The 2nd Road to Le Mans was an automobile endurance event composed of two 55-minute races contested by 49 teams of two drivers each racing Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) and Group GT3 (GT3) cars. It took place on 15 and 17 June 2017 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, near Le Mans, France, as a support event for the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans and the second round of the 2017 Le Mans Cup. The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) organised the second Road to Le Mans race in partnership with the FIA World Endurance Championship and the European Le Mans Series promoter Le Mans Endurance Management.
A Ligier JS P3-Nissan shared by John Falb and Sean Rayhall of United Autosports won the first race starting from sixth position. The M.Racing - YMR duo of Alexandre Cougnaud and Romano Ricci finished in second and RLR Msport's Alex Kapadia and Martin Rich were third. The GT3 category was won by the TF Sport pair of Ahmad Al Harthy and Tom Jackson driving an Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 after the Spirit of Race Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Maurizio Mediani and Christoph Ulrich was penalised for being deemed to have too short of a pit stop. The second race was won by the DKR Engineering team of Jean Glorieux and Alexander Toril over Falb and Rayhall. The M.Racing - YMR team of Erwin Creed and Yann Ehrlacher completed the overall podium in third. Al Harthy and Jackson completed a victory sweep in GT3 after the IMSA Performance team of Thierry Cornac and Raymond Narac was penalised for breaching the minimum pit stop time.
Background The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) formally announced the running of the 2017 Road to Le Mans race for Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) and Group GT3 (GT3) cars that were not allowed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in February 2017. The ACO along with FIA World Endurance Championship and the Le Mans Endurance Management, the promoter of the Le Mans Cup, organised the event. It was held on 15 and 17 June 2017 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, near Le Mans, France. This was the second running of the event, the second round of the 2017 Le Mans Cup and served as a support race for the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Colin Noble and Anthony Wells led the LMP3 Drivers' Championship with 25 championship points after winning the season-opening round at Monza. They were seven championship points in front of the second-placed Jean Glorieux and Alexander Toril and ten ahead of the third-placed Maurizio Mediani and Claudio Sdanewitsch. Phil Keen and Lee Mowle led the GT3 Drivers' Championship with 25 championship points after winning their class at Monza, seven ahead of Flick Haigh and Joe Osborne in second and ten ahead of Fabio Babini and Emanuele Busnelli in third. The 79 Nielsen Racing team led the LMP3 Teams' Championship with 25 championship points, leading the No. 3 DKR Engineering squad by six championship points and the No. 55 Spirit of Race by ten championship points. With 25 championship points, Lee Mowle's No. 7 squad led the GT3 Teams' Championship by seven championship points over the No. 75 Optimum Racing and nine championship points ahead of the No. 46 Ebimotors.
Regulations and entrants Entry to the race was open from 10 March to 6 April 2017. A total of 46 cars were permitted to enter the race, an increase of four from the 2016 event. The ACO's selection committee had the discretion to prioritise invitations to the LMP3 and GT3 categories from the ACO's continental racing series, the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) and the Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS), as well as the Asian Le Mans Sprint Cup and the IMSA SportsCar Championship. All current Le Mans Cup entries were automatically accepted. Each team was required to sign at least one bronze-rated driver (that is a gentleman driver) and their second driver could hold either a silver or gold-rated licence. Platinum-rated drivers (that is a professional driver) were barred from participating. A driver was permitted no more than 20 minutes to drive on the track. According to the race's regulations, all teams had to make a mandatory pit stop lasting no less than two minutes between the 22nd and 32nd minutes of both races. All competitors in the two categories were eligible to score championship points provided they finished anywhere from first and below. The two pole position winners in each class received one championship point.
The entry list was published by the ACO on 10 May 2017. The 49-car entry list included 33 LMP3 and 16 GT3 vehicles, an increase of 12 on the previous year's race. In addition to the 21 guaranteed Le Mans Cup entries, there were 12 ELMS entries, two from the ALMS while the rest of the field was filled with one-off entries only competing at Le Mans. Many of the LMP3 entries came from the Le Mans Cup and all but five fielded Ligier JS P3-Nissans. The five non-Ligiers were three Norma M30s and one Ginetta-Juno P3-15 and ADESS-03 each. There were seven manufacturers (Aston Martin, Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche) who were represented in the GT3 category. Ben Barker, Richard Bradley, Christian Philippon, Michele Rugolo, and James Winslow were the five drivers and Graff, Gulf Racing UK, Larbre Compétition, Spirit of Race and United Autosports were the five teams competing in both the Road to Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Practice
Two one-hour practice sessions were held on the evening of 14 June and morning of 15 June. Noble lapped fastest overall in the first practice session with a time of 3:57.055 set in the No. 79 Nielsen Racing car. He was 1.054 seconds faster than the second-placed Alexandre Cougnaud's No. 18 M.Racing - YMR entry. The highest-placed Norma vehicle was Toril's No. 3 DKR Engineering car in third. The GT3 category saw all seven manufacturers take the first seven places. Mediani's No. 95 Spirit of Race Ferrari was fastest in class with a lap time of 4:03.821 that was good enough for 10th overall. Gulf Racing's No. 20 Porsche driven by Barker and Steeve Hiesse's No. 8 SVC Sport Management Lamborghini were second and third in class. Some entries had trouble during the session. John Falb's No. 2 United Autosports Ligier suffered an engine failure after completing two laps and Mark Kvamme's No. 85 EuroInternational entry had to enter the pit lane to repair an open door. Sdanewitsch crashed the No. 55 Spirit Ligier against the wall on the run into the Porsche Curves. The session was prematurely ended with seven minutes left to allow for recovery and repairs to the barrier. Sdanewitsch complained of hand pain but was passed fit for the event.
Glorieux's No. 3 DKR Ligier entry set the overall pace of the second practice session with a lap time of 3:51.935. He was more than five seconds faster than the quickest first practice session lap. M.Racing - YMR's No. 19 Norma car of Yann Ehrlacher was second-quickest. Ehrlacher was followed by the fastest of the Ligiers, Rugolo's third-placed No. 55 Spirit entry. The session's six fastest cars lapped faster than Martin Brundle's 2016 pole lap. Six manufacturers occupied the first six positions in the GT3 class. Hiesse's No. 8 SVC Lamborghini was fastest in class with a lap time of 4:01.204 he set in the final minutes of practice. He lapped 2.6 seconds quicker than the best category time set during the first practice session. Ahmad Al Harthy's No. 97 TF Sport Aston Martin was 0.324 seconds behind in second. Duncan Tappy's fastest lap set late in the session in Garage 59's No. 24 McLaren completed the top three in class. There were no incidents of note during the session.
Qualifying There were two 20-minute qualifying sessions held on the afternoon of 15 June to set the starting order for both races. The first session saw any one driver be allowed by their teams to participate to determine the starting grid for the first race and each team's Bronze-rated driver partook in the second session to set the starting order for the second race. The first session took place in sunny weather conditions. Toril went fastest overall in all three of the circuit's sectors on warm tyres to secure pole position for the first race aboard the No. 3 DKR car with a 3:50.258 lap. Peter Kox qualified the No. 48 Kox Racing vehicle in second and the No. 18 M.Racing - YMR car of Cougnaud was third. Noble qualified the Nielsen car fourth and the second M.Racing - YMR entry was fifth courtesy of a lap from Ehrlacher. Barker's No. 20 Gulf Porsche took pole position in GT3 with a time of 3:56.511. He was 1.3 seconds quicker than Mediani's No. 95 Spirit Ferrari in second. Osborne qualified the No. 75 Optimum Audi in third despite a puncture that restricted him to a single fast lap. Tom Onslow-Cole's No. 5 Ram Racing Mercedes and Keen's No. 7 Lee Mowle car completed the top five in class.
Falb's No. 2 United Autosports entry set the early pace in the second session before it was stopped with nine minutes remaining for an accident involving Alexander Talkanitsa Sr.'s No. 90 AT Racing Ligier car at the Porsche Curves. Talkanitsa was transported to the medical centre for a checkup. Glorieux's No. 3 DKR Ligier vehicle was impeded by the stoppage but took pole position for the second race with a 3:52.563 lap set on his final timed effort to complete a qualifying sweep for DKR. The No. 2 United Autosports car was second ahead of the two RLR Msport entries of Martin Rich and John Farano in third and fourth. Alvaro Fontes's SPV MotorSport entry completed the top five in LMP3. In GT3, Al Harthy set a lap of 4:00.832 on his first quick run in the TF Sport Aston Martin before the red flag stoppage to secure pole position in the category and was fifth overall. Al Harthy remained in the pit lane after the suspension was lifted. He was almost three seconds quicker than the second-placed Busnelli's No. 46 Ebimotors Lamborghini. Haigh's No. 75 Optimum Audi took third, ahead of the two Garage 59 McLarens of Michael Benham and Alexander West in fourth and fifth in class.
Qualifying results Teams who set the pole position lap time in each class in the two qualifying sessions are denoted in bold and by a . First qualifying session +Final classification of the first qualifying sessionClassTeamQualifying 1LMP33 DKR Engineering3:50.2581 2LMP348 Kox Racing3:51.6912 3LMP318 M.Racing - YMR3:51.9413 4LMP379 Nielsen Racing3:52.5824 5LMP319 M.Racing - YMR3:53.3155 6LMP32 United Autosports3:53.3466 7LMP355 Spirit of Race3:53.5787 8LMP349 Win Motorsport3:53.7298 9LMP399 N'Race3:53.8529 10LMP314 RLR Msport3:54.10510 11LMP322 United Autosports3:54.21411 12LMP311 Duqueine Engineering3:54.67412 13LMP389 Graff3:54.82013 14LMP310 Duqueine Engineering3:55.42114 15LMP398 Motorsport 983:56.35115 16GT320 Gulf Racing UK3:56.51116 17LMP387 RLR Msport3:57.23017 18LMP365 Graff3:57.32018 19LMP353 M.Racing - YMR3:57.65924 20LMP386 EuroInternational3:57.67919 21GT395 Spirit of Race3:57.87620 22LMP366 Graff3:57.95927 23LMP385 EuroInternational3:58.89221 24GT375 Optimum Racing3:59.33422 25LMP36 DKR Engineering3:59.52123 26GT35 Ram Racing3:59.75425 27LMP312 SVC Sport Management4:00.29026 28GT38 SVC Sport Management4:00.38028 29GT37 Lee Mowle4:00.90229 30GT324 Garage 594:00.90630 31GT376 IMSA Performance4:01.74431 32LMP344 SPV MotorSport4:03.15532 33LMP392 TKS4:03.58233 34GT388 Garage 594:03.58634 35GT397 TF Sport4:05.14335 36GT346 Ebimotors4:06.31036 37LMP315 By Speed Factory4:08.60337 38LMP333 BE Motorsport4:08.95638 39LMP39 Duqueine Engineering4:10.50339 40LMP323 United Autosports4:10.55240 41LMP372 Graff4:11.63741 42GT328 Delahaye Racing Team4:14.23942 43GT350 Larbre Compétition4:15.15543 44LMP34 Cool Racing by GPC4:18.14244 45GT393 Kessel Racing4:19.08345 46GT396 IMSA Performance4:20.46446 47LMP391 DKR Engineering4:24.99347 48LMP390 AT RacingNo time48 49GT394 Spirit of RaceNo time49Source: Second qualifying session