Le Mans, WEC, ELMS entry lists released - MotorSportsTalk

Thursday’s press conference in France revealed several key items for the 2014 endurance sports car season.

Remember the numbers 56, 42 and 31. 56 is the number of entries for the 24 Hours of Le Mans – per usual – 31 of which are from the FIA World Endurance Championship. And 42 is the number of entries received for the European Le Mans Series, which has surged back in entries after a pair of challenging seasons.

24 HOURS OF LE MANS

There’s an even split of 28 prototypes (10 LMP1, 17 LMP2 and the Nissan ZEOD RC) and 28 GTs (12 GTE Pros, 16 GTE Ams).

The top LMP1 (now LMP1-H for hybrid technology) arms race features new 2014 regulations, and a three-way bout between Audi, Toyota and Porsche for the overall win. The privateers have their own subcategory, LMP1-L, and will have minor bragging rights with that.

In LMP2, ORECA 03 Nissans appear popular, but there’s also Dome, Morgan, Ligier, Alpine and Zytek chassis, as well as HPD and Judd engines. Nissan though has the bulk of the engines, powering 14 of 17 cars in class.

GTE Pro will see your Ferrari-Aston Martin-Porsche battle joined by the American muscle from Corvette and Viper. Always an entertaining show.

And GTE Am, often the hardest class to project simply due to the driver requirements (LMP2 requires only one Silver or Bronze-rated driver; GTE Am requires at least one Bronze to go with a Silver), has a heavy Ferrari base but also entries from Porsche (notably Dempsey Racing) and Aston Martin.

Here’s the full entry list.

FIA WEC

Take the above copy, look at the entry list to see which cars have the FIA WEC logo next to them, and there’s your field of 31.

LMP2 takes the biggest drop in WEC, with only 7 full-season cars compared to the 17 at Le Mans. GTE Pro drops to 7 from 12; GTE Am is cut in half to 8 from 16. Meanwhile there’s only one LMP1 addition for Le Mans, and that’s the third Audi R18 e-tron quattro.

ELMS

The ELMS has 42 entries received during Thursday’s presentation in Paris. Both the LMP2 and GTE classes have 13 cars listed, with the GTC class (GT3-based) featuring 16.

Cars set to compete in the LMP2 ranks include: Alpine A450 Nissan, ORECA 03 Nissans and Judds, Morgan Nissans and Judds, Ligier Nissans and Zytek Nissans.

The GTE field includes eight Ferraris, four Porsches and a solitary Aston Martin. Meanwhile in GTC, there are primarily Ferraris but also entries from McLaren, Audi and BMW.

Here is the ELMS entry list.

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INDIANAPOLIS – Roger Penske spoke with Dallara executives Monday morning about the loose tire that went flying over the Indianapolis Motor Speedway catchfence and into a Turn 2 parking lot.

The left-rear wheel from Kyle Kirkwood’s No. 27 Dallara-Honda was sheared off in a collision at speed as Kirkwood tried to avoid the skidding No. 6 Dallara-Chevrolet of Felix Rosenqvist on Lap 183 of the 107^th Indianapolis 500.

No one seriously was hurt in the incident (including Kirkwood, whose car went upside down and slid for several hundred feet), though an Indianapolis woman’s Chevy Cruze was struck by the tire. The Indy Star reported a fan was seen and released from the care center after sustaining minor injuries from flying debris in the crash.

During a photo shoot Monday morning with Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden at the IMS Yard of Bricks, Penske met with Dallara founder and owner Gian Paolo Dallara and Dallara USA CEO Stefano dePonti. The Italian company has been the exclusive supplier of the current DW12 chassis to the NTT IndyCar series for 11 years.

“The good news is we didn’t have real trouble with that tire going out (of the track),” Penske, who bought Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2020, told a few reporters shortly afterward. “I saw it hit. When it went out, I saw we were OK. I talked to the Dallara guys today. We’re going to look at that, but I guess the shear (force) from when (Rosenqvist’s) car was sitting, (Kirkwood’s car) went over and just that shear force tore that tether. Because we have tethers on there, and I’ve never seen a wheel come off.

“That to me was probably the scariest thing. We’ve got to fix that. We’ve got to fix that so that doesn’t happen again.”

Asked by NBC Sports if IndyCar would be able to address it before Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix or before the next oval race at Iowa Speedway, Penske said, “The technical guys should look at it. I think the speed here, a couple of hundred (mph) when you hit it vs. 80 or 90 or whatever it might be, but that was a pinch point on the race.”

In a statement released Monday to WTHR and other media outlets, IndyCar said that it was “in possession of the tire in Sunday’s incident and found that the tether did not fail. This is an isolated incident, and the series is reviewing to make sure it does not happen again. IndyCar takes the safety of the drivers and fans very seriously. We are pleased and thankful that no one was hurt.”

IndyCar provided no further explanation for how the wheel was separated from the car without the tether failing.

IndyCar began mandating wheel suspension tethers using high-performance Zylon material after a flying tire killed three fans at Charlotte Motor Speedway during a May 1, 1999 race. Three fans also were struck and killed by a tire at Michigan International Speedway during a July 26, 1998 race.

The IndyCar tethers can withstand a force of more than 22,000 pounds, and the rear wheel tethers were strengthened before the 2023 season.