The 2023 Michelin Le Mans Cup will begin in Barcelona at the end of April and this year will be 8th season of the series. It all began in 2016 when the Michelin Le Mans GT3 Cup was run, as the name suggests, for just GT3 cars, with LMP3 joining the grid for the first ever Road to Le Mans in June 2016 in a non-championship point scoring capacity.
Looking back at the entry list for the 2016 series we can see many names that have gone onto bigger and greater things while others have disappeared from the motorsport scene.
Salih Yoluc and Euan Hankey
TF Sport won the Team Title in 2016, while the two drivers took the Vice Champions trophies.TF Sport have gone onto become a force in both LMGTE and in LMP2, winning the 2022 ELMS LMP2 Pro/Am title under the Racing Team Turkey banner.
Salih Yoluc was one of the drivers who took the 2016 MLMC GT3 Vice Champions title with the British team, winning two races and three further podiums with Euan Hankey.
The pair moved to the ELMS, securing the Vice Champions title in LMGTE alongside Nicki Thiim. While Yoluc is a well-known figure on the ELMS grid for many years, winning the LMP2 Pro/Am title last year, Hankey has enjoyed some success on the domestic GT scene, in British GT Championship, the British Endurance Championship and the Pure McLaren GT Series.
Egidio Perfetti and Klaus Bachler
In 2016 Norway’s Egidio Perfetti and Austrian Klaus Bachler competed in four races together at Mentos Racing, taking four podiums (2 x 2nd and 2 x 3rd) with Perfetti being joined by Ben Barker for the round at Le Castellet where they finished on the second step of the podium that season.Perfetti finished the season in 3rd place in the drivers’ championship, with Bachler in 4th due to the points difference after missing the race at Le Castellet.
Egidio Perfetti tried his hand in the Porsche Carrera Cup and the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup in 2017 and then drove for Team Project 1 in the 2018-19 FIA WEC.A win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2019 secured the world title for Perfetti and the rest of the Team Project 1 squad.Perfetti continued to race in the FIA WEC until 2021, with one victory in Bahrain in 2020.
Klaus Bachler career continued in various GT championships, finishing 3rd in the 2017 24H Series and taking two wins in the 2018 VLN Endurance series.A switch to LMP3 in. the 2018 V de V Endurance Series netted Bachler three podiums, including 1 win, but it was back to GT racing for 2019 across several championships, taking a win and two further podiums in the 2019 ADAC GT Masters.Since then, Klaus Bachler has competed in Europe, Asia and North America, always in a Porsche, with 1 podium, pole position and fastest lap in the 2022 Asian Le Mans Series with Herberth Motorsport.
Phil Hanson and Nigel Moore
Coming out of a successful karting career, Phil Hanson’s debut in cars was made in the MLMC in 2016. Teaming up with Nigel Moore in an Audi R8 LMS run by Tockwith Motorsport, Hanson competed in the first three races of the 2016 season, finishing 5th at Imola and the Red Bull Ring.
Phil Hanson then moved to Le Mans Prototypes, carving out a successful racing career for himself.In 2020 Phil Hanson and Filipe Albuquerque, driving for United Autosports, became the first drivers to win the FIA WEC and ELMS LMP2 titles and win the 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 class in the same season. He is still a regular visitor to the ELMS overall podium, finishing on the top step at Spa last year alongside Tom Gamble and Duncan Tappy.
Nigel Moore has continued to be a regular contender in endurance racing, finishing second in the 2019 ELMS LMP3 standings for Inter Europol Competition and third in LMP3 in the 2020 Asian Le Mans Series also for the Polish team. After missing the 2021 season Moore returned to the track in 2022 with an outing in a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup in the British Endurance Championship.
Round 1 of the 2023 Michelin Le Mans Cup will take place in Barcelona on Saturday 22 April.
