Brussels, June 1999 Chrysler Viper Team ORECA will compete as defending champions with three cars in the Le Mans 24 hour race on June 12/13, following class victory in 1998 by Luca Drudi, David Donohue and Justin Bell. The three Chrysler Viper GTS-Rs will line up alongside a record five others from Viper customer teams; two from Chamberlain Motorsport, two from Paul Belmondo Racing and one from CICA Team.

Reigning FIA GT Champion Olivier Beretta will share the number 51 car with Karl Wendlinger, continuing the partnership which is so far unbeaten in the 1999 FIA Championship. The successful duo will be joined by the experienced Frenchman Dominique Dupuy, a long-time friend of the ORECA team who contested Chrysler Viper's first Le Mans in 1996, with Justin Bell and Perry McCarthy.

Bell, who raced a Viper RT/10 in 1994 and who has driven for Chrysler at Le Mans since 1996, will share the number 52 car with American Tommy Archer and Belgian Marc Duez. The versatile Duez has won national rally championships, endurance world championships and ice races in the Andros Trophy as well as competing several times at Le Mans. Archer followed his winning team mates over the line in 1998 to record an historic 1-2.

American David Donohue and France's Jean-Philippe Belloc have finished each of the FIA GT Championship rounds second to team mates Beretta and Wendlinger. They will share the number 53 car at Le mans with Soheil Ayari, the former French Formula Three Champion who holds the record for most races won in a single season in that category. Ayari returns to the ORECA team at Le Mans for the second time, after making his debut in 1997. Donohue won the GT2 class at Le Mans last year, and Belloc has raced here in esteemed company for Courage, making his debut co-driving with the legendary Henri Pescarolo.

Hugh Chamberlain's team has raced many times before at Le Mans, but this is only the second time he has competed in the French classic endurance event with a Chrysler Viper. Chamberlain has recruited the super-quick Portuguese driver Ni Amorim for the GT Championship and for Le Mans, where he will share the number 56 car with Dutchman Hans Hugenholtz and Swiss Toni Seiler. Brazilian Tommy Erdos, German Christian Glsel and Britain's Christian Vann will drive car number 57.

Paul Belmondo will contest this year's Le Mans in his own team's Chrysler Viper GTS-R sharing with Marc Rostan and Tiago Monteiro in the number 55 car. Belmondo's second car will be driven by the 1996 Le Mans class winner Jean-Claude Lagniez, Emmanuel Clerico who crashed heavily at May's pre-qualifying, and experienced Frenchman Guy Martignol. The CICA Team car will be driven by the Portuguese brothers Manuel, Pedro and Tomaz Mello-Breyner who previously have raced at Le Mans in a Porsche 911 GT2.

"This will be the hardest Le Mans we have ever had to do", said Hugues de Chaunac, director of ORECA who also built the customer cars for Belmondo and Chamberlain. "We have to help the customer teams to be as competitive as possible, and try to win this race ourselves. It will be hard with so many Chrysler Vipers, but we are ready".

"At ORECA, we have the advantage of four years of development on our car. We know it completely, and we know its strengths around this circuit. We have superb drivers again this year. Le Mans is very special and our aim this year is to win again".

Qualifying sessions take place on Wednesday 9 June and Thursday 10 June from 1900-2100, and then from 2200-0000. The race will start at 1600 on Saturday 12 June and will finish at 1600 on Sunday 13 June.

Copy-right-free high-resolution pictures are available on the Chrysler website,

www.chrysler-viper.com. To download the username is: viper and the password is: gtsr.

The ORECA website www.oreca.fr will provide continuous information about the progress of their Chrysler Vipers, a behind the scenes look at the team and the latest interviews.