Diablo Kawasaki's line up for the race will be James Hutchins, Alex Cudlin and Micheal Weynand. Michael replaces Gary Mason, having come to the team after riding for Bolliger at the Isle of Man.

Bits and Pieces

Steve Plater is racing Yamaha R1s in the British Superbike Championship, at the Isle of Man TT, and in World Endurance with GMT94 at Le Mans and the Bol d'Or and with Yamaha Austria at the rest of the rounds. We asked him how the various bikes compared:

"The biggest differences between the bikes I'm riding this year is with the tyres. Here with GMT94 and in BSB with AIM Yamaha I'm using Pirellis, but on the Isle of Man and when I'm doing endurance with Yamaha Austria, I'm on Dunlops. The construction of the two types of tyre is very different; the Dunlops can run much lower pressures but take longer to get up to speed on an out-lap. That's what caught me out when testing with YART in Spain."

Damian Cudlin rode for Yamaha Austria last year but is now back the Yamaha Phase One. The two teams are always close on track, so how do the bikes differ?

"There's not much between the two bikes. If anything, the Phase One bike is a bit better on power and the YART one on brakes but the difference is small. We're just catching up now because of the rained off test session here last month; just getting the bike set right."

Stephane Mertens is making an emotional return to racing after a bad crash in pre-season testing last year, but he is looking forward to getting back out on the track:

"Le Mans is a famous race and a famous track and it's always exciting to be there. It's not too physical, but it's a track where you have to be good on the brakes and be good on acceleration - and that suits me well. There are no problems in the night - because the lighting is quite good - unless somebody crashes in front of you and spills oil! It's not the most exciting track in the world, but I normally do well here, so I am looking forward to racing here again."