24 Hours of Le Mans
Endurance News Briefs – December 19
Even though the announcements of Peugeot and Team Oreca Matmut regarding 2010 and 2011 and the confirmation of a rather interesting lineup for Extreme Speed Motorsports were the most important and positive news facts for the week there was more. Here are some news briefs of other things that happened (or are bound to happen).
Farnbacher Loles Racing’s Gregory Loles was arrested on Tuesday and was charged with one count each of wire and mail fraud. Loles apparently took money from investors and promised them stable returns. Instead of investing the money Loles is now thought to have used it for other things, including his racing team.
Gil de Ferran’s plans for 2010 are still unclear. A local newspaper reported the team had closed its doors after Simon Pagenaud had been confirmed at Patron Highcroft Racing and the sponsorship money for a planned Indy Racing League program did not come. De Ferran himself denied closing up and has meanwhile said he is still working on something.
Meanwhile Tim Pappas’ Black Swan Racing is set to make its comeback in the American Le Mans Series. After entering a Ford GT in 2008 the team is looking at various options to race in the ALMS. One option that is very interesting for Black Swan Racing is the Challenge Class, but a return to the GT class is also not ruled out. Time will tell where the team will be come Sebring.
Over in Europe, more specifically Bourges in France there was positive news for the Aston Martin fans. According to French magazine AUTOhebdo the French Signature-Plus squad will run a Lola Aston Martin LMP1 in the 2010 Le Mans Series and the Le Mans 24 Hours. This season the team joined the Le Mans Series with a Courage-Oreca LC70 for drivers Pierre Ragues and Franck Mailleux. Both drivers are expected to return to the cockpit in 2010.
Staying with the French and ending this sportscar update we should also mention that Nicolas Lapierre will be one of the drivers for the newly confirmed Team Oreca Matmut Peugeot 908 HDi FAP.
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Signature Plus with the Lola Aston is exciting news :0))
They were a contender for the privateet peugeot. So they had to take the next best thing to e somewhat competitive.
Well it must have been embarrasing last year when they were slower then the P2 cars. I always liked that Falken Ford GT, hope they go with something a little more competitive like a Porsche, except those are VERY expencive.
Just heard on Radio Le Mans that Audi wants to race their R8 GT3-car in the challenge-class in AMLS in 2011. Good to hear, it should be a GT3-class.
But what about the Speed World GT Challenge and the Grand Am GT’s. Can you drive GT3-cars in those championships?
And what is really the point with both GT2 and GT3 now that the GT3-cars are almost as fast, and has a much more interesting field of cars?
Were these signature plus drivers not the onces that where by far the biggest *d**ts of the field? They should not get a new car (with more limited visibility so even more chance of accidents) but a licence for club racing instead. Put some good F3 drivers from their team in there.
I hope Gil Deferran doesn’t go to IRL to be a midpack team. That’s probably why Pagenaud didn’t want to go with him.
In the ALMS deferran would be a contender, and sponsors would be trying to break down his door. Not so in Indycar.
With Audi not running in the ALMS Highcroft and Deferran are not quite having as much fun in P1. And they don’t know how competitive it would be at LeMans since the car was designed for the ALMS tracks. So they can’t have fun in P1 and they can’t go to LeMans.
Highcroft is taking the P2 car to LeMans. We can only hope Acura is working on a new P1 rig for 2011. A LeMans going car.
Isn’t the excitement of the economy returning to normal just before a MAJOR rule change like waiting for Christmas? I just cant wait to see what 2011 is going to be like and who is going to be there with what type of technologies, but I can only immagine a complete rejuvenation or even re-invention of the series! Its going to be a looong wait, but hopefully there will be enough left in the tank to provide an adequately interesting 2010 season while we wait for the next generation!
Good luck to all Teams in all classes for 2010.As i’ve said before,THIS is a mans sport,not poncy like F1.