24h Le Mans
This opening round at Silverstone will take place on Saturday, 13 April at 15:00 hrs (local time). on the grid will be twenty five cars. The race will be contested by 56 drivers 19 teams, 14 nationalities, différentes, 9 constructors, seven manufacturers, and two tyre companies (Michelin and Dunlop).
LMP2 a very open race: 2012 title holder Thiriet by TDS Racing puts its ORECA 03-Nissan in the hands of French and Swiss drivers, Pierre Thiriet and Jonathan Hirschi, who fully intend to fight to retain their title. However, after the Le Castellet test, it is clear that Signatech Alpine (Alpine-Nissan – Pierre Ragues/Nelson Panciatici), Morand Racing (Morgan-Judd - Natacha Gachnang/Franck Mailleux) as well as Jota Sport (Zytek Z11SN-Nissan - Simon Dolan/Oliver Turvey) also intend to attain the Holy Grail. Among the nine prototypes in the LMP2 class the presence of ORECA- 03 chassis from Murphy Prototypes (Brendon Hartley/Mark Patterson) Boutsen Ginion Racing (Bastien Brière/Thomas Dagoneau/John Hartshorne) or Race Performance (Michel Frey/Patric Niederhauser) can also be counted upon to challenge. Greaves Motorsport, having achieved a podium at the 12 Hours of Sebring, is in great shape for its endurance season and puts its Zytek Z11 SN prototype in the hands of Americans Chris Dyson and Michael Marsal to play in the major league, while Luxembourg team DKR Engineering runs two Frenchmen, Olivier Porta and Romain Brandela in its Lola B11/40 Judd.
LMGTE: Eight cars on the grid: The two Ferrari 458 Italias entered by Ram Racing – No.52 (Johnny Mowlem/Matt Griffin) and No.53 (Gunnar Jeannette/Frankie Montecalvo) – will be battling against two other F458s from AF Corse, driven by Yannick Mallegol, Jean Marc Bachelier and Howard Blank (No.54) and the Italian trio of Piergiuseppe Perazzini/Marco Cioci and Federico Leo (No 55). The sixth car from the Prancing Horse marque will be entered by JMW Motorsport (No.66). Three Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs and three teams of note will also be challenging for victory in LMGTE. IMSA Performance Matmut, which by the way has also entered this year’s World Championship, has put its faith in the French-German partnership of Patrice Milesi and Wolf Henzler in the No.67. As for Prospeed Competition, the French trio of François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Sebastien Crubilé will be trying to place the No.75 at the top of the rankings. Finally Proton Competition, formerly known as Team Felbermayr-Proton, competes with the No. 77 which will be driven by the multi-national trio of German Christian Ried, Italian Gianluca Roda and the British Porsche factory driver, Nick Tandy.
GTC The new-for-2013 class: Created by the ACO for the ELMS GTC has so far answered the hopes of teams and drivers. Five cars and four different marques, all FIA GT3 homologated, will take the start of the 3 Hours of Silverstone in the GTC class. AF Corse, which has entries in two categories in the FIA WEC, plays the diversity card once again and, as well as its two entries in LMGTE, it adds a Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 in GTC. The car will be driven by an Italian trio - Andrea Rizzoli, Stefano Gai and Lorenzo Casé. Autorlando Sport is truly "multi-national", signing up five drivers of different nationalities for its two Porsche 911 GT3s. The No.64 brings Greece into the mix with Dimitris Deverikos who will be alongside Archie Hamilton (GBR) and Gianluca Carboni (ITA) while the team’s second RSR, No.84, will be driven by Venezuelan Emilio Di Guida and Dutchman Jeroen Bleekemolen. Two other German manufacturers will do more than their fair share to join the battle for victory, with the No.65 Audi R8 LMS of the MOMO Megatron DF1 team in the hands of Swiss Raffi Bader and Belgian Dylan Derdaele, and the only BMW Z4 on track from British team Ecurie Ecosse driven by young Britons Ollie Millroy, Andrew Smith and Alastair McCaig.
The highlight of the big endurance racing weekend is the 6 hour Tourist Trophy race, the opening round of the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship..
Photo : After setting the fastest time in the ELMS 2013 testing at Le Castellet on the 26th and 27th March, the Alpine Nissan could be the surprise of the 3 Hours of Silverstone.
