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Sora Racing’s Pescarolo-Judd Wins First Asian Le Mans Series Race

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:56:27 +0000

Henri Pescarolo and the rest of the his Le Mans based team must have uncorked some nice bottles yesterday after the results of the first Asian Le Mans Series. That, of course, in order to celebrate the double victory the Pescarolo cars have scored at the Okayama circuit this weekend.

First, Sora Racing’s Pescarolo-Judd driven by Tinseau and Nakano won the overall and LMP1 category in front of Aston Martin Racing’s Lola Aston Martin and Team Oreca Matmut AIM. Then Oak Racing’s Pescarolo-Mazda won the LMP2 category. This is great news for the Le Mans based indie team and should help them to attract more sponsors for the next season. Even though it was Sora and not Pescarolo Sport itself who raced at Okayama, it is obvious the later has put a lot of resources in this project: Sora’s Pescarolo-Judd was no. 17, which is traditionally a Pescarolo number at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and C. Tinseau who drove Sora’s prototype to victory is a regular Pescarolo driver.

The GT1 category went to team JLoc of Japan and GT2 to Hankook Team Farnbacher of Germany.

As per A. C. O. regulations, the winner of each category will be awarded an automatic invite to the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2010.

Preliminary Le Mans Series 2010 Schedule

admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:26:24 +0000

The A. C. O. has released a preliminary schedule for the 2010 Le Mans Series season. Only the test session at the Paul Ricard HTTT in March is confirmed, as well as three races: at Paul Ricard in April (that’s new!), at Spa-Francorchamps in May and at Silverstone in September. Two more events are “almost certain”, but the A.C.O. has only released their respective date: 16th of July and November 19th, so we don’t know yet where those races will be held.

My guess is the July mystery event is either Nürburgring or Algarve. I’d say there’s a 75% chance for it to be Nürburgring. As for the November event, that’s too late for it to happen in Europe so I’d guess Le Mans Series will either go overseas to Brazil at Interlagos like they did in 2008. Or, Le Mans Series will assimilate the Asian Le Mans Series Event at Okayama. But Japan is in the northern hemisphere just like Europe and the November weather is not so great. Plus, the A.C.O. is trying hard to make the Asian Le Mans Series a stand alone series so I’d say there’s a bigger chance to see an event in South America.

Asian Le Mans Series goes to Okayama

admin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:30:07 +0000

Many teams have already signed up for the Asian Le Mans Series race, an event that will take place on October 31^st at the Okayama track in Japan. Some important names have put their names on the list, one of them being Aston Martin Racing. Indeed, the British team is sending over a Lola Aston Martin prototype to compete in its class against a couple of Kolles’ Audi R10s and Team Oreca Matmut’s Oreca AIM.

A couple of French teams – Oak Racing and Ibanez Racing – are competing in LMP2 while GT1 should provide a nice race between Larbre Competition’s Saleen S7R, two of JLOC’s Lamborghini and a Aston Martin DBR9 raced by Japanese team HITOTSUYAMA TEAM NOVA.

The GT2 entry list contains a few cars we’re not used to see at Le Mans or in Le Mans racing series, such as a Ford GT MK7 of Robertson Racing, a BMW E92 M3 of Rahal Letterman Racing and an Aston Martin Vantage of Chinese Team Hong Kong Racing. Besides them we’ll see the usual Ferrari F430 GT and Porsche 911 GT3 RSR lineup.

Even though Pescarolo Sport have not announced their participation yet, the Team from Le Mans will have two cars running at Okayama: Sora Racing’s Pescarolo Judd in LMP1 and OAK Racing’s Pescarolo Mazda.

The stakes here are high, as the top performers in each category will likely see themselves awarded automatic invites to the 24 Heures du Mans 2010.