24 Hours of Le Mans
OAK Racing confirms plans…and Judd engines
© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat
After a 2009 season which brought six podiums in eight races, OAK Racing Team Mazda France will continue to concentrate on the LMP2 category in 2010. The team will run two Pescarolo chassis in the five-round Le Mans Series and hopes to participate with its two prototypes at the Le Mans 24 Hours.
After winning the Asian Le Mans Series in Japan, the #24 Pescarolo has already earned a guaranteed invite to the race, while an application for the second LMP2 car has been lodged with the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO).
The team will continue to develop its partnership with tyre manufacturer Dunlop, while both Pescarolos will this year be powered by Judd engines. At the same time, the team’s partnership with Mazda France Automobiles, established in 2009, continues.
Jacques Nicolet, President of OAK Racing:
“We are very satisfied with our set up and organisation this season and we can look forward to the new campaign with optimism. We shall be equipped with Judd engines, who have a fine reputation and with whom we enjoyed performance and reliability throughout 2008 in both LMP1 and LMP2. At the same time we are proud to maintain our partnership with Mazda France Automobiles and keep the Team Mazda France name. For OAK Racing and Team Mazda France, this is a fantastic, continuing adventure…”
Thierry Guillemot, President of Mazda France:
“As planned, Mazda France has renewed its partnership with OAK Racing for 2010 on the back of a very successful year in 2009. Endurance racing is considered to be an efficient communication tool for Mazda as it promotes the fields of reliability and sporting competition. It is logical to continue the presence of Mazda in endurance racing in view of its historical commitment to the discipline and the values it represents. Beyond pure sporting results, Mazda France considers the OAK Racing team to be extremely professional with a very good balance between competition and friendliness, which allows customers and network members to share the passion of the team in a superb atmosphere at circuits during major race meetings.”
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So if Mazda is allowing them to switch to (more reliable) judd engines are they going to have Judd homologate them as mazda engines?
More importantly will the Dyson team be able to switch as well. Please I hope so. They will finally be able to at least have a reliable car to fight with highcroft.
For some reason I sense a P1 program brewing up with the oak racing team. They own the pescarolo chassis business, they’re switching to 3.4L V8 engines, the same engine that will be used in P1 next year…It would be easy for Mazda to simply pay them a fee to have their name tagged on all that fine hardware.
Why doesn’t Mazda just work harder and fix the reliability issues?
The Problems with the Mazda are not AER’s but the ACO. They chose a fuel to suit Green interests that is not completely compatible with small turbos. BP produced a test fuel for Team Dyson at the last two rounds of the ALMS. The test car outlasted and ran faster than the authorized car with the mandated fuel. If the ACO would bend on the fuel used or the composition of the current fuel, then the Mazda/AER packages would be just as reliable as the Judds.
FWIW, the Judd DB that is so dominant right now, blew up more often than it finished during it’s first year of competition.
Now I recall Mazda MXR-01 that had Judd power under Mazda tag.
Anyway it would be a good choice for OAK but a little bit pity to miss Inline4 Turbo from P2 on Engine variety viewpoint.
How is KSM team’s choise of engine for ’10season.
i thought we were gonna talk about the audis for this year darnt