received 80 "good quality" inquires for applications by the deadline for entries on the midnight of 28 February 2001. The ACO's eight-person selection committee granted 48 invitations to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in-late March. Entries were divided between the Le Mans Prototype 900 (LMP900), Le Mans Grand Touring Prototype (LMGTP), LMP675, Le Mans Grand Touring Sport (LMGTS) and Le Mans Grand Touring (LMGT) categories. Automatic entries Automatic entries were earned by teams which won their class in the 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans, or have won Le Mans-based series and events such as the 2000 Petit Le Mans of the American Le Mans Series, the Race of a Thousand Years held as part of the Asian-Pacific Le Mans Series and the 2000 1000 km of Nürburgring of the European Le Mans Series. As entries were pre-selected to teams, they were restricted to a maximum of two cars and were not allowed to change their vehicles nor their competitors' licence from the previous year to the next. Entries were permitted to change category provided that they did not change the make of vehicle and the ACO granted official permission for the switch. The ACO published its final list of automatic berths on 26 January 2001. Audi Sport North America, Viper Team Oreca and Dick Barbour Racing were the three teams out of the twelve that were pre-selected to decline their automatic invitations. 1. – Team declined their automatic invitations. Entry list and reserves The ACO announced the full 48-car entry list for Le Mans plus six reserves on 4 April. The Ascari, Audi, Bentley, Cadillac, Courage, Chrysler, Dome and Panoz brands were accepted into the two Prototype classes, which featured a mixture of works teams and privateers. Cars from Lola, Pilbeam and Reynard featured in the eight-vehicle LMP675 class. Chrysler, General Motors via its Chevrolet division and Saleen were the three manufacturers in the LMGTS category. The majority of cars in the LMGT class were from Porsche with Callaway represented by one team. On 27 April, the No. 59 Saleen/Allen Speedlab-entered S7 was withdrawn from the race. The No. 21 Team Ascari car was promoted from the top of the list of reserves to take the vacated slot on the grid. Testing A mandatory pre-Le Mans test day split into two daytime sessions of four hours each was held at the circuit on 6 May, involving all 48