In 2008 twenty years after the Chicago Endurance Worlds, IMCA will organise a second  endurance world championship, in honour to the winner of the 1988 edition; the late Franco Gianotti. It will be a competition over 3 races (among them one 24 hour race) with Le Mans cars of 2007 at scale 1/24th. To bring model car racing closer to autosport we start a series of articles on Le Mans cars. LMP1 is the premier class of proto-types: that's the class we present today. Earlier that class was split in two subclasses: LMP900 and LMP675 for cars with res. a minimum weight of 900 kg and cars with a minimum weight of 675 kg. That distinction was made with one purpose: nl. to guarantee that cars of different weight classes could have equal chances to win. By allowing both kinds of prototypes to have the same restrictions on dimensions and aerodynamics, the difference had to come from tyres, brakes, weight and engine power. Ultimate goal remained that the power/weight ratios were equal in both subclasses of LMP1. De facto that means that LMP675 cars used non turbocharged motors with an engine capacity under 3.5-litres, whilst LMP900 cars used turbo-charged motors with a maximum capacity of 3.6 litres or non turbo-charged motors with a maximum capacity of 6 litres. Today we present  the short race history of the 2005/2006 LMP1 cars. A survey of LMP2 cars is found here. A presentation of the 2007 cars will follow later...

Just as in 2004 Wolfgang Ulrich, head of Audi Motorsport at Inglostadt, decided that (for its sixth and last year) the Audi R8 will be raced in 2005 by consumer teams. Of the three private teams having conducted the Audi R8 to new successes in 2004, only the in Pàmpano Beach, FL, based Team ADT Champion Racing will be present in 2005 at the Le Mans 24 hours and at the AMLS (American Le Mans Series). None of them will even be present at the 2005 LMES (European Le Mans Series). Indeed, Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx (having won in 2004 the four rounds of the LMES and having finished second and fifth at Le Mans) declared on November 8, 2004, its withdrawal from motorsport. And at Audi Sport Japan Team Goh (having won in 2003 the Francorchamps 1000-kms and the Le Mans 1000-kms, and in 2004 surprisingly the Le Mans 24 hours) Kazumichi Goh decided to do the same after a three year partnership with Audi.

Contrarly to the previous years Dave Maraj of ADT Champion receives in 2005 two Audis R8 instead of one. At the 10 rounds of the AMLS J.J. Lehto and Marco Werner drive the first car, Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro the second car. The ADT Champion Audis R8 will win 8 of the 10 rounds of the 2005 AMLS: 4 for each car. At the Sebring 12 hours Tom Kristensen joins Lehto and Werner on the winning car, whilst Alan McNish joins Biela and Pirro on the other car (finishing second). Same situation at the Le Mans 24 hours where Kristensen/Lehto/ Werner share the #3 Audi R8 and McNish/Biela/Pirro the #2. Eventually Denmark's Tom Kristensen - having won all Le Mans 24 hours since 2000! - wins also the 2005 edition, with McNish/ Biela/Pirro as third in the team's other car.

The Audi R8 is the most successful sports prototype of the modern era. Since its first outing at the 2000 Sebring 12 hours, until end 2005, the car won no less than 61 of the 74 endurance races it entered. Le Mans was won in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005. Under supervision of Dave Maraj his "private" Audi R8 was second in 2002, third in 2003 and 2004, and first and third in 2005. ADT Champion won also three times the Sebring 12 hours and three times the Petit Le Mans. No consumer team did ever better.

In 2005 the Audi R8 was seriously muzzled under ACO rules. Minimum weight was increased from 900 to 950 kg and airbox "muzzlers" made the car accelerating much slower, reducing the top speed. Nevertheless, even under such conditions the Audi R8 remained extremely difficult to be beaten in endurance racing.

We have to wait March 2005 before the news is official: there will be again an Audi R8 at the LMES, despite the withdrawal of Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx and of Audi Japan Team Goh. The car will be raced by the consumer Team Playstation ORECA of Hughes de Chaunac. From Audi Motorsport in Inglostadt he receives the former Veloqx car. It's certainly not the most "lucky" chassis, since Frank Biela ran dry it in 2003, McNish crashed it in 2004 at the Porsche Curves in Le Mans when both he and Lehto went off on a back-marker’s oil, Kaffer burned it at the Francorchamps 1000-kms in 2004, and Gounon crashed it at the 2005 Spa 1000-kms.

Team owner Hughes de Chaunac won already in 1991 the Le Mans 24 hours with the Mazda 787B of Johnny Herbert, Bertrand Gachot and Volkler Weidler. From 1996 to 1999 he let race for the Oreca team the Chrysler-Viper GTS-R winning in 1998, 1999 and 2000 its class at the Le Mans 24 hours.

In 2001 and 2002 the team opted for prototypes, the Dallaras LMP 02. In 2002 Chaunac's two Dallaras finished fifth and sixth behind three Audis R8 and the Bentley EXP Speed 8, but ahead of the Team Goh Audi R8. By the end of that season he sold both cars to Martin Short who raced them until 2005.

Although seriously handicapped by the new ACO rules the ORECA Audi was competitive in 2005. At the LMES the car won the Silverstone 1000-kms and finished as runner-up at the Nüburgring 1000-kms and at the Istanbul 1000-kms. At the Le Mans 24 hours the Playstation ORECA Audi R8, with Franck Montagny, Stéphane Ortelli and Jean-Marc Gounon finished fourth behind the two ADT Champion Audis and one of the Pescarolos C60.

LM P900
engine: 90 degree Audi V8 3,600cc turbocharged  620 bhp
fuel capacity: 80 litres Le Mans, 90 litres LMES
weight: 950 kg 
tyres: Michelin

Since 1979 the all-Japanese Dome of owner Minoru Hayashi entered several times the Le Mans 24 hours. But of the nine cars at the start between 1979 and 1984 only one (driven by Chris Craft and Bob Evans) could finish (25th in 1980). In 2001 Dome came back to Le Mans with the S101 but we had to wait 2003 before Jan Lammers could finish (6th and 13th). In 2004 the S101 of Lammers finished as 7th. In 2005 the Dome manufacturer, unhappy with the former results of Kondo Racing and Racing for Holland, contacted Jim Gainer International to let race in a kind of partnership a real works car at Le Mans, the #5 Dome S101HB.

Taking full advantage of the gradual transformation in the regulations, Dome created a hybrid version of the S101 for 2005. Hybrid refers to the fact that the chassis is still consistent with the older LMP900 regulations, but the aerodynamics package is fully up to date with the new LMP1 regulations. To stimulate the construction of hybrids or completely new LMP1 cars, the governing bodies have handycapped the old cars with smaller restrictors and a 10 litre decrease in fuel capacity.

Powered by the Mugen V8 engine, the Dome S101-Hb made its competition debut at the LMES season opener, the Spa 1000 km. In the practice sessions it proved to be on the pace with its competitors, but in the race small problems saw the car come into the pits multiple times. The Jim Ganier entered car did manage to reach the finish, in fourth overall.

Next up was the Le Mans 24 Hours where shortly after mid-race (where the car was fourth overall, after having been longtime third) a variety of problems dogged the team throughout the event and finally the car was forced to retire early on Sunday mor-ning with a broken gearbox. At the Monza 1000-kms the car was retired early in the race, to show no longer at the LMES.
LM P900 Hybrid
engine: 90 degree V8 Mugen MF408S V8 4,000cc  597 bhp
fuel capacity: 90 litres
weight: 900 kg 
tyres: Dunlop

Having entered the metal blue Lister Storm at the 2003 and 2004 FIA GT Series, Creation's Ian Bickerton, based in England at Bicester, decided to transform seriously a bought Zytek 03S and to race it up from 2004 at the four rounds of the LMES and at a couple of rounds of the AMLS. In 2004 he started modifying the aerodynamics of the car, but let it be raced with the original Zytek motor. At two occasions (at the Monza 1000-kms and the Francorchamps 1000-kms) the car could take the pole, heading the Team Veloqx and ADT Champion Audis R8. At both races the car finished third overall. At the two other rounds (the Silverstone 1000-kms and the Nürburgring 1000-kms) the DBA 03S Zytek qualified as fourth but was retired before the end of the race. In the USA the car created a big surprise by qualifying as second ahead of the two ADT Champion Audis at its first American outing: the famous Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta. Unfortunately the car was to be retired after 130 of the 394 laps. Sensation was complete at the second American outing for the last round of the 2004 AMLS: in Laguna Seca, at the wheel of the DBA 03S Zytek (an LM P675!), Nic Minassian realised the pole position ahead of the two ADT Champion Audis R8 and the two Dyson Lolas.

For the 2005 season it is decided that the car should enter the five rounds of the ELMS plus the Le Mans 24 hours. Ian Bickerton decides to change the original Zytek engine for a 3.4 litre V8 Judd. He and his engineers introduce also several aerodynamical approvements, especially in function of the long Mulsanne straight at Le Mans. The original chassis was made by Reynard as the ultimate LM P675 for Le Mans. Unfortunately the new chassis came too late to save Reynard from going bankrupt. So the chassis were bought by Paul Shakespeare who sold one to Ian Bickerton. In its new form the DBA 03S Judd qualified at the five rounds always in the top-3 with a pole position at Silverstone and at the Nürburg-ring (after the disqualification of the #15 works Zytek), with a second place at Francorchamps and Monza, and with a third place in Istanbul. Except at Francorchamps the car was brought home at all other rounds with a second place at Sil-verstone, a third at the Nürburgring and Istanbul and a seventh at Monza. At Le Mans the car, driven as always by Nic Minassian and Jamie Campbell-Walter and with extra support of the 1988 Le Mans winner Andy Wallace, qualified as 7th, but could not finish higher than th after several woes early in the race and shortly after mid-race.

Dallara Automobili, based in Parma, is since more than 30 years manufacturer of race cars. Apart from his F3 and Indy cars Gian Paolo Dallara produces since years typical sportscars as raced at the Daytona 24 hours and the Le Mans 24 hours. Best known is perhaps the extremely beautiful Toyota GT-0ne as raced at Le Mans in 1998 and 1999. In 2000 Dallara Automobili produced the new Dallara SP1, having been sold in 2001 with a Judd V10 engine to Hughes de Chaunac and with a 580bhp Mopar Chrysler engine to Doran Racing Team. The last one won the Daytona 24 hours with it, the first named cames in Le Mans closest to the intouchable Audis R8 by finishing fifth and sixth at the 2002 Le Mans 24 hours. End 2003 Martin Short bought two Dallara SP1 chassis from ORECA. He had the intention to race one of the cars with the original V10 Judd at the 2004 LMES and at Le Mans, and to use the other car as a substitute car for spare parts.
Raced by himself and Joaõ Barbosa, Martin Short obtained fine results at the 2004 LMES: 5th at Monza, 6th at the Nür-burgring and 15th at Silverstone. Only at the Spa 1000-kms the car was retired. At the 2004 Le Mans 24 hours the Dallara SP1 was on his way to finish as best car behind the Audis, when a crash into the wall ruined all its chances.
In 2005 Martin Short could made a non-official partnership with Nissan to let race his second Dallara SP1 with a 3-litre turbocharged Nissan V6 at the Sebring 12 hours and at the Spa 1000-kms. For Le Mans a 3.6 litre turbocharged engine will be mounted. Nissan sends even its test-driver Michael Krumm to assist Rollcentre at those races. At Sebring the car is qualified as 12th and will be retired after 130 of the 361 laps. At Spa - where the car is raced with the number 18 - the car qualifies as 11th (behind the Judd engined Dallara) and is again retired, now after 96 of the 132 laps. Le Mans is another failure for Nissan since, driven by Michael Krumm, Bobby Verdon-Roe and Harold Primat, the car, having lost hours and hours in the pits, can only achieve 133 laps, so that it will not be classified. At the qualifications the Dallara SP1 Nissan realised only the 14th time, 3 seconds per round slower than the team's Dallara SP1 Judd, realising the 9th time. We have to wait the Silverstone 1000-kms to see the Dallara Nissan qualifying better than the Judd engined sister car. However the race is once more finished by a retirement. At the Nürburgring 1000-kms the Nissan qualifies as 9th, the Judd as 7th. The story ends in a new retirement. In Istanbul the second Roll-centre car is raced (with #18) with the normal Judd engine and eventually can finish as 15th.

#9 TEAM JOTA ZYTEK 04S

Founded in 2000 by owners John Stack and Sam Hignett, Team Jota has grown from its roots in British club racing to become a top international sportscar racing team. Having competed with success in both British & European one make series and in the FIA Sportscar Championship Team Jota races since 2004 in the Le Mans Endurance Series. Using the entirely British made and designed Zytek 04S Sportscar and backed by Britains leading science and technology solutions provider, QinetiQ, Team Jota is able to compete for outright victory against manufacturers and other international teams alike. The car raced in 2004 and 2005 by Team Jota is the Zytek 04S. When the highly respected Reynard Motorsports went bankrupt in 2000 Zytek Systems - an all-British company founded in 1982 by Bill Gibson - purchased the chassis and the bodyworks. Up to then Zytek System was best known as an inventive manufacturer of compact engines for (among others) F3000. For endurance racing and sportscars the firm manufactured the famous ZB408, the smallest and lightest 4.0 litre endurance engine ever produced. Later a 3.4 litre version was created, the ZG348, a ultralight and compact V8 developing 550bhp. Zytek's 04S uses a different design approach to the Audi and Pescarolo cars that have been so successful at Le Mans. While those cars have been LMP900 vehicles with a minimum weight of 900kg and a range of engine options including a 3.6litre turbocharged engine, the 04S can be raced under LMP675 rules - a minimum weight of 675kg and a 3.4 litre normally aspirated engine.
In 2004 Stack and Hignett enter the four rounds of the LMES. They'll finish 24th at the Nürburgring 1000-kms, sixth at the Silverstone 1000-kms and fifth at the Francorchamps 1000-kms. At there first LMES race in Monza they qualified as eleventh but had to retire the car.

Stimulated by the good results of the previous year Stack and Hignett decide to enter in 2005 not only the five rounds of the LMES, but also the 24 hours of Le Mans with the very fast Haruki Kurosawa as team mate. In Spa they have to retire. Le Mans starts and finishes as a disaster. The team is thrown at the trials when an aero kit (which had been central to pre-race testing), passed scrutineering and was then declared un-homologated by the ACO. The team had to dump it, pending the homologation papers getting signed by the French club, and spent the trials sorting the car out around the new aero kit. In the race they start from 10th position and move gradually up to 5th at mid-race. With two hours to go they are always 5th, but then fall out with less than one hour to go. At the LMES they finish second at Monza, sixth at Silverstone and on the Ring, and fifth in Istanbul.

#10 RACING FOR HOLLAND DOME S101

Jan Lammers's team, Racing for Holland, is created in 2001. Its first season represents the start and breakthrough of Racing for Holland at the pinnacle of international sportscar racing.  The new Katwijk based team starts with the Japanese developed Dome S101 in the fastest class of FIA Sportscar Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Dome is powered by a Judd V10 motor, the four liter version of the Yamaha Formula 1 motor. In the 500-km races of the FIA Sportscar Championship the car does well with a third place at Monza, at Donnington and Mondello, with a fifth at Brno, a sixth at Magny-Cours and a win at the final race on the Nürburgring. In Le Mans the car qualified as third but was retired. In 2002 RfH enters a second car and wins the FIA Sportscar Championship with wins at Brno, Magny-Cours and Dijon (where a 1-2 is realised). The car finishes Le Mans in 8th position. In 2003 Lammers wins again the FIA SCC, now with overall wins at the Lauritzring, Monza and Donington Park. At Le Mans his first car finishes sixth, whilst the other car is retired.

In 2004 the FIA SCC has been replaced by the LMES, now all 1000-km races. Lammers decides not to go and concentrates his efforts on Le Mans, where he has again two cars at the start. He and his team mates Kaneishi and Dyson finish seventh, whilst Coronel/Wilson/Firman have to retire with only one hour to go.Due to rule changes Racing for Holland has to deal with weight and power limitations. Despite that the team shows that even with 100 horsepower less and 50 kilos extra weight they can still be competitive. The 11th grid position can be seen as very good, considering the weight and power difference. The scorching heat at the Circuit de La Sarthe makes the 73rd edition of Le Mans a real battle of exhaustion. When Racing for Holland is firmly inside the top 10 a shredded tyre punches a leak in the radiator. The extensive damage to the car is repai-red in record braking pace by the mechanics and the team battles itself further forward. In the end the team climbes from 35th to seventh with Jan Lammers, John Bosch and

After Le Mans Felipe Ortiz and Beppe Gabbiani rejoin RfH. Together with Jan Lammers they take part in the second half of the LMES. They finish the Monza 1000 km race as 13th, but at Silverstone the race is over before it really begins. The weather conditions at the English circuit are extremely bad, with heavy rain and bad visibility. On the very slippery track the Dome is T-boned in the opening lap by another driver and the team has to retire with a heavily damaged car. At the Nurburgring 1000-kms, held under fantastic weather conditions, at the Eiffel circuit, the car comes no further than a twentieth place. LMES is definitly another cup of tea than the FIA SCC...

#12 & #13 COURAGE COMPÉTITION C60 HB

Installed at the Technopark of Le Mans Yves Courage let race since 1993 his own cars at Le Mans. Earlier, from 1988 to 1992 he let race at Le Mans the Cougar C20LM, C22LM, C24S and C26S - always equipped with a Porsche engine - and finished sixth with them sixth in 1990, eleventh in 1992 and fourteenth in 1989. From 1993 to 2005 he entered no less than 45 cars at La Sarthe, bringing 23 of them home, but never he succeeded to win the Le Mans 24 hours. Once one of his cars won the pole position: the Courage C32LM in 1994. Once he finished second with the Courage C34 shared in 1995 by Bob Wollek, Mario Andretti and Eric Hélary. His cars finished twice fourth (the C41 in 1997 and the C52 in 2000), once sixth (the C52 in 1999), four times seventh (1994, 1996, 1997, 2003), twice eighth (in 2003 and 2005), twice ninth (in 1999 and in 2003) and twice tenth (in 1993 and 2003). From 1999 to 2003 he obtained his best results with cars entered by Pescarolo Sport. Indeed, still until 1998 Henri Pescarolo raced himself for Courage Compétition.

In 2000 Yves Courage launched the production of his famous Courage C60 equipped with a V10 Judd engine. The car was entered eleven times at the Le Mans 24 hours, but finished only twice in the top-10 (seventh and eighth). In 2001 a Courage C60 Peugeot entered the FIA Sportscar Championship, winning once (at Magny-Cours). In 2002 the by Pescarolo Sport entered C60 Peugeot won twice (Barcelona and Spa), the C60 Judd finished twice as runner-up (Estoril and Brno), but the FIA SCC was won by the RfH Dome of Jan Lammers. In 2003 the FIA SCC is dying with at most rounds even not 10 starters. The C60 Peugeot wins at Estoril and Nogaro. Only at Spa - a 1000 km race! - entry is serious, enough for Audi to show ... and to win.

In 2004 it seemed that Courage Compétition was no longer interested in the LMP1 class. Nor at Le Mans, neither at the LMES Yves Courage entered his C60. The sales of the extre-mely beautiful Courage C65 became a priority. In 2005 Yves Courage could sign a long term deal with the Japase tyre manu-facturer Yokohama. It gave him enough financial room to transform his C60 Judd to a hybrid LM P900. Of the two C60 cars entered at Le Mans 2005 - one car was their on behalf of Yokohama with two Japanese drivers - the "Japanese" one was surprisingly faster at the qualifications, realising the fifth best time. That #13 ran in serious problems by the end of the first hour and was retired after six hours. The "French" #12 lost so much time in the pits that it could never compete with the front runners. It finished eighth. At the LMES the lonely entered C60 Judd could not convince either. A sixth place at Monza and an eighth at the Nürburgring were the best results.

#15 ZYTEK 04S (Reynard 02S/DBA4 03S)

The Zytek 04S originated as the Reynard 02S, intended to right the wrongs of the deficient Reynard 2KQ.  From the start the 2KQ was hobbled by inefficient aerodynamics, a flexing chassis, and an underdeveloped transmission.  Reynard was going to have to go a long way to ap-pease potential customers that they had gotten this car right.  In that frame they set out to design the ultimate LMP675 chassis, making a revolutionary step above and beyond the 2KQ. The 02S was designed to be fully competitive when run as a LMP675 or an LMP900.  The intention was to continuously develop the car throughout the life span of the chassis in order to give the customers the most for their money.  Quite frankly, the list was very long of those burned by the 2KQ. Then Reynard went bankrupt. International Racing Management (IRM) came to the rescue and bought up all the intellectual rights to the Reynard 02S.   IRM picked up where Reynard left off in the build of the first 02S.  The single chassis built was sold to John Nielsen's RN Motorsports.  Ulti-mately the chassis was called a DBA, why?  Carsten Rae was John Nielsen's partner in RN Motorsports.  Rae owns the Danish news paper Den Bla Avis, DBA.  ACO allowed to re-homologate the developed chassis with a new name.  So the car became the DBA4 03S -P675.  IRM continued to own the manufacturing rights to the chassis and in 2004 Zytek entered the picture and offered their manufacturing capabilities to IRM to continue series production of the chassis. To further confuse the lineage, for 2004 and beyond, any newly manufactured chassis will be known as Zytek 04'. Creation continues to field their DBA 03S.

In hands of Zytek Motorsport and equipped with the ultralight and ultracom-pact V8 Zytek ZG348, a 3.4-litre engine with four overhead camshafts, two per bank, the car was the lonely one being able to beat the muzzled Audi R8 with its narrow restric-tors. In 2004 Zytek Engineering Ltd let race the works car at the LMES by Andy Wallace/Stefan Johansson/David Brabham. Already at the Monza 1000-kms they qualified the car as second, ahead of the second Veloqx Audi R8 and the Team Goh Audi R8. Having lost valuable time in the pits the car finished sixth. At Le Mans David Brabham can qualify the works Zytek as third, but unfortunately the car suffers two punctures, with body damages, so that it will drop in the standings to be retired at mid-race. The car will be absent at the Nürburgring, due to lack of sponsorship, as anounces team boss Trevor Foster. Third outing is at the Silverstone 1000-kms where Chris Dyson/Robbie Kerr realise the pole ahead of the three Audis!  Kerr leads the three Audis during the entire first hour and his car will finish fourth after some minor problems in the pits. Unfortunately there is no sponsoring money to go to the last LMES round at Spa. In 2005 the car will be raced at the five rounds of the LMES, now with John Nielsen/Hayanari Shimoda/Cas-per Elgard as drivers. Already at the first round (Spa) the car wins. Not allowed to go to Le Mans (since they did no complete LMES in 2004?) the car is sent in May to Mid-Ohio for the third AMLS round. Here it will finish fourth with Shimoda and John Chilton as drivers. Back in Europe the car is tenth at Monza, eleventh at Silverstone and will win the Nürburgring 1000-kms. In Istanbul the works Zytek is fourth. At the end of the season they come two little points short to win the 2005 LMES Championship.

#16 & #17 PESCAROLO SPORT C60 HB

Henri Pescarolo is a living Le Mans legend. As racer he entered no less than ...33 times the Le Mans 24 hoursn to win four times (in 1972, 1973 and 1974 with the Matra MS670, in 1984 with the Porsche 956 of Joest Racing). In 1999 he creates his own team, Pescarolo Promotion. At the wheel of a Courage C50 he finishes ninth in his real last Le Mans 24 hours. Up from 2000 his team is named Pescarolo Sport. That year he enters two cars at La Sarthe, obtaining a fourth place with his Courage C52. From 2001 to 2003 he enters exclusively Courages C60 at Le Mans with an eighth and ninth place as best (2003). In 2002 and 2003 he finishes twice as runner-up in the FIA SCC with the Courage C60 Peugeot, twice between the Racing for Holland Dome S101 of Jan Lammers. But short races over 500-kms are not his cup of tea. Pescarolo is a man of long distance racing. The Spa 1000-kms of 2003 give him an opportunity to compete with the invincible Audi R8 over 6 hours. His Courage C60 Peugeot finishes second behind the Team Goh Audi R8. A second occasion the same year to fight over 1000-kms, at Le Mans, on the Bugatti circuit, ends again with a second place behind the same Audi.

In 2004 Pescarolo Sports starts the production of an own proto-type, derived from the well-known Courage C60. It becomes the Pescarolo C60 using the 5-litre 72 degree V10 Judd GV5 engine with a dry weight of 135 kg. The car will be entered at the LMES series. At the Monza 1000-kms Emmanuel Collard can qualify the new car as eighth, more than two full seconds per lap slower than the Team Veloqx Audi R8 on the pole. It will finish fourth behind the two Veloqx Audis R8 and the Team Goh Audi R8. At the Le Mans 24 hours of 2004 Pescarolo Sports has two cars on the grid as fifth and eleventh. By bringing the #18 home as fourth Soheil Ayari, Eric Comas and Bernard Tréluyer will split the Audi R8 train of four cars. Back at the LMES Ayari and Eric Hélary qualify the Pescarolo C60 Judd as fifth behind the DBA Zytek and the three Audis R8. The car will finish as fifth. At Silverstone Pescarolo Sport is absent, and at Spa the C60 will be the first to retire.

During the winter the C60 is transformed in a hybrid version. With restrictors being 10 per cent more generous since more bhp can be won. Having no wind tunnel at the Le Mans Technopark, where the firm is based, Pescarolo makes 5000-km tests improving the aerodynamics of the car on an empirical way. Weight of the car came 50 kg down. Already at the Spa 1000-kms it becomes obvious that the C60 Hybrid is faster than the Audi R8. Emmanuel Collard realises the pole position. Initially the car is pulling away from the rest of the field, but a wrong pit stop strategy under yellow makes it loosing one lap. Eventually the Pescarolo C60 HB will finish second to the works Zytek. At Le Mans Pescarolo finds his two cars at the two first places, 2 secs. per lap faster than the first ADT Champion Audi R8. The #16 of Collard/Bouiilon/Co-mas leads during the two first hours. A failing gear selection, however, makes the leading #16 car loosing 14 places. Earlier the #17 was victim of a collision so that the front suspension was to repaired. Eventually the #17 falls out when Soheil Ayari goes off at the Mulsanne chicanes, limping back wingless. The #16 will finish second to the #3 ADT Champion Audi R8.  back at the LMES Pescarolo will win the Monza 1000-kms and the Istanbul 1000-kms, enough to win the 2005 LMES Championship, two points ahead over the works Zytek.

This is the Dallara SP1 having been bought in 2003 by Martin Short from the ORECA team and having been entered in 2004 in the Le Mans Endurance Series. Equipped with a 600 bhp 4-litre V10 Judd GV4 engine the car was good for some fine results at the 2004 LMES. Driven by Martin Short himself and with Joaõ Barbosa and Rob Barff as co-drivers, the car qualified as seventh at the Monza 1,000-kms and was brought home as fifth. At the Nürburgring 1000-kms Rob Barff was replaced by Patrick Pearce. The car qualified as ninth and finished as sixth. At the Silverstone 1000-kms the same Rollcentre trio qualified as seventh but came not higher than fifteenth at the finish. At the Spa 1000-kms Rollcentre Racing obtained its best qualification (sixth) but the car was retired after 49 of the 144 laps. The car was also present at the Le Mans 24 hours, where it was qualified as ninth. Here the car was retired after 230 laps out of 379.

In 2005 the partnership to race Rollcentre's second car with a Nissan V6 motor, made that no time was left to modify the 2004 car into a hybrid version. So bhp came down from 600 to 560. At the curtain opener of the 2005 LMES (the Spa 1000-kms) Martin Short gave Vanina Ickx, daughter of sixt times Le Mans winner Jacky Ickx, a chace to share the Dallara Judd with him and Rob Barff. It was a success since the team won its first podium (third). So Vanina could do the rest of the season. At the Monza 1000-kms - where Barff was replaced by Barbosa - the Rollcenre Dallara Judd was again third. At the Silverstone 1000-kms the same trio was again third. The Nürbugring 1000-kms were good for a fifth place. At the Istanbul 1000-kms the car was qualified as sixth, finishing as eighth. Over the whole LMES season Rollcentre Racing missed only one point to finish on the podium. At Le Mans the #18 Dallara caused a surprise by being qualified as fifth. After four hours the car was even third, splitting the feared Audi R8 trio. A series of mechanical woes let the car drop in the standings, where it finished as 17th.

M P900
engine: 72 degree V10 Judd GV4,  3,997cc  560 bhp with larger restrictors instead of 600 bhp
fuel capacity: 80 litres
weight: 950 kg 
tyres: Michelin