24 Hours of Le Mans: News, Photos and Travel Tips

8 Heures du Castellet Poster

Oreca has linked to a nice 8 Heures du Castellet poster. Very nice artwork. The Castellet race will be opening the 2010 Le Mans Series Season, on April 11th. The official Le Mans Series tests will also take place at Le Cestellet on March 7th. It’s an appealing race to watch because of its interesting format – 8 hours instead of the usual 1000 Km.

24 Hours of Le Mans 2010 Entry List

The A.C.O. has announced the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2010 entry list today and everybody and their friends have already blogged and tweeted about it. So, what’s new?

In LMP1 Peugeot is throwing in four 908s, three ran by the factory and one ran by Oreca. Audi will bring three R15s Plus, two from Team Joest and one from Audi Sport North America. Third factory team to play the game is Aston Martin Racing. There will be two factory backed Lola Aston Martins (007 and 009) plus the one from Signature Plus (008). There will be two Pescarolo Judd, one from Pescarolo Sport plus the one from Sora Racing. Go Pesca! I really hope one of the Pescarolo Judds will do better than the Oreca’s 908. that would be fun…

No big surprises in LMP2.

But GT1 and GT2 is going to be fun, because of all the new guys who race in FIA GT and can now come to Le Mans. As you may recall, Le Mans GT specs were updated recently and now many FIA GT teams who couldn’t participate in the past because their cars didn’t comply are now welcome. So who are the new guys?

In GT1 there will be a couple of Ford GTs competing against the usual pack of Corvettes, a Saleen and a Lamborghini Mucielago. But GT2 is where most new players are. We have a couple of factory backed new Corvettes. Then in addition to the Porche 911s and Ferrari F430s we’ll get to see a couple of BMW M3s, a Jaguar XKRS and an Aston Martin Vantage.

Le Mans Series News Roundup

So, plenty of Le Series Mans related news these days. Let me sum it up for you:

Former Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella will race the full 2010 Le Mans Series season. He will drive a GT2 Ferrari F430 GT for team AF Corse.
LMP1 team Signature Competition acquired a Lola Aston Martin which they will race in 2010 in the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. So I really hope they’ll give that car a decent paint work not that uninteresting, unappealing, pale Gulf blue an orange. Seriously, how can you paint an Aston like that? Last year at scrutineering a couple of teenagers passed by the 007 exclaiming: look, a GT40!!! I guess you realized by now I don’t like the Aston LMP1 paintwork. The Aston will replace an Oreca-Judd prototype.
More Aston news: the fine people at JVM Motorsport switched cars. They ditched the old Ferarri F430 and got a brand new Aston Martin Vantage GT2. This is important for two reasons. For you and me, this means the Spyker LAVIOLETTE will not be the only car in GT2 that is not a Porsche GT3 RSR or a Ferarri F430. So it’ll make it more interesting. For Aston Martin this means the british marque is establishing a presence in three Le Mans categories, which is good for their image. Especially if they win.
Audi has decided to throw the new and revised R15 Plus to the wolfs so they registered it for the 8 Hours of Le Castellet in April and the 1000 Km of Spa in May in order to warm it up for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. This is basically a good thing for them because nothing gives you better feedback about a race car than throwing it in a real race. It’s also a good thing for us fans because it makes the show better. After Le Mans, Audi will also race at Silverstone. So they’ll be there at three races out of five. If they win them all, they win the series. The fine chaps at AMR are probably not very happy about this, I would guess.

Hernandez partners with Aston Martin for Sebring and Le Mans

Aston Martin Racing announced they partnered with Adrian Fernandez of Fernandez Racing for the later to join the Aston Martin drivers lineup which includes Chris Buncombe, Stefan Mücke Harold Primat and Darren Turner. Fernandez, who won the American Le Mans Series LMP2 category in 2009 will race for Aston Martin in the Amercan Le Mans Series at Sebring and Long Beach, in the (European) Le Mans Series at Paul Ricard HTTT as well as at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2010. More joint races will be announced in the coming weeks.

So what’s in it for both parties? Well, Aston Martin is getting an exceptional driver in their 2010 Le Mans lineup while Fernandez gets a chance to compete at Le Mans in a competitive LMP1 car. Looking forward to the results.

Daytona 24 Hours Results

So the 2010 24 Hours race at Daytona Beach is over and the winners are team Action Express Racing and drivers Joao Barbosa, Mike Rockenfeller, Ryan Dalziel and Terry Borcheller. That’s right Joao Barbosa and Mike Rockenfeller we all know from Le Mans Series and American Le Mans Series respectively, as well as from the 24 Hours of Le Mans where Mike usually races for Audi and Joao for Pescarolo Sport. Sebastien Bourdais‘ team, Crown Royal/NPN Racing, came in 3^rd.

In GT Flying Lizard Motorsport came in 2^nd.

For those who couldn’t watch it please enjoy a few pictures from AP and this nice video on YouTube

24 Hours of Daytona Race Status and Live Timing

You can follow it all here on the Grand-Am site.

Rolex 24 at Daytona 2010

The 24 Hours of Daytona started today behind the safety car because of standing water on the track. Indeed, the heavy rain that fell just before the race started left the track in a sorry state. The two accidents that followed didn’t help much either. Weather reports warn about cloudy weather for the rest of the day with chances of rain in the early and late evening and in the early morning tomorrow. Sun is expected tomorrow – after all they call it the Sunshine State.

Le Mans fans will keep a close eye on Sebastien Bourdais who’s driving a BMW / Riley Daytona Prototype for team Crown Royal/NPN Racing.

Marc Goossens to race for Jaguar Rocket Sport Racing

Marc Goossens has signed up with Jaguar Rocket Sport Racing to drive the team’s Jaquar XKR GT #33 in the 2010 American Le Mans Series season. Marc Goossens has plenty of experience at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and other endurance series.

Rolex 24 at Daytona

Just like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Hours of Daytona is a legendary 24 Hours endurance car race. This year’s the event will take place on January 31^st.

Cars racing Daytona and Le Mans are quite different, most certainly because the two races are governed by different regulatory bodies. While the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (A. C. O.) makes the rules at Le Mans, Daytona is regulated by the Grand American Road Racing Association, or Grand-Am. While Le Mans has four categories – LM P1, LM P2, LM GT1 and LM GT2, Daytona has only two: Daytona Prototypes and GT. Many Le Mans drivers are also maintaining a Daytona presence. Krohn Racing is competing in the Daytona Prototype category on a Ford / Lola and Tracy Krohn is listed as a driver. Other Le Mans teams and drivers racing at Daytona are Alex Job Racing and Patrick Dempsey’s Dempsey Racing.

New 5.5L V8 Corvette GT2

The all new GT2 Corvette fitted with a new 5.5L V8 engine will make its American Le Mans Series debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Downsizing th Covette to GT2 makes economic sense since it will put it in direct competition with the Porche GT3 RSR and the Ferrari 430. If the Covette manages to win in this category the marque could attract a whole new set of customers.

Corvette racing have also published their 2010 schedule on their website.