24h Le Mans
DESPITE THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF MOTOR SPORT, LE MANS HAS NEVER CLOSED ITS DOORS FOR "GENTLEMEN DRIVERS". SINCE 2011 THERE HAS EVEN BEEN A CLASS DEDICATED TO THEM.
Historically, amateur drivers have raced alongside professionals on the circuit of Le Mans 24 Hours. Before being appointed President of the FIA Endurance Commission, Lindsay Owen-Jones raced 3 times during 90's.
Many celebrities have tried it with varying degrees of success, such as Paul Newman, Patrick Dempsey, Jean-Claude Killy, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Steve Fossett, Paul Belmondo, Nick Mason (Pink Floyd), David Hallyday, Luke Alphand, etc..
The opposite of the suffix "Pro", "Am" means the GTE class for amateurs. Thus, each crew may only include one driver of "Platinum" or "Gold" status, the other two must be from "Silver" or "Bronze".
Technically, the class for cars in GTE Am meets the same regulations as the GTE Pro, but the cars must have had at least one year of existence. Thus, they can not benefit from the latest developments (eg width of GTE Pro increased by 5 inches in 2012).
| RECOGNISING A GTE Am : | Yellow Headlights White number on orange |
TECHNNICAL SPECIFICATION (LM GTE technical regulations) :
| MINIMUM WEIGHT | 1245 kg |
| FUEL CAPACITY | 90 litres |
| MOTOR | maximum capacity |
| Atmospheric | 5500 cc |
| Turbo | 4000 cc |
ENTRY LIST FOR LM GTE Am AT MANS 24 HOURS 2012 :
| 50 | LARBRE COMPETITION | CHEVROLET CORVETTE C6 ZR1 | |
| 55 | JWA-AVILA | PORSCHE 911 RSR (997) | |
| 57 | KROHN RACING | FERRARI 458 ITALIA | |
| 58 | LUXURY RACING | FERRARI 458 ITALIA | |
| 61 | AF CORSE-WALTRIP | FERRARI 458 ITALIA | |
| 67 | IMSA PERFORMANCE MATMUT | PORSCHE 911 RSR (997) | |
| 70 | LARBRE COMPETITION | CHEVROLET CORVETTE C6 ZR1 | |
| 75 | PROSPEED COMPETITION | PORSCHE 911 RSR (997) | |
| 79 | FLYING LIZARD MOTORSPORTS | PORSCHE 911 RSR (997) | |
| 81 | AF CORSE | FERRARI 458 ITALIA | |
| 83 | JMB RACING | FERRARI 458 ITALIA | |
| 88 | TEAM FELBERMAYR-PROTON | PORSCHE 911 RSR (997) | |
| 99 | ASTON MARTIN RACING | ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE V8 |
