The success of the first Road to Le Mans in 2016 has encouraged the Automobile Club de l’Ouest with the help of Le Mans Endurance Management (promoter of the Michelin Le Mans Cup Series), to organise the event for the second year running as a curtain-raiser to the Le Mans 24 Hours on 17-18 June. This year two races reserved exclusively for LM P3 and GT3 cars will be on the programme and the number of entries has been increased to 46.
Road to Le Mans will be the second race on the calendar of the Michelin Le Mans Cup reserved for LM P3 and GT3 cars. Five of the events will be on the same weekends as the 2017 European Le Mans Series and Road To Le Mans will be a special event as the curtain raiser of the Le Mans 24 Hours.
This year 46 cars will be allowed to take part in the Road to Le Mans (42 in 2016). The teams entered for the full Michelin Le Mans Cup will be automatically accepted for the La Sarthe event.
Entrants who want to race in the Road to Le Mans only will have to pay an entry fee of 15 000 € (tax not included) to be included in the selection process. The selection committee will give priority (at its discretion) to teams entered for the European Le Mans Series, Asian Le Mans Series, Asian Le Mans Sprint Cup and the Weathertech Sportscar Championship.
The other big innovation is the number of races as there are two on the Road to Le Mans programme. The first will take place on Thursday 15th June at 17:30, and the second on Saturday 17th June at 11:30 before the start of the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Each race will be run over 55 minutes and the crew must consist of two drivers.
Beforehand, two 1-hour free practice sessions will take place on Wednesday 14th June followed by two 20-minute qualifying sessions on Thursday 15th June in which the grid positions for the two races will be decided.
The format of the event for two drivers will impose a minimum driving time of 20 minutes in the race per driver, and a pit stop lasting one minute minimum fixed by the regulations within a defined time window.
In compliance with the Michelin Le Mans Cup regulations a Gold driver is accepted in the driver line-up.* Free choice is left to the entrants to select the driver taking part in the first qualifying session, while the second one is for Bronze drivers only.
Entries for the Road to Le Mans open on 10th March 2017 and close on 6th April 2017.
The list of entries for the 2nd Road to Le Mans will be announced mid-April.
*Rules concerning the driver line-ups
A crew comprising two drivers as follows:
Bronze/Bronze
Bronze/Silver
Bronze/Gold
