| 17.9.2010 | Aston Martin LMP1(Le Mans)
Factory Aston Martin recently confirmed their LMP1 two-year programme. Unfortunately the new car is not a coupe, which appears to be too complicated for the small factory, but at least we can expect a true Aston Martin in the top class, which should now pursue a more level playing field between the diesels and petrol engined cars. The problem is that the diesel technology progressed much quicker over the past few years while there was not the same space for an improvement of the classic engines. |
| 24.7.2010 | Ford GT for Le Mans(Le Mans)
Matech Racing, the team, which after a long hiatus returned a famous Ford make back to the Le Mans 24 Hour race this year, was found disappointed by a fact that their current GT1 cars will not be eligible for Le Mans 2011. So they decided to built a new car for the new Le Mans GT Endurance category in order to be able to continue in ACO racing. The new Matech Ford GT will be based on the current car and the delivery will start in December later this year. Estimated price will be €500 000. |
| 14.6.2010 | Audi wins at Le Mans(Le Mans)
After a trouble free run all three factory Audi R15 TDI's finished on the podium. The Le Mans 2010 winners are Bernhard, Dumas and Rockenfeller. The race was a disaster for most of other favourites, namely the quartet of the Peugeots, which dominated all practice and qualifying sessions as well as the first part of the race. Early in the race there was no Audi within the top 3. This would change during the eighth hour when the Peugeot no.1 was delayed due to repairs while the Peugeot no.3 had already been retired due to suspension failure in the early hours. During the night the Oreca-Peugeot had to be pushed into the garage for repairs to return after about 5 laps, so the Audis moved to 2nd and 3rd. This situation continued until the beginning of the seventeenth hour which started by a fire from the exhaust of the leading Peugeot no.2. So Audis moved to 1st, 2nd and 4th while Peugeot no.1, which was running notably faster than the Audis, tried to catch the leaders. It even ran second for a moment but with slightly more than two hours to go it retired with the same problem as no.2 - Turbo. It was Audi 1-2-3 since then despite the private Oreca-Peugeot effort. It had some very good chances for a podium finish but just like as no.2, it was slowed down, fire went out of the exhaust and the race for the Oreca-908 was over. The Lola Aston Martin no.009 then moved to fourth but also failed to finish. Thus the 'best of the rest' was the factory Oreca followed by the LMP2 winner, Strakka Racing HPD and the remaining Lola Aston Martin no.007. The GT1 class in its last race was taken by an aging Saleen, for the first time and a great battle in the GT2 ended by a Porsche win ahead of a Ferrari after leading Corvettes had retired from the race. It was a great race with plenty of dramas and unexpected changes, hardly any other race format would bring. Moreover all three of the finishing Audis broke the 39-year old absolute distance record when averaging 24 hour at 225.228 km/h, 224.659 km/h and 223.524 km/h respectively. To be honest we have been waiting for this historical moment since the mid 1980s and year after year we hoped this might have happen one day. Especially during the late 1980s, when the Group C became very quick and there were no chicanes, both Jaguar in 1988 and Sauber-Mercedes one year later were rather close to the 1971 record (222.305 km/h) but then the Hunaudieres was split by the chicanes and once the even quicker 3.5-litre Group C cars in 1992-93 did not brake it and 'half-minute-per-lap' slower cars appeared next, we were afraid the 1971 achievement would retain unbeaten forever. By 2008 when the big Diesels were undoubtedly fastest ever machines circulating at La Sarthe, our hopes were destroyed by a bad weather and a huge crash of Oreca causing a long night caution. Then the rules were changed to reduce the power and our hopes were gone again - now two decades later. This year something unbelievable happened and both Peugeot and Audi were able to produce almost as quick cars as in 2008, despite being a subject of much more restrictions, the weather was great and despite four full-course cations this year the real reliability of the Audis, which were pushed hard by the Peugeots for most of the race, made our dream finally become a reality. Many thanks to Audi team for this great achievement. This is we believe the greatest Audi victory ever. |
| 13.6.2010 | Would the 1971 record be broken?(Le Mans)
There have never been such quick cars racing in Le Mans as during the last three seasons, so the absolute distance record set in 1971 came into the question: may the current cars brake it? It was very actual back in 2008 before restrictions of the current cars were applied but rain spoilt all chances for covering more than 5335 kilometres within 24 hours, which was set by Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep in a Porsche 917K. The average speed then was 222.305 kph. Back then, the track was much quicker, there were no chicanes splitting the Hunaudieres straight, there were no speed limits in the pits and of course there were no annoying safety car periods but pure racing only. When we saw yesterday a SC in place within the first 20 minutes of the race, it looked very unlikely the record could be broken but now after three quarters of the race and after four safety car interventions, we have still top three cars in higher average speed than the record from 1971, so the chance is still alive. The leading Audi was running at 223.717 kph after 18 hours, the second Audi at 223.600 kph and the best of the Peugeots running third at 222.573 kph is still above the almost 40 year old record. Let us pray there is no more safety cars and also the weather would stay as good as until now because this is probably the last chance of braking the aging record since the next year the new rules make the prototypes very slow compared to the current cars and thus running near 400 laps per 24 hour would become quite impossible. |
| 12.6.2010 | First 8 hours in Le Mans(Le Mans)
As expected, Peugeot took the first four positions after the start of the Le Mans 24 Hour race and began to move away from the three factory Audis. It was very disappointing when organisers called in a safety car period very early in the race and split Audis and Peugeots by two different safety cars, actually breaking the battle Audis and Peugeots after less then 20 minutes in the race. When the safety cars were called off, Peugeots behind one safety car were more than a minute ahead of the Audis released by another safety car. There was no direct battle between the two main manufacturers since then. One Peugeot was retired soon after suspension mounting had broken. It was then Peugeot 1-2-3 and Audi 4-5-6, when Kristensen in Audi no.7 spun off course to avoid slowly moving BMW. After having been recovered and while being checked in the pits, it was overtaken by the two factory Lola-based Aston Martins. When the leading Peugeot suffered electrical problems and had to be taken into the garage for repairs, Audi finally moved to a podium position for the first time in the race. There was now only one factory Peugeot left at the top, running ahead of the private Oreca-entered car and the Audis. The repaired Peugeot returned behind the Lola Aston Martin. Before the midnight, the delayed Audi and Peugeot easily overtook petrol fuelled Aston Martins so the positions at the midnight are: Peugeot, Oreca-Peugeot, Audi, Audi, Audi, Peugeot and two Aston Martins. |
| 11.6.2010 | Second practice day in Le Mans(Le Mans)
Two 2-hour qualifying sessions were on the programme yesterday. The first one started on a wet track, so it took some time before the time from the first night session were getting improved. But none from the top runners made an improvement, so at the top it was the same as Wednesday final provisional grid: 3 factory Peugeots, Oreca Peugeot, 3 factory Audis, 2 factory Lola-based Aston Martins, private Lola Aston Martin, factory Oreca and two private Kolles Audi R10s. The second part started promising, under ideal conditions but at the time the top teams, especially Audi were preparing for attack, rain started to fall on some part of the track and until the last quarter of the session, when it dried, nothing special happened. The end of the session was interesting, all Audis improved by 1 or 2 seconds, Peugeots set even quicker time but with no direct time improvement, so the final sort on the grid remained unchanged at the top. Behind the Kolles Audis, there was a top of LMP2 class, where the two HPDs improved and swapped positions a few times, Lola-HPD moved to the third in the class. Also some slower LMP1 cars improved and mixed with these fast LMP2 cars. In the GT1 class Tomas Enge maintained the class pole, in fact his sixth GT1 pole out of his seven GT1 races here at Le Mans. It would be his final one because, as ACO announced yesterday, this class will cease to exist in Le Mans racing series. Other GT1 cars, especially Ford GTs were much closer to Enge's Aston Martin yesterday. in the GT2 class, we had four cars under 4 minutes: Ferrari, two factory Corvettes and another Ferrari. There is also one withdrawal: One of AF Corse Ferraris crashed on Wednesday and since the chassis was damaged above a repair, it is withdrawn. It is bad because we could have had 56 starters, the largest number since 1955, when 60 cars were permitted to race. |
| 11.6.2010 | Manufacturers with a history returns to Le Mans(Le Mans)
Having looked into our most extensive sport car racing database we can confirm that most of the manufacturers with a real sports car history are back in Le Mans this year. Hardly any season at Le Mans we had so many important sports car manufacturers present in Le Mans 24 Hour race. Let us have a look at the top 10 manufacturers ordered by the number of total entries in any of the sports car events in our database: 1) Porsche 51000+, 2) Chevrolet 15000+, 3) Ferrari 14750+, 4) BMW 12900+ (all those present in 2010). Three makes not currently active follows: MG 12000+ (mainly MG TC, MG TD and MGA in the 1950s, still present in Le Mans in the early 2000s), Lotus 11000+ (still present in the 1990s, may return to Le Mans soon) and Alfa Romeo 10790+ (not active in sports car racing since late 1970s, created a Group C prototype in 1989 but never raced it). The final three makes from the TOP 10 follows, two of them are new in 2010: 8) Jaguar 8350+, 9) Ford 8180 (many of those were Escort or Capri touring cars) and finally 10) Lola with 6905 registered participations in our database. We do not think there were many Le Mans editions like this one, with so many traditional and notable manufacturers present. |
| 9.6.2010 | First practice day in Le Mans(Le Mans)
During the first practice and then qualifying sessions it became apparent that Peugeots are dominant over Audis, just like in Spa earlier this year. The final qualifying practice still continues and Peugeots are on the first four positions, with the private Oreca car at the top. The best Lola Aston Martin is sixth ahead of two factory Audis. We have seen already three red flags during today's sessions - all of them caused by much slower GT cars. This means that slowing down prototypes will not necessary mean less or lesser accidents. The new prototype rules have not been announced yet but they are supposed to be revealed tomorrow. With about an hour to go, Audis have still some chance to close the Peugeot. There was a forecast of rain but so far all practice sessions enjoyed dry conditions. |
| 23.4.2010 | Peugeot enters Intercontinental Le Mans Cup(LMS)
A good news comes from France: Peugeot announced this week that the factory team will participate in the new ILMC series, which will consist of three races at the end of the year, one held in Europe (1000 km Silverstone), one in America (Petit Le Mans) and final in China (yet to be announced). With much more races expected next season, this Cup has a good potential to become a future World Championship for Sports Cars. |
| 21.3.2010 | Peugeot wins Sebring(ALMS)
After the decision that the Audi will not be permitted to race at Sebring because their updated 2009 car was still not fully compliant with the 2010 regulations, the main opposition to the factory Peugeot team came from the factory Aston Martin Racing, this year still featuring updated Lola Coupe. The race ended up with an easy win of the Peugeot couple while the last podium position belonged, as expected, to the Lola Aston Martin. The only other contender for any result was the new Drayson Lola Coupe. Early in the race, when driven by Pirro, it was capable of running second overall among the Peugeots but unfortunately it faded soon after. Then, for most of the race then it was keeping the sixth position behind the Porsche RS Spyder and HDP ARX-01c, the only LMP2 cars in contention (the third one, the Dyson Lola, stayed in the garage for about 80 minutes for repairs and there was no other car in the class). In the final stages of the race the Drayson team car suffered further problems only to finish deeply among the GT class field. The new LMPC Orecas FLM09 made their ALMS debut here but it was far from success. The cars were exceptionally equal in practice and qualifying - nothing unexpected for a spec. class - but in the race they proved to be unreliable and often also bad driven. Most of the yellow periods were caused just by spinning Orecas and all of them but one either retired or finished at the end of the field. ALMS is really struggling. Apart from the GT2 class, which is very strong, there is almost nothing else to watch. All podium finishers overall were European teams just testing for their Le Mans effort with no intention to continue in ALMS regularly and the only other LMP1 car featuring in the race was also European-based. It was the Drayson Racing Lola Coupe, but all that is really nowhere near what it has been a couple of years ago. Adding spec. classes did not help much but to increase overall numbers to catch up with Grand-Am. Hopefully the situation will improve next year when the new rules will take the place and the cars would not become obsolete after a season or two. |
| 4.3.2010 | FIA GT2 Championship cancelled(FIA GT)
Fruits of too ambitious plans of SRO are now getting concrete shapes. The first victim is the GT2 class and its European Championship, which is 'postponed' as per official press release. This also means that we lost the last signs of endurance spirit from SRO-controlled series and that the FIA GT also lost its biggest race, the Spa 24 Hours, as it was planned only for the GT2 Championship. So FIA now has a championship for GT1 cars, which were generally unwanted by most of the protagonists of the GT racing (Ferrari, Chevrolet, Porsche, Aston Martin), who wished to have a single category similar to the current GT2 class. Now we have an artificial GT1 class instead, consisting mainly of cars that were destined to die by the end of 2009, and the rest mainly from second level builders plus only serious factory effort by Nissan, which should normally blow away from the rest had there be no equivalency, etc. ballast. |
| 3.2.2010 | LMS entry list released(LMS)
Today the Le Mans Series entry list was released. It contains 44 cars, most of which are in LMP2 (16) and GT2 (15) classes. Only two Saleens are listed in GT1. In GT2 there is a factory BMW Schnitzer entry among cars usual in previous seasons. In LMP1 the Pescarolo team now disappeared completely while rather surprisingly factory Audi R15 is listed with two cars. All other entries were more or less expected with a single exception, the Lola B10/60 Coupé of Noël Del Bello Racing, which is a welcome addition. Altogether there are four Audis against four Lolas and lone Peugeot, Oreca and Zytek. One of the Lolas is last year's Aston Martin incarnation. At the same time with the full season entry factory team Audi confirmed they plan only three races at the moment: Paul Ricard, Spa and Silverstone. The LMP2 class sees a return of MG Lola but with AER engine, debut of HDP (ex-Acura) and a good selection of various other makes seen in the past: Lola, Zytek, Radical, Zytek, Courage, Pescarolo and Lucchini. |
| 2.2.2010 | Aston Martin Racing programme(Le Mans)
Aston Martin Racing team announced their plans recently. The focus will be the Le Mans 24 Hour race where the team did surprisingly well the last year when the best car finished fourth. But there will be more races. Sebring 12 Hours and the second ALMS race are on their schedule. Then the factory team take one car to Paul Ricard for the first Le Mans Series race. No more races are planned before the Le Mans race but there are some likely races in the second half of the season, to be announced later. Generally we can follow a tendency of big factory team to contest only selected rounds of various series rather than competing for titles in individual championships. While last year factory Acura concentrated and won ALMS, and Aston Martin did the same in the Le Mans Series, this year the title would most likely go to privateers, but factories will add some attention here and there. So it seems that first LMS race will see Aston Martin racing against privateers, while in the second LMS race at Spa a battle between factory Audi and Peugeot is possible. Hopefully the planned International Le Mans Challenge might bring the factories together to fight for one world crown. |
| 27.1.2010 | FIA GT1 entry list(FIA GT)
FIA today officially released the entry list for the first World GT1 Championship. The description of it is pretty simple. Six makes, each represented by four cars provided from two different teams. Nothing special or surprising, for those who do not know the manufacturers involved, here they are: Aston Martin (DBRS9), Corvette (Z06), Ford (GT), Lamborghini (Murcielago R-SV), Maserati (MC12) and Nissan (GT-R). The monotone pattern of the entry list (4 x 6 = 24) is expected throughout the season, unless some teams fail to show. There is no word whether some one-off local entries will be permitted but it is more likely that they will not. The same idea of quite strict entry numbers was originally used also in the FIA GT3 series, fortunately further development created more interesting irregular entry patterns, which were always classic in sports car racing. |
| 23.1.2010 | Radical will continue in LMS(LMS)
After it had been announced that factory team Bruichladdich would move from Radical to Zytek this season, it looked as if Radical days in Le Mans Series were counted but with a recent announcement of Pierre Bruneau that his team will continue with the Radical, the prospect for the make looks better. Bruneau had been running his own team for many year - originally with Debora, later with Pilbeam - joined its forces with Team Bruichladdich last season to campaign the last Radical in the series, seems now to operate indecently as a factory supported Radical team. An application was also sent to the ACO for the Le Mans race. |
| 14.1.2010 | Norma to join LMP2 grids(LMS)
It was recently announced that Norma will join the LMP2 ranks this season. One car will be present in European-based Le Mans Series. It will be run by Pegasus Racing, the team that fielded older Courage last season and should return with both cars now. Manufacturer Norma is mainly known from low level Group CN championships but it made a couple of excursions into the ACO race realm. The first attempt was an one-off Le Mans 1990 entry of type M6, which failed to qualify. Then it was a longer period of the M14, later called M2000, in the WSC/SRP form seen on both side of Atlantic. Three of those cars were built, entered five times in Le Mans between 1995 and 2003 but made it to the grid only in its final attempt, when it failed to finish, retiring after completing only 82 laps. The new Norma will be dubbed as M200. |
| 4.1.2010 | Mansell and Beechdean sign LMS partnership(LMS)
Leading UK GT race team Beechdean Motorsport has entered into a long term partnership with Nigel Mansell to form Beechdean Mansell Motorsport, with the long term aim of acheiving glory at the Le Mans 24 Hours. The Buckinghamshire based team will run a factory supported Ginetta-Zytek Z09R Le Mans Prototype in the 2010 Le Mans Series for Nigel’s sons Leo and Greg, with the 1992 Formula One World Champion joining them behind the wheel at several events including the Silverstone 1000km in September and, subject to receiving an entry, at the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours in June. The LMP1 car will be run with full factory support from Derbyshire based Zytek Engineering. |
| 27.12.2009 | Quifel-ASM team plans(LMS)
In 2010 the team Quifel-ASM will defend its Le Mans Series title with their drivers Olivier Pla and Miguel Amaral. The plan is also to contest in the Le Mans 24 hours race. They will continue with Ginetta-Zytek, one of customer cars that did not got a waiver by ACO for 2010 regarding rear bodywork design. The reason was that the manufacturer did not ask for it as they were not completely satisfied with current aerodynamic solution that was suffering on some tracks so it will be redesigned fully to the 2010 rules for the next season. |
| 23.12.2009 | Drayson Racing for LMIC(International)
Drayson Racing, which already competed in all three ACO based series last season, will race, as might have been expected, with their Lola Coupe in the new Le Mans Intercontinental Cup in 2010 and hope this will become a full World Championship for LMP1 prototypes in the future. |
| 23.12.2009 | Lola News(LMS)
Lola is going to lunch its 2010 specification chassis in the middle of the next month. In the meanwhile, the second Rebellion Racing chassis is being built. Team Rebellion, formerly Speedy Racing Team Sebah, announced earlier this month that they would field a two car LMP1 entry in the next year's Le Mans Series. Now it also seems that another Lola Coupe team will continue in racing LMS: Racing Box should return in 2010 and would be using Michelins. |