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Cool Racing becomes latest team to skip WEC finale

The Cool Racing LMP2 team has become the latest squad to pull out of next weekend's Bahrain FIA World Endurance Championship season finale.

#42 Cool Racing Oreca 07: Nicolas Lapierre, Antonin Borga, Alexandre Coigny

#42 Cool Racing Oreca 07: Nicolas Lapierre, Antonin Borga, Alexandre Coigny

JEP / Motorsport Images

The latest version of the entry list for the eight-hour race on November 14 has the Swiss outfit's solo Oreca 07 missing, leaving only six cars in LMP2 and 24 in total.

Cool Racing joins the Rebellion Racing and another LMP2 team, High Class Racing, in skipping the Bahrain event, which was already set to feature the WEC's lowest-ever car count.

The team's regular trio of drivers, Nicolas Lapierre, Antonin Borga and Alexandre Coigny, had been listed on the previous version of the entry list.

New to the WEC this year, Cool Racing won its first race in the series at Silverstone last year with a two-driver crew of Lapierre and Borga, following an injury for Coigny sustained in the European Le Mans Series race the previous day.

 

Lapierre and Borga are sixth in the LMP2 standings and would have been in contention for the runner-up spot behind United Autosports duo Phil Hanson and Filipe Albuquerque - who sealed the crown with their Le Mans 24 Hours win - had they raced in Bahrain.

Several driver changes in the GTE Am ranks have also been confirmed by the latest entry list.

Team Project 1 has called up Porsche veteran Jorg Bergmeister to join Egidio Perfetti and Larry ten Vorde in its #56 entry, with team regular Matteo Cairoli instead taking part in the clashing GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup event at Paul Ricard.

Bergmeister had been part of Project 1's 2018/19 GTE Am title-winning line-up alongside Perfetti and Patrick Lindsey.

Elsewhere, Dempsey Proton Racing has drafted in Norwegian driver Dennis Olsen to replace Matt Campbell, who is on IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship duty with the factory Porsche outfit in the Sebring 12 Hours, in its #77 car.

The sister #88 car is set to be driven by Emirati driver Khaled Al Qubaisi, Germany's Marco Holzer and one other to-be-named driver. Thomas Preining, who has driven the car in all but one race so far this season, is also set to race at Paul Ricard in GTWCE.

Finally, Belgian driver Alessio Picariello will be making his WEC debut as he replaces Andrew Watson alongside Mike Wainwright and Ben Barker in the Gulf Racing UK Porsche.

Picariello is fresh off helping Proton Competition to GTE title glory in last weekend's European Le Mans Series season finale at Portimao.

#86 Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR: Michael Wainwright, Benjamin Barker, Andrew Watson

#86 Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR: Michael Wainwright, Benjamin Barker, Andrew Watson

Photo by: ELMS

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