Le Mans Series

LMS – 6 Heures Du Castellet – LMP2/FLM Preview

© Dailysportscar – David Lord

The LMP2 category in the first race of the 2011 Le Mans Series season will bring nine cars to Southern France. At the Official Tests the LMP2 cars were lacking the pace to stay ahead of the FLM and GTE cars, it is yet to be seen if the Automobile Club de l’Ouest has taken any action to prevent this from happening in the race.

Looking at the field there is a wide variety of cars and engines. Six different manufacturers will be on the grid with three different engine manufacturers, Nissan, HPD and Judd.

RML, the reigning LMP2 champion, returns to the Le Mans Series, but this time with the HPD ARX-01d instead of the Lola Coupe. Having won the title in 2010 with an HPD engine the British team has opted to for a full HPD package. At the Official Test three weeks ago the new twin turbo V6 failed to bring the pace that the V8 had. But the #38 car in the hands of RML and its drivers Mike Newton, Tommy Erdos and Ben Collins should be capable of fighting for the top steps of the podium.

Joining them with a second HPD ARX-01d is Strakka Racing. Strakka lost the title to RML last year and will now have to go head-to-head with the same machinery. Nick Leventis, Danny Watts and Jonny Kane, who recently tested the HPD ARX-01e LMP1 at Sebring, will drive the #42 car and like the RML team, they should be in for the win.

At Sebring the Oreca 03 Nissan made a strong debut and at the Le Mans Series season opener there will be a total of three Oreca 03’s on the grid. Two of them powered by the Zytek-tuned Nissan engine and one by the BMW-Judd.
TDS Racing (#48) was the quickest Oreca 03 team at the test and the team only this week announced that Jody Firth joins the already confirmed driver pair of Pierre Thiriet and Mathias Beche. If the Oreca 03 Nissan is as quick as it was at Sebring and the Official Test this could well be the team fighting for the LMP2 win.
The second Nissan powered car is the Boutsen Energery Racing #46. This car did not take part in any official test session so far and it remains to be seen what Dominik Kraihamer and Nicolas de Crem, who graduated to LMP2 with the team they raced in Formula Le Mans in 2010, can do.
Race Performance is the third Oreca team, having dropped the Radical SR9, but the Swiss team will be entering a BMW Judd powered example for Michel Frey, Ralph Meichtry and surprisingly Thor-Christian Ebbesvik.

That same Ebbesvik was until recently set to race with Greaves Motorsport, the team entering the only Zytek in the LMP2 category. Ebbesvik shunted last year and most recently wrecked the car in testing at Imola. After that last incident Ebbesvik was pulled (or withdrew?) and signed the 2006 Le Mans Series GT2 champion, Tom Kimber-Smith to join Gary Chalandon and Karim Ojjeh.

Finally two Lola’s. RLR msport will bring the “old” MG Lola again, this year powered by the BMW Judd. Rob Garofall, Barry Gates and Simon Philipps will be racing in the #43 entry. The MG Lola EX265 is however several years old and certainly not the fastest car around the track. Reliability in the attrition category could be the magic word here.

Entering the newest car available from Lola is Pecom Racing, a rebadged AF Corse entry. Luis Perez Companc and Matias Russo will be behind the wheel of the Lola B11/40, the only car in the field with the finn. They will be joined by Pierre Kaffer, who brings loads of experience from both GT2 and LMP.
This car did well in the Official Tests, but also suffered a big crash while testing in Portugal.

The LMP grid will be completed by five Oreca FLM 09’s at Le Castellet.

Hope Racing will enter its car for Luca Moro, Michel Tinguely and Chinese driver Zhang Shan Qi. The Chinese driver is linked with a seat in the team’s LMP1 Hybrid project and is likely to get some extra running time in the FLM car.

Neil Garner Motorsport, quick in the Official Test, will enter its #92 for former JMB FLM driver John Hartshorn as well as Steve Keating and Phil Keen.
Fresh from its Sebring 12 Hours experience will be Genoa Racing, albeit with a different car. The American team will enter one FLM of Christian Zugel, Elton Julian and Jens Petersen.

Another new entrant in the FLM class this year is Pegasus Racing. The team initially planned to run its Courage-Oreca LC75 as well, but on the most recent entry list (March 21) that car is gone and Julien Schell can now focus on running the #95 for Mirco Schultis and Patrick Simon.

Last and in this case least JMB Racing. It has its #99 car entered for its home race, but only TBA in the car at the moment.