LM24: Paletou enters Le Mans with Greaves

Frenchman Gaetan Paletou will make his Le Mans 24 Hours debut on June 13-14, just 10 months and 18 races after winning last year's Nissan GT Academy.

Paletou, 22, has been placed by Nissan with the British Greaves Motorsport LMP2 squad for the World Endurance Championship showpiece after taking part in the official Test Day last weekend. He will take the seat of Swede Bjorn Wirdheim, who has agreed to step down for Le Mans, alongside Jon Lancaster and Gary Hirsch in the Greaves Gibson-Nissan 015S.

The deal means that Paletou will be making his Le Mans debut after contesting only 12 events last year to gain his international C license and then six races this year.

He made his international debut in the Dubai 24 Hours in January and has raced in two rounds of the European Le Mans Series at the wheel of a works Ginetta-Nissan LMP3 and one Blancpain Endurance Series race driving a RJN Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.

Paletou also contested the Britcar 24 Hours at Silverstone in April and a round of the Ginetta GT4 Supercup in order to obtain the international B license grade required to participate at Le Mans.

Nissan global motorsport boss Darren Cox said: "We push our graduates hard via our driver development program, which gets stronger and tougher every year. We have given Gaetan all the backing and the training he needs, and he has proved to us that he is ready for Le Mans."

Paletou added: "I dreamed of racing at Le Mans as a child but I didn't expect to ever race there. "I love driving the LMP2 car and I really like the guys at Greaves, so this is going to be a great experience for me."

Paletou, who won the European branch of the Academy in 2014, will become the sixth driver on the gamer-to-racer scheme to take part at Le Mans after Lucas Ordonez, Jordan Tresson, Jann Mardenborough, Wolfgang Reip and Mark Shulzhitskiy.

Team owner Tim Greaves, whose squad has long-standing links with Nissan, thanked Wirdheim for "his understanding of the longer-term plans" and stressed that the Swede is still part of the squad's European Le Mans Series plans for the remainder of 2015.

Originally on Autosport.com