What do Toni Vilander, Giancarlo Fisichella, Laurens Vanthoor and Martin Tomczyk have in common? They all participate in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in GTLM, the U.S. equivalent of the LMGTE Pro class, and their cars are all equipped with Michelin tires. Vilander and Fisichella share the wheel of Risi Competizione's Ferrari 488 GTE and will be at the start of the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans, Vanthoor has become an official Porsche driver, and Tomczyk joined BMW this year in endurance racing in order to develop the car that will allow the German marque to return to Le Mans in 2018.

A champion in DTM, the highly popular German touring car championship, with Audi Team Abt in 2011, Martin Tomczyk may make his debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year if BMW recruits him. In the meantime, the German driver is discovering endurance overseas with BMW Team RLL, like Laurens Vanthoor with Porsche, against seasoned endurance racing drivers Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella, winners in LMGTE Pro at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2012 and 2014 with AF Corse (Ferrari).

The little shopping detour in Texas failed to bring the last three drivers any luck unfortunately. The Ferrari and Porsche had incidents in the first turn of the Circuit of the Americas which also involved one of the two Ford GTs and one of the two Corvette C7.Rs set to take the start at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Only Martin Tomczyk made it to the checkered flag, claiming the third step on the GTLM podium.

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Photo (Copyright - Michelin): from left to right, Laurens Vanthoor, Martin Tomczyk, Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella.