Breaking news

WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Super GT star Sekiguchi drops out of Le Mans drive

SUPER GT championship leader Yuhi Sekiguchi will not race in the Le Mans 24 Hours next weekend with the CarGuy Racing Ferrari squad as planned, the team has announced.

Jamie Klein

Edited: Sep 17, 2020, 7:59 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

#36 Team Tom's Lexus LC500: Yuhi Sekiguchi

Sekiguchi had been set for his first outing at La Sarthe when he was confirmed as CarGuy's third driver alongside Kei Cozzolino and Takeshi Kimura for the FIA World Endurance Championship showpiece event last month.

However, the team announced on Tuesday that Sekiguchi - who races in Super Formula in Japan as well as in SUPER GT - will now not be able to participate owing to travel restrictions.

The team had been hoping to run an all-Japanese line-up, but instead has recruited Frenchman Vincent Abril to complete its roster of drivers for its Ferrari 488 GTE.

Abril made his Le Mans debut last year driving alongside Louis and Phillipe Prette in a Proton Competition-run Porsche 911 RSR, the trio finishing 16th in class.

Asian Le Mans Series regular CarGuy Racing was a late addition to the Le Mans entry list after taking over the entry of fellow GTE Am Ferrari squad MR Racing.

#57 CarGuy Racing, Ferrari 488 GTE: Takeshi Kimura, Kei Cozzolino, Come Ledogar

Photo by: Joe Portlock / Motorsport Images

It's understood that MR team owner and gentleman racer Motoaki Ishikawa, who is involved in the health industry in Japan, withdrew his team from the Spa WEC round because he felt it would be irresponsible to travel to Europe once the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.

Sekiguchi meanwhile would have faced a logistical challenge to race at Le Mans as the Okayama round of the Super Formula series takes place the following weekend.

Several other Super Formula drivers - Toyota LMP1 pair Kamui Kobayashi and Kazuki Nakajima, High Class Racing's Kenta Yamashita and Richard Mille Racing's Tatiana Calderon - are also scheduled to take part in the French endurance classic on September 19-20.

Kobayashi, Nakajima and Yamashita were all granted special dispensation to race in the Motegi Super Formula opener despite not completing 14 days in quarantine after the Spa WEC race.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article WEC moves Bahrain date, creates Sebring 12h clash

Next article Alpine to enter rebranded Rebellion LMP1 in WEC 2021

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

50 min

The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down

2027 Formula E drivers and teams: The line-up so far

Formula E

FE Formula E 2 h

2027 Formula E drivers and teams: The line-up so far

Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 3 h

Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella

How seizing every chance – and making it happen – keeps Pierre Gasly’s fire burning

Formula 1

How seizing every chance – and making it happen – keeps Pierre Gasly’s fire burning

Feature

Discover prime content

A fond farewell to a few WEC favourites

WEC

Monza

By Gary Watkins

A fond farewell to a few WEC favourites

How Cadillac triumphed in the WEC Monza 6 Hours without the fastest car

WEC

Monza

By Gary Watkins

How Cadillac triumphed in the WEC Monza 6 Hours without the fastest car

Why Toyota’s 2026 WEC triumphs have put it into the all-time greatest endurance racing team debate

WEC

Barcelona

By Gary Watkins

Why Toyota’s 2026 WEC triumphs have put it into the all-time greatest endurance racing team debate

How Toyota destroyed the competition to seal the WEC crowns

WEC

Barcelona

By Gary Watkins

How Toyota destroyed the competition to seal the WEC crowns

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts