Team Penske is among the 50 entries, including major real-life WEC teams, for the virtual Le Mans 24 Hours, which will be staged on June 13-14 in place of the postponed real-life race.
The race will be run as a collaboration between the World Endurance Championship, Le Mans organisers the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and Motorsport Games.
This will mark the return of the Penske name to Le Mans, albeit on rFactor 2, for the first time since the 1971 edition of the race.
Team owner Roger Penske has previously expressed his interest in a possible real-life return to Le Mans upon the introduction of the LMDh cars alongside the Le Mans Hypercars tentatively set for 2022.
Penske is one of 30 prototype entries that will use the Oreca 07 LMP2 car and it will be joined by a trio of cars from the reigning Le Mans winners, LMP1 outfit Toyota Gazoo Racing.
Privateer LMP1 team Rebellion, which will bow out of all-motorsport following this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, will enter four LMP2 cars in partnership with Williams Esports.
Each entry will run a minimum of two professional drivers with an FIA international license, and a maximum of two sim racers in its team.
It is expected that the Rebellion-Williams tie-up will see sim racers from the Williams stable race alongside Rebellion’s LMP1 drivers.
The ByKolles LMP1 team, which has sat out the entirety of the real-life 2019-20 WEC season so far, will run a single entry in the virtual endurance race.
Reigning Le Mans LMP2 class-winner Signatech Alpine leads the LMP2 teams competing, which also includes 1996 Monaco Grand Prix winner Olivier Panis’ re-branded Panis Racing outfit.
The sim racing team entries are led by three entries for Le Mans Esports Series champions Veloce Esports and a single entry for Esports veteran Team Redline.
Redline has previously run drivers such as Formula 1 stars Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in virtual 24 hours races – the pair won the virtual 24 Hours of Spa last July on iRacing.
There is a single car for two-time F1 champion and double Le Mans 24 Hours winner Fernando Alonso’s sim racing team on the entry list.
The 20 GTE entries will comprise virtual machinery from Aston Martin, Ferrari, Porsche and the outgoing Corvette C7.R.
Porsche is the best represented with eight cars including four-factory backed entries in conjunction with its Esports team.
Aston Martin and AF Corse Ferrari teams are running three cars each while Corvette is fielding a pair of factory entries.
Among the 10 reserve entries is Ford’s Team Fordzilla esports team and 2018 European Le Mans Series champions G-Drive Racing.
The drivers participating in the race will be revealed over the next three weeks.
Official Statement:
These teams were chosen by a committee made up of members of the ACO, WEC and Motorsport Games that considered a number of perspectives in order to make some very tough decisions, considering the event was completely oversubscribed. There will be a driver list published in in addition in the coming weeks.
These teams are confirmed as having cars in the race, but in many cases (particularly these line ups are not final. We are passing on contact details where you were kind enough to provide them directly to team managers and they will be able to contact you should they wish. This does not prevent you making contact directly yourselves should you prefer.
