Le Mans Series

Creation ready for Nürburgring

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

The striking-looking Creation CA/07 has arrived at the famous Nürburgring circuit in the Eifel region of Germany ready for the third round of the Le Mans Series. Since its difficult race debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans two weeks ago, from which it retired after just over 8 hours of racing, the car has been re-built and the team has had the opportunity to spend a few days back at home with friends and families.
As Team Principal Ian Bickerton says, "Le Mans was a big disappointment for all of us, especially after such a hard five weeks of preparation leading up to it. But that’s now in the past and we’re looking forward to Nürburgring where, of course, we had a storming race in 2006."

Pole position by Frenchman Nicolas Minassian, now a rival with Team Peugeot Total, was followed up by a brilliant drive by all three drivers to take second place behind the Zytek of Shimoda and Hilton. It was the Creation team’s first points of the 2006 Le Mans Series season, and proved to the Bicester-based outfit that the German circuit was a happy hunting ground.

"After the three crashes at Le Mans," continues Bickerton, "people seemed to think that the car was unreliable. But crashes happen, and none of them was anything to do with unreliability. Prior to the 24 Hours, we’d done 3,000 kilometres of testing with no spanners on the car at all. I don’t doubt the car’s reliability at all.

"We know that the ‘Ring will be tough, especially in the face of the diesel competition, but we’ve got a strong driver line up and I think we’ve got a very realistic chance of getting the ‘petrol pole’. We are aiming for a top six finish."

The midnight blue Creation will be driven by Jamie Campbell-Walter, freshly returned from a flying visit to Road Atlanta for a test with the Creation customer team, Autocon, Felipe Ortiz and Shinji Nakano. All the drivers are looking forward to returning to the six-hour race format, and to showing the performance of the 5.5 litre, Judd V10 engined-car.

Credit: Creation Autosportif