The opening race of the 2024 Michelin Le Mans Cup season has attracted a bumper 38 car grid for the 110-minute race in Barcelona on Saturday 13 April.
The grid will see 26 teams and 76 drivers from 19 different nations line up for the first of seven races this season to determine who will be crowned LMP3 and GT3 champions in October.
Spanish interest will focus on two teams and three drivers, with CD Sport competing in LMP3 with a pair of Ligier JS P320-Nissan’s. Biogas Motorsport will be making their MLMC GT3 debut with an all-Spanish driver line up of Josep Mayola Comadira and Marc Carol Ybarra in the no23 Ferrari 296. Fran Rueda Mateos is the third Spanish driver on the grid, who is also competing in a Ferrari 296 GT3 with former champions Kessel Racing.
The LMP3 grid will see a full complement of 29 cars, with 25 Ligier JS P320 against 4 Duqueine M30-D08.
Reigning champions Team Virage returns to defend their title with a pair of Ligiers. Britain’s Jamie Falvey and Romanian Mihea Stefan will compete in the no44 Ligier, while Oscar Bittar from Paraguay will join Brazil’s Ricardo Gracia Filho in the no59 Ligier.
2023 LMP3 Vice Champions Team Thor return with an unchanged driver line up of Audunn Gudmundsson and 2021 Driver’s Champion Colin Noble for another crack at the title in 2024. 2022 Champions Racing Spirit of Leman will enter a single car for French duo Marius Fossard and Christophe Lapierre.
2021 Champions Nielsen Racing are entering a single car for MLMC LMP3 Champion Tony Wells and ELMS LMP3 Champion Wayne Boyd.
In addition to Team Virage and CD Sport, COOL Racing, ANS Motorsport, Rinaldi Racing, MV2S Racing, Inter Europol Competition and Bretton Racing are all entering a pair of cars each for the race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The Duqueine M30-D08-Nissan will be run this season by British team Steller Motorsport, Ireland’s Murphy Prototypes, Swiss team Haegeli by T2 Racing and French team R-ACE GP, all with a single car entry for each team.
The LMP3 grid is completed by six teams running the Ligier JS P320, who are French teams M Racing and IDEC Sport, British team P4 Racing, GG Classics, who are the first Australian flagged team to enter the MLMC, Danish team High Class Racing and More Motorsport from the Netherlands.
The GT3 grid in Barcelona will feature 9 cars from 4 different manufacturers – Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche.
Former champions Kessel Racing have a two-car entry for the 2024 Michelin Le Mans Cup, with Spain’s Fran Rueda Mateos joining Andrew Gilbert in the no74 Ferrari 296 run by the Swiss team.
AF Corse will also run a pair of 296 GT3s with Italian Alessandro Balzan and Matthew Kurzejewski from the USA in the no51 Ferrari and Italian Riccardo Agostini and Custodio Toledo from Brazil in the no88 296. Spain’s Biogas Motorsport will run the fifth Ferrari 296 on the grid.
Steller Motorsport return with their Audi R8 LMS that scored a debut victory at Spa-Francorchamps last season.
There will be two Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) on the grid, with Danish team High Class Racing running one of the cars for British teammates Nick Jones and Scott Malvern, while Proton Huber Competition will run the other for German crew Manuel Lauck and Joerg Dreisow.
Following the withdrawal of Leipert Motorsport for the rest of the season, Iron Dames will be running the only Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO on the MLMC grid in Barcelona, with Celia Martin and Karen Gaillard sharing the driving duties this year.
The Barcelona Round of the 2024 Michelin Le Mans Cup will take place on the 12/13 April, with the competitors getting on track at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya earlier in the week for the official test session on Wednesday 10 April.
CLICK HERE for the provisional entry list for Round 1 of the 2024 Michelin Le Mans Cup.
