Club Arnage 2019
With Le Mans now firmly set as the centrepiece of the FIA/WEC calendar, in the month of June, the Sarthe region of France will host its 83rd celebration of endurance racing. Daniel Poissenot is retiring after 14 years as Le Mans 24 Hours Race Director. His colleague Eduardo Freitas will now perform that function, as he does for the rest of the FIA/WEC season and ELMS. Work to stabilise the sides of the track between Mulsanne Corner and the entrance to the Porsche curves by putting tarmac over some of the grass verges was completed before Christmas at a cost of 鈧?25,000. At the Porsche curves, work has started which will be ongoing for about 3 years. At the first right hand corner the existing gravel trap will be replaced by an abrasive bitumen surface and new tyre barriers. The width of the second left hand part will be expanded by about 3 metres and again grass will be replaced by bitumen. SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barriers will be installed over a distance of about 220 metres. This work started in Feb 2015 and should be completed by mid May.
The new public road branching left before Indianapolis corner will not be started until winter 2015/16. This will mean the stretch from Indy to Arnage will be closed to the public during the rest of the year. Overall timetable for race fortnight. Confirmed drivers in white, drivers unconfirmed at this time in red. LM P1 ( 14 CARS ) - ( Red number panels and white headlamps. HY' on engine cover indicates a hybrid energy system being used. No Bronze rated drivers allowed. The reigning FIA WEC Champions Buemi and Davidson are joined by Nakajima from last year鈥檚 other Toyota. The Toyota is likely to continue running in the 6MJ energy recovery category. All references to 鈥淟otus鈥?now appear to be gone from this team. Last year鈥檚 winners return having been given an automatic invitation. The team appears to be moving from a 2MJ to a 4MJ energy recovery system. Oliver Jarvis replaces the retired 9 times winner Tom Kristensen.
Rast joins the Audi team for 2 planned appearances at Le Mans and at Spa. He finished 5th in GTD at the Daytona 24 hours in a Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 LMS. Albuquerque retired from this year鈥檚 Daytona 24 hours driving a Starworks Oreca FLM09 PC. Rebellion has replaced last year鈥檚 Toyota engines with AER engines which ran in last year鈥檚 Lotus/CLM. The team will miss the Prologue and the 1st round at Silverstone whilst they complete the car. The Porsche are thought to be moving to an 8MJ energy recovery system this year.Hartley retired from the Daytona 24 hours in a Starworks Riley-BMW DP. Lieb finished 5th in GTLM at the Daytona 24 hours. The Porsche team will run this 3rd car at Spa and at Le Mans. Current Force India F1 driver Hulkenberg is joined by GTE drivers Bamber and Tandy. Tandy finished 5th in GTLM at the Daytona 24 hours.
It is likely to run a 6MJ energy recovery system. 21 car will only run at Le Mans, not the remainder of the WEC. Tincknell joins from the winning LMP2 Jota team of last year and joins ex Audi driver and Le Mans winner Gene. Pla joins from LMP2 team G-Drive Racing. Michael Krumm has been undertaking much of the early testing for the team.Pla retired from this year鈥檚 Daytona 24 hours in Tracy Krohn鈥檚 Ligier P2. LM P2 ( 20 CARS ) - ( Blue number panels and Yellow headlamps. Teams must include one bronze or silver rated driver. The team are racing the older 鈥渘on EVO鈥?Morgan. The US team enter this year鈥檚 WEC after one appearance in China last year. The driving team retired from this year鈥檚 Daytona 24 hours. The team retired from this year鈥檚 Daytona 24 hours. The team received an automatic invitation after winning the LM P2 class in last year鈥檚 Asian Le Mans Series. The team received an automatic invitation after winning The LMP2 class in last year鈥檚 European Le Mans Series. 38 Jota Sport Gibson 015S-Nissan driven by Simon Dolan/Oliver Turvey/?