24h Le Mans
The 2022 Road To Le Mans will feature two 55-minute races on the full 13.6km La Sarthe Circuit with a full grid of 50 cars entered in this year’s event. With a maximum of 32 points on offer across the two races, the 2022 Road to Le Mans will be crucial for many teams’ championship aspirations.
The LMP3 class will feature 36 cars, the 32 full season Michelin Le Mans Cup entries, plus four additional cars.
The leading entries will be the current championship leaders Tom Dillmann and Alexander Mattschull in the no10 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier-Nissan, who area currently tied on 25 points with the no69 Cool Racing Ligier of Round 2 winners Malthe Jakobsen and Maurice Smith but head the standings due to the fact they won the opening round at Le Castellet in April.
French driver Tom Dillmann will be hoping for a return to winning form for the second of his home races at Le Mans.
United Autosports secured a double podium at Imola last weekend with Wayne Boyd and John Schauerman looking to build on their second-place finish in Italy in the no23 Ligier-Nissan. The Anglo-American team will be fielding a total of five cars, with the addition of the no21 Ligier for American James McGuire and 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans Champion Guy Smith.
Cool Racing and RLR MSport also receive an additional entry at Le Mans, with Spanish team AF2 Motorsport getting the final extra slot on the grid.
The GT3 category will be boosted to 13 cars for the seventh edition of the Road to Le Mans, with six additional cars taking to the grid alongside the full season entries.
After winning the last race in Imola and finishing in second place in Le Castellet, Gustav Birch and Jens Moller head to Le Mans with a 9-point lead at the head of the championship standings in the no44 GMB Motorsport Honda NSX.
It is a 1-2 for the Danish team in the championship with the no55 Honda NSX of Round 1 winner Kristian Poulsen and Kasper Jensen in second place in the standings. This will be Kristian Poulsen’s first race on the full circuit at Le Mans since he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans LMGTE category alongside David Heinemeier-Hansson and Nicki Thiim in 2014.
The no99 Bullitt Racing Aston Martin Vantage took a fine second place in Imola with Stephen Pattrick and Theo Nouet, but for Road to Le Mans Pattrick will be joined by French driver Valentin Hasse-Clot for the two 55-minute races.
GMB Motorsport will field the third full season entry Honda NSX, AF Corse will be entering their pair of Ferrari 488 GT3s and 2017 MLMC Champions Ebimotors will be running the no46 Porsche 911 GT3 R that finished third in Imola in the hands of Fabio Babini and Emanuele Busnelli.
Of the six additional entries for this event, 2021 ELMS LMP2 Championship winning team Team WRT will be entering an Audi, ELMS and MLMC regulars Spirit of Race and Kessel Racing will each be entering a Ferrari 488 GT3, Ebimotors will enter a second Porsche 911 GT3 R and Leipert Motorsport will enter Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo and French team Racetivity will enter a Mercedes AMG GT3.
After making a successful race debut at Imola on the 14 May, the H24 Racing H24 hydrogen powered car will be making its first race appearance at Le Mans, two years before the goal of taking the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2024. Norman Nato and Stephane Richelmi will share the driving duties as the team use the race experience to continue the development of the cutting-edge technology used in this race car.
The Road to Le Mans was first held in 2016, with a 37-car field of GT3 and, for the first time, LMP3 cars. The 2022 race will be the seventh edition of this important event on the endurance racing calendar.
CLICK HERE for the entry list for the Road to Le Mans, round 3 of the 2022 Michelin Le Mans Cup.
