Entry applications for the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series have all been re-opened for a 48 hour period in the wake of the withdrawal of Russian-flagged G-Drive Racing.

The move from the GazProm-backed outfit came after a number of Russian drivers and teams refused to sign an FIA undertaking in relation to the sport’s required code of conduct for Russian nationals in the wake of the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

That move resulted in the removal from competition of one LMP2 entry from the FIA WEC, and two LMP2s and an LMP3 from the European Le Mans Series.

At least one of the LMP2s would have featured on the entry list  for the 2022 Le Mans 24 Hours, the release of which was delayed from last week due to the ongoing sanctions-led processes.

All three LMP2 efforts were to have been operated by Portugal-based Algarve Pro Racing, with the LMP3 effort operated by ex-IMSA team Eurointernational.

The re-opening of the entries will now allow the teams, which are understood by RACER to have found replacements for the three Russian drivers involved – ex-F1 racer Dani Kvyat, long-time endurance racer Roman Rusinov and LMP3 driver Evgeny Kireev – to race under their own team names.

In the case of Algarve Pro Racing, the decision cannot come soon enough, as the car is already in Florida ahead of this coming weekend’s FIA WEC ‘Prologue’ Test, with the opening round of the World Championship set to take place on Friday 18 March.

There is also the prospect of other teams stepping up to post last-minute entries. Both the WEC and ELMS are known to have been over-subscribed, and in the immediate aftermath of the announcement by the ACO of the Le Mans entry re-opening, Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus owner Jim Glickenhaus was swift to offer a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ for potential customers to enter a third SCG 007 LMH ‘Hypercar’

The revised entry process closes at 15:00 CET on Wednesday 9 March.