The inaugural round of the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup, and the opening round of the 2016 season takes place at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola on Saturday May 14.
The grid assembled for Saturday’s race represents a foundation on which the ACO will undoubtedly build over the coming months. 11 cars will contest the opening the opening round, representing eight teams from five different countries.
FFF Racing Team by ACM is a young team formed from the joining of FFF Automobile, managed by Fu Songyang and ACM, owned by Andrea Caldarelli. The team has entered a Lamborghini Huracán and a McLaren 650S. The #5 Lamborghini Huracán will be driven by Songyang and Caldarelli. The #55 McLaren 650S will be driven by Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs. Quaife-Hobbs moved into endurance racing with Von Ryan Racing in 2015 and already has experience in the McLaren 650S.
Four Ferrari F458 Italia GT3s are entered for Imola. BMS Scuderia Italia has entered the #7 car to be driven by all-Italian line-up of Luigi Lucchini and Mateo Cressoni. Scuderia Villorba Corse has entered the #8 car with French pairing of Cedric Mezard and Steeve Hiesse sharing the driving duties. AF Corse has entered two F458s; the #14 car with Pierre Marie de Leener and Rui Águas at the wheel and the #71 with Felipe Barreiros and Mads Rasmussen sharing the driving duties.
AF Corse will have a busy weekend as it has also entered a Ferrari F488, the #51, which will be driven by Thomas Flohr and Franceso Castellacci. A further F488 is entered by Silverstone-based FF Corse with Johnny Mowlem and Ivor Dunbar, whom Mowlem has coached, at the wheel.
A single Audi R8 LMS is entered by York-based Tockwith Motorsports with its #19 car being driven by Phillip Hanson and Nigel Moore.
TF Sport enters the sole Aston Martin in the augural race with its #34 V12 Vantage GT3, to be driven by Salih Yoluc and Euan Hankey.
Mentos Racing rounds off the entrants with its #88 Porsche 911 GT3 R, in which Egido Perfetti is currently the sole declared driver.
Qualifying starts at 11:20 on Saturday May 14 with the lights going out for the start of the two hour race at 17:00 later in the day.