Following the announcement by the ACO on Tuesday of the official entry list for the 90th anniversary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, teams and manufacturers are releasing more information about their driver line ups. Of the 22 LMP2 entries, 15 will be powered by Nissan engines, including the No.26 G-Drive Racing Oreca 03 Nissan which will be driven by Russian racer Roman Rusinov and his regular FIA World Endurance Championship team-mates, Australia’s John Martin and British driver Mike Conway. Rusinov said: “To win at Le Mans you need to have the right team, the right team mates, the right engine, the right chassis and also some luck! I think we have the perfect package at G-Drive Racing so with a little luck thrown in I hope we can have a very successful Le Mans. I feel very positive about our chances this year.”
Alongside them will be the No.25 Delta ADR entry of Malaysian regular Tor Graves who will be sharing the cockpit with young Briton Archie Hamilton, making his debut 60 years after his grandfather Duncan won Le Mans in 1953, and ex-F1 racer Shinji Nakano who thinks the trio have everything they need to win.
The Japanese driver said: “I am really happy to be back with the team. We have a strong package and I am confident we can contest for the class victory.”
Nissan’s Director of Global Motorsports Darren Cox said: “It’s great to see our partner team is taking such a good mix of international drivers to Le Mans this year. It’s also great to see that both sets of drivers are gunning for the class win. This kind of competition is great as it drives everybody forward. I look forward to seeing them all fighting hard at Le Mans.”
Nissan has already announced that it has placed three of its official Nismo drivers in the No.42 Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan. Nismo’s Super GT racer Michael Krumm will join two of Nissan’s most successful GT Academy graduates and Nismo Athletes, Lucas Ordonez and Jann Mardenborough.