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Le Mans Series Confirms 2010 Schedule

admin — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:07:10 +0000

Le Mans Series have confirmed the 2010 Le Mans Series Schedule and there are several important changes. First, there will be no Le Mans Series event at Catalunya or Nurburgring this year. Instead we have get new races: the 8 Hours of Castellet at HTTT Paul Ricard and a 1000 km night race at Hungaroring. Last year’s 1000 Km of Algarve is maintained as a night race.

It is interesting to note that the race at Le Castellet is not formatted as a 1000 Km race, but rather as a longer, 8 hours one. 1000 Km LMS races typically last about 6 hours.

24 Hours of Le Mans 2010 Automatically Invited Participants

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:32:19 +0000

Each year the A.C.O. hands out a number of invitations to race in the next 24 Hours of Le Mans. Invitations are handed out as a reward for outstanding achievements during the previous season in various events and series such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, the Le Mans Series, the American Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series, the FIA-GT Championship as well as the Michelin Green X Challenge.

So, it is that time of the year again and the A.C.O. has published the list of automatically selected teams on their web site.

Christian Klien Not Sure About the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2010, Favors F1

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:57:30 +0000

In an interview published on his web site, Christian Klien says he’s unable to commit to drive for Peugeot at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2010. Christian explains he would like to concentrate on Formula 1 next year and cannot sign with Peugeot until his situation clarifies. If he manages to secure a seat on the 2010 F1 grid he will most probably drop out of Le Mans, mostly beacuse the 2010 Le Mans date clashes with the Canadian F1 Grand Prix.

Klien’s focus on Formula 1 is understandable, given the unique reshaping the series is going through these days. With all the big teams stepping out and a bunch new teams with great potential stepping, Klien has a fair chance to secure a comfortable contract if he plays his cards right.

Raikkonen To Take a Break From F1, Maybe Try the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2010?

admin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:30:56 +0000

So it seems that after failing to cut a deal with McLaren, Kimi Raikkonen has decided to step back from F1 for one year. His manager was quoted to say he might be looking for an opportunity to race the 24 ours of Le Mans 2010. That would be an interesting lead to follow since talent is not what Raikkonen is missing and imagining what he could do to a LMP1 is quite intriguing.

Le Mans Sensations is now Twitting!!!

admin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:18:08 +0000

Yes, you can now follow us on http://twitter.com/lemanssensation . Subscribe to our tweets and receive about all the latest 24 Hours of Le Mans, Le Mans Series and American Le Mans series news everywhere!

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.

24 Heures du Mans 2010 Dates Set

admin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:26:58 +0000

The A. C. O. has officially set the date of 78th 24 Heures du Mans endurance car tace on June 12th and 13th, 2010. So run get your tickets here!

Automatic invites will be sent out to the following Le Mans racing teams to reward them for their outstanding results in the 2010 season. :

LM P1	LM P2	LM GT1	LM GT2
Peugeot Sport Total	Team Essex	Corvette Racing	Risi Competizione
Team Peugeot Total	Speedy Racing Team Sebah	Luc Alphand Aventures	BMS Scuderia Italia
Aston Martin Racing	Quifel ASM Team	Larbre Compétition	Team Felbermayr-Proton
Pescarolo Sport	Speedy Racing Team Sebah		Team Felbermayr-Proton
	Dyson Racing Team		JMW Motorsport
	Lowe’s Fernández Racing

Team Oreca-Matmut AIM wins at Silverstone

admin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:11:23 +0000

Team Oreca-Matmut AIM has won the 1000 Km of Silverstone, in front of Aston Martin Racing and Pescarolo Sport. This race concludes this year’s Le Mans Series with Aston Martin winning the overall first place. LM-P2 team Oreca-Matmut snatches the second overall place thanks to their Silverstone victory while Pescarolo Sport, third overall, pay for their failed Nurburgring race.

Audi to Race at Petit Le Mans

admin — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:42:19 +0000

According to yesterdays announcement on the Audi Joest Racing news page, Audi has decided to pick up the gauntlet thrown by Peugeot Sport by putting two R15 TDI LM-P1 prototypes on the grid at this year’s Petit Le Mans. Audi can hardly afford not to race. In the context of their efforts to sell TDI powered cars in the US they need to establish a strong presence, and a victory against Peugeot at Road Atlanta would be more than helpful.

It’s interesting to notice that Audi sees the Road Atlanta race partly as training for the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2010, a huge chance to collect real-world information about how their car races – and that they blame this year’s Le Mans failure on the little driving experience they had with this new car. That is, if you call a third place at the 24 Heures du Mans a failure….