| 29.3.2009 | FIA GT3 entry list released(FIA GT)
A full season entry of the European GT3 Championship looks strong with 42 listed. There is still 16 entries a subject to the confirmation of the FIA as well as same number of cars still awaiting FIA homologation but that is not expected to be an issue. There is 12 different makes of cars in the list, all entered teams feature a 2-car entry. While there are as many as six Porsches and six Ferraris, five manufacturers are entered only by a single team (Ascari, Dodge, Jaguar, Morgan and perhaps surprisingly Lamborghini). Ford Mustang disappeared from the list while Audi R8 LMS and BMW Alpine B6 represent new cars in the championship. |
| 3.3.2009 | Dome not in LMS?(LMS)
Recently announced Dome project, which was planned for the Le Mans Series by ECOSpeed is now not likely to happen since the team did not pay in time and Dome cancelled the order. |
| 27.2.2009 | Asian Le Mans Series confirmed(International)
Yesterday ACO confirmed two races for the new Asian Le Mans Series. First race will be in Okayama, instead of originally planned Fuji, followed by Shanghai race in China. Winners of all four classes will get automatic entry for the Le Mans 24 Hours 2010. ACO plan to provide preferential travel condition for 10 European and 10 American teams, as well as 4 from Japan-China. The only really bad thing about the entire project is that both races will be split into two separate 3-hour heats... |
| 27.2.2009 | Closed LMPs allowed in Czech Championship(National)
It was announced that closed LMP1 and LMP2 sports prototypes will be allowed to race in the Czech Endurance Championship along with current wide range of cars (Groups A, N, SP, Super 2000, Diesel 2000, ST, FIA GT, E1, DTM, H, Cup cars). No official statement whether any team would campaign such car regularly is known to us but it is possible that at least team Charouz could enter the new Aston Martin occasionally. Another team currently running DTM cars was apparently rumored last year to get a Lola but there is no confirmation of that either. Definitely it is an option for existing LMP teams running closed prototypes to test in race conditions outside the very few ACO races. But, realistically we cannot see any other make but Lola, or its derivate Aston Martin, coming in since most of the manufacturers seem to produce open top cars, unfortunately, although originally all expected them to disappear by end of this season. |
| 27.2.2009 | LMP entries: Notes of interest(Le Mans)
A few comments about the 55 entries: Audi has 5 cars against Peugeot's 4 cars and Aston Martin's 3 cars. A surprise is a Peugeot entered by Pescarolo. It would be interesting to see the difference between a Peugeot and a Pescarolo run by the same team (supposing it will not be a full factory effort under a Pescarolo banner). Audi factory used only 2 of their 3 automatic entries but fortunately entered 3 cars, just took the risk of not being selected, which was unlikely anyway. The reason was to have just one 'North America' entry. One of Aston Martins is entered by AMR Eastern Europe, which is of course just different name for the Charouz effort, which was run by AMR last year anyway. Not sure if Aston Martins will be true Astons, or just Lolas with Aston Martin engine. While in LMS they are entered as Aston Martins, for the Le Mans itself they are entered as Lolas, which would effectively mean no Aston Martin return to the top class as a manufacturer. The LMP2 class is well supported too, topped by three Porsche Spyders, only bad surprise might be absence of Barazi Epsilon in the 55. On the other hand there are four coupes among the selected cars compared to just one last year. |
| 27.2.2009 | ACO released accepted entries(Le Mans)
Yesterday ACO published long awaited list of accepted entrant for this year's race. The list contains 55 cars with 10 reserves, which is slightly more than in the past years, presumambly because of expected higher rate of withdrawals than usually. Bad news about the entry list is that there is no Larbre Saleen among the 55, and there is no Dome at all, including the reserves, despite both having been announced recently as a 'great' news. Larbre supposed to be in Le Mans for the 17 consecutive year but it was not enough for the ACO. We feel it would be better for the race to reduce number of GT2 cars instead. |
| 23.2.2009 | Team Luc Alphand back to LMS(LMS)
Although the team was absent on the full season entry list and announced FIA GT campaign, now they confirmed that they will enter a single GT1 Corvette for a full season campaign. After announcement of Larbre it seems that the GT1 class in its final Le Mans Series season will not be that weak as originally expected. |
| 23.2.2009 | Dome returns to LMS(LMS)
After one year off a Dome make should appear again in the Le Mans Series this year. A new team called ECOSpeed heading out of Switzerland announced they will enter a Dome S102 in the LMS, Asian Le Mans Series and some of the ALMS races. And of course an application was also sent to ACO for the 24 Hour race. With other late announcements of LMS participation it would be very interesting to see how many cars would in the end appear on the LMS grids this year. Supposing there are not too many last minute withdrawals due to the world economic climate, some races could have best entry in several decades. |
| 23.2.2009 | Essex Porsche with full factory support(Le Mans)
The surprising Le Mans invitation entry taken by a new incarnation of the Essex Team is now confirmed to have a full Porsche factory support. As a result of that one of the drivers will be Emanuel Collard. |
| 23.2.2009 | A third Porsche Spyder in Le Mans(Le Mans)
Thanks to pitstop.tv it became apparent today that a third Porsche Spyder was entered for Le Mans 24 Hours. It should be entered and run by Vitaphone Racing. Since it is a change of class, they could not use automatic entry for their FIA GT1 win. |
| 20.2.2009 | Jarek Janiš returns to factory Spyker(LMS)
Czech driver Jaroslav Janiš will return to the Le Mans Series to the same team he participated for back in 2007 when a heavy accident and injuries in Spa 1000 kilometre race caused a break in his racing career. After several appearances late in 2008 in lower level races he is now confirmed as a factory driver for Spyker for a full season campaign. During recent Spyker tests Janiš expressed his feelings about the new car and said it is much better than it used to be two years ago. |
| 20.2.2009 | Larbre Competition back to LMS(LMS)
Great news arrived today from Larbre Competition through their press information channels. Despite the team is not listed on the full Le Mans Series entry list, they now confirmed that thy plan a return to the Le Mans Series where they were very successful since the series inception. They will field one of their Saleens S7-R. This means that the Saleen make might be very strong in the LM GT1 class this year. Not only there are two other Saleens among four full season entries but Larbre is by far the most successful team among the potential GT1 entrants. An entry was also applied to ACO for the Le Mans 24 Hours race where the team expects to participate for a 17th consecutive year. |
| 14.2.2009 | New two-car team with Saleens(FIA GT)
Czech team KplusK Motorsports will campaign two Saleens S7-R in GT1 class of the FIA GT Championship. The team has already a successfully appeared in the championship last year. It was in Brno when they managed to finish second in class with their Porsche 997 GT3 RS. In 2009 the lead car will be shared by Karl Wendlinger and Ryan Sharp, who have claimed six wins together over the past two seasons. Czech driver Adam Lacko has been announced as one of the drivers for the second car. |
| 9.2.2009 | Three Peugeots in Spa(LMS)
Recent Peugeot announcement confirmed already expected participation of the factory team in Sebring 12 Hours (with two cars) and of course in the highlight of the season, the Le Mans 24 Hours race. The only other confirmed race is Spa 1000 Kilometres where the factory team should field no less than three cars, in preparation for the Le Mans attack. The participation in the second half of the season remains undecided and will probably depend on the Le Mans result and, perhaps, on current economic situation. Nominated drivers are: Sébastien Bourdais, David Brabham, Marc Gené, Christian Klien, Pedro Lamy, Nicolas Minassian, Franck Montagny, Stéphane Sarazzin and Alexander Wurz. |
| 27.1.2009 | Aston Martin LMP1 to Le Mans and LMS(Le Mans)
Factory Aston Martin will enter two LMP1 cars in Le Mans 24 Hours. They will also race in the Le Mans Series. The cars will be with traditional Gulf colours and among the nominated drivers are Jan Charouz, Tomáš Enge and Stefan Mücke, former drivers of Charouz Racing. Other trio will consist of Darren Turner, Harold Primat and yet to be named driver. The new cars are (of course) coupes and are developed with help of Lola and experience based on last year's Charouz Racing private effort. |
| 27.1.2009 | Le Mans Series entry list released(LMS)
Today LMS published awaited entry list for the full season. A bit surprisingly a single factory team on the full season entry list is not Peugeot but quite new prototype of Aston Martin, which was announced earlier today. Peugeot apparently opted to rely on race by race entry. There is altogether 12 LMP1 prototypes, strong field of 16 LMP2 (5 Lolas, single Porsche RS Spyder), decent entry of 4 cars in GT1 in its final season. The rest of total 49 cars is made by well varied GT2 class with 5 makes presented. Of other expected cars apart from Peugeot, also Epsilon Euskadi is missing, as well as Lavaggi but it was not entered even last year despite appearing in races almost on regular basis. A surprise is entry of two Lucchinis, which are obviously not dead for ACO racing. The most numberous make is Ferrari with 10 cars in two classes, followed by Lola (6), Ginetta/Zytek & Aston Martin (5), Porsche, Pescarolo and Courage-Oreca (4). |
| 25.1.2009 | Creation to race in ALMS(ALMS)
As the team already suggested in the past that ALMS might be a good option for them, now they confirmed a full ALMS campaign in 2009 hoping for some overall victories and pole positions. It is a good news for ALMS, which is now stuggling to put together half dozen of entries in their principal classes. |
| 25.1.2009 | Rollcentre applies for Le Mans(Le Mans)
Apart from many other activities, mainly related to Mosler MT900 GT3, the team also announced that they had sent an application for Le Mans 24 Hours. Since the team was pretty successful in the middle of the decade, it is very likely ACO will accept them, so we hope to see the team at least for one-off outing with a prototype. Le Mans Series is not completely lost, but we do not think it is likely as the team principal suggested that racing in LMS against diesel factory cars is a waste of money... |
| 25.1.2009 | Porsche Spyders heading to Le Mans(LMS)
After the Team Essex has been listed among entrants taking their invitation to Le Mans this year, it became promising that we would have Porsche Spyder back in the most important Endurance race again. Now it has become clear that Team Essex entry will be taken by Poulsen Motorsport and that ex-Merkensteijn car will be entered by Team Goh, who has just purchased it. Some starts of both team in Le Mans Series are also possible, for now it was Team Goh who confirmed their plan to enter Spa 1000 Kilometres race. The only other European Porsche Spyder is supposed to race full LMS campaign but will not enter the 24 Hour race as they did not take their invitation. |
| 24.1.2009 | Saulnier Racing becomes OAK Racing(LMS)
Saulnier Racing team, which fielded Courage LMP2 in 2007 and pair of Pescarolos in both prototype classes last year, will continue this year with two LMP2 Pescarolos under a new banner: OAK Racing. A subheading Team Mazda France in the new team's logo reflects a switch to new Mazda engine, which are becoming increasingly popular. Team principal Jacques Nicolet also emphasises their new partnership with Dunlop tyre manufacturer, which is obviously trying to make a real comeback to sports car racing. With 34 wins in Le Mans Dunlop has really something to base on. The team also applied for Le Mans entry with both cars. |