The Motul Petit Le Mans entry list is out and the fourth and final round of the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup season-within-a-season of the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship campaign features, as usual, a number of star extra drivers.
Before getting into those, there is one notable absence for the moment, as Team Penske isn’t listed.
Reports percolated over the fall that Penske was poised to run an Oreca 07 Gibson at Petit Le Mans, in advance of its Acura ARX-05 DPi bow in 2018, but Team Penske president Tim Cindric told NBC Sports at Watkins Glen the team would need to complete a late entry form to run. As of press time, the team said it was still evaluating an entry.
Among the 38 cars that are present, split between 9 Prototype, 3 Prototype Challenge, 9 GT Le Mans and 17 GT Daytona cars, there’s these notable driver additions:
- IndyCar drivers Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R), Sebastien Bourdais (No. 66) and Scott Dixon (No. 67) in Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GTs
- Brendon Hartley (No. 2) and Bruno Senna (No. 22) in Tequila Patron ESM Nissan Onroak DPis
- Filipe Albuquerque (No. 5) and Mike Conway (No. 31) in Mustang Sampling and Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.Rs
- Rebellion Racing’s return with Mathias Beche, Nick Heidfeld and Gustavo Menezes in No. 13 Oreca 07 Gibson
- Julien Canal (No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier JS P217 Gibson) and Chris Miller (No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson) as other pro/am extras in LMP2 cars
- Mazda factory driver Jonathan Bomarito on loan to the No. 90 VISIT FLORIDA Racing Ligier JS P217 Gibson, filling in for Rene Rast on DTM duty
- Porsche factory driver Patrick Long in his third IMSA GTD Porsche of the year, the No. 50 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, after also being in No. 28 Alegra and No. 54 CORE Porsches
- Mike Rockenfeller (No. 3) and Marcel Fassler (No. 4) in Corvette C7.Rs
- Kuno Wittmer (No. 24) and Nicky Catsburg (No. 25) in BMW Team RLL BMW M6 GTLMs
- Nick Tandy (No. 911) and Earl Bamber (No. 912) in Porsche 911 RSRs
- Alessandro Pier Guidi in No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE
- The No. 23 Alex Job Racing (Townsend Bell, Bill Sweedler, Frankie Montecalvo) and No. 29 Montaplast by Land-Motorsport (Connor De Phillippi, Chris Mies, Kelvin van der Linde) Audi R8 LMS in GTD
- Ian James (No. 14) and Austin Cindric (No. 15) in 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3s
- Trent Hindman in No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 in his second different GTD car this year
- Other GTD third drivers that include Brett Sandberg, Michael de Quesada, Mario Farnbacher, Nic Jonsson, Matt Bell, Matteo Cressoni, Matt McMurry, Dion von Moltke, Tom Dyer, Mark Wilkins, and Justin Marks
- MRTI veterans Danny Burkett and Garett Grist back in BAR1 Motorsports PC cars for that class swan song, along with Performance Tech Motorsports regular third driver Kyle Masson
The race runs Saturday, October 7, to cap off IMSA’s season.