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THE ROOTS OF LMES/LMS
The 2008
Endurance World Championship will be
contested in a pure Le Mans style, with recent Le Mans cars of 2007. From the
early 1960s thru the late 1980s the Le Mans 24 hours were yearly preceeded
by a series of classic 1,000-km races, having all disapeared. From 1953 thru
1988, with an interruption for the period 1975 - 1979 for what concerns Le
Mans , those 1000-km races, together with the Le Mans 24 hours,
formed the rounds on which official manufactuers (such as Ferrari, Aston
Martin, Jaguar, Ford, Peugeot, Lancia, Porsche, etc.) could win points for
the FIA Manufacturers World Championship. Classic European rounds for
those Worlds were (among others such as the Targa Florio) the 1000
Kilometri di Monza [1966-1977, 1980-1992], the 1000 Kilomêtres de Spa
[1966-1976, 1982-1990], the ADAC 1000-Kilometer Rennen at the
Nürburgring [1953-1988] and the Silverstone 1000 kilometres
[1976-1988]. Most of those races were contested prior to the Le Mans 24
hours, and manufacturers considered them as an ultimate practice in view of
Le Mans. When in 1989 ACO, the Le Mans organisers, withdrew from the FIA
Manufacturers Worlds, the others followed so that by 1992 the series was
definitively stopped. 1993 was the last great Le Mans (with a victory of
the Peugeot 905 from Toyota), but up from 1994 the race in La Sarthe was in
a deep crisis when no more major constructers wished to invest in it. The
end of Group C seemed to be the end of the prototypes. The cost to
win Le Mans was not the effort worth to invest in it when it was not
possible to test the new cars in a direct competition over at least
1000-kms.
To prevent that racing with prototypes
went directly to dead, new initiatives were necessary to save the situation.
The first hint came in 1999 from Don Panoz with the creation of his
AMLS (American Le Mans Seies) a series of 10 rounds for
prototypes under a kind of ACO rules, with the Sebring 12 hours and
the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta as highlights. It was a good way to
make that American constructors and race teams stayed interested in racing
Le Mans prototypes. In Europe the FIA created in 2001 the FIA Sportscar
World Championship for prototypes of classes SR1 and SR2.
Number of entrants, however decreased from race to race, and at the last
round of the 2003 championship, number of entries wasas lowas seven! No new
competitive prototypes were seen at the start of those races, dominated by
such obsolete race cars as the Ferrari 333SP.
A better initiative came in 2001 again from America's Don Panoz. In
co-operation with ACO, organiser of the Le Mans 24 hours, he created the
EMLS (European Le Mans Series) over five rounds (four
over less than 500-kms, one over 6 hours). The series was affiliated with the AMLS and at the two
last rounds American cars could even win points for the AMLS. However, one
could hardly speak from a succes: number of entries dropped from 24 (9 P900,
2 P675), to 21 (5 P900, 3 P675), to 18 (2 P900, 1 P675), to 14 (2 P900, 2
P675) and eventually 14 (1 P900, 1 P675). The two works Audis showed only at
the two first rounds and didn't come back any more by lack of competition.
One can only conclude that the EMLS was a failure over the whole line.
Without the American cars number of entries by European teams should had
been as ridiculous as at FIA's Sportscar World Championship. |
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Wilst in 2003 FIA's Sportscar World (sic) was dying (12 cars at
Estoril, 8 cars at Lausitzring, 15 cars at Monza, 9 cars at Oschersleben)
two events stopped the decline of European protoypes racing. At Spa,
by the end of August, the organisers decided to go back to a 1000-kms race, no more organised since
1988. Although a simple round of the FIA SCC number of entries - 35 - all at once
is several times as high as at the other (short distance) rounds. Even the
Japanese Team Goh is present with their Audi R8. In November another proof
is given that teams prefer 1000-kms races over theshort sprints as organised
by the FIA: at a special Le Mans 1000-kms we find 36 cars at the
start (among them 8 P900 and 9 P675 cars).
It should be wrong to believe
that ACO's decision to organise - apart from the FIA - up from 2004 an LMES (Le Mans
Endurance Series) was the consequence of the success of the Spa 1000-kms
and the Le Mans 1000-kms of 2003. Indeed, the series was already anounced at
the end of the 2003 Le Mans 24 hours. But for ACO the success of both
1000-km races was a boost that the success of the new LMES should be
much better than at the painful 2001 ELMS of Don Panoz in 2001;
better also than the poorly attended rounds of the 2001-2003 FIA SCC.
At
the first season in 2004 four 1000-kms races were scheduled: the
Monza 1000-kms (no more organised since 1990), Spa 1000-kms (except
for 2003 no longer organised since 1988), the Silverstone 1000-kms (no
more organised since 1988), and the Nürburgring 1000-kms (no more
organised since 1988). After a first successful
year, offering legendary 1,000-km races on prestigious circuits such as
Monza, Silverstone, the Nürburgring and Spa, - a success that went beyond the best
expectations - a fifth round, the totally new Istan-bul 1000-kms, was
added in 2005 to the series. Part of the success of the LMES was also
the fact that teams could qualify their cars by contesting the LMES rounds.
In 2006 the series's name was changed into LMS (Le Mans Series).
With
more than 40 entries at each round the LMES/LMS was a real success in
prototypes racing. Most teams
considered the LMES as a unique opportunity to prepair their cars in view of
the Le Mans 24 hours. There, at Le Mans, they could also meet the American
prototypes and GT cars coming from the AMLS. At the LMES/LMS cars are
spread over four classes: LMP1 (= LMP900 + LMP675), LMP2 (a new class),
LMGT1 and LMGT2. The difference between LMP900, LMP675 and LMP2 cars is
explained on appart pages, where one
finds an overview of the cars as raced at the LMES/LMS. |
