Five teams have received invitations to the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans after the European Le Mans Series concluded its season at Portimao.
Following the final round of the European Le Mans Series season at Portimao on Sunday, five automatic invitations to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the following year have been confirmed.
The top two teams in the LMP2 standings, Algarve Pro Racing and United Autosports, will both have an automatic berth on the LMP2 grid for the French endurance classic.
With two second-place finishes from Kyffin Simpson, James Allen, and Alex Lynn for Algarve Pro at Portimao, the team secured the title while United Autosports prevailed over a number of other teams to place second overall.
The team had been ranked sixth going into Portugal but with back-to-back victories, United Autosport overtook Duqueine Team, Panis Racing, Cool Racing, and IDEC Sport to finish the season in the runners-up spot.
Besides that, LMP2 Pro-Am champions AF Corse are also going to get an LMP2 entry for the competition, which is a change from last year. Swiss team Cool Racing, which won the LMP3 championship for the second consecutive year, has received the fourth invitation in the LMP2 class.
Proton Competition has guaranteed that it will have a bigger presence on the starting grid for the debut of the LMGT3 class at Le Mans by securing the only extra ticket available for teams in the GTE class this year.
Proton intends to race the Ford Mustang GT3 as a part of their two-car FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 project, which is set to be determined by the WEC Selection Committee, even though Ryan Hardwick, Zach Robichon, and Alessio Picariello won the championship in the outgoing Porsche 911 RSR-19.
The German team has several Type-992 Porsche 911 GT3 Rs on order, though team manager Christian Ried previously revealed that this is because Proton wants to maintain its long-standing partnership with Porsche in GT racing.
Four drivers currently racing in IMSA have been included in the list of five invitations issued at Portimao for the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans edition.
George Kurtz is poised to defend his LMP2 Pro-Am title after winning the IMSA Jim Trueman Award, which is given to the top Bronze-rated driver in the WeatherTech Championship LMP2 class.
Brendan Iribe is making preparations to drive the McLaren back to Le Mans in the LMGT3 class after winning the Bob Akin Award for the best Bronze-rated GTD driver with Inception Racing. Action Express Racing received a third IMSA-specific invitation as a result of winning the GTP teams’ championship.
Pure Rxcing received the additional LMGT3 invitation after taking home the overall Bronze Cup trophy in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe.
The fate of the final two invitations—one for LMP2 and one for LMGT3—will be decided after the 2023–24 Asian Le Mans Series finale, which starts off with a double header event at Sepang International Circuit on the first weekend of December.
