After a whirlwind trip to the US, the Bee Safe Racing/Riley Motorsports Ferrari and racing team has arrived in France in preparation for the 90th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 11 and June 12.

The trip to US for the No. 74 Ferrari GTE Pro Evo began with an unveiling in Greensboro on May 17.  Then it was off to Watkins Glen International road course in Watkins Glen, NY, for test runs.

The Le Mans campaign is being sponsored by Roy Carroll, president and founder of The Carroll Companies and his wife, Vanessa, along with Bill Riley of Riley Motorsports.

Carroll said, “Our team is certainly not under any misconceptions that it is going to be easy for us to be competitive against three factory teams. This is definitely a ‘David vs. Goliath’ situation.  However, with Riley’s experience at Le Mans and the driver lineup we have I truly believe we are capable of being competitive.”

The three drivers for the Bee Safe/Riley Motorsports Ferrari are veteran Le Mans competitor Sam Bird, Rolex 24 at Daytona winner Felipe Fraga and V8 Supercar champion and sports car endurance race winner Shane van Gisbergen.

The Bee Safe Racing/Riley Motorsports Ferrari made it through the traditional “Scrutineering,” a series of technical and safety checks in Le Mans, and on Sunday, June 5, will take part in the official Le Mans pre-test, which is the first opportunity to drive the 8.4 mile “Circuit de Sarthe” in preparation for the 24-hour race.

Carroll said, “It has been a dream to have the first car to enter the historic Le Mans race from a Greensboro owner embraced by the community. I have met a lot of people from Greensboro that are very excited about our entry and hopefully gaining more exposure for our community.”

“A lot of great people have come together to put this program together, starting with Roy and Vanessa Carroll and Bee Safe Racing who are sponsoring the team and own the car,” Riley said. “The 24 Hours of Le Mans has always been special, especially as an American team and particularly for me as a sports-car kid growing up. This is also an effort of all the best people we currently have around us at Riley Motorsports to make this happen, and we are grateful for them all. A fair amount of the crew are Le Mans veterans. We called a meeting with everybody and just about everybody put their hand up when we asked who wanted to go to Le Mans. So, we were able to pick and put together a pretty good list of personnel.”

The proposed 24 Hours of Le Mans watch party at Grasshopper Stadium on Saturday June 11 and Sunday June 12 had to be cancelled due to scheduling conflicts. However, the 24 Hours of Le Mans can be watched on MotorTrend+ as well as the Motor Trend TV channel.

 

 

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