Le Mans: US withdrawals from 2020 Le Mans race

With the sweeping changes having to be made to racing calendars for this season as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is sadly no surprise to learn that two of the North American racing teams have chosen to withdraw from the revised running dates of September 19th/20th.

The two CORE autosport Porsche GT 911 cars, and the two Corvette Racing C8.R cars have been scratched from the entry list, citing costs and fixture congestion as the reasons behind their decisions.

A statement from Corvette's vice-president of motorsports and performance, Jim Campbell, said that "several factors played into our decision, including current conditions and the rescheduled timing".

He added the decision to end an unbroken run of participations for the Corvette Racing squad stretching back to 2000 at Le Mans, is "not an easy one. We hope we have the opportunity to race at Le Mans again."

For Porsche, the loss of the American run cars effectively halves their number of entries, as this decision does not affect the WEC based cars run by Team Manthey.

The ACO will therefore be promoting cars from its reserve list to fill these absences.

Photos: Steve Tarrant/Chequered Flag Services