I wonder if you can overdose on blog updates ?
This year’s official poster – click the image below to download the full size version.
The second version of the poster…..(click on it as above)
Finally, a special UK version !
Friday, 3 June 2011
Race Preview - GTE AM Class
50 Larbre Compétition Corvette C6 ZR1 - Bornhauser-Canal-Gardel
57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F430 - Krohn-Jönsson-Rugolo
60 Gulf AMR Middle East Aston Martin Vantage GT2 - Giroix-Wainwright-Goethe
61 AF Corse Ferrari F430 - Perazzini-Cioci-Breslin
62 CRS Racing Ferrari F430 - Ehret-Wills-Lynn
63 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3-RSR - Felbermayr Jr-Felbermayr Sr-Ried
68 Robertson Racing Doran-Ford GT - D.Robertson-A.Robertson-Murry
70 Larbre Compétition Porsche 911 GT3-RSR - Belloc-Bourret-Gibon
81 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-RSR - Neiman-Law-Pumpelly
83 JMB Racing Ferrari F430 - Rodrigues-Menahem-Marroc
The new GTE AM class, which requires cars to be at least a year old and have a crew with no more than a single pro driver, numbers a convincing and high quality ten car entry for its debut year.
Happily, there’s variety aplenty here too with five marques represented and with top quality teams bringing their usual standards of car preparation to the task in hand.
Larbre Competition has a pair of entries courtesy of their GT1 race and Championship wins last season.
Plans to run a pair of Corvettes didn’t quite gel, but their full season ILMC entry is the single Vette in the pack here.
The #50 car is an ex 2010 factory car but thus far the Gabriele Gardel, Patrick Bornhauser, Julian Canal combo has failed to shine. The Corvette, though, is on ground at Le Mans that could have been designed explicitly for it, and Larbre will be looking to capitalise on that.
Larbre’s second car is a customer Porsche, co-run here with the support of (and with a car from) IMSA Performance. Jean Christophe Belloc reprises his seemingly constant role of Pro driver and anchor man alongside Financier Christophe Bourret and Paris Hotelier Pascal Gibon. This is a classic Pro-Am effort and won’t be winning any speed records – but could they finish well? Far, far stranger things have happened.
Krohn Racing is another full season ILMC entry, but, whilst this looks a very familiar car to recent ALMS and Le Mans attendees, there are important differences from the outfit we’ve seen score podium finishes in the major races in previous years.
Firstly, the team is now a stand-alone outfit, rather than a customer effort from Risi Competizione, as Tracy Krohn embarks on a global endurance racing journey.
The Ferrari 430 which the team fields is an ex Extreme Speed ALMS car and has served the team well so far. With Nic Jonsson and Michele Rugolo accompanying the team owner, this squad is going to be in the mix for a podium finish if they can stay out of trouble.
Gulf AMR Middle East have had a testing start to the 2011 season, with major mechanical woes for the #60 Aston Vantage restricting them to a mere handful of laps at Sebring; and then a blown engine in warm-up at Spa giving Dave Price and co a huge mountain to climb before the start of the 1000kms.
That they scaled it and, albeit delayed, finished the race, is a huge testimony to the quality of the team assembled for this effort. Fabien Giroix provides the professionally cool head on the shoulders of the driving squad, but Mike Wainwright and Roald Goethe aren’t easily stirred. The odds are against this effort finishing, but a filthy Gulf-coloured Vantage would be a massively popular sight come Sunday afternoon.
AF Corse is a four-car effort at Le Mans this year (if you include the Pecom Racing Lola).
Their GTE AM #61 430 looks set to be in amongst the thick of things in the class battle for overall honours; AF Corse’s preparation will be top notch and they know the 430 better than anyone.
On the driver front, Marco Cioci has proven his speed and Sean Paul Breslin has got the hunger; the ex VLN Champ living the Le Mans dream this year. A win for this effort would be far from a shock.
CRS Racing is back at Le Mans, but without any of their regular roster of pros. Instead, the #62 car sees Pierre Ehret’s ex ALMS 430 contesting the full ILMC together with a pair of experienced historic racers; both rookies at the 24 hrs, but with both having already raced on the full circuit, albeit in machines from a bygone era.
Shaun Lynn is buzzing ahead of the race week, a lifelong ambition about to be realised. Roger Wills, too, is thoroughly looking forward to the race; he comes to Le Mans on the back of a class win last year at the Spa 24 Hours with Jota AMR. This trio won’t be the fastest, but they don’t have to be – consistency could just be the key.
And it could be the key, too, to progress for the #63 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3-RSR effort.
This is another team with a three car effort at Le Mans, and another full season ILMC effort - astonishingly, the only Porsche on the ILMC entry!
Horst Felbermayr Jr, Horst Felbermayr Snr and Christian Ried are in charge of the fastest company car in the world and, whilst none will trouble the GTE Pro runners, they all know how to bring home a GT car in good order – they can finish, and if they do they’ll finish well.
The #68 Robertson Racing Doran-Ford GT will, however good or otherwise its pace, be a major fan favourite.
The classic Ford GT-looks still stir the emotions of all endurance enthusiasts with a pulse and so too does the sound of a barely silenced Ford V8.
The husband and wife combo of David and Andrea Robertson deserve a sporting medal for their commitment to this programme. Their reserve listed ‘Pro’ car was shipped over for the test, too, and the level of investment and backroom resource pumped into their team would put some factory backed teams to shame
A post-test reshuffle sees David Murry back on board with the bosses; he’ll be quick, too, and, with the car having been allowed to breathe a little more easily since the Test Day, he might just get in amongst the middle order GTE Pros. But reliability, consistency and luck are going to be the winning combination in GTE Am, and somehow the Ford looks less likely than some to be dealt that particular hand.
Two left, and both come from very well-established GT racing teams.
Flying Lizard Motorsport are well used to running a two car effort, but not here. 2011 sees them with both of their 997s at Le Mans, with Seth Neiman very pleased indeed that the ‘AM’ category gives him a chance of battling for a meaningful honour.
He’ll be helped in no small measure by regular team-mate Darren Law and Lizards and Le Mans newcomer Spencer Pumpelly. This is a potentially pacey looking effort – if Lizard’s famously dreadful run of luck at Le Mans reverses, this could be set for a run at the podium or better.
Finally, the (nominally) Monagasque JMB Racing arrives with the ex AF Corse Sebring pole-setting 430, now redubbed JMB’s #83 effort.
The very rapid Nicolas Marroc, already an LMS class pole-setter (in a Hope Racing FLM Oreca), joins this effort and will be very quick indeed.
Nicolas Menahem and Manuel Rodrigues provide the ‘AM’ credentials and both are capable of reliability. Much will depend on their consistency, and that of Marroc. There’s little here, though, that suggests that JMB will be also-rans come Sunday afternoon.
Autosport Le Mans Guide
This year’s 44 page Autosport Le Mans Guide came out yesterday and it just so happens that I have acquired 
Download it here.
Race Preview – Overview
A few postings covering the race overview and the individual categories. Thanks go to Radio Le Mans and Ten-Tenths.com for some of the detail and content.
And so to the 79th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours – 56 cars in four classes, all of which have seen changes for this season.
LMP1 sees cuts in power and fuel capacity, and the introduction of smaller engines; but, it seems, for the diesels at least, not significantly slower top end speed.
There are new cars from the factory Audi, Peugeot and Aston Martin teams; Toyota makes a return for the first time since 1999 with a customer engine programme; and Pescarolo returns a single car entry for Henri and co after missing his first race as an entrant in four decades last year. We should also see the first ever hybrid entry starting the race.
The background chatter, though, is still all about the relative performance of diesel vs petrol – big bucks factory efforts look set to hold sway with another considerable advantage, despite all the changes. Unless we see both diesel factory squads melt down in the manner of Peugeot last year, there will be a diesel-fuelled winner again for the sixth consecutive year.
LMP2 sees similarly sweeping changes and, if anything, these have been even more controversial – three engine suppliers and six chassis makers will arrive here in various combinations and with a bewildering variety of sub-sets of the rulebook applying.
Cost-capping is a fine ideal, but there seem enough holes in the current regulations to give them the appearance of a paper doily.
That said, we have good teams listed here, too, albeit in a formula that looks set to be a little stop-start over the 24 hour distance.
Before we leave the LMPs, it’s also worth briefly mentioning the new ‘mandatory’ dorsal fin that has had such widespread publicity since last year.
In reality, of the 28 LMP cars on the grid, just ten will sport the controversial fin. The Audis, new 908s, AMR Ones and both LMP2 Lolas are the only ones looking remotely ‘Sharky’.
GT1 has been put to the ACO sword and instead we have GT2, now redubbed as GTE, and split into a ‘Pro’ class - with no restrictions on drivers and with new cars allowed - and ‘Am’, which can only have a single professional aboard and which must use cars at least a year old. Some of the best wheel to wheel racing is set to be on show here, with the new Ferrari 458 making its Le Mans debut and going head to head with the auld enemy, Porsche; but also Corvette, Aston Martin, BMW, Ford and, for the first time in GT2/GTE, Lotus, with their new Evora.
The Le Mans 24 Hours trophy is the prize that everyone wants of course, but let’s remember for just a moment that the French classic is a double points-scoring round of the 2011 ILMC too; Sunday afternoon will effectively mark the halfway point for the Championship and, for some, the season (in competitive terms) might finish there too.
2011 Provisional Schedule
A little later than last year but here is the schedule for next week.
Sunday 5th June
14:30 - 19:00 Scrutineering (Jacobins)
Monday 6th June
09:30 - 17:30 Scrutineering (Jacobins)
Tuesday 7th June
10:00 Team Managers' briefing
11:00 Drivers' briefing
17:00 Drivers' autograph session
Wednesday 8th June
16:00 - 20:00 Free practice
20:30 - 21:30 Free practice (Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli)
21:00 - 24:00 Concert (Raphaël/Sarah Bessie)
22:00 - 24:00 Qualifying
Thursday 9th June
16:00 - 17:00 Qualifying (Le Mans Legend)
17:30 - 18:30 Qualifying (Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli)
19:00 - 21:00 Qualifying
21:00 - 24:00 Concert (Julian Peretta/Mia Wallas)
22:00 - 24:00 Qualifying
Friday 10th June
10:00 - 20:00 Pit Walk
18:00 - 20:00 Drivers' Parade (Le Mans city centre)
Saturday 11th June
09:00 - 09:45 Warm-up
10:05 - 10:50 Race (Le Mans Legend)
11:15 - 12:00 Race (Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli)
14:22 Beginning of starting procedure
15:00 Start of the 79th Le Mans 24 Hours
21:00 - 24:00 Concert (Razorlight/Concrete Knives)
Sunday 12th June
15:00 Finish of the 79th Le Mans 24 Hours
Just to get the excitement going further a classic photo of a Silk Cut Jag from 1991 – pity I wasn’t there
Le Mans 2011 Spotter Guide
The first of quite a few blog posts I’ll hopefully be posting over the next 96 hours – brace yourselves……………….!
This years Spotter Guide is now available from the fantastic Andy Blackmore Design. For those attendees at last years event you will remember that I printed them out and laminated them to avoid any nasty spillages ;o)
Clearly now that I’ve taken over the role of Chairman I’ve also taken over some of the previous Chairman’s anal statistics and excitement about the race !
The Spotter Guide is available on two pages to ensure cars and details are readable. These are produced in high resolution for A3 use and smaller, however if I printed them out myself on A3 I think I’d get even more stick !
Page 1 – To download click here
Page 2 – To download click here
The guide was released today and was made possible by many teams who assisted in supplying liveries in advance.
For those leaving for Le Mans at a later date, an update will be released following Scrutineering.
The guide wouldn’t be possible without the input from Nissan, Radio Le Mans, DailySportscar.com, Flying Lizard Motorsport and Lola-Group who went the extra mile to help this year.
Other partners that provided support this year, Ten-Tenths.com, SPEED.com, Fourtitude, Speedhunters, l'endurance and Oneighturbo.com.
There are some other Spotter Guides available on Andy’s website including a much promised forthcoming F1 2011 guide. View the website at http://www.spotterguides.com/
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Club Arnage 2011
Here it is - timed just right - this year's 2011 update to the CA Guide. As always, a great read to get the LM juices flowing prior to setting off.
Enjoy!
Club Arnage 2011 Guide
For that slight retro feeling, previous years are here
CA Guide 2010
CA Guide 2009
CA Guide 2008
CA Guide 2007
CA Guide 2006
Enjoy!
Club Arnage 2011 Guide
For that slight retro feeling, previous years are here
CA Guide 2010
CA Guide 2009
CA Guide 2008
CA Guide 2007
CA Guide 2006
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