Green light! The 2010 LMS season is under way and the Formula Le Mans cars will be in the thick of battle in the Le Mans Series. The FLM-Oreca prototypes have been promoted, and are now an integral part of the long-distance 1000-km races with the LM P1s, LM P2s, LM GT1s and LM GT2s.
This represents a major change for the five teams from Belgium, Switzerland, France and Monaco that have entered one or two cars in Formula Le Mans. DAMS, Hope PoleVision Racing, Boutsen Energy Racing, Applewood Seven (the finishing order in the 2009 FLM CUP), will be joined this year by JMB Racing, which has racked up a brilliant set of results in endurance.
The Formula Le Mans cars will make their debut in the 2010 Le Mans Series in a new event, the Le Castellet 8 Hours, which looks like being a cracker of a race as it will see the first confrontation on the track between all the main players in endurance in 2010. The highlight will be the no-holds-barred duel between Peugeot and Audi – a warm-up before the Le Mans 24 Hours!
This is a real opportunity, which the drivers entered in Formula Le Mans will seize with both hands, to make their mark in what promises to be one of the greatest seasons in modern endurance racing in hotly-disputed events in both the prototype and GT categories.
This cohabitation was already tested in both the Winter Series and the official Le Mans test on the Paul Ricard HTTT circuit on 7-8 March. Each of the five races on the calendar represents more or less the equivalent of the overall distance covered in the whole of the 2009 FLM season, so it’s a huge step forward in both the Le Mans spirit and endurance!
This year, a third driver will join the two seen last year in the FLM-Orecas. The cars will run within the Le Mans Series regulations with a few tweaks, in particular concerning the number of sets of tyres allowed per race.
2010 FLM drivers: Musical chairs, experience and newcomers
The Hope PoleVision Racing team had a couple of days’ testing (30 March – 2 April), on the Magny-Cours circuit with the DAMS squad, which gave their new drivers their first taste of the cars. DAMS is the reigning FLMC Champion after winning the 2009 teams’ and drivers’ titles with Nico Verdonck and Gavin Cronje. They have now decided to go it alone with a seat in the Le Mans 24 Hours as their aim. The two teams, which finished in the first two positions in the FLM Championship in 2009, met up for a test session that was seriously compromised by the weather at the circuit in Nevers. They will be the only squads to run two FLM-Orecas this season. The details of the teams are given below.
DAMS
French team, DAMS, managed by Loïc David, is based near the Le Mans 24-Hours circuit and has enormous racing experience in endurance. Gary Chalandon, with Boutsen Energy Racing in 2009, has moved across to the French squad alongside Belgian Andréa Barlesi and Italian Alessandro Cicognani in car no. 43. Luke Hines, seen in 2009 in one of the Boutsen Energy Racing FLMs at Silverstone, will team up with Englishman, Dean Stirling, and another Italian Eduardo Piscopo in car no. 44.
Boutsen Energy Racing
Austrian, Dominik Kraihammer has stayed with the Belgian squad, Boutsen Energy Racing, and will be backed up by two Belgians, Nicolas de Crem and Bernard Delhez in no. 45.
JMB Racing
Peter Kutemann has been with Jean-Michel Bouresche’s team for a long time. He drove in the Le Mans series twice in 2009 with John Hartshorne in the team’s Ferrari 430 GTC, and the Dutch and English drivers will pursue their collaboration as they make their prototype debut. Maurice Basso, another Le Mans Series regular in the Easy Race Ferrari F 430 GT, will team up with the above-mentioned in the no. 46 FLM-Oreca.
Hope PoleVision Racing
The most experienced driver in the HPVR line-up is Christophe Pillon (2 Le Mans victories in the LM P675 category in 2002 and 2003). He will share no. 48 with fellow-countryman Mathias Beche, who is continuing with the Swiss squad this year, and Frenchman Vincent Capillaire who raced at Le Mans last year in a DAMS-entered FLM. The second HPVR car will be in the hands of two of last year’s DAMS FLM drivers, Italian Luca Moro and Wolfgang Kaufmann from Germany. They will be backed up in car no. 47 by experienced Swiss, Steve Zacchia (2004 LMS GTS Champion).
Applewood Seven
In car no.49 entered by the French team will be Damien Toulemonde and Mathias Zollinger who finished third in FLM last year in the team ratings. Albano-Australian Ross Zampatti will complete the driver line-up.
The weekend’s time table
Free practice
Friday 9th April, 12h40 – 13h40, 16h10 – 17h10
Saturday 10th April, 09h45 – 10h45.
Qualifying
Saturday 10th April, 14h10 – 14h30.
Race
Sunday 11th April, 11h00 – 19h00.
