For Oliver (Olly) Bryant, this will also be the second start at the 24 Hours of Le Mans after last year's edition at which he finished ninth in LMGTE Am along with seasoned driver Johnny O'Connell (four class wins at Le Mans) and Mark Patterson in Team AAI's Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06.
The British driver will be trading the Corvette for an Aston Martin Vantage, but will remain in the LMGTE Am class, sporting the colors of Beechdean (a British ice cream marque founded by Andrew Howard) AMR, seventh in 2016 with Andrew Howard, Matt Griffin and Gary Hirsch.
The only driver debuting at the 24 Hours will therefore be Ross Gunn who competes in the ELMS with Andrew Howard and factory Aston Martin driver Darren Turner, recruited for Le Mans by the official team in the LMGTE Pro class. The trio claimed the third step on the podium in the LMGTE class at the opening round at Silverstone and will participate in the second round at Monza next weekend, the last ELMS race before the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 17th and 18th.
Photo: Olly Bryant, at right, in conversation with Johnny O'Connell, teammates in Team AAI, at Test Day for the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans.