Gigawave withdraws 24 Hours entry.

Gigawave Motorsport has assumed the ignominious position of being the first team to scratch its entry to this year's Le Mans 24 Hours, having decided that running the legendary race will conflict with other priorities.

Race organiser, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, confirmed the first withdrawal from the 55 entrants invited to take part in the 2009 marathon by announcing that the Gigawave-run Aston Martin DBR9 would not be present at free compulsory practice day on 10 June. Instead, the British team has decided to concentrate on the homologation of the new Nissan GTR alongside its planned FIA GT race programme.

Gigawave was last month named as the team to give the NISMO-developed Skyline-based GT-R its debut during the 2009 campaign, even though the car has been developed with the new 2010 regulations in mind, and will only take part in four events, running as a non-championship entry, to allow NISMO to 'check the performance of cars to be sold to racing teams competing in the FIA GT1 class' ahead of an anticipated assault on next year's planned FIA GT World Championship.

Gigawave's exit has allowed the first team on the ACO's reserve list into the 24 Hours field, with the Seattle Advanced Engineering Ferrari 430 GT getting the call to join the GT2 class. The addition will provide Le Mans with another opportunity to catch attention on the far side of the Atlantic, as SAE is expected to include Grey's Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey in the Cardiac Surgery-sponsored line-up.