Looking forward to the ELMS Prologue next week as well!
Friday, March 24, 2017
With its first day clashing with that of the British GT Media Day, Tuesday 28th shall see the start of the annual two day European Le Mans Series Prologue, this year from the Autodromo Di Monza, Italy.
Commanding an extremely impressive 41 car entry just for the test, the ELMS is certainly a sportscar series running on high after rejuvenating itself a few years ago after the series had ‘lost its way’. That increase in demand is admittedly down to the introduction of the LMP3 category in 2015 but demand for GTE places has remained largely constant.
Seven GTE cars are listed as attending next weeks test, amongst them of course are the #99 crew of the 2016 ELMS Champions – Beechdean AMR’s Andrew Howard, Darren Turner and newcomer to the series Ross Gunn.
Having last ran together at the Aston Martin Racing Winter Test in Portimao in February, they will be eager to bake to business in the subtly reliveried V8 Vantage which is presently en-route to the circuit.
Commanding an extremely impressive 41 car entry just for the test, the ELMS is certainly a sportscar series running on high after rejuvenating itself a few years ago after the series had ‘lost its way’. That increase in demand is admittedly down to the introduction of the LMP3 category in 2015 but demand for GTE places has remained largely constant.
Seven GTE cars are listed as attending next weeks test, amongst them of course are the #99 crew of the 2016 ELMS Champions – Beechdean AMR’s Andrew Howard, Darren Turner and newcomer to the series Ross Gunn.
Having last ran together at the Aston Martin Racing Winter Test in Portimao in February, they will be eager to bake to business in the subtly reliveried V8 Vantage which is presently en-route to the circuit.
Joining them across the garage bay will be series newcomers and fellow AMR Partner Team, TF Sport with their own beautifully liveried #90 V8 Vantage affectionately named 'The Honey Badger'. Entering the series in order to uphold their ACO invitation to run in the 2017 24Hours of Le Mans by virtue of winning last years GT3 Le Mans Cup Team Championship this event will be a major step up the GT racing ladder for both Salih Yoluc and Euan Hankey.
They will be joined at the test by their ELMS third driver (and 2016 WEC GTE Champion) Nicki Thiim as well as Rob Bell who will swap with Thiim for the 24 at Le Mans.
After the necessary Series checks and media photographs, the 3.6mile circuit will see four – three hour test sessions being made available to the teams over the two days (morning and afternoon) with a two hour ‘into the night’ session on Tuesday evening.
After the necessary Series checks and media photographs, the 3.6mile circuit will see four – three hour test sessions being made available to the teams over the two days (morning and afternoon) with a two hour ‘into the night’ session on Tuesday evening.
The six round 2017 season of course starts at the WEC opener at Silverstone over the Easter weekend of 14/15th April with a return to the Italian circuit in mid May for round two. The series concludes in Portimao, Portugal at the end of October.
Photo credits - TF Sport / GT Open / BeechdeanAMR
