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| The GT Battle will be fierce at Le Mans (Photo: John Dagys) |
GTE Pro
AF Corse
Italian powerhouse, AF Corse enters Le Mans with a lot of momentum. The team beat out the world's best GT squads in qualifying at Sebring in a year-old Ferrari F430 GT and carried that momentum to a victory for Ferrari's new prancing horse, the F458 Italia, at the legendary Spa Franchorchamps circuit in Belgium.
AF Corse has a stellar lineup headlined by Ferrari F1 reserve driver Giancarlo Fisichella paired with fellow Ferrari aces, Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander. Couple that trio with what is arguably the best GT car in the world in the F458 and you have a winning recipe. Look for AF Corse to run at or near the front for the majority of the race.
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| (Photo: John Dagys) |
BMW Motorsports
2011 marks the second year of the BMW M3 GT's at Le Mans and this time they come in expecting to fight for a win. Like AF Corse, the German manufacturer has started 2011 in impressive fashion, scoring a dominating win at the 12 Hours of Sebring and another impressive ALMS victory on the streets of Long Beach.
Car #55 sees one of the most underrated GT driver, Dirk Werner, paired with former touring car drivers Jorg Muller and Augusto Farfus. While it is a solid lineup,Werner will likely have to carry the team a bit due to Farfus's and Muller's relative lack of experience in GT car. Car #56 has ALMS standouts Dirk Mueller and Joey Hand joined by another touring car driver Andy Priaulx. Hand has been off to a career year with wins at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring and the ALMS round at Long Beach and has been supported by good stints by Mueller.
Look for the two BMW's to be at the front and keep an eye out for Joey Hand's famous out-braking maneuvers.
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| BMW M3 GT (Photo: John Dagys) |
Luxury Racing
While Houston based Risi Competizione chose not to contest Le Mans this year, the team will be there in a different capacity. According to SPEED.com's John Dagys "nearly the entire (Risi) crew" will be supporting Luxury Racing's #59 Ferrari F458 Italia at Le Mans. Risi's star driver, Jaime Melo, will also be driving for the team.
With Risi's know-how and assistance and Jaime Melo's speed, Luxury Racing could be a dark-horse come Sunday afternoon.
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| With Risi's help, they could be at the front (photo: John Dagys) |
Lotus JetAlliance
As Jaguar demonstrated last year, it is not easy for a new manufacturer to jump into the highly competitive GT class. Even a marque as successful as BMW struggled to find pace when they debuted the M3 GT at Sebring in 2009. Lotus can expect a lot development work and testing before they can match the speed of the established teams from Ferrari, Corvette, BMW and Porsche.
Lotus enters two cars into the fight at Le Mans this year with an all-pro driver lineup in the #65. While a top ten would be a great victory for the team, the main goal this year will be getting both cars to the finish.
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| The cars are now a lovely light blue opposed to the bare bones carbon look at the test days (Photo: John Dagys) |
JMW Motorsport have quietly put together a very solid start to the season in Europe securing a win in the LMS opener at Paul Ricard. Although their driver lineup may not be as impressive as what some other teams can boast, they should still be in for a solid top ten or even possibly a top five finish if frontrunners experience problems.
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| Photo: John Dagys |
Corvette is not used to losing Le Mans and last year's circumstances were especially painful for the American squad. Jan Magnussen was leading the GT2 field rather comfortably and looked to be on pace for a class win. It all was going according to plan until Anthony Davidson in one of the Peugeot 908 P1 cars side swiped the Corvette while attempting a very aggressive and questionable overtaking maneuver in the high speed Porsche Curves. Magnussen was forced off track and took a very heavy hit into the armco fencing and Corvette's race was over.
Corvette returns for their second Le Mans in the GT category with drivers Olivier Beretta, Antonio Garcia and Corvette rookie, Tommy Milner in the #73. Car #74 will be shared between Magnussen, Oliver Gavin and Richard Westbrook. Corvette was the car to beat last year and combined with the chip they surely have on their shoulder, they should be counted among the favorites for a win.
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| Photo: John Dagys |
Prospeed enters their distinctive white and flat-black Porsche GT3 RSR for Le Mans led by Jaguar RSR regular, Marc Goosens and Porsche factory driver Marco Holzer. ProSpeed has a good package and driver lineup, but will unlikely challenge the front runners too much.
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| Photo: John Dagys |
IMSA Performance Matmut
The French team secured a GTE AM victory at Spa Francorchamps earlier in the year, but the talent they will face in GTE Pro is a huge step up. Porsche factory driver Patrick Pilet should be close to the front runner's speed, but it will be a tall order for the other drivers in the lineup.
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| Photo: John Dagys |
Team Felbermayr took the GT win at Le Mans this year and returns with a strong driver lineup of Wolf Henzler, Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz in the #77 car. The #88 has Porsche Super Cup driver Nick Tandy, ALMS driver Bryce Miller and rookie Abdulaziz al Faisal. Time will tell how quick (or slow!) al Faisal is. The Porsche 911 GT3 RSR has always enjoyed good runs at Le Mans and the #77 has the lineup to run at the front, but time will tell just how competitive the car is against the might of BMW and Ferrari.
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| Photo: John Dagys |
The Aston Martin Vantage has never been much of a force in GT competition and against this year's deep field the chances of high finish are extremely unlikely. Making it to the finish line would be a victory in itself for the team.
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| Photo: John Dagys |
Flying Lizard Motorsports' sports car racing successes have been well documented. The energetic, youthful Californian team have taken class victories at Sebring, Petit Le Mans, a pole position at the Rolex 24, ALMS GT Driver's and Team's Championships and have been essential to Porsche's GT Manufacturer's Championships. Strangely enough, a 24 Hours of Le Mans victory has proved to be quite elusive.
2011 could be the Lizard's year, however. The team's singular Porsche has always run well at Le Mans, but were always hampered by team owner, Seth Neiman, electing to drive against the all-pro teams from Risi Competizione and Corvette. Seth is clean and consistent, but he simply can not match for the speed and aggression that pro drivers are capable of.
This year, Neiman has entered two Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs with one in GTE AM and the other in GTE Pro. The #80 GTE Pro car is definitely a favorite for a race win with the lanky German, Jorg Bergmeister paired with Porsche factory driver Patrick Long. The third piece of the puzzle is former Audi and Porsche factory driver Lucas Luhr. Luhr returns to his roots in GT Porsches after stints in the Audi and Porsche RS Spyder prototypes.
If Patrick Long can keep his aggression in check, Flying Lizard will undoubtedly be the fastest Porsche and possibly the quickest GT car.
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| The Lizard's incredible Le Man's livery (Photo: © Bob Chapman, Autosport Image) |
If you are someone who likes to root for underdogs or are a looking for a dark horse to take the win then look no further. Hankook Team Farnbacher took a 2nd place last year in a Ferrari F430 and posted the fastest time at the April Le Mans Test Day in their new Ferrari 458 Italia.
Led by ALMS veteran Dominik Farnbacher, the blindingly quick American, Leh Keen and Allan Simonsen, Hankook Team Farnbacher could be in for a very solid result.
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| Will their test day speed carry over come raceday? (Photo: John Dagys) |
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