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ELMS reveals record 44-car grid for 2016

The European Le Mans Series will boast a mammoth 44-car grid in 2016, including no fewer than 20 cars in the LMP3 class.

Start: #38 Jota Sport Gibson 015S-Nissan: Simon Dolan, Filipe Albuquerque, Harry Tincknell leads

Start: #38 Jota Sport Gibson 015S-Nissan: Simon Dolan, Filipe Albuquerque, Harry Tincknell leads

XPB Images

In the largest entry the championship has enjoyed since it was relaunched in 2013, there will be 15 LMP2s, 20 LMP3s and nine GTE cars, with the GTC class for GT3 cars being scrapped for 2016.

Five different manufacturers are represented in the LMP2 class – Gibson, ORECA, Ligier, Morgan and BR01 – with Nissan powering 12 of the 15 entries and Judd the remainder.

Defending champion outfit Greaves Motorsport headlines the entry list, with Gary Hirsch piloting its existing Gibson 015S-Nissan and Mexican sportscar racing stalwart Memo Rojas joining in a Ligier JS P2.

The LMP3 class is dominated by Ligier, which accounts for 19 of the 20 cars, with only Murphy Prototype’s sole AR-2 machine breaking the trend. All 20 cars are Nissan-powered.

Aston Martin has a works car entered in the GTE class for former British GT champion Andrew Howard, with TDS Racing entering a second Vantage for Eric Dermont.

WEC squads AF Corse (Ferrari) and Proton Competition (Porsche) have two cars entered apiece, while AT Racing, Formula Racing and JMW Motorsport also each will have a single Ferrari 458.

Full entry list:

Team Car Confirmed drivers

LMP2

1 Greaves Motorsport Gibson 015S - Nissan  Gary Hirsch
21  DragonSpeed ORECA 05 - Nissan

 Henrik Hedman

 Nicolas Lapierre

22  SO24 by Lombard Racing
Ligier JS P2 - Judd

Vincent Capillaire

 Olivier Lombard

23  Panis Barthez Competition
Ligier JS P2 - Nissan

Fabien Barthez

25  Algarve Pro Racing Ligier JS P2 - Nissan

 Michael Munemann

28  IDEC Sport Racing Ligier JS P2 - Judd 

Patrice Lafargue

29  Pegasus Racing Morgan - Nissan 

Ines Taittinger

32  Courage
BR01 - Nissan

 Andreas Wirth

33  Eurasia Motorsport ORECA 05 - Nissan

Pu Jun Jin

 Nick de Bruijn

 Tristan Gommendy

34  Race Performance ORECA 03R - Judd

 Nicolas Leutwiler

38  G-Drive Racing Gibson 015S - Nissan 

 Giedo van der Garde

 Simon Dolan

Harry Tincknell

40 Krohn Racing Ligier JS P2 - Nissan  Tracy Krohn
41 Greaves Motorsport Ligier JS P2 - Nissan  Memo Rojas
46 Thiriet by TDS Racing ORECA 05 - Nissan 

 Pierre Thiriet

Mathias Beche

48  Murphy Prototypes ORECA 03R - Nissan   Greg Murphy

LMP3

2 United Autosports Ligier JS P3 - Nissan

Alex Brundle

 Mike Guasch

3 United Autosports Ligier JS P3 - Nissan 

 Mark Patterson

Matt Bell

4 OAK Racing Ligier JS P3 - Nissan

Jean-Marc Merlin

5 By Speed Factory Ligier JS P3 - Nissan Jesus Fuster
6 360 Racing Ligier JS P3 - Nissan Terrence Woodward
7 Villorba Corse Ligier JS P3 - Nissan

Roberto Lacorte

 Giorgio Sernagiotto

8 Race Performance Ligier JS P3 - Nissan  Nicolas Leutwiler
9  Graff Ligier JS P3 - Nissan

Eric Trouillet

 Paul Petit

 Enzo Guibbert

10  Graff Ligier JS P3 - Nissan

 John Falb

 Sean Rayhall

 Bob Corliss

11 EuroInternational Ligier JS P3 - Nissan Constantino Peroni
12 EuroInternational Ligier JS P3 - Nissan Jay Palmer
13 InterEuropol Competition Ligier JS P3 - Nissan  Jakub Smiechowski
14 Murphy Prototypes Riley AR-2 - Nissan

 Tony Ave

 Doug Peterson

15 RLR Msport Ligier JS P3 - Nissan

Ossy Yusuf

 Ross Warburton

 Morten Dons

16 Panis Barthez Competition Ligier JS P3 - Nissan Eric Debard
17 Ultimate Ligier JS P3 - Nissan Jean-Baptiste Lahaye
18 M.Racing - YMR Ligier JS P3 - Nissan Thomas Laurent
19 Duqueine Engineering Ligier JS P3 - Nissan David Hallyday
20 Duqueine Engineering Ligier JS P3 - Nissan TBA
24 OAK Racing Ligier JS P3 - Nissan Jacques Nicolet

LMGTE

51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia

 Piergiuseppe Perazzini

55 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia  Duncan Cameron
56  AT Racing
Ferrari 458 Italia  Alexander Talkanitsa
59  TDS Racing Aston Martin Vantage V8

 Eric Dermont

60 Formula Racing Ferrari 458 Italia

Christina Nielsen

Mikkel Mac

Johnny Laursen

76 JMW Motorsport
Ferrari 458 Italia

Robert Smith

77 Proton Competition
Porsche 911 RSR 

 Marco Seefried

88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR

 Gianluca Roda

99 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage V8 

 Andrew Howard

 

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