24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans 2008: 21 Teams confirmed by the A.C.O.

© Planetlemans – Gabriel Portos

The A.C.O. has released today the list of 21 teams from the original pre-selection that have confirmed their attendance to the 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours in June. After the 7th January deadline for confirmation a number of teams in 2 categories have declined their pre-selection:

LMP2- As expected Penske Racing won’t attend the 24 Hours despite their impeccable performance in the ALMS.The semi-official Porsche team had 2 slots as ALMS Champions and Petit Le Mans winners. There should not be shortage of inscriptions in this class (including privateer Porsche RS Spyders) so we should nevertheless see the Zuffenhausen prototypes at La Sarthe. The other team declining the pre-selection in this class was Binnie Motorsports due to personal reasons from Bill Binnie. We extend our best wishes to Bill and family from the whole team at Planetlemans. We hope to see Bill back in the paddock as soon as possible.

GT1- Oreca won’t enter the LMS champion Saleen but rather pursue an LMP1 slot after the Courage takeover. On the other hand both FIA-GT teams invited (Vitaphone and Playteam Sarafree) will not search for an alternative car to participate (their MC 12 Maserati is non-A.C.O. homologated)

All LMP1 and GT2 teams are confirmed including the top 2 FIA-GT teams in the latter class.

With these 6 pre-selections gone the remaining confirmed list of 21 participants is:

LMP1 (unchanged)
Audi Sport North America (2)
Peugeot Total (2)
Pescarolo Sport
Autocon Motorsport

LMP2
RML
Quifel-ASM
Barazi-Epsilon

GT1
Corvette Racing(2)
Aston Martin Racing
Luc Alphand Aventures

GT2 (unchanged)
IMSA Matmut
Risi Competizione(2)
Virgo Motorsport
Felbermayr Proton
Flying Lizard
AF Corse
BMS Scuderia Italia

The deadline for all other teams to present their applications expires January 23rd midnight.