ELMS standouts earn Le Mans invitations

At the conclusion of the 2025 European Le Mans Series season this afternoon at the Algarve International Circuit in Portugal, four four automatic invitations to enter the 2026 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours were handed to standout teams.

After clinching the LMP2 teams' championship with a third win in four races, VDS Panis Racing (pictured above) secured an invite to participate in the French enduro, while Inter Europol also punched its ticket by finishing second in the standings with its No. 43 ORECA.

In LMP2 Pro/Am, AO By TF clinched the title after PJ Hyett, Dane Cameron and Louis Deletraz drove the No. 99 "Spike"-liveried ORECA to second-place finish in the finale. As a result, it was granted the third and final invite to compete at La Sarthe next year via success in one of the two LMP2 divisions.

Speaking to RACER post-race, AO Racing owner/driver PJ Hyett, who also won a Le Mans invitation with the Jim Trueman Award in IMSA earlier this month, made his intentions clear.

"It's always been my plan since we started this program to take both 'Spike' and 'Rexy' to Le Mans together. We will be talking to the ACO about whether or not they'll let us do that. I hope they do," he said.

"This is all unbelievable. I started my European motorsport journey in Portimao with a one-off race in Le Mans Cup, which seems like five minutes ago. To be winning races and now titles is truly amazing."

Finally, the seven-car title fight in LMGT3 went the way of TF Sport's Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R, meaning the British team has claimed an invitation to enter the LMGT3 class.

"Congratulations to everyone at TF Sport for making history today with the first ELMS championship for Corvette Racing," said Jessica Dane, Corvette Racing's program manager, following TF Sport's win and title.

"Today's victory for Charlie (Eastwood), Rui (Andrade) and Hiro (Koizumi) came under immense pressure with the LMGT3 drivers' and teams' titles in the balance. The whole team executed the race to perfection. Everyone at Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and GM Motorsports is excited for this championship and a fourth invitation to the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans."

Prior to the finale, Swiss team CLX Motorsport won an invitation to enter Le Mans in the LMP2 class next year by taking the LMP3 title with a race to spare at Silverstone.

These invites for the ELMS teams add to the invitations previously handed out to the IMSA Trueman and Akin Award winners (Hyett and Orey Fidani) and the GT World Challenge Europe Bronze Cup championship-winning team (Kessel Racing).

A final pair of invitations will be up for grabs over the winter in the Asian Le Mans Series, for the champions in LMP2 and GT.