Corvette joins 62-car Le Mans 24 Hours entry list

The mid-engined Chevrolet Corvette C8.R that came on stream for last year's IMSA Sportscar Championship will make a delayed Le Mans debut on 21-22 August after the team withdrew from last year's event.

Chevrolet cited the rescheduled date for the double-points round of the World Endurance Championship in September as one of multiple factors behind its decision to end an unbroken run of participations in the 24 Hours dating back to 2000.

The two GTE Pro class C8.Rs, which will carry their traditional #63 and #64 race numbers, will be driven by their regular line-ups.

Full-season Corvette drivers Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor will be joined in #63 by Nicky Catsburg.

Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner will be partnered by Alexander Sims in #64.

PLUS: Memories from Corvette's two decades at Le Mans

The return of the Pratt & Miller-run Chevrolet squad to Le Mans has been facilitated by a rejig of the IMSA schedule that followed the publication of the new date for the 24 Hours last week.

A clashing IMSA race at the Virginia International Raceway has been pushed back to 9 October, the original date for the Petit Le Mans series finale at Road Atlanta, which will now run on 13 November.

Chevrolet served notice of its intent to return to Le Mans by entering one C8.R for the Algarve WEC round, which has now been pushed back from April to June.

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The confirmation of the return of Corvette Racing and the entry of the Proton Competition-run WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR increase the GTE Pro entry to seven cars.

The US entrants join the two AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evos and the Manthey-run Porsches contesting the full WEC.

Five entries in the new Hypercar class, 25 in LMP2 and 24 in GTE Am bring the field up to the record 62 cars that started Le Mans in 2019 after the addition of two garages at the beginning of the pitlane.

Last year's grid dropped to 59 cars after a series of withdrawals.

The five cars in the top Hypercar category on the entry announced on Tuesday is the same number that took part in LMP1 last year.

The class is made up of the two Le Mans Hypercars fielded by Toyota and Glickenhaus, plus the solo P1 Alpine-badged ORECA-Gibson run by Signatech, which are all contesting the full WEC.

LMP2 is numerically the strongest class, with 11 of the 25 cars entered in the new Pro-Am sub-category for line-ups including a bronze driver.

Risi Competizione, which has three Le Mans class wins with Ferrari to its name, is returning to the race in LMP2 for its first prototype appearance since racing at the 2001 Daytona 24 Hours with a Ferrari 333SP.

Its move from the GTE ranks comes in the wake of Ferrari's announcement that it is developing an LMH contender for 2023.

Former Audi LMP1 driver Oliver Jarvis, who raced in GTE Pro for the team in 2019, and European Le Mans Series regular Ryan Cullen are listed against the Risi ORECA-Gibson 07.

2019 Le Mans 24 Hours start

Photo by: Motorsport Images

United Autosports has taken up two of its automatic invites for Le Mans, which together with its full WEC entry bring its entry to three cars.

Ex-Formula 1 racer Paul di Resta and Nico Jamin, who is racing for the team in the 2021 ELMS, are the only drivers confirmed for the additional cars.

The Belgian WRT team has landed a second entry to race alongside its WEC car.

The extra ORECA will be raced by Alfa Romeo F1 reserve Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Yifei Yi, who will also drive the car in the ELMS.

North American sportscar stalwart PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports will make its Le Mans debut after Patrick Kelly took up the guaranteed spot he gained for winning last year's LMP2 IMSA title with the team.

Ex-F1 driver Narain Karthikeyan will return to Le Mans in a Ligier-Gibson JSP217 entered under the Racing Team India banner and run by the Eurasia team.

Top Asian GT3 team Absolute Racing is set to make its Le Mans debut in GTE Am with a Porsche 911 RSR.

The Garage 56 entry slot for an 'innovative car' will be taken by the SRT41 squad run by quadruple amputee Frederic Sausset, who raced at Le Mans in 2016.

He has revived his plans to field an ORECA LMP2 car for a line-up of three disabled drivers after being forced to withdraw last year on financial grounds.

Due to the race's postponement until 21-22 August, the ACO hasn't put together a reserve list yet.

Instead, it will open a two-week registration period next week for competitors wishing to join the reserve list.

Here is the full entry list for the 89th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours, including drivers confirmed so far.

N°	Team	Car	Confirmed drivers
Hypercar - 5 cars
7	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010 Hybrid	Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez
8	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010 Hybrid	Sebastien Buemi  Kazuki Nakajima  Brendon Hartley
36	Alpine Elf Matmut	Alpine A480-Gibson	Andre Negrao  Nicolas Lapierre  Matthieu Vaxiviere
708	Glickenhaus Racing	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	Gustavo Menezes TBA TBA
709	Glickenhaus Racing	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	Ryan Briscoe TBA TBA
LMP2 - 25 cars
1	Richard Mille Racing	Oreca 07-Gibson	Sophia Floersch  Tatiana Calderon  Beitske Visser
17	IDEC Sport	Oreca 07-Gibson	Kyle Tilley  Dwight Merriman  Ryan Dalziel
20	High Class Racing	Oreca 07-Gibson	Dennis Andersen  Jan Magnussen TBA
21	DragonSpeed	Oreca 07-Gibson	Ben Hanley  Henrik Hedman  Juan Pablo Montoya
22	United Autosports	Oreca 07-Gibson	Phil Hanson  Filipe Albuquerque  Fabio Scherer
23	United Autosports	Oreca 07-Gibson	Paul di Resta TBA TBA
24	PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports	Oreca 07-Gibson	Patrick Kelly TBA TBA
25	G-Drive Racing	Aurus 01-Gibson	John Falb  Pietro Fittipaldi  Rui Andrade
26	G-Drive Racing	Aurus 01-Gibson	Roman Rusinov  Franco Colapinto TBA
28	JOTA	Oreca 07-Gibson	Stoffel Vandoorne  Sean Gelael  Tom Blomqvist
29	Racing Team Nederland	Oreca 07-Gibson	Giedo van der Garde  Job van Uitert  Frits van Eerd
30	Duqueine Team	Oreca 07-Gibson	Tristan Gommendy  Memo Rojas  Rene Binder
31	Team WRT	Oreca 07-Gibson	Robin Frijns  Charles Milesi  Ferdinand Habsburg
32	United Autosports	Oreca 07-Gibson	Nico Jamin TBA TBA
34	Inter Europol Competition	Oreca 07-Gibson	Jakub Smiechowski  Renger van der Zande  Alex Brundle
38	JOTA	Oreca 07-Gibson	Roberto Gonzalez  Antonio Felix da Costa  Anthony Davidson
39	Graff	Oreca 07-Gibson	Vincent Capillaire TBA TBA
41	Team WRT	Oreca 07-Gibson	Robert Kubica  Louis Deletraz  Yifei Ye
44	ARC Bratislava	Ligier JS P217-Gibson	Miro Konopka TBA TBA
48	IDEC Sport	Oreca 07-Gibson	Paul Lafargue  Paul-Loup Chatin  Patrick Pilet
49	High Class Racing	Oreca 07-Gibson	Anders Fjordbach TBA TBA
65	Panis Racing	Oreca 07-Gibson	Julien Canal TBA TBA
70	Realteam Racing	Oreca 07-Gibson	Loic Duval  Norman Nato  Esteban Garcia
74	Racing Team India	Ligier JS P217-Gibson	Narain Karthikeyan  Arjun Maini TBA
82	Risi Competizione	Oreca 07-Gibson	Ryan Cullen  Oliver Jarvis TBA
GTE Pro - 7 cars
51	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE	James Calado  Alessandro Pier Guidi TBA
52	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE	Daniel Serra  Miguel Molina TBA
63	Corvette Racing	Corvette C8.R	Antonio Garcia  Jordan Taylor  Nicky Catsburg
64	Corvette Racing	Corvette C8.R	Nick Tandy  Tommy Milner  Alexander Sims
79	WeatherTech Racing	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Cooper MacNeil TBA TBA
91	Porsche GT Team	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Gianmaria Bruni  Richard Lietz TBA
92	Porsche GT Team	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Neel Jani  Kevin Estre TBA
GTE Am - 24 cars
18	Absolute Racing	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Andrew Haryanto  Alessio Picariello TBA
33	TF Sport	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Ben Keating  Felipe Fraga  Dylan Pereira
46	Team Project 1	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Dennis Olsen TBA TBA
47	Cetilar Racing	Ferrari 488 GTE	Roberto Lacorte TBA TBA
54	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE	Giancarlo Fisichella  Francesco Castellacci  Thomas Flohr
55	Spirit of Race	Ferrari 488 GTE	Duncan Cameron  Matt Griffin  Aaron Scott
56	Team Project 1	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Matteo Cairoli  Egidio Perfetti TBA
57	Kessel Racing	Ferrari 488 GTE	Takeshi Kimura TBA TBA
60	Iron Lynx	Ferrari 488 GTE	Claudio Schiavoni  Paolo Ruberti  Raffaele Giammaria
66	JMW Motorsport	Ferrari 488 GTE	Thomas Neubauer TBA TBA
69	Herberth Motorsport	Ferrari 488 GTE	Alfred Renauer TBA TBA
71	Inception Racing	Ferrari 488 GTE	Brendon Iribe  Ollie Millroy TBA
72	HubAuto Racing	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Liam Talbot TBA TBA
77	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Christian Ried  Jaxon Evans  Matt Campbell
80	Iron Lynx	Ferrari 488 GTE	Andrea Piccini  Matteo Cressoni  Rino Mastronardi
83	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE	Francois Perrodo  Nicklas Nielsen  Alessio Rovera
85	Iron Lynx	Ferrari 488 GTE	Rahel Frey  Manuela Gostner  Michelle Gatting
86	GR Racing	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Michael Wainwright  Ben Barker TBA
88	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Julien Andlauer TBA TBA
95	TF Sport	Aston Martin Vantage	John Hartshorne TBA TBA
98	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage	Paul Dalla Lana TBA TBA
99	Proton Competition	Porsche 911 RSR	Pat Long TBA TBA
388	Rinaldi Racing	Ferrari 488 GTE	Pierre Ehret TBA TBA
777	D'station Racing	Aston Martin Vantage	Satoshi Hoshino  Tomonobu Fujii   Andrew Watson
Innovative car
84	Association SRT41	Oreca 07-Gibson	Takuma Aoki  Nigel Bailly TBA

Entries in bold are also full-season WEC participants