[Mike E]

I have cobbled together my entry list. It is traditional for this list to contain some errors...


RIP GTE Pro. A sad development but one tied to the explosion of interest in Hypercar.



Hypercar
16 entries! This is the biggest top class since 2015, which featured 14 cars. Three 2015 entrants are represented in 2023: Toyota, Porsche and, amazingly, ByKolles/Vanwall.


Entries per manufacturer
Porsche - 4
Cadillac - 3
Ferrari, Glickenhaus, Peugout, Toyota - 2
Vanwall - 1



LMP2
This is the first all Oreca entry. 24 of them. Even Alpine have stopped pretending.


Entries per manufacturer
Orecas! Orecas everywhere!



GTE Am
21 entries here, with a little more variety than in recent years thanks to the Corvette joining the usual Astons, Ferraris and Porsches.


Entries per manufacturer
Porsche - 8
Ferrari - 7
Aston Martin - 5
Chevrolet - 1



Garage 56
A welcome return for the oddball entry. This heavily modified NASCAR Chevy Camaro should be a crowd pleaser. The last time we had a G56 car was Fred Sausset's incredible effort in 2016.


Drivers
186 in total
31 LM rookies. This is quite a low number compared to recent years. There were 51 last year, which was more than usual.



Driver gradings

Platinum 71 (38%)
Gold 46 (25%)
Silver 39 (21%)
Bronze 30 (16%)


The high percentage of Platinums reflects the large hypercar class, which is slightly larger than Hypercar + GTE Pro from recent years. This year there are 45 cars in the 'Pro Am' classes (LMP2 and GTE Am). Last year there were 50. All three G56 drivers are also Platinum rated.


Driver nationalities

France 33
Great Britain 24
USA 21
Italy 14
Denmark 13
Belgium, Switzerland 9
Japan 8
Netherlands 7
Brazil, Germany 5
Argentina 4
Austria, New Zealnd, Spain 3
Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, R***** 2
Angola, Chile, China, Estonia, Lichtenstein, Oman, Romania, Turkey, Venezuela 1


Driver crews with most starts
Hypercar - #708 Glickenhaus Racing 45 starts

LMP2 - #32 Inter Europol Competition 26 starts (these are mostly just J Mag)

GTE Am - #54 AF Corse 21 starts


Driver crews with fewest starts
Hypercar - #4 Floyd Vanwall 3 starts
LMP2 - #9 Prema Racing and #63 Prema Racing, both 1 start each
GTE Am - #16 Proton Competition, #21 AF Corse, #72 TF Sport, #74 Kessel Racing, #98 Northwest AMR, all with 2 starts each (feels a bit weird to say 2 starts for NW AMR)



Average and median starts per driver
Hypercar - average 6.2 starts, median 6 starts
LMP2 - average 3.8 starts, median 2 starts
GTE Am - avearge 3.1 starts, median 2 starts
These might look quite low but they are pretty typical



Previous overall winners - 13

Bamber, Buemi, Conway, Dumas, Duval, Hartley, Hirakawa, Jani, Kobayashi, Lopez, Lotterer, Rockenfeller, Tandy



Previous class winners (excl overall) - 35 (not sure about this total)




Some other thoughts...
The quality of drivers this year is high.
48 (100%) Platinum or Gold in Hypercar
45 (62.5%) Platinum or Gold in LMP2 (max permitted by the sporting regs is 66.6%)
21 (33.3%) Platinum or Gold in GTE Am (this is the max permitted by the sporting regs).


The quality of the pros in the LMP2 Pro Am field is worth a mention too.
#13 Tower Motorsports Ricky Taylor, Rene Rast
#14 Nielsen Racing Mathias Beche, Ben Hanley
#32 Inter Europol Competition Jan Magnussen, Anders Fjordbach

#37 Cool Racing Nicolas Lapierre, Malthe Jakobsen
#39 Graff Racing Patrick Pilet, Giedo van der Garde
#43 DKR Engineering Maxime Martin, Ugo de Wilde
#45 Algarve Pro Racing James Allen, Colin Braun
#80 AF Corse Norman Nato, Ben Barnicoat
#923 Racing Team Turkey Dries Vanthoor, Tom Gamble


If the Ams can keep it neat and tidy for their 6 hours these guys could spring a surprise, especially with Bronze drivers like Francois Perrodo and Salih Yoluc in the mix.


This is the third year of Hypercar but it feels like another new beginning. Hopefully we get a good race. Next year we will also have Apline, BMW and Lamborghini in Hypercar and a few more privateers. And a completely revamped GT field with much more variety. Hard to believe after the lean years we have had recently.