Thoughts on the Le Mans 1000 Kilometres Winter of Content Was the Le Mans 1,000 Kilometre race (or 853 Kilometres, if you want to be fussy) the turning point in European endurance racing, or a one-off showcase which might prove to be a cul-de-sac, like the ill-fated European Le Mans Series run by John MacDonald in 2001? Some thought that the 42-car entry list, which dwindled to 35 starters, was disappointing, but what should you expect of an event that was added to the international calendar in April, when teams' budgets had long since been fixed (and partially spent)? Class of 2004 I'd say that any event that attracts top-notch teams from Audi, Pescarolo Sport, Courage, Racing for Holland Dome, two Care Racing/Veloqx Ferrari 550 Maranellos and Porsches from the Freisinger, Seikel and PK Sport has class. After all, they have not appeared on one grid since the 24-Hours in June, but will feature in all four 1,000 Kilometre Le Mans Endurance Series next year in addition to the 24-Hours of Le Mans. That's progress! Prototype Paucity Sadly, there are not enough Le Mans Prototype sports cars to form a viable grid, even when you add together the potential of the LMP900, SR1, LMP675 and SR2 teams. Don Panoz has come to terms with that, John Mangoletsi ran himself onto the rocks and Stephane Ratel had a near-miss when it was his turn to run the FIA Sportscar Championship. Ratel, though, has a flourishing FIA Grand Touring Championship to run, and is making a mighty good job of it. He can rely on three dozen Grand Tourers turning up to every event, none of them make excuses and miss the ball, and they would be mighty displeased if prototypes suddenly turned up on their doorsteps and started winning the biggest trophies (in comparative terms, the best GT cars in the top class lap at speeds similar to the SR2 sports cars, and would never score outright victories). Spa Success The Spa 1,000 Kilometres was an interesting event, combining some good Sports-Prototypes with a round of the British GT Championship. That worked just fine. We had 35 cars on the grid, and none of the GT teams complained about being lapped dozens of times by Tom Kristensen and Seiji Ara in their Team Goh Audi because they felt privileged to share the track with the five-time Le Mans winner. At last, we have a formula which will be developed jointly by the ACO and the FIA. Ratel now reveals that he was working on a new concept for the FIA Sportscar Championship, running rounds in concert with the British GT Championship, the Italian and French GT Championships at various venues, "but the agreement with the ACO makes that impossible." Sterling Silverstone The brief appearance of the American Le Mans Series in 2000, either side of Le Mans, was enormously popular and resulted in a breathtaking race at Silverstone in May, and a well supported, if soggy event at the Nurburgring in July. How we loved to see the Audis, the BMWs, the Panoz, the Cadillacs, the Lolas, the Chevrolet Corvettes, the Chrysler/Dodge Vipers and the Dick Barbour Porsches all racing hard in Europe! Big Mac or Quarter Pounder? Don Panoz made two events in Europe, at Donington Park and at Jarama, optional in 2001 and entries were diminished. Audi's Team Joest won both challenged by the Arena Motorsport Audi raced by Stefan Johansson and Guy Smith, but all the fizz went out of the champagne when the American teams returned to base after Le Mans, leaving a shell for MacDonald to fill as best he could. Races at Estoril, Most and Vallelunga struggled to form grids and attract spectators, while John Mangoletsi grappled with similar problems as the FIA Sportscar Championship went on the slide. Who remembers that Stefan Johansson was the LMP900 champion, Didier de Radigues won the LMP675 category, Ian McKellar Jnr won the GTS group in Ray Mallock's Saleen, and Robin Liddell and Mike Youles shared the GT honours in a PK Sport Porsche? Youles was so chuffed, apparently, that he retired from competitions! Pedigree, Chum! The moral to all that was abundantly clear: for the championship to succeed it must have pedigree (that is, the Le Mans label), it must have the best teams available - sports and GT combined -- and it must have excellent organisation and promotion. I was going to add that it should have a handsome prize fund, but no-one in Europe can remember the last time any organisers paid them a cent! Funding is all one-way these days…outward. Top Ingredients We don't have BMW or Cadillac any more, Panoz will rest his old war-horse LMP- 1s but Kazumichi Goh intends to compete in the full European series, as do Jan Lammers, Henri Pescarolo, Yves Courage and Ian Dawson, and the rest of the grids should be pretty much as we witnessed at Le Mans on Sunday November 9. In fact there will be more cars, because there were some (like Mike Jordan at Eurotech) who did not have the budget to compete in the Le Mans 1,000 Kms, but would dearly love to be in the LMES in 2004. Bury the Hatchet Peace has settled, for the time being, on the ancient disputes between the ACO and the FIA, and it may even be that Ratel will tolerate the presence of his former partner, Patrick Peter, in the organiser's office. What of the FIA Sportscar Championship? Well, Ratel doubted that he would have the support of any teams for a series in 2004 and he regards the Le Mans Endurance Series as the complete alternative ("it is the best thing I could do for the sports car teams"). So, no conflict. However the FIA does have a set of regulations for SR1 and SR2 cars which, effectively, disappear in 2004, although the ACO rules have been expanded to accommodate them. The FIA is not entirely happy about this, not wishing to abdicate entirely to the ACO's benefit, and Ratel says that he is working on a very special event for the FIA sportscars. What it is, exactly, he will not say right now. He has to put his plan to the FIA first, and have it approved by the World Council, and I for one can't even guess what Ratel has in mind. OK Coral If only the ACO and the FIA would corral a major sponsor and offer the LMES teams a substantial prize fund, our joy would be complete. This won't happen, of course. The FIA wouldn't offer any money on principle and the ACO will take the view that teams ought to be jolly grateful that it has organised a championship for their benefit so stop grumbling, lads, and discuss your problems with your sponsors. Robin Liddell was holding forth in the Le Mans media centre on Friday about the lack of money flowing in endurance racing, and the general hard-upness of the teams, and even if he did sound like a shop steward he was absolutely right. Jack Kite 'You could spend 10 grand on a sequential gearbox and gain a second per lap, or you could hire a top driver and gain a second that way, and pay him peanuts because there isn't enough money in the sport to pay him properly, and he just wants to go racing' was the gist of Liddell's argument. The American style of topping-up huge prize pots with contributions from tyre and oil companies, and corporations that simply want to be recognised in motor racing circles, doesn't happen in Europe. Such money as there is slides effortlessly into the coffers of the organisers, and doesn't come out again on the supply side. Moral Choices The moral to this seems to be that motor racing is getting too damned expensive for the organisers and the teams. Or, to look at the problem from the other side, there is not enough exposure and not enough public support to get the funds rolling again. We are in the trough, the bottom end of the cycle. In 1998 we had no idea which team might win the 24-Hours of Le Mans: would it be Mercedes, or BMW, or Porsche, or Nissan, or Toyota, or Panoz, or even the Ferrari 333? Public interest was huge, and how we loved it. Any Colour as long as it's ………… Next year the winner will be Audi, or Audi, or Audi, and the winners of the four Le Mans Endurance Series races in 2004 will be Audi, Audi, Audi and Audi. Never mind, though, better Audi than no Audi. The addition of Team Goh's Audi to the grids at Spa on August 31, and the Le Mans 1,000 Kms, gave the events a greater public appeal. I predict that the upswing in the fortunes of endurance racing has now begun, and will continue to surge in 2004. Bring on Audi, the Prodrive Ferraris, the Saleens, the Lamborghinis and the Maseratis and let's look forward to some real glamour in the year to come. |
Michael Cotton |
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