[LM24] Le Mans 2022 Entry List News etc

[PhilipR]

If I remember correctly there was pre-qualifying up to the 90s/2000s
But back then Le Mans was not part of a championship so did not have to keep to entry requirements.

Easy solution: Build more pit boxes and allow more cars to enter :P - joking aside considering the length of the track and the professionalism of modern teams(they are miles ahead to the average back of grid teams from even 15 years ago) , I guess the track could fit 5-10 more cars without much issue.

[chernaudi]

I do remember the ACO wanting to run 70 cars at LM, though I don't know about the status of that plan.

[Mike E]

A bigger grid would just mean more teams applying because they would have a better chance of getting in. There would still be a reserve list, especially when GT3 comes along.

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by Mike E

Racing Team Nederland and High Class Racing consider pulling their entries from the reserve list.

Interesting comments from both on the impact on Dutch and Danish interest in the race without them.

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...serve-entries/

I think there's some unsaid freight-based stuff here that means they need to pull their entries. Past a certain point they couldn't get the equipment back to Europe. Hindy alluded to it on the Sebring commentary.

Right now if you pick a four-race American calendar, these guys surely must have known they were rolling the dice. There's a direct F1 clash with LM, so the twin Magnussen entry is a non-starter. And it really wasn't a strong showing for High Class last year.

Would be interesting to hear from guys like Mathias and Nobby, but are they over-estimating their drawing power amongst their compatriots?

[bella]

just throwing thoughts at the wall and seeing if they stick here rather than basing it on firm intel. but they can always fly stuff back with a far shorter leadtime than sea freight. it's just horribly expensive and you need to make a firm decision either way fairly early on whether you're going to chance it and freight it back for a possible entry, or give up your spot and try and get some testing done instead perhaps. both teams use euro-based crews, so they'd have to fly some of them out to wherever they're basing the cars, chuck everything in a container or in airfreightable format and then fly them back again. plus there's the carnet messiness.

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

Me on the other hand would love to be on it. First thing I would propose, is a transparent ranking system so everyone knows what would required to be considered and how the selections are made.

if you think about it, it's pretty transparent as it is. it's just not written down.

first shout is the auto entries from wec and the previous season.
second shout is to elms teams.
third shout, if there's any space left, goes to anyone running an eligible car elsewhere with good pedigree, and traditional wildcards.

this has been a year where entries for wec have been highly sought after, let alone elms ones. it's right to reward teams who committed to and invested in this season with aco through the squeaky bum wait for confirmed entries with le mans spots, especially this year. unfortunately by the time they'd done that to a reasonable degree there wasn't any space left. it's really easy to put yourself in their shoes and understand where they're coming from though.

the problem nowadays with suggesting qualification races and that kind of thing is that it was tough enough for teams to nail down drivers without being certain they had entries for the seasons they were committing to. now imagine trying to sign a driver for a race you can't even be sure you're going to qualify for. it's not something you can make teams and drivers do in this day and age, commercially it doesn't stand up.

[Adam43]

Even Toyota are using sea freight. Spend sensibly.

On the entries. I agree it is generally fairly obvious who gets it and I can’t blame he ACO for not writing it down. There will always be exceptions. Comedy teams that shouldn’t really be there, or high quality teams that should.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Simmi

I think there's some unsaid freight-based stuff here that means they need to pull their entries. Past a certain point they couldn't get the equipment back to Europe. Hindy alluded to it on the Sebring commentary.

Right now if you pick a four-race American calendar, these guys surely must have known they were rolling the dice. There's a direct F1 clash with LM, so the twin Magnussen entry is a non-starter. And it really wasn't a strong showing for High Class last year.

Would be interesting to hear from guys like Mathias and Nobby, but are they over-estimating their drawing power amongst their compatriots?

My finger is sadly not really on the puls of the danish Le Mans community here. My best guess is that the danish fans who goes for Le Mans, will still go. The “Magnussen fans” will probably have to decide between going to an F1 race or Le Mans.
No High Class racing will not reduce the amount of danish spectators, as there is still plenty of danish drivers in the field to cheer on. If they pull out and J.Mag get another seat and compete, I would venture the guess that we will see the same fans as if they were there.

[Tique]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

I do remember the ACO wanting to run 70 cars at LM, though I don't know about the status of that plan.

It was the plan for 2023 but due to the Covid-19, it has been put on hold

[Tique]

Originally Posted by Mike E

Racing Team Nederland and High Class Racing consider pulling their entries from the reserve list.

Interesting comments from both on the impact on Dutch and Danish interest in the race without them.

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...serve-entries/

It sounds like an ultimatum but honestly, what can be done? The 2022 entry list looks fair. No team coming from nowhere.



We already have 2 extra temporary pit that have been introdiced a couple of years ago.


At the beginning of the pit lane, we have the pit for the official car. At the end of the pit line, there is just space enough to axit with a car



The only solution that I can think of is to have two cars in the same pit (for Racing Team Nederland, as TDS is running the Vaillante car, why not?) ot to move the official car pit a somewhere else

[Aysedasi]

What is the situation with the pits and the pits grandstand now? Wasn't it all going to be replaced - or did I just imagine that?

[Anyopenroad]

Originally Posted by Simmi

.Right now if you pick a four-race American calendar, these guys surely must have known they were rolling the dice.

I think this is right and reading the full article the teams concerned do as well. Le Mans is primarily a WEC race. ELMS and ALMS are WEC feeder series. There’s not much left to go round after that. A European team leaving WEC to go to IMSA will have known this.

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by Anyopenroad

I think this is right and reading the full article the teams concerned do as well. Le Mans is primarily a WEC race. ELMS and ALMS are WEC feeder series. There’s not much left to go round after that. A European team leaving WEC to go to IMSA will have known this.

They did. Or at least Van Eerd knew very well his chances were to be very slim. He says he loves competing in the US though and expressed the desire of buying a house in Florida. He's looking to extend his business endaverours in the US and hopefully he'll find the time to do more races in IMSA.

Re the (non) entry selection: RTN is the current P2 Pro-Am champ and having an auto invite reserved for the reigning titleholders would guarantee them a spot on the grid. It would also increase demand for the sub-class (in an already oversubscribed class so not sure if that's the way to go). Just throwing an idea out there.

[nobster]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

They did. Or at least Van Eerd knew very well his chances were to be very slim. He says he loves competing in the US though and expressed the desire of buying a house in Florida. He's looking to extend his business endaverours in the US and hopefully he'll find the time to do more races in IMSA.

Re the (non) entry selection: RTN is the current P2 Pro-Am champ and having an auto invite reserved for the reigning titleholders would guarantee them a spot on the grid. It would also increase demand for the sub-class (in an already oversubscribed class so not sure if that's the way to go). Just throwing an idea out there.

As a reigning world champion in LMP2 Pro-Am you should be invited...
Spectator wise I do not think that RTN being not there will keep Dutch fans away.

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by nobster

As a reigning world champion in LMP2 Pro-Am you should be invited...

Yeah I think this is a good shout. P2 Pro-Am is interesting for me. It's kind of it's own class. Kind of not. The ACO haven't endeavoured to give it its own colour or identity. It's hard to know how much to factor it in. Does it hold the same weight as a GTE-Am class win? Doesn't quite feel that way to me.

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by Simmi

Yeah I think this is a good shout. P2 Pro-Am is interesting for me. It's kind of it's own class. Kind of not. The ACO haven't endeavoured to give it its own colour or identity. It's hard to know how much to factor it in. Does it hold the same weight as a GTE-Am class win? Doesn't quite feel that way to me.

Not to me either but with 27 P2s on the entry list you would think there'll be spot for your reigning champs, doing full season or not. With WEC announcing no guest entries this year, they basically shoot themselves in the foot (and are robbing us from some interesting prospects). WEC could have demanded RTN to join the grid @ Spa in order to validate a LM spot. O well.

[bella]

Originally Posted by Simmi

Yeah I think this is a good shout. P2 Pro-Am is interesting for me. It's kind of it's own class. Kind of not. The ACO haven't endeavoured to give it its own colour or identity. It's hard to know how much to factor it in. Does it hold the same weight as a GTE-Am class win? Doesn't quite feel that way to me.

exactly. at the moment it makes sense to not have auto-entries for p2 pro am at because there's not really a huge field of them. it might be fierce competition but if there's only two or three cars fighting for it...

i can actually see auto-entries for wec as well as le mans becoming a thing for next season. they already exist in theory.

it makes me wonder if the aco needs to be a bit more strict about entries being held by sponsors/franchises. on the face of it it works well, especially for the franchise holders.

[gert]

Originally Posted by nobster

As a reigning world champion in LMP2 Pro-Am you should be invited...

My thought too.

IMO, they should be picked before the 2nd Glick car that isn't even racing anywhere else.

[Mike E]

Originally Posted by gert

My thought too.

IMO, they should be picked before the 2nd Glick car that isn't even racing anywhere else.

And that's where having some flexibility in the entry selection comes in. The ACO don't want 4 cars in the top class of their big race. And Glickenhaus are doing the full WEC with at least one car.

[kdr]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

What is the situation with the pits and the pits grandstand now? Wasn't it all going to be replaced - or did I just imagine that?

No, i thought the idea was the knock the whole lot down and have it ready for 2023. I think the media centre was to shift to the other side while it was built and i guess the pits would be of a temporary nature. But this i think was suggested around 2018 and world events have moved on i guess since that time.

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by gert

My thought too.

IMO, they should be picked before the 2nd Glick car that isn't even racing anywhere else.

Selection of 2nd entry should have been on the condition that the car needed to be entered for Sebring + Spa. But then again their self-imposed 'no guest entries' policy would have put the WEC in a difficult position...

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

Selection of 2nd entry should have been on the condition that the car needed to be entered for Sebring + Spa. But then again their self-imposed 'no guest entries' policy would have put the WEC in a difficult position...

I disagree. Much as I'm a supporter of RTN having an entry, it is essential that we bring all available Hypercars to Le Mans and the second Glick is a very welcome entry IMO. In fact, I'd have let them have three if they had a third viable entry. Much as I like to see the yellow car, it is 'just another Oreca' (as some would say) and they did know what they were doing when they decided what to enter.

[AstonGeoff]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

What is the situation with the pits and the pits grandstand now? Wasn't it all going to be replaced - or did I just imagine that?

I guess the last couple of years has put a stop to that.
Plus I think it had already got downgraded to a rebuild around the existing structures. It was supposed to be done for the centenary race iirc.

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

I disagree. Much as I'm a supporter of RTN having an entry, it is essential that we bring all available Hypercars to Le Mans and the second Glick is a very welcome entry IMO. In fact, I'd have let them have three if they had a third viable entry. Much as I like to see the yellow car, it is 'just another Oreca' (as some would say) and they did know what they were doing when they decided what to enter.

Guess they found a happy medium with 2 entries then!


I was really hoping to see a second GH car @ Sebring and a little extra pressure from the ACO might have helped to accomplish that.



The RTN non-selection is a separate observation, I wouldn't wanna swap out a top category entry for that one either. On the contrary, I would have done everything to include ByKolles/Vanwall, but as we all know the ACO's priorities are different.

[AstonGeoff]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

The RTN non-selection is a separate observation, I wouldn't wanna swap out a top category entry for that one either. On the contrary, I would have done everything to include ByKolles/Vanwall, but as we all know the ACO's priorities are different.

I think they were being pragmatic on the ByKolles front, the car hasn't even been tested let alone homologated so it was never likely to be ready for the WEC or LM.

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by AstonGeoff

I think they were being pragmatic on the ByKolles front, the car hasn't even been tested let alone homologated so it was never likely to be ready for the WEC or LM.

Here's more to that story: https://www.dailysportscar.com/2022/...nwall-lmh.html


A more pragmatic approach imo would have been to see if the car could have run as a ByKolles, possibly with a delayed start to a partial WEC season campaign (Sebring was always out of the question it seems). Anyway, all water under the bridge now and their 2023 prospects also look bleak with the incoming wave of new LMH and LMDh cars.