weekend this year, others should follow their leads. 

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Audi, Marc Márquez and Jimmie Johnson, but did you know...

Esteve Rabat won in Moto2 and Álex Márquez won in Moto3.

Darrell Wallace, Jr. won in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series return to Gateway.

Paul Menard picked up his second career Nationwide victory at Michigan, 2912 days after his first career Nationwide victory at the Milwaukee Mile in 2006.

Coming Up This Weekend:

Formula One returns to Austria.

For all those who want more sleep deprivation, 24 Hours Nürburgring.

NASCAR at Sonoma.

Pirelli World Challenge at Road America.

V8 Supercars at Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin.

Audi Wins Lucky 13th at Le Mans

The 82nd 24 Hours of Le Mans could have gone of three ways. It was Toyotas from the time Fernando Alonso waved the tricolour until around 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning Le Mans time when the #7 with Kazuki Nakajima behind the wheel came to a halt due to an electrical problem. The #2 Audi took the lead but had a turbo problem and had to make a change, handing the lead to the defending Le Mans winners, the #1 Audi.

Just when it looked like Tom Kristensen was going to stand on the top step for an incredible 10th time, the same turbo gremlin bit the Dane and Le Mans glory appeared to be falling into Porsche's lap. The #20 of Timo Bernhard was leading when Mark Webber took over. Then the all-time leaders in overall victories at Le Mans got the same taste of medicine that befell Toyota and Audi. The Porsche pulled into the garage and the lead cycled back to the #2 Audi and of Benoît Tréluyer, Marcel Fässler and André Lotterer never looked back. The trio with names full of accent marks took overall Le Mans victory for the third time in four years, completing 379 laps.

The #1 Audi of Tom Kristensen, Lucas di Grassi and Marc Gené finish second, three laps back of their teammates. The #8 Toyota of Anthony Davidson, Nicolas Lapierre and Sébastien Buemi, which suffered a massive accident in the early stages recovered to finish third overall, five laps back. Nicolas Prost, Nick Heidfeld and Mathias Beche finish fourth in the #12 Rebellion R-One-Toyota, 19 laps back of the #2 Audi.

Midweek, Oliver Turvey was not at Le Mans, he was in the gym. End of the week he drove the #38 Jota Sport Zytek-Nissan under the checkered flag to take the LMP2 victory in the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans. Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell made it an all-British victory with 356 laps completed. Second place, one lap back was the all-French driver line-up of the #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Ligier-Nissan of Pierre Thiriet, Ludovic Bdaey and Tristan Gommendy. The #36 Signatech-Alpine Nissan of Nelson Panciatici, Paul-Loup Chatin and Oliver Webb rounded out the LMP2 podium. The #24 Sébastien Loeb Racing Oreca-Nissan of René Rast, Jan Charouz and Vincent Capillaire finished fourth in class with the #35 OAK Racing Ligier-Nissan of Mark Shulzhitskiy, Jann Mardenborough and Alex Brundle come home fifth having engine related issues.

For the second time in three years, the AF Corse Ferrari trio of Gianmaria Bruni, Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella took the GTE-Pro victory. It's is Bruni's third career class victory at Le Mans and Vilander's and Fisichella's second. The #51 Ferrari completed 339 laps. The #73 Corvette of Antonio Garía, Jan Magnussen and Jordan Taylor finished second in class, a lap back of the #51 Ferrari. The defending GTE-Pro class winning #92 Porsche of Frédéric Makowiecki, Richard Lietz and Marco Holzer round out the GTE-Pro podium. The #74 Corvette of Tommy Milner, Richard Westbrook and Oliver Gavin finished fourth. The late GTE-Pro edition, #79 WeatherTech ProSpeed Competition duo of Jeroen Bleekemolen and Cooper MacNiel finished fifth in class.

One year after the fatal accident of Allan Simonsen, the all-Danish trio of David Heinemeier Hansson, Kristian Poulsen and Nicki Thiim won GTE-Am in the #95 Aston Martin with 334 laps under it's belt. The #88 ProSpeed Competition Porsche of Klaus Bachler, Christian Ried and Khaled al Qubaisi finished second in GTE-Am with the #61 AF Corse Ferrari of Luíz Pérez Companc, Marco Cioci and Mirko Venturi finishing third in class. Two American teams rounded out the top five in GTE-Am class. The #90 8Star Motorsports Ferrari finished fourth with drivers Paolo Ruberti, Gianluca Roda and Frankie Montecalvo. The #77 Dempsey Racing-Proton of Patrick Long, Patrick Dempsey and Joe Foster finished fifth.

Other notable finishers:
The #42 Caterham Racing Zytek-Nissan of Tom Kimber-Smith, Chris Dyson and 16-year old Mattheew McMurry finished 23rd overall, 10th in LMP2 having completed 329 laps.

The #58 Team Sofrev ASP Ferrari of Soheil Ayari, Anthony Pons and 1998 FIFA World Cup winning goalkeeper Fabien Barthez finished 9th in GTE-Am having completed 325 laps.

The #97 Aston Martin of Stefan Mücke, Darren Turner and Bruno Senna finished sixth in GTE-Pro, completing 310 laps after overheating issues cost the team a shot at victory.

The next round of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship will take place September 20th at Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas.

Three-Quarters Down, One To Go From Le Mans

Six hours, a typical FIA World Endurance Championship race remains from Le Mans.

Audi has the overall lead. The #1 of Marc Gené has completed 279 laps and had a bit of good fortune go his and Tom Kristensen and Lucas di Grassi's way. The #7 Toyota was the class of the field before an electrical problem forced the car to stop a little after 11:37 p.m. ET Saturday night. The #2 Audi inherited the lead but around 1:00 a.m. ET Sunday Marcel Fässler went into the garage as the team had to replace a turbo charger. Mark Webber in the #20 Porsche jumped to second at the #2 Audi dropped the third, two laps back of the lead Audi. Nicolas Lapierre and the #8 Toyota has worked their way back to fourth after the early spin in the wet nearly took them out of the race, as it did with the #3 Audi of Marco Bonanomi and #81 GTE-Am AF Corse Ferrari of Sam Bird. Romain Dumas rounds out the top five, 10 laps back of the leader.

Jann Mardenbrough continues to hold the lead for the #35 OAK Racing Ligier having run 263 laps. Paul-Loup Chatin continues to run second in the #36 Signatech Alpine with the #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Ligier of Ludovic Badey in third, a lap back of the first two in class. The #38 Jota Sport Zytek of Oliver Turvey runs fourth in class, three back of the #35 OAK with René Rast another lap back, fifth in class driving the #24 Sébastien Loeb Racing Oreca.

The #97 Aston Martin of Bruno Senna and #51 Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni battle for the GTE-Pro lead. Bruni passed Senna shortly prior to the start of the 19th hour. The two teams are the only GTE-Pro lead lap, having completed 250 laps. Marco Holzer is a lap down, third in class driving the #92 Porsche. The #73 and #74 Corvettes round out the top five in GTE-Pro with drivers Antonio García and Richard Westbrook respectively behind the wheel of each car. They are one lap and eight laps back of the #51 Ferrari respectively.

David Heinemeier Hansson continues to hold a two lap lead in GTE-Am in the #95 Aston Martin with 246 laps under the all-Danish team's belt. Klaus Bachler is second in the #88 Proton Competition Porsche. #61 AF Corse Ferrari is third with Marco Cioci behind the wheel, three laps back. Patrick Long is fourth in the #77 Demspey Racing-Proton Porsche with Nic Jönsson rounding out the top five in the #57 Krohn Racing Ferrari.

Stay tuned as sun rise lurks on the U.S. Eastern seaboard.

Half Way At 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans

The #7 Toyota continues to lead with Stéphane Sarrazin behind the wheel. The Frenchman has completed 187 laps. Sarrazin is followed by the #2 and #1 Audis driven respectively by André Lotterer and Tom Kristensen. Timo Bernhard is fourth, two lap down in the #20 Porsche. His teammate the #14 Porsche driven by fellow German Marc Lieb rounds out the top five, six laps back after suffering a minor mechanical issue early in the race.

The #8 Toyota of Sébastien Buemi is sixth, 12 laps back of it's teammate. The #8 was involved in an accident with the #3 Audi of Marco Bonanomi and the GTE-Am leader at the time #81 AF Corse Ferrari of Sam Bird early in the race. Both the #3 Audi and #81 Ferrari retired from the race after that accident.

Alex Brundle leads in the LMP2 having completed 173 laps in the #35 OAK Racing Ligier. Paul-Loup Chapin is second in the #36 Alpine-Nissan with Pierre Thiriet in third in the #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Ligier. Jon Lancester is fourth in LMP2 driving the #34 Race Performance Oreca-Judd. The #38 Jota Sport Zytek of Simon Dolan rounds out the top five in LMP2.

Bruno Senna leads in GTE-Pro driving the #97 Aston Martin having completed 165 laps. Second third and fourth place of Giancarlo Fisichella (#51 AF Corse Ferrari), Richard Westbrook (#74 Corvette) and Richard Lietz (#92 Porsche) all on the same lap. Jordan Taylor in the #73 Corvette is fifth in class, one lap down.

Aston Martin is sweeping the GT classes with the #95 of David Heinemeier Hansson leading having completed 163 laps. He leads the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari of Alexsey Basov sand #88 ProSpeed Porsche of Christian Ried by a lap. Luíz Pérez Companc is fourth in class in the #671 AF Corse Ferrari. The #90 8Star Ferrari of Frankie Montecalvo rounds out the top five in GTE-Am.

Stay tuned...

Toyota and Porsche Lead Audi, Ferrari Sweeps GT Poles at Le Mans

While the #8 Toyota has been on it's A-Game in 2014, having swept both FIA World Endurance Championship races to date but leading the field to the green flag tomorrow will be it's sister #7 TS040 Hybrid. Alexander Wurz looks for his third Le Mans victory while Stéphane Sarrazin looks for his elusive first and Kazuki Nakajima looks to join Masanori Sekiya and Seiji Ara as the third Japanese driver to win overall at Le Mans. The #7 set the fastest time in the third qualifying session with a lap of 3:21.789.

The #14 Porsche 919 Hybrid shared by Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb will start second after falling 0.357 seconds short of pole. The #8 Toyota of FIA WEC points leaders Anthony Davidson, Nicolas Lapierre and Sébastien Buemi will start third. Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley start fourth driving the #20 Porsche.

The Audis will start in reverse numerical order in positions 5-7. The trio with the least Le Mans experience, Felipe Albuquerque, Marco Bonanomi and Oliver Jarvis will start fifth with two-time Le Mans winners Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer in sixth. The #1 Audi saw a driver change midweek after an accident forced Loïc Duval to step out of the car. Marc Gené will move out of the #38 Jota Sport Zytek-Nissan in LMP2 to join Tom Kristensen and Lucas di Grassi. They will start seventh. The two non-hybrid Rebellion LMP1 entries with start 8th and 9th with the #12 of Nicolas Prost, Nick Heidfeld and Mathias Beche leading the #13 of Dominik Kraihamer, Andrea Belicchi and Fabio Leimer.

European Le Mans Series points leaders Thiriet by TDS Racing won pole in LMP2 with a time of 3:42.730. Drivers of the #46 Ligier-Nissan Pierre Thiriet, Ludovic Badey and Tristan Gommendy will start tenth overall. Despite losing their senior statesman, Jota Sport qualified second in LMP2 with former GP2 driver and McLaren test driver Oliver Turvey take over for Gené and joining Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell. Jota Sport missed LMP2 pole by 0.065 seconds. The #35 Ligier-Nissan of OAK Racing driven by Alex Brundle, Jann Mardenborough and Mark Shulzhitskiy will start third in class. The #26 G-Drive Morgan-Nissan of Romain Rusinov, Olivier Pla and Julien Canal start four in LMP2 with Oliver Webb, Nelson Panciatici and Paul-Loup Chatin rounding out the top five in LMP2 in the #36 Alpine-Nissan of Signatech Alpine.

AF Corse swept the poles in GTE-Pro and GTE-Am. The #51 Ferrari of defending world champion Gianmaria Bruni, Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella set the fastest time at 3:54.754 and will start 28th overall. Immediately behind them was the GTE-Am pole winners, the #81 Ferrari of Sam Bird, Michele Rugolo and Stephen Wyatt, 0.965 seconds back.

The #73 Corvette of four-time Le Mans class winner Jan Magnussen, three-time Le Mans class winner Antonio García and Jordan Taylor was second in GTE-Pro with the #97 Aston Martin of Darren Turner, Stefan Mücke and Bruno Senna split the #73 from it's sister #74 and drivers Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Richard Westbrook.

The #52 Ram Racing Ferrari rounded out the top five in GTE-Pro with drivers Matt Griffin, Álvaro Parente and Federico Leo. The defending GTE-Pro winner at Le Mans, the #92 Porsche of Richard Lietz, Marco Holzer and Frédéric Makowiecki starts sixth in GTE-Pro ahead of the #91 Porsche of Patrick Pilet, Jörg Bergmeister and Nick Tandy. Davide Rigon, Olivier Berreta and Pierre Kaffer round out the GTE-Pro field in the #71 AF Corse Ferrari. Kaffer replaces James Calado after the Brit was not cleared after an accident. The #99 Aston Martin of Alexander MacDowell, Darryl O'Young and Fernando Rees was slated to start eighth in GTE-Pro but was withdrawn after an accident in Wednesday qualifying.

Starting second in GTE-Am behind the #81 AF Corse Ferrari will be the #98 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Christoffer Nygaard. The three Danes David Heinemeier Hansson, Kristian Poulsen and Nicki Thiim start third in class in the #95 Aston Martin. Luíz Pérez Companc, Marco Cioci and Mirko Venturi start fourth in the #61 AF Corse Ferrari. Rounding out the top five in GTE-Am is the Russian #72 SMP Racing Ferrari of Andrea Bertolini, Victor Shaitar and Aleksey Basov.

Other notables from qualifying, the #0 Nissan ZEOD RC will start 27th, 28.396 seconds back of the overall pole winning #7 Toyota and 3.515 seconds ahead of the #51 AF Corse Ferrari, the fastest GT car.

The #42 Caterham Racing Zytek Nissan of three-time Le Mans class winner Tom Kimber-Smith, Chris Dyson and 16-year old Matthew McMurry will start tenth in LMP2. The #77 GTE-Am Porsche of Dempsey Racing and drivers Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster and Patrick Long starts seventh in class and 41st overall. Defending GTE-Am class winners at Le Mans, IMSA Performance Matmut starts 12th in class, 48th overall with drivers Raymond Narac, Nicolas Armindo and David Hallyday.

In what could only be one of the most intriguing stories in recent Le Mans history, the #79 WeatherTech ProSpeed Competition Porsche of Cooper MacNeil and Jeroen Bleekemolen will compete as a GTE-Pro car, not a GTE-Am car as it was originally entered as. Bret Curtis suffered an accident in Thursday qualifying, destroying the car and ending Curtis' weekend due to a concussion. The team was unable to find another bronze rated driver, a requirement for each team competing in and amateur class. The #79 Porsche will start ninth in GTE-Pro

With the withdrawal of the #99 Aston Martin, fifty-four cars are scheduled to take the Tricolour when the 82nd edition of the French classic begins at 9:00 a.m. ET.

2014 24 Hours of Le Mans Preview

Today marks the start of practice for the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans from Circuit de la Sarthe. The first practice session begins at 4:00 p.m. Le Mans time (10:00 a.m. ET) and is four hours in length. The first qualifying session begins at 10:00 p.m. Le Mans time (4:00 p.m. ET) and is two hours in length. Fifty-five cars, across four classes aim for immortality in the lengthy history book for the twice-around the clock French classic.

LMP1
LMP1 overflows with talent. Audi drivers Loïc Duval and Tom Kristensen defend their Le Mans victory with Lucas di Grassi as the new third driver. Kristensen is Mr. Le Mans with nine overall victories and thirteen overall podiums in seventeen Le Mans starts. This is Duval's sixth Le Mans start and his victory last year was his career best after back-to-back fifth place finishes. Lucas di Grassi was promoted to the top Audi team this year after the retirement of Allan McNish. Di Grassi finished third last year on Le Mans debut with Marc Gené and Oliver Jarvis as co-drivers.

The #2 Audi has won two of the last three years overall with drivers Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer. A third win for this trio would make them the 18th, 19th and 20th driver with three Le Mans victories. The third Audi features Portugal's Felipe Alubquerque making his Le Mans debut. Italian Marco Bonanomi returns after a one-year sabbatical. He finished third on debut in 2012 with Oliver Jarvis and Mike Rockenfeller as his co-drivers. Oliver Jarvis rounds out the #3 Audi and has finished third overall the passed two years.

The #8 Toyota of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Nicolas Lapierre have won the opening two rounds of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship and was fastest on the test day on June 1st. Alexander Wurz looks for his third Le Mans victory with his third different manufacture having won with Porsche in 1996 and Peugeot in 2009. The Austrian leads the #7 Toyota with three-time Le Mans runner-up Stéphane Sarrazin and Kazuki Nakajima as his co-drivers.

Then there is the return of Porsche. With 16 overall Le Mans victories, the Stuttgart-based manufacture aims for their first Le Mans triumph since 1998 with two previous Le Mans winners in their stables. Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard are split between the #14 and #20 Porsche respectively. Dumas is joined by three-time Le Mans class winner Marc Lieb and Neel Jani. Bernhard is joined by Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber. Webber returns to Le Mans for the first time since 1999 where he had a massive accident in the warm-up, keeping him and one of the famed Mercedes CLRs from taking the tricolour.

Rounding out LMP1 are the two petrol-powered Rebellion R-One-Toyotas with Nicolas Prost, Nick Heidfeld and Mathias Beche in the #12 and Dominik Kraihamer, Andrea Belicchi and Fabio Leimer in the #13.

LMP2
None of the three drivers (Bertrand Baguette, Martin Plowman, Ricardo González) who won in LMP2 last year return to defend their titles. OAK Racing is the defending winning team and has two cars, one featuring Alex Brundle, Jann Mardenborough and Le Mans rookie Mark Shulzhitskiy, the other an all-Chinese line-up with David Cheng, Ho-Pin Tung and Adderly Fong. Brundle and Mardenborough finished second and third respectively in class last year.

One of the full-time FIA World Endurance Championship teams is G-Drive Racing, which finished third last year before being excluded for a fuel cell violation. Romain Rusinov returns with Frenchmen Olivier Pla and Julien Canal. G-Drive leads the LMP2 standings in WEC and were fastest on the test day. The Hong Kong KCMG Oreca-Nissan of Matthew Howson, Richard Bradley and Alexandre Imperatori are second in the standings after second place finishes in the first two races of the 2014 FIA WEC season. The Russian SMP Racing has two cars entered. Two-time Le Mans class winner Mika Salo is joined by Sergey Zlobin and Anton Ladygin while Anton's brother Kirill is joined by Nicolas Minassian, who will be making his fifteenth Le Mans appearance and Maurizio Mediani.

Defending European Le Mans Series champions Signatech Alpine and driver Nelson Panciatici returns for his third Le Mans start. He is joined by Oliver Webb and Jean-Loup Chatin, both making their Le Mans debuts. Winners from this year's European Le Mans Series season, Thiriet by TDS Racing and Jota Sport are on the entry list. Thiriet drivers Pierre Thiriet, Ludovic Badey and Tristan Gommendy lead the ELMS points. Second are Jota's Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell. Marc Gené joins the Brits for Le Mans.

Three time Le Mans LMP2 class winner Tom Kimber-Smith returns with Caterham Racing and Americans Chris Dyson and 16-year old Matthew McMurray. This is Dyson's first Le Mans appearance since 2009. The other American in LMP2 is Ricky Taylor driving for Labre Compétition with Pierre Ragues and Keiko Ihara. Labre has five Le Mans class victories, all coming in GT classes.

Winners in LMP2 in 2011, Greaves Motorsport has an all-British line-up with Michael Munemann, Alessandro Latif and James Winslowm all making their Le Mans debuts. Sébastien Loeb Racing has triple Porsche Supercup champion René Rast joined by Czech driver Jan Charouz and Frenchman Vincent Capillaire. Two teams in LMP2 run under the Swiss flag. One is the Race Performance Oreca-Judd of Michel Frey, Franck Mailleux and Jon Lancaster. The other is Newblood by Morand Racing Morgan-Judd of former Formula One driver Christian Klein, Gary Hirsch and Romain Brandela.

The final two teams in LMP2 are the Irish Murphy Prototypes of Nathanaël Berthon, Rodolfo Gonzalez and Karun Chandhok and German Pegasus Racing with French drivers Julien Schnell and Léo Roussel and Swiss driver Nicolas Leutwiler. Murphy Prototypes was second fastest in class on the test day.

GTE-Pro
Another edition of the Ferrari vs. Porsche vs. Corvette vs. Aston Martin will unfold this weekend. Porsche returns as defending winners. Richard Lietz's two winning co-drivers from 2013 have moved to LMP1 (Lieb and Dumas). The Austrian will be join by German Marco Holzer and Frenchman Frédéric Makowiecki. The #92 started off on the right foot, leading the GT field on the test day. Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Pilet made it a Porsche 1-2 last year and return in the #91 with Nick Tandy as their third driver.

Ferrari has the most entries in GTE-Pro with three. Defending GT world champions AF Corse has two cars entered. Gianmaria Bruni, Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella make up the #61 458 Italia. The trio won GTE-Pro at Le Mans in 2012. Bruni and Vilander currently lead the WEC GT Drivers championship. The #71 AF Corse features Le Mans rookies James Calado and Davide Rigon and six-time Le Mans class winner, Monegasque Olivier Beretta. The third Ferrari is entered by defending ELMS GTE champions Ram Racing. Matt Griffin, Álvaro Parente and Federico Leo are the three drivers.

The Corvette CR7.R makes it Le Mans debut. It's predecessor, the C6.R won on Le Mans debut in 2005 and on it's Le Mans GT2 class debut in 2009. The C5-R finished third on it's debut in 2000. Jan Magnussen, Antonio García and Jordan Taylor are in the #73 with Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Richard Westbrook. Gavin has four class wins at Le Mans but has not won since 2006.

Aston Martin's last Le Mans win came in 2008. Darren Turner was apart of that winning team. He is joined by Stefan Mücke and Bruno Senna in the #97. The #99 Aston Martin has Hong Kong's Darryl O'Young as it's senior statesman in his third Le Mans appearance with Alex MacDowell and Fernando Rees making their Le Mans debuts.

GTE-Am
GTE-Am is the largest class in the 2014 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Nineteen entries made up of 11 Ferrari 458 Italias, 6 Porsche 911s and 2 Aston Martins.

Defending winners IMSA Performance Matmut returns with Raymond Narac as the lone victor from 2013 defending the title (Jeal-Karl Vernay and Christophe Bourret are not at Le Mans). Narac is joined by Nicolas Armindo and David Hallyday to make an all-French line-up. IMSA Performance has a second all-French line-up with 1993 overall winner Éric Hélary, Erik Maris and Jean-Marc Merlin.

Belgian Prospeed Competition also has two Porsches entered.  The WEC-entered #75 will be driven by two-time Le Mans class winner Emmanuel Collard, François Perrodo and Markus Palttalla. Their second entry features two Americans, Cooper MacNeil and Bret Curtis alongside the Dutchman Jeroen Bleekemolen. MacNeil and Curtis are both in their sophomore appearance while Bleekemolen won the LMP2 class in 2008.

The final two Porsche are Proton Competition-related. The German squad has their own WEC entry of Klaus Bachler, Christian Ried and Khaled Al Qubaisi and another entry in partnership with American Dempsey Racing. Patrick Dempsey returns with co-drivers Joe Foster and Patrick Long for the second consecutive year. They finished fourth in class last year.

Aston Martin returns with heavy hearts as they look to honor Allan Simonsen, one year after the Dane fatal's accident in the first hour of the race. The all-Danish team, the #95 Vantage GTE features 2009 LMP2 winner at Le Mans Kristian Poulsen, David Heinemeier Hansson who finished second in LMP2 last year and defending Porsche Supercup champion Nicki Thiim. Poulsen and Heinemeier Hansson lead the WEC GTE-Am points. The #98 Vantage GTE has a fourth Dane, Christoffer Nygaard alongside Canadian Paul Dalla Lana and Portugal's Pedro Lamy.

AF Corse has four Ferrari's entered in GTE-Am. The #61 WEC entry of Luíz Pérez Companc, Marco Cicoci and Mirko Venturi won the most recent round of the championship at Spa-Francorchamps and is second in WEC GTE-Am points. AF Corse's second WEC entry, the #81 of Sam Bird, Michele Rugolo and Stephen Wyatt finished third in class at the Silverstone season opener. The other two AF Corse Ferraris feature Peter Ashley Mann, Lorenzo Casè and Raffaele Gianmaria in the #60 and the ELMS GTE trio of Yannick Mallélgol, Jean-Marc Bachelier and Howard Blank in the #62.

The other WEC GTE-Am Ferraris in the field are Ram Racing with Johnny Mowlem making his eighth start with Mark Patterson and Archie Hamilton. 8Star Motorsports has Frankie Montecalvo, Gianluca Roda and Paolo Ruberti entered as it's drivers. 8Star was the fastest GTE-Am team on the test day and second fastest GT team on the test day.

Along with their two LMP2 entries, SMP Racing has one car entered in GTE-Am. Andrea Bertolini and Viktor Shaitar lead the ELMS GTE points with a second and first in the first two rounds. They are joined by Russian Aleksey Basov for Le Mans as their usual third driver Sergey Zlobin will be in LMP2. JMW Motorsports have American drivers Seth Neiman and Spencer Pumpelly on loan from Flying Lizard Motorsports with Saudi Abdulaziz Al-Faisal. The final ELMS-entered Ferrari in the field is of Team Sofrev ASP. Their driver Soheil Ayari makes his 12th Le Mans appearance with fellow Frenchman Anthony Pons and 1998 FIFA World Cup winning goalkeeper Fabien Barthez making his Le Mans debut.

Krohn Racing is the third American team in GTE-Am. Tracy Krohn and longtime co-driver Nic Jönsson is joined by Ben Collins. This is Collins' first Le Mans appearance in a GT class after three in LMP classes. The final Ferrari in GTE-Am is of Team Taisan from the Asian Le Mans Series. Former Formula One driver Shinji Nakano is joined by German Pierre Ehret and Brit Martin Rich in that car.

Garage 56
Nissan returns for the second time in three years as the Garage 56 entry. Unlike their 2012 entry as the engine supplier for the DeltaWing, Nissan is the builder of this year's entry, the ZEOD RC, an electric-hybrid. Nissan GT Academy drivers Lucas Ordóñez and Wolfgang Reip and joined by four-time Formula Nippon champion and driver of the DeltaWing in 2012, Satoshi Motoyama. The ZEOD RC was 29.560 seconds off the top time set by the #8 Toyota on the test day but was 4.686 seconds ahead of the #92 Porsche, the top GT car.

Prediction
I made it back in December: Porsche wins Le Mans with Mark Webber and I am sticking with it. The #20 Porsche wins. The #8 Toyota finishes second with the #2 Audi rounding out the podium.

The #35 OAK Racing Ligier of Alex Brundle, Jann Mardenborough and Mark Shulzhitskiy win LMP2 with G-Drive finishing second and Thiriet by TDS Racing rounding out the LMP2 podium.

The Nissan ZEOD RC runs at least two-thirds of the race.

Give me the #92 Porsche for back-to-back victories in GTE-Pro. The #73 Corvette finishes second with the #71 Ferrari holding off the #97 Aston Martin for third.

Finally, the #96 Aston Martin takes an emotional victory in GTE-Am with the #81 AF Corse Ferrari and SMP Racing Ferrari making it a tough battle. The Dempsey Racing Porsche and Ram Racing Ferrari having decent pushes for a class podium.

Musings From the Weekend: Two Stepping Croissants

Late dashes were the theme of the weekend, from under the lights at Texas, north of the border and in the lush forests of Eastern Pennsylvania. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

One-Day Shows
Why doesn't IndyCar run the non-triple crown oval races as one day shows? IndyCar ran a 75-minute practice session Friday morning followed by qualifying and a half hour final practice in the evening before the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. Couldn't they have done that all Saturday? The green flag for the Firestone 600 was at 8:50 p.m. ET. In theory, couldn't there have been a two hour practice session at 3:00 p.m. with qualifying at 6:00 p.m.? The downside to a one-day show is a team having an accident and needing to scramble before the race. Ovals struggle filling dead time. Road and street course races have it made. Look at St. Petersburg or Barber where IndyCar, the Road to Indy and Pirelli World Challenge all had practice sessions, qualifying sessions and races over three days. Once one practice ended, the next begin five minutes later.

What can ovals do? None of the Road to Indy series run at Texas. There were Legend car races prior to the IndyCar race but that isn't enough to get fans to show up early and stay all day. Time is more precious and going to a track to sit and wait when there is no action for multiple hours is no longer acceptable and what ever undercard is selected must be worth while. Cover bands won't get it done, a packed schedule with at most ten minutes of dead time between sessions will. Of course, as with most things in life, easier said than done.

Too Easy to Drive or Talented Field?
The first 149 laps of the Indianapolis 500 went caution-free and Texas featured green flag runs of 110 and 109 laps. Giving where credit is more than deserved, More Front Wing co-editor and Toronto Star contributor Stephanie Wallcraft tweeted wondering if the DW12 chassis was too easy to drive. A fair question to ask. I think the field is just that talented considering the drivers are no longer flat out at Texas and have to lift in the corners with tires falling off more than ever before in the recent IndyCar history.

I threw out turning about the turbo boost levels, which is currently set at 130 kPa on ovals, 140 kPa for Indianapolis 500 qualifying and 150 kPa on road and street courses. Maybe the boost level should  be at 150 kPa for all races and qualifying sessions. Most drivers seem to want more power. The fans certainly wouldn't mind more power. The manufactures and teams may have to spend a little more money but it could be worth the expense.

Montreal Madness
Daniel Ricciardo took down the mighty Mercedes AMG Formula One Team with a thrilling first career victory in Montreal passing Nico Rosberg with three laps to go to end the German sides unbeaten record in 2014 and putting Red Bull Racing on the scoreboard. Sebastian Vettel bookended the podium for Red Bull with a last lap accident between Sergio Pérez and Felipe Massa while battling for fourth drop both drivers out of the points and nearly collected the four-time world champion.

Just when it appeared Bahrain was going to be the best race of 2014, Canada took the honor by leaps and bounds over the Persian Gulf night race. If you were to tell the average person that attendance of motorsports events across the globe has been on a steady decline in recent years and shown them today's crowd, they would have called you a liar. The Canadian faithful came out in droves like they always do. When things appear negative, a race like Montreal makes you realize things are much better than is what is being led on.

Why couldn't IndyCar join Formula One at Montreal and race on Saturday afternoon? This isn't the first time I have suggested an IndyCar-Formula One doubleheader weekend and I will continue suggesting them. Why? Because they make sense for the North American rounds. Put aside historical bad blood, superiority complexes, inferiority complexes, my fans, your fans, lap times and television times. The two series running together would support one another. What fan would turn down that ticket because one is on the card with the other? IndyCar back at Montreal and heading to Austin would be nothing but a good thing for the series as it would get the series on world class tracks and in front of bigger crowds than some current races draw. Bernie Ecclestone, FOM and the FIA should realize the positivity of sharing the weekend as they already have more money than God. Doing something for the greater good of motorsports over hogging the pie to themselves would be a change highly welcomed by many.

Paddock Space
Can it get any tighter than the paddock at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve? Somehow they managed to get 43-plus stock cars in there when the NASCAR Nationwide Series raced there. The only paddocks that I can think of that compare are Monaco and the old Interlagos paddock which is being replaced as the pits and start/finish move from before the Senna 'S' to after the famed corners at the bottom of the hill.

By the way, has anyone checked on how construction is going on that new paddock in Interlagos? Brazilians aren't the most diligent when it comes to construction. We're days away from the World Cup and three stadiums aren't finish (though they are in the final, final, final, final stages of construction). I don't want the teams to show up in November only to find the garages aren't even close to finish.

Le Mans
Middle of June means Le Mans. When IndyCar announced their schedule and we found out the series would be idle for the weekend of the 24-hour endurance race around the Circuit de la Sarthe, I thought, "Great! Now some of these drivers will get a chance to compete on sports car racing's grandest stage." Fast forward and is Sébastien Bourdais returning to compete in the race around his childhood home? No. Is Simon Pagenaud going? No. Is Mike Conway there? No because Millennium Racing withdraws more than an teenage boy. Is Ryan Hunter-Reay a third driver for Viper? No because Viper isn't even going.

It's a little disappointing their aren't the one-offs that I thought would happen as well as the lack of American teams but the field is still full of talented teams and drivers regardless. I would've have loved to see Viper go to Le Mans to take on the likes of Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin because it is one of the few opportunities for the GTE teams going for the world title get to take on the American-based Corvette and Viper teams. It would have been tremendous racing. If only Corvette and Viper ran the WEC and we'd get to see it eight times a year.

There are still plenty of great teams and qualified drivers at Le Mans. LMP1 is LMP1. Audi vs. Toyota vs. Porsche. No complaints. LMP2 is a garden salad of veterans and youthful drivers. For the Chris Dysons, Marc Genés, Tom Kimber-Smiths, Karun Chandhoks, Mika Salos, Christian Kleins and Nicolas Minassians there are the Alex Brundles, Jann Mardenboroughs, Harry Tincknells, Ricky Taylors, Oliver Webbs and Alessandro Latifs.

GTE-Pro should be a nine-car brawl for 24 hours. The Corvette tag-team takes on the factory efforts from Ferrari, Aston Martin and Porsche. GTE-Pro also sees an influx of young talent as a few drivers recently racing in GP2 have found valuable rides while struggle to break into Formula One. Álvaro Parente, James Calado and Davide Rigon all make their Le Mans debuts this year and all do it driving Ferrari 458 Italia.

Then there is the Star Wars cantina that is GTE-Am. It has a little bit of everything and every time you turn around you say, "you're here too!?" Previous Le Mans winners and workhorse GT drivers are joined by a World Cup champion, actor and royalty.

Let's not forget the most recent Ben Bowlby brainchild supported by Nissan the hybrid-electric of the DeltaWing. The Garage 56 entry is a preamble to Nissan's dive into the deep end that is LMP1 in 2015.

By the way, Rebellion Racing does not count as a Le Mans winner for winning LMP1-L, which they are guaranteed to do since they are the only two cars in the "subclass." You aren't a Le Mans winner for winning a subclass. If that's the case, we'd be celebrating top finishing flat-6 entry, top finishing turbo-charged entry, top finishing natural-aspirated entry and so on to the point that every one gets a Rolex. That's not how it works. Win your class, not a subclass by de facto.

Look for more in the Le Mans preview, which will be posted midweek.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about Ed Carpenter, Daniel Ricciardo and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. but did you know...

Sébastien Ogier won Rally d'Italia Sardegna, his fourth victory of the 2014 World Rally Championship and he extended his championship lead to 33 points ahead of Volkswagen teammate Jari-Matti Latvala who finished third. Mads Østberg finished second to Ogier.

Marco Melandri swept the World Superbike weekend in Sepang. Michael van der Mark won in Supersport.

José María López and Ma Qing Hua split the WTCC weekend in Moscow.

There was a NASCAR Truck Series race and it wasn't won by Kyle Busch. Matt Crafton took the victory at Texas.

Coming up this weekend:

24 Hours of Le Mans.
MotoGP at Barcelona.
NASCAR at Michigan.