Bumper entry set for 2005 LMES.

After a successful opening season of racing in 2004, the Le Mans Endurance Series looks set for a bumper entry this season - with 37 cars already confirmed for the entire five race series.

With the promise of more cars to come, up to 50 entrants are expected for the opening race of the season at Spa on 17 April - eclipsing the 41 cars that took to the famous Belgian circuit for the same event back in September.

"The entries will be around 10 per cent up on last year, which is extremely encouraging," series organiser Patrick Peter said. "We have six confirmed entries for the season in LMP1, nine for LMP2, nine for GT1 and 13 for GT2, so we can look forward to very strong competition throughout the grid."

With the identity of the French Audi entry not yet known, the battle for honours in the LMP1 category looks set to be a four way affair.

Yves Courage has returned to the top category with his works car, a hybrid version of the Judd V10 powered Courage C60, but has yet to announce his driver line-up, while Nicolas Minassian and Jamie Campbell-Walter will again contest the series in the Creation Autosportif DBA 03S Judd, a car that is virtually identical to the newer Zytek 04S entries of Team Jota and Zytek Motorsport.

Sam Hignett, John Stack and Haruki Kurosawa will share the Team Jota Zytek all season, while Danes John Nielsen and Casper Elgaard will share the works Zytek with Hayanari Shimoda.

Martin Short and Joao Barbosa will contest the full season in the first of two Rollcentre Racing Dallaras, one powered by a Judd V10 engine, the other with a Nissan engine, while Laurence Pearce's Chevrolet powered Lister Storm LMP is listed for Spa with former BTCC driver Justin Keen set to be behind the wheel.

Entries for the Belgian opening round close on 15 March 15, with LMES organisers expected to confirm the Team Oreca Audi R8 entry backed by Audi France, to be driven by Jean-Marc Gounon and Stephane Ortelli, and the bio-ethanol fuelled Nasamax DM139.

Numerically, Courage entries dominate the LMP2 class with five cars set to compete this season.

Two are entered by Paul Belmondo Racing, the latest C65 chassis powered by AER Ford engines. Belmondo himself will drive the lead car with Claude-Yves Gosselin and Didier Andre, with Jean- Bernard Bouvet and Karim Ojjeh in the other.

A new team to endurance racing, Kruse Motorsports, has entered a Judd powered Courage C65 for the full season, to be driven by Phil Bennett and Ian Mitchell, while the Belgian G-Force Racing team also has a Judd engined Courage C65, with drivers yet to be announced.

Noel del Bello and Jean-Luc Maury-Laribiere, veteran supporters of endurance racing, will also return with a Mecachrome V8 powered Courage C65, Christophe Tinseau joining Maury-Laribiere at the wheel.

Lucchini Engineering gave its new carbon chassis LMP2 a successful debut at Spa last September and has entered the car for the full season for Pier Giuseppe Peroni and Mirco Savoldi, the 2002 FIA champions. They will also be powered by a Judd engine.

Three Lolas appear in the LMP2 entry, one the familiar, but updated MG Lola EX 257 AER entered by Ray Mallock's RML concern, owned and driven by Mike Newton with the quick Brazilian Tommy Erdos sharing driving duties.

William Binnie has the new Lola B05/40 powered by a Nicholson McLaren V8 engine which he will drive with Bobby Julien and Adam Sharp, while Bob Berridge and Gareth Evans are owners and drivers of the Lola B05/40 AER entered under the Chamberlain Synergy banner, with Peter Owen as the third driver.

Italian Ranieri Randaccio has also made a single race entry, at the moment, for his Nicholson McLaren powered Tampolli while Pierre Bruneau and Marc Rostan, runners-up last year in the LMP2 class with the PiR Racing Pilbeam, return this season with the latest, carbon chassis Pilbeam MPB93 chassis powered by the JPX engine.

BMS Scuderia Italia, the FIA GT Champion team for the past two seasons, switch to the Le Mans Endurance Series in 2005 with a pair of Prodrive built Ferrari 550 Maranellos, and are expected to set the pace this season.

Christian Pescatori has been signed to lead the team, and endurance racing's most recognised couple, Lilian Bryner and Enzo Calderari are again expected to drive for the Scuderia.

LMES GT champion Christophe Bouchut again drives a Prodrive built Ferrari 550, but with a new team, Convers, run by Rob Schirle for the Russians Nikolai Fomenko and Alexei Vasiliev. A fourth Ferrari 550 Maranello is entered by the Czech Menx team, stepping up a category, for Tomas Enge and Robert Pergl.

JMB Racing has entered two Ferrari 575 GTCs, improved by Ferrari during the winter in the engine and aerodynamic departments, while Paul Belmondo has entered two Chrysler Vipers to be driven by Didier Sommereau, Jean-Michel Papolla, Pierre Perret, Jean-Baptiste Emeric and Pascal Lacroix.

Graham Nash is another stalwart entrant, this year with two Saleen S7Rs listed for Spa only, to be driven by Rick Sutherland, Gian Maria Gabbiani, Nigel Smith and Ian Khan. The German A-Level Engineering team has entered two Porsche 996 Turbos, one for the full season for lead driver Wolfgang Kaufmann.

All 13 entries in the GT2 category are entered for the full season, and these include seven Porsche GT3 RS/RSRs, three Ferrari 360 Modenas and three TVR Tuscan T400Rs.

Hugh Hayden, owner of the Sebah Automotive Porsche team that narrowly won the class last season, has retired his four-year-old GT3R and replaced it with the latest RSR, with lead driver Lars-Erik Nielsen. Peter Seikel enters a Porsche GT3 RS for Philip Collin while Vanina Ickx returns to the Japanese T2M team Porsche.

Kenny Chen's Gruppe M Racing team has a GT3 RSR for Tim Sugden and 17-year-old British GT champion Jonathan Cocker, while Porsches are also entered by the Autorlando Sport team for Franco Groppi and Luigi Moccia, by the Belgian Gordon team for Yves Lambert and Christian Lefort, and by IN2 Racing for Juan Barazi and Michael Vergers.

Laurence Tomlinson's Team LNT enters a pair of V8 powered Tuscan T400Rs for himself, Warren Hughes and Jonny Kane, and Marc Hynes with Patrick Pearce. A third TVR is entered by Racesport Peninsula for Steve Hyde, Piers Johnson and John Hartshorne.

Competition will come from the GPC Sport Ferrari 360 Modena for Gabrio Rosa, Luca Drudi and Philipp Peter, and from the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari 360 driven by Andrew Kirkaldy and Nathan Kinch - who narrowly missed out to Cocker for the British GT title.

The third Ferrari 360 will be run by Auto Palace for Steeve Hiesse, whose codrivers have still to be nominated.