The inclusion of European Le Mans Series entries at this year's Petit Le Mans, the American Le Mans Series season finale, has resulted in an additional seven cars that will take place in October's 1,000-mile (or 10 hours) endurance race.
Five P2 class entries will enter along with two GTE Am category participants. The ELMS entrants are set to be scored separately. The race will finalize the outcome of the two championships and designate the teams which will receive invitations for the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans. Double points will be awarded for the ELMS classification at the Petit Le Mans.
It marks the third straight year Petit will be a joint round of two separate sports car championships, with the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup present at both of the 2010 and 2011 rounds. Petit was left off of the FIA World Endurance Championship calendar for 2012 after the 2011 race featured an oversubscribed grid between ALMS and ILMC entries, and the field was capped at 53 starters.
The ELMS schedule for 2012 has only had two races, with a third round canceled. Some of its teams have opted to participate in WEC races at Spa-Francorchamps and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
All seven making the trip to Petit participated in this year's Le Mans. The full list of participants is below.
P2
1 Greaves Motorsport (GB), Zytek Nissan, Alex Brundle, Lucas Ordonez,
Tom Kimber-Smith
117 Status GP (IRL), Lola Judd, Alexander Sims, TBA, TBA
118 Murphy Prototypes (IRL), Oreca Nissan, Jody Firth, Warren Hughes, TBA
24 Oak Racing (FRA), Morgan Judd, TBA, TBA, TBA
46 Thiriet by TDS Racing (FRA), Oreca Nissan, Mathias Beche,
Pierre Thiriet, TBA
GTE Am
60 AF Corse (ITA), Ferrari 458 Italia, Piergiuseppe Perazzini,
Marco Cioci, Matt Griffin
67 Imsa Performance Matmut (FRA), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, Anthony Pons,
Nicolas Armindo, Raymond Narac