It has emerged that Spyker may move from GT2 to GT1 with the new rules and the 2010 GT1 World Championship.

GT Racer, Luc Alphand has been injured while competing in the Rand'Auvergne motorcycle rally.

The Corvette factory reign in the top class of GT racing came to an end a couple weeks ago at Le Mans. While they will still have customer teams in GT1 and will race in GT2, we thought it was appropriate to remember the mighty C5.R and C6.R as run by the the General Motors factory via Pratt & Miller. The cars raced in the GTS category and the GT1 category, beginning in 1999. In 2000 Pratt & Miller took over the operation of the cars. The rest is history with the team winning
multiple ALMS titles, multiple Le Mans wins and an overall win at the Daytona 24

Professional racing driver and entrepreneur Peter Hardman has confirmed that he is making plans to hand over the reins of Strakka Racing. Peter is in negotiations to sell Strakka Racing to an undisclosed buyer.

LM24: More Team and Driver Recaps
Kolles Racing
Julian Jousse
Guillaume Moreau
Pierre Ehret

LM24: The Time Cars Spent in the Pit Lane

ATLANTA - June 13 -- While the Porsche RS Spyder is just a memory in North America, it was certainly alive earlier today at the checkered flag for the 24 Hours of Le Mans as the iconic LMP2 sports prototype captured its second Le Mans class win in two tries thanks to the Danish customer team of Casper Elgaard, Kristian Poulsen, and Porsche factory driver Emmanuel Collard.

An extraordinary result for the F430 GT at the 24 Hours of Le Mans: four Berlinette from Maranello on the first four places in the GT2 class at the end of the oldest and most prestigious endurance race in the world. Car number 82 from the Risi Competizione Team, driven by Jaime Melo, Mika Salo and Pierre Kaffer, was the first of the cars from Ferrari crossing the line -- this was the 18th overall position with 328 laps driven.

LM24: Teams Recaps pt2
Pescarolo
Oak
RML
Zytek

LM24: Teams Recaps pt1
Drayson
Team Modena
Michelin
Brembo

LM24: Driver Post Race Recaps pt3
Karim Ajlani
Yann Clairay
Marino Franchitti
Patrick Long

It's shortly after 4am when Pescarolo Sport's Peugeot 908 HDI FAP is the victim of a serious accident on the run down towards La Chapelle, just before the S-bends of Tertre Rouge. The extremely violent impact leaves the car completely destroyed. Rescue teams are quickly on the scene and begin extracting Benoit from the cockpit, although the Frenchman has not lost consciousness. After being taken to the track's medical centre, he would be released two hours later miraculously unharmed, save for his bruised pride.

Sunday 14 June 2009, UK; David Brabham proudly took a place in the annals of Le Mans 24 Hours history with his first overall race and LMP1 victory, finally gifting Team Peugeot Total the coveted spoils on home soil and ending an era of Audi domination at Le Mans.

LM24: Driver Post Race Recaps pt2
Paolo Ruberti
Stuart Hall
Harold Primat
Olivier Pla

LM24: Driver Post Race Recaps pt1
Xavier Maassen
Darren Turner
Guy Smith
Oliver Gavin

LM24: The Strakka Race
12 Hours
18 Hours
24 Hours

Corvette Racing, Risi Competizione and Patron Highcroft Racing's David Brabham were the big winners from the American Le Mans Series at the 77th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Corvette ended its GT1 reign with a sixth class win, Risi repeated in GT2 and took two podium spots, and Brabham scored a long-awaited overall victory in the world's greatest race.

LM24: Risi's GT2 Class Winning Race
6 Hours
12 Hours
18 Hours
24 Hours

LM24: Oreca's Race
12 Hours
18 Hours
24 Hours
Quotes

One hour before the end of the 77th edition of Les 24 Heures du Mans there was just as much agitation, excitement and uncertainty as at the start of this legendary race that marked the end of Audi’s nine years of dominance.

Practice and qualifying has been run and won at the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours. Normally we would have had a more of our Le Mans fix by now, however without the test day, we have had to wait longer. So here is just a sample of what has been going on at Le Mans so far...

LM24: Corvette's Last GT1 Hurrah
6 Hours
12 Hours
18 Hours
24 Hours

LM24: Tiago Monteiro's Race
1st stint
2nd stint
Race recap

LM24: IMSA Performance Matmut Race Recap
8 Hours
16 Hours

LM24: Flying Lizard Motorsports Race Recap
6 Hours
12 Hours
15 Hours and Retirement

With the announcement of the new rules for ACO racing and the shenanigans in F1 at the moment, there are rumours that Renault could return to endurance racing.

3 Hours
6 Hours
9 Hours
12 Hours
15 Hours
18 Hours
21 Hours
24 Hours

LM24: The Race According to Spyker
5 Hours
19 Hours
24 Hours

LM24: Audi's Race Recap
Post race recap
Post race quotes
#2 retirement notes

LM24: The Recap of Aston Martin's Return to the Top Flight
3 Hours
6 Hours
9 Hours
12 Hours
15 Hours
18 Hours
21 Hours
009 Retires
24 Hours

LM24: Class Results

LM24: Final Results

The situation after 24 hours

The situation after 23 hours

LM24: After 22 Hours

The situation after 21 hours

The situation after 20 Hours

The state of play after 19 hours

LM24: Standings After 18 Hours

The situation after 18 hours

The situation after 17 hours

The state of play after 16 hours

The state of play after 15 hours

The state of play after 14 hours

The state of play after 13 Hours

LM24: Standings After 12 Hours

The state of play after 12 hours

LM24: After 11 Hours

The state of play after 10 hours

The situation after 9 hours

The state of play after 8 hours

The state of the race after 7 hours

LM24: Standings After 6 Hours

The state of play after 6 hours

LM24: After 4 Hours

The state of the race after 3 hours

The start at 3pm sharp under the official Rolex clock confirmed the strength of two Peugeots (Franck Montagny with the #8 car and Petro Lamy with the #7). Behind them, Allan McNish who was in front line along Franck for the start is now third. Five minutes after the start, three Peugeots pulled into the lead as Wurz managed to pass McNish, now in fourth.

The notable items from hour 2...

A recap from the first hour...

LM24: Warm Up Times

Stéphane Sarrazin, driving the #8 Peugeot 908 Hdi FAP has qualified for a third consecutive pole position in the Le Mans 24 Hours. The Frenchman, gave a shining performance at the very end of tonight's session, after gaining pole position in 2007 and 2008.

LM24: Notes After Qualifying

LM24: Post Qualifying Recaps pt2
Aston Martin
Oreca
David Brabham
Guy Smith

LM24: Post Qualifying Recaps pt3
Peugeot
Audi
Porsche

LM24: Post Qualifying Recaps pt1
Corvette
Flying Lizards
Risi
Drayson

LM24: Combined Qualifying Times

LM24: Qualifying 1 Times

Ingolstadt/Le Mans – Romain Dumas contests the 24 Hours of Le Mans since 2001. On June 13 and 14 the Frenchman experiences a premiere in his ninth race: Dumas tackles the track for the first time in a diesel prototype on the Le Mans début of the Audi R15 TDI. In the interview the 31-year old Frenchman explains to what extent he must relearn the 13.629-kilometer track in the Audi and what is important.

The listing of storied motorsport names at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year is a long one. David Brabham and Marino Franchitti are firmly entrenched among the most popular at Le Mans this year, particularly among the legions of British fans who annually attend the event. Brabham, driving a factory Peugeot 908 HDi, and Franchitti, in Drayson Racing's Aston Martin Vantage GT2, are well aware and appreciative of the significance and meaning of Le Mans in racing.

The ACO is organising a meeting with the entrants to find common ground

LM24: Practice 1 Team Recaps pt2
Peugeot
Aston Martin
Zytek

LM24: Practice 1 Team Recaps pt1
Corvette
Drayson
Risi
Flying Lizard

Following the protest lodged by Team Peugeot Total, the Sporting Stewards of the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours have decided "not to uphold the protest". The team was notified of this decision at 23.33 on Wednesday, June 10.

LM24: Practice 1 Times

LM24: Practice Notes of Interest pt2
Peugeot #9 blows a clutch
Joao Barbosa crashes the #16 Pescarolo
Rollcage problems for Luc Alphand
JLOC has issues

Situation at 1 Hour
Situation at 2 Hours
Situation at 4 Hours
Situation at 5 Hours

12 months after finishing on the LMP2 podium at the Le Mans 24 Hours, the new look OAK Racing returns to the scene of its most famous result hoping for a similar outcome in 2009.

At 10.35am today, Wednesday June 10, 2009, and in compliance with Article 29.2 of the specific regulations of the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours, Team Peugeot Total lodged a protest with the Race Director and the President of the Sporting Stewards of the Le Mans 24 Hours concerning the entrant Audi and the non-compliance of the three Audi prototypes with the ACO’s 2009 technical regulations.

Last Friday the SNORAS Spyker Squadron exchanged their base in Holland for the ‘Circuit de la Sarthe’ just South of Le Mans, France, for their participation in the most gruelling races of all; the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Dutch team has been invited by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) to enter one Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R in the 24 hour race. The car will be driven by Spyker Squadron Le Mans Series-regulars Tom Coronel and Jarek Janis. The pair will be accompanied by 2009 LMP2 winner Jeroen Bleekemolen.

Les 24 Heures du Mans is a thrilling 24-hour non-stop race that takes place at the 13.629 kilometre Circuit de la Sarthe, a track about twice the length of most F1 circuits that is located about 200 kilometres southwest of Paris. The annual race attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators and this year is likely to be no exception.

No driver can appreciate the significance and drama of the 24 Hours of Le Mans more than Allan McNish. The ever-popular Scot and Audi Sport star returned to the top step of the famed podium last year after a decade of heartbreaks and near-misses. Only days before he attempts a repeat in tandem with Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello in the new Audi R15 TDI, McNish talks about the hype preceding this year’s race, going back a decade with Toyota and his lasting images of the 24 Hours.

Jörg Bergmeister and Seth Neiman are together again at Le Mans this weekend in Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. They are teaming with Darren Law in one of the deepest GT2 fields seen at Le Mans, nothing new for a team that won the American Le Mans Series GT2 title last year. Flying Lizard debuted at the 24 Hours in 2005 with a GT2 podium finish. Bergmeister and Neiman would like to get back there this year, preferably on the top step.

It has three years since Dominik Farnbacher burst onto the Le Mans scene with one of 2006's strongest performances on one hand but certainly the heartbreak of the year - all the same race. He was consistently the GT2 class' fastest driver in Farnbacher Racing's Porsche 911 GT3 RSR that suffered broken gearshift while leading in the race's final hour. Now a constant figure in the American Le Mans Series with Panoz Team PTG, the young German will pilot a Ferrari F430 GT for Hankook-Team Farnbacher in GT2.

Already this year Pierre Kaffer has helped Risi Competizione recapture the GT2 championship at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Now can he help the Houston-based team do the same at the 24 Hours of Le Mans? Kaffer will rejoin Jaime Melo and Mika Salo in one of the team's two Ferrari F430 GTs in the world's most famous auto race, a year after the German finished third in GT2 as Ferrari swept the podium.

LE MANS, FRANCE- The 24 Heures du Mans holds a poignant place in the heart and mind of even the most casual observer. It is a special race that transcends cars and drivers to reach mythical status; an event of which dreams are made. The dream will be realised 13-14 June as Drayson Racing makes its debut appearance in the grandfather of all sports car races. In an all-British driver line-up, teaming behind the wheel of the No. 87 Drayson Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT2 will be Paul Drayson (London/Gloucestershire, UK), Jonny Cocker (Guisborough, Yorks, UK) and Marino Franchitti (London/Edinburgh, UK). Dale White (Bozeman, MT, USA) will manage the Official Partner Team of Aston Martin Racing (AMR) to what he hopes will be his third LM GT2 class victory at Le Mans.

The Ginetta-Zytek teams entered for this weekend's Le Mans 24-hour race
will be breaking records in more ways than one. As at last month's Spa
1,000km, no fewer than five Zytek prototypes will be on the grid, the
highest number of Repton-built cars ever to start the world's most
famous endurance race. Driving one of the two Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S LMP1s
will be Nigel Moore who, at 17 years 5 months old, will be the youngest
British driver ever to compete here.

Shortly after the 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours; Group ORECA began concentrating their efforts on the 2009 event with one objective: move up to the next level in the "Le Mans Endurance Challenge". In order to compete with the top manufacturers they developed the ORECA-01, the first prototype ever to be entirely developed in Signes!

Ingolstadt/Le Mans -- Logical lightweight construction, downsizing, efficiency and the best possible aerodynamics -- the same subjects which currently occupy the brains of the automobile industry development departments are also key elements in the 24 Hours of Le Mans held for the 77th time on the weekend of June 13/14.

LE MANS, France, June 5, 2009 -- Corvette Racing has unfinished business at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The most successful team in American Le Mans Series history has won its class five times in the classic 24-hour French endurance race (2001-02, 2004-06), establishing Corvette as a global performance icon. Now after runner-up finishes in Le Mans in 2007 and 2008, Corvette Racing is focused on winning its sixth Le Mans title at the immense Circuit des 24 Heures on June 13-14.

David Brabham, two-time Le Mans GT1 winner, is aiming for his third consecutive class victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours, 12-14 June 2009. Brabham makes his return to LMP1 at the 8.4 mile Circuit de la Sarthe for first time since 2003, presenting the opportunity to capture his first win in the category at the wheel of the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP.

Frenchman Benoit Treluyer spends most of his year in Japan, racing in the Formula Nippon and Super GT series, but is now back on home ground and ready to drive the Pescarolo Sport Peugeot 908 HDi FAP at the Le Mans 24 Hours next week. He tested the car recently at Magny-Cours with his team-mates Jean-Christophe Boullion and Simon Pagenaud and the Normandy-based driver is now making his final preparations ahead of a race which has a very special place in his heart.

Paris, May 28th 2009 -- On June 13th and 14th 2009, Stephan Gregoire will be back at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a C6.R LM GT1 corvette with the Luc Alphand Aventures team. He has recently been selected to co-drive LAA car No. 72 with Luc Alphand and Patrice Goueslard at the 77th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

A...American Le Mans Series. Our racing home from home.

The surroundings will be familiar even if the team is not for Chris Dyson next week at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. For the first time since 2004, Dyson will drive in the world’s greatest auto race, this time with RML in a Mazda-powered Lola coupe - just as he does in the American Le Mans Series’ LMP2 class for his Dyson Racing team. Although he has participated at Le Mans once, Dyson is well aware of the significance and mystique it holds on both competitors and fans.

For the second consecutive year, Porsche factory driver Wolf Henzler will compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Team Felbermayr-Proton in a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. Like many Le Mans rookies, last year’s American Le Mans Series GT2 champion was swept up in the magnitude and scope of the world’s greatest auto race. A fifth-place GT2 finish made his first experience that much more memorable. This year, the Farnbacher Loles Racing regular will drive with Marc Lieb (the pair was second in class at Miller Motorsports Park) and Richard Lietz.

Twice round the clock. The fight for victory will be between two manufacturers. Audi vs Peugeot.

One has a record and a reputation to uphold and one as the promise to fulfil – both are desperate and committed to victory.

Gaydon, 4 June 2009. The 77th Le Mans 24 Hours marks a milestone in the history of Aston Martin as the iconic sports car manufacturer celebrates the 50th anniversary of its first win at Le Mans.

Just because he has competed in two American Le Mans Series events this year doesn’t mean things aren’t busy for Johnny O’Connell (and for that matter, anyone at Corvette Racing. On the contrary, it has been one of the more productive pre-Le Mans periods the team has undertaken in several years.

Guillaume Moreau will share the OAK Racing, Team Mazda France #35 LMP2 Pescarolo-Mazda with Matthieu Lahaye and Karim Ajlani at the Le Mans 24 Hours, in what will be his third participation in the iconic event at La Sarthe.

Stuart Moseley, (31, St Ives, Cambs , UK ) is set to drive the legendary Le Mans 24 Hour race in the same Barazi-Epsilon Zytek 07s as last year. This will be the Loughborough born driver’s fourth consecutive Le Mans assault. 2008 saw the team finish fifth in the LMP2 class, equalling Stuart’s previous best result. The team line up includes Juan Barazi, as last year, with French driver Roland Berville completing the line-up.

After the disappointment which followed its unsuccessful bid to win the 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours with the 908 HDi FAP, which stood out as endurance racing's best car, Peugeot Sport has not eased up in the slightest. Twelve months on, it returns to the French classic even stronger thanks to the invaluable additional experience it has gained during its build-up to this year's competition. Having been able to focus solely on the race, the team goes into the 2009 event feeling composed and confident. That said, surprises are always possible in such an unforgiving contest as Le Mans, an event with a unique blend of human emotion and technical prowess which all manufacturers dream of winning one day, and the legend of which has been forged by countless dramatic turnarounds.

Gaydon, 3 June 2009. Aston Martin's debut in the LMP1 class at Le Mans this year coincides with a number of rule changes -- posing another challenge to the British team as it gears up for its campaign at the La Sarthe circuit on the 13-14 June.

The countdown has begun and the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours is now just ten days away. Darren Turner returns to the scene of his two class victories as part of Aston Martin's LMP1 squad, competing for the outright win in what is arguably the world's most famous motor race.

The numbers from Le Mans grow more and more staggering each year. On a circuit that measures 8.3 miles, the average lap speeds for prototypes are in excess of 150 mph. And the winning Audi R10 TDI raced for 381 laps and more than 3,220 miles in a 24-hour span. Yes, it’s the ultimate test of both man and machine.

Le Mans: Entry List

In just two weeks time the Circuit de la Sarthe, just south of Le Mans, France, will once again be overtaken by motorsport teams, media and fans in anticipation of the 24 Heures du Mans 2009. Considered to be the oldest endurance race in the world, this prestigious 24-hour non-stop automobile spectacle is set to begin this year on Saturday, 13 June at 15:00 CEST, regardless of weather conditions.

Northamptonshire’s Oliver Gavin has been a busy man over the last four weeks. A personal best time of 3 hours and 10 seconds in the London Marathon, a hectic test and development schedule for Corvette Racing’s new GT challenger in North America, and an appearance discussing jet lag on the recent BBC1 documentary “10 Things You Need To Know About Sleep”.

Ingolstadt – The three driver teams with which Audi Sport Team Joest will tackle the 77th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 13/14 have been confirmed.

The Villecresnes native joins the recently confirmed Jamie Campbell-Walter (Scotland) and Vanina Ickx (Belgium) completing the trio for the Anglo-American team, and will make his 4th start at La Sarthe circuit having previously campaigned the race in Courage LMP2 and Porsche GT3 machines.

Ginetta will be making its debut at Le Mans this June, driven by in-house squad Team LNT. The previous Le Mans GT2 winners are hoping to repeat their 2006 success with a three strong team of driving talent including Team Principal Lawrence Tomlinson and Ginetta Managing Director Richard Dean. The pair will be joined by rising Ginetta star Nigel Moore to race the Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S LMP1.

Out of the 82 entry forms received by the ACO 55 cars remain, many of which are contenders for outright victory, as well as for honours in each category: 20 LM P1s, 12 LM P2s, 6 LM GT1s, 17 LM GT2s. This is a spectacle not to be missed - for many good reasons!

After a well deserved fourth place at Spa-Francorchamps the team immediately continues to work on their Le Mans 24 Hours preparations. With only three weeks to go before the most gruelling race starts the team grabs the opportunity to test the Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R once more at Monza, Italy.

JMW Motorsport will be represented by one of the strongest driver line-ups at Le Mans this year with the announcement that regular driver Rob Bell will be joined by Andrew Kirkaldy and Tim Sugden for the prestigious 24 Hour race taking place on 13-14th June 2009.

With the Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix now in the proverbial rear-view mirror, a select group of American Le Mans Series drivers and teams can now turn their attention to the pinnacle of motorsport – Le Mans.

Racing has recruited three new drivers to run a trio of Gulf-liveried LMP1 cars at this year's Le Mans 24 Hours, which marks the 50th anniversary
of Aston Martin's first victory at La Sarthe in 1959.

Withdrawal of the IPB Spartak Racing team's Lamborghini Murcielago (LM GT1)

Spa: Race Recaps Pt4
Pescarolo
RML
Team Modena
Olivier Pla

Le Mans Series Points After Round 2

The initial aim of 30 entries minimum has already been exceeded for the first two Asian Le Mans Series meetings in Okayama and Shanghai. The ACO is delighted about this, and the club is harvesting the fruits of its painstaking preparation.

For the first time in their history the two major endurance races in Europe have decided to join forces and have come up with an exceptional idea: the awarding of a new Trophy and a new double ticket priced at 99 euros to enable its buyers to attend the Nürburgring 24 Hours (23rd/25th May) and the Le Mans 24 Hours (13th/14th June).

Spa: Post Race Recaps pt3
Peugeot
Aston Martin
Zytek
Darren Turner

Spa: Post Race Recaps pt2
Strakka
Quifel ASM
OAK Racing
Guy Smith

Spa: Post Race Recaps pt1
Spyker
Drayson
Simon Pagenaud
David Brabham

With its mixture of long straights, fast corners and varying gradients, the Spa-Francorchamps circuit ranks as one of the most technically challenging circuits visited by the Le Mans Series but is a firm favorite with drivers, teams and fans alike.

Spa: Race Results

The warm up, initially scheduled at 8.30 this morning, is cancelled because of the frog.

Unlike Barcelona, today's qualifying session did not result in a big surprise in the LMP1 class, as Team Peugeot Total snatched pole and second position under overcast weather conditions.

Spa: Qualifying Times

Spa: Practice 2 Times

Seventeen-year-old Daniel Brown confounded his elders yet again at Spa-Francorchamps today, securing pole position for round three of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship with a virtuoso qualifying performance on the Belgian Grand Prix circuit.

With F1 having a steely resolve to destroy themselves, rumours have emerged that Ferrari could be on their way back to the top flight of sportscar racing.

We promised you some surprises for the week-end…you know that we never lie! The proof is that, from the first free practice session, the results are…amazing. The Oreca AIM n°11, driven by Olivier Panis and Nicolas Lapierre, scored the exact same time as the Peugeot n°9 (with Marc Gené, Alexander Wurz and David Brabham) in the thousandth near!

This morning, while the teams were unpacking in the paddock of Spa-Francorchamps, we could spent some special time with Bruno Senna and talk to him about his commitment in the Le Mans Series, about him racing in Belgium this weekend and about his future. You will find selected extracts below.

Spa: Practice 1 Times

Spa: Entry List

April 30, 2009 -- Sonoma, Calif. -- Flying Lizard will campaign the team's No. 80 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR for its fifth consecutive 24 Heures du Mans, June 13-14 at the Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France. The team received an invitation to compete in the historic event after winning the 2008 American Le Mans Series GT2 team championship.

Peugeot has chosen the ultra-fast circuit of Spa-Francorchamps – where the best lap posted by the N°7 908 in 2008 represented an average speed of almost 210kph – to fine-tune its preparations for its prime objective of the 2009 season, the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Hugues de Chaunac now has his commando for the Le Mans Challenge! Bruno Senna and Stéphane Ortelli, the drivers of the no.10 ORECA 01, will team up with Tiago Monteiro for the Le Mans 24 Hours. Olivier Panis and Nicolas Lapierre will be joined in no.11 by Soheil Ayari in the Sarthe. Tiago and Soheil are a couple of excellent recruits who will back up the usual Team ORECA-Matmut-AIM driver pairings this coming June.

The Vitaphone Racing Team has officialised its withdrawal, as it was unable to find an agreement with Porsche to run an RS Spyder in LM P2 in the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours. Thus, the German team will not be present at the compulsory free practice session on 10th June.

Bugatti: Test Times

If yesterday looked like a warm-up session, today the teams have moved on to real business on the Bugatti circuit for the second day of testing, where the spectators could admire the rehearsing cars in bright sunshine.

Quality trumps quantity! This is certainly the case at today's test session on the Bugatti circuit in Le Mans, a place so steeped in history that you can almost taste it in the air. Although only a few teams are participating, there has been no shortage of excitement on the track throughout the three classes.

Let's find the interview of Patrick Dempsey, the famous "Grey's Anatomy" Docteur Sheperd , who drove for ht very first time in Le Mans.

The actor was quite nervous but very happy of this experience. He explains how its role of motorsport driver is important in his life. Read the interview.

Yorkshire based Team LNT renewed their acquaintance with Ginetta-Zytek machinery today, running their new GZ09S for the first time at a sunny Snetterton. Team LNT have enjoyed considerable success with Zytek Engineering in the past, finishing 2nd in LMP2 at the 2007 Silverstone LMS round and enjoying a stint in the overall lead of the 2008 Petit Le Mans (PLM) before eventually finishing 4th in LMP1 at the American flagship event.

Bugatti: Entry List

We just received the confirmation: Patrick Dempsey, famous for acting Dr Shepherd in the soap Grey's Anatomy, will participate this week-end in the official Le Mans Series Tests on the Bugatti Circuit, joining Don Kinch on the Ferrari F430GT no. 78 from the Team Seattle - AE.

Analysis of the performances of the diesel-engined and petrol-engined prototypes after the Sebring and Barcelona races showed that the diesel-engined cars still enjoyed an advantage. In order to guarantee the equivalence between the different engines, the ACO, in keeping with its undertakings, has decided to impose adjustments on diesel-engined prototypes from the Spa-Francorchamps race onwards

With all the talk of doom and gloom throughout the race industry, it was a wonderful relief for the Danish Aussie sportscar ace Allan Simonsen to finally get back into a serious championship – the 2009 Le Mans Series (GT2 Class).

Rumours have emerged regarding Jos Verstappen's participation in the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours.

Following March's 12 Hours of Sebring, Team Peugeot Total is continuing its preparations for the Le Mans 24 Hours and, as announced at the pre-season presentation in February, the second phase of the programme will take the squad to Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

LE MANS, FRANCE - April 8, 2009 - Drayson Racing is leaving no stone unturned in its first year effort at the 24 Heures du Mans. The Official Partner Team of Aston Martin Racing has signed star sports car racer Marino Franchitti (Edinburgh/Windsor, UK) to anchor full-season drivers Paul Drayson (London/Gloucestershire, UK) and Jonny Cocker (Guisborough, Yorks, UK) in the No. 87 Drayson Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT2 for the sports car classic. Team Manager Dale White (Bozeman, MT, USA) and Aston Martin Racing (AMR) technical directors have also outlined a vigorous test and development schedule in advance of the 77th running of the French 24 hour event on 13-14 June.

Le Mans Series Points After Round 1

Catalunya: Team and Driver Race Recaps pt4
Lola
Quifel-ASM
Strakka

Catalunya: Team and Driver Race Recaps pt3
Aston Martin
Zytek
Speedy Racing Team Sebah

Catalunya: Team and Driver Race Recaps pt2
Audi
Drayson
JMW

Catalunya: Team and Driver Race Recaps pt1
Spyker Squadron
Darren Turner
Matteo Bobbi
Thomas Biagi

RML Group is delighted to be able to announce a new partnership with international medical research charity Spinal Research. RML will work to help raise the charity’s profile and has pledged to help increase donations during the next 12 months.

March saw the Le Mans Series official tests and, importantly, the 12 Hours of Sebring. We saw a fantastic race between Peugeot, Audi and Acura and while some the diesel/petrol equivalency came under dispute yet again, we were witness to a great race, one where Audi showed its supremacy. We also saw the finale of GT1 category at the Sebring event. A small series in Australia also held its first round. iRace round 1 was held at Morgan Park and we got hold of a couple of pictures - just for something different.

No less than seven teams could have won the race in Spain today, emphasizing just how competitive the 2009 Le Mans Series season should be. IPB Spartak Racing returned to form, Aston Martin Racing was back on top, Racing Box scored their first victory in the class, and Team Felbermayr-Proton clinched their best result for a while.

Catalunya: Race Results

The Pescarolo n°17 is leading the race, ahead the Aston Martin n°007 and the Courage-Oreca n°11 (driven by Olivier Panis and Nicolas Lapierre) and which operated a spectacular recovery.

We are living some incredible developments here, since more than one hour: the Aston Martins shoot off ahead the Strakka which was in pole position, but at this time, the leader of the category is the Pescarolo n°16 driven by Jean-Christophe Boullion.

Catalunya: Warm Up Times

SNORAS Spyker Squadron driver Tom Coronel will be joined by Benjamin Leuenberger in the 1000 km race tomorrow. Swiss driver Benjamin Leuenberger will replace Jarek Janis after he suffered from an old neck injury. Spyker Squadron team management decided it was better for Jarek not to drive.

You expected a big surprise? Here it is! The track record lap-time was not broken this afternoon, but the chase was really awesome. A brand new car and a brand new team are on pole and it seems that we are in for a tough and exciting race tomorrow.

Catalunya: Qualifying Times

Catalunya: Practice 2 Times

Catalunya: Practice 1 Times

For the second time, the five-race Le Mans Series season kicks off at Barcelona. With 43 sportscars on the grid, the fight should be tough throughout the four classes.

The Epsilon Euskadi-entered Epsilon Euskadi-Judd is the second withdrawal among the 55 cars invited to take part in the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours, and will not be present at compulsory free practice on 10th June.

Bruno Senna’s motor racing season will officially start this Friday when he get into the Courage-Oreca LC70 prototype for the Catalonian 1000 Km free practice. The Brazilian driver will line up for Oreca team along with veteran Stephane Ortelli in the opening round of the Le Mans Series. The 205-lap race is scheduled to Sunday.

Few changes in the Le Mans Series list of competitors. There have been a few recent changes in the llist of competitors of the 1000Km de Catalunya.

Ingolstadt/Stuttgart – The Audi driver lineup for the 24 Hours of Le Mans is complete: by signing Timo Bernhard (28/Germany) and Romain Dumas (31/France) Audi managed to engage two absolute endurance specialists for the most important sports car race of the year.

The ACO has been notified of the first withdrawal among the 55 entrants invited to take part in the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours. The Gigawave Motorsport Ltd Aston Martin DBR9 will not be present at free compulsory practice on 10th June. The British team has decided to concentrate all its energies on the homologation of the new Nissan GTR as well as its race programme.

Larbre Competition has announced Steve Zacchia, Roland Berville and Sébastien Dumez as its driver line-up for the Barcelona 1000kms on 5 April.

Spyker Squadron opens its Le Mans Series GT2 championship campaign at the F1 Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, this weekend. The 1000 km of Catalunya marks the first time the Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R will race this season. Spyker will again compete in the five round Le Mans Series championship and, in June, in the famous and most gruelling race of all: the 24 Hours of Le Mans. As announced earlier, Dutchman Tom Coronel will share the wheel with the Czech race talent Jarek Janis.

Le Mans Series come on strong for their second visit to the Catalan track, with no less than 12 LMP1s, 16 LMP2s, 4 LMGT1s and 14 LMGT2s!

SPEEDY RACING - TEAM SEBAH is taking part in a two day test on the Algarve circuit, home of the third round of the 2009 Le Mans Series.

Misano, March 25th, 2009 - Team Racing Box halted its tests on Misano Adriatico's racing circuit yesterday. The stop came prematurely because of the rain. This session was set in preparation for the Les Mans Series's opening act, which will be held on April, 5th, in Barcelona.

Catalunya: Entry List

Having contested the ALMS with Acura since 2008, Poitiers-born Simon Pagenaud has joined Peugeot Sport's official line-up. His test programme will begin in the coming weeks with a view to him replacing Sebastien Bourdais alongside Montagny and Sarrazin for the 1,000km of Spa-Francorchamps (May 8-10). The same weekend, Bourdais will be taking part in the fifth round of the Formula One World Championship at Barcelona in Spain.

Bruno Senna will mark his official start of this year's racing program with a new challenge. The Brazilian ace will compete in Catalonian 1000 Km, the opening round of the Le Mans Series scheduled for Montmelò circuit (Barcelona) on 3/4/5 April.

Bruce Jouanny has been awarded one of the coveted drives at Pescarolo Sport
for the 2009 Le Mans Series Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

# Audi launches new LMP1 racing sports car
# New TDI engine and many innovative approaches
# Race debut on March 21 at Sebring (USA)

With the Le Mans Series official testing over and the first race is just around the corner, details about the Kolles Audi R10 effort are starting to emerge.

Paul Ricard, 9 March 2009. Following weeks of intense preparation Aston Martin Racing ran its new LMP1 cars for the first time at the Le Mans Series test held at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France on 8/9 March.

Quifel-ASM topped the LMP2 timesheets with its Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S/2 at the first Le Mans Series test of 2009, proving to be nearly a second faster than the next in class. The Portuguese team completed 1,500 kilometres of the Paul Ricard High Technology Test Track, whilst also performing a scheduled engine change on the first day.

RML Lola-Mazda at Paul Ricard. Photo: Marcus Potts/CMC Following on from the confirmation on Friday (March 6th) that Chris Dyson would be the third driver in RML AD Group's Lola-Mazda Coupe for Le Mans 2009, the team took a very disciplined approach to the ACO's official Le Mans Series test at the Paul Ricard circuit.

Racing's trio of drivers, Peter Hardman, Nick Leventis and Danny Watts, came away from the official ACO Le Mans Series test at the Paul Ricard circuit feeling very positive about the outcome. The team's new Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S took part in four out of the five available sessions, and emerged consistently third or fourth fastest in LMP1.

9th March, 2009 -- The Ginetta-Zytek 09s of Portugal's Quifel ASM Team made its mark this weekend in the LMP2 class in the first two days of official tests of the Le Mans Series that took place on the Paul Ricard track in France.

LE CASTELLET, FRANCE, March 8, 2009 - Following a winter of preparation, Drayson Racing made its Le Mans Series debut, and in fact its motorsports debut, today at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France.

Le Castellet, 10 March - After earlier tests at Papenburg and Vallelunga Spyker Squadron yesterday tested their Laviolette GT2R in 2009 specifications at the High Tech Test Track (HTTT) Paul Ricard. As Tom Coronel (NED) was racing in the first WTCC round in Brazil, Spyker Le Mans Series driver Jarek Janis (CZ) was accompanied by Jeroen Bleekemolen (NED) whom will join the pair later this year in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Team Snoras Spyker Squadron entered new Le Mans Series season at official test days held at Paul Ricard circuit in Le Castellet (08-09/03/2009). Two of three team's drivers, Czech pilot Jarek Janis and his Dutch colleague Jeroen Bleekemolen got an opportunity to test the brand new blue and yellow Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R. Both drivers gradually improved their times and at the final test session on Monday afternoon they achieved third place in LMGT2 class.

The no.10 Courage-Oreca covered its endurance simulation while no.11 brought its development programme to a successful conclusion.

Darren Turner declared himself happy with progress yesterday after completing the first test in the car he will race at this year's Le Mans 24 Hours: the Aston Martin LMP1 car. As the Aston Martin Racing team prepares for an assault on the Le Mans Series and the big race itself, Darren, and his team-mates debuted the two new cars at the Paul Ricard circuit on Sunday.

Following the confirmation by the ACO of its two invitations to the Le Mans 24 Hours, OAK Racing-Team Mazda France launched its technical programme for the first time at the two-day Official Le Mans Series test at Paul Ricard. The Nevers-based team used the test to give a first roll-out out to its Dunlop-shod Pescarolo-Mazda LMP2 car.

As the Official Test Sessions come for the Le Mans Series, the rumour mill is also starting to heat up.

The Le Mans Series Test Times

· Number 11 Team Oreca Matmut-AIM of Olivier Panis and Nicolas Lapierre sets fastest times in all four Le Mans Series test sessions at the Paul Ricard HTTT test track

In line with its commitment to constant self-renewal, Michelin will rise to new challenges at the upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Le Mans Series endurance races. The 2009 season features stricter rules with regard to tire changes, as well as new teams, new cars and an ever-greater focus on environmental issues.

"Green Washing" is fashionable / Le Mans Series has always favoured "Green Caring"

Motorsport has a function, an aim: that of making technological progress and applying the evolutions to everyday cars. Endurance is based on an essential rule:

DRIVING FURTHER, CONSUMING LESS

Bruno Senna takes his Endurance first steps in the Le Mans Series
Endurance is a family business!
3 500 spectators: a successful test!

Ingolstadt – AUDI AG is the world’s first automobile manufacturer to develop a "second” generation diesel racing sports car. Audi aims to underline its supremacy and consolidate its expertise in car technology once more at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans with the all-new Audi R15 TDI

The last brush strokes have been given to the liveries, the stickers have been affixed, the teams get their reflexes back...everybody is in the starting blocks for this new season!

Ahead of this weekend's official ACO Le Mans Series test at the Paul Ricard circuit at Le Castellet in southern France, RML AD Group is pleased to confirm that Chris Dyson will be joining the team's driver line-up for this year's Le Mans 24 Hours.

Aston Martin Racing has added Portuguese driver Miguel Ramos to its LMP1 line-up for 2009. Ramos will join Aston Martin Racing Works drivers, Jan Charouz (CZ), Tomas Enge (CZ), Stefan Mücke (DE), Harold Primat (CH) and Darren Turner (GB).

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., March 2 - Didier Theys, one of the most successful and popular endurance sports car drivers on either side of the Atlantic, today announced his retirement as a professional race car driver.

Completely inverse to the economic downturn a record breaking 82 teams applied to enter a car in the 24 Hours of Le Mans next June. Based on previous results, the Le Mans organising Automobile Club de l’ Ouest (ACO) already nominated 15 cars last January. The remaining 40 positions for the 77th edition of the 24 hour race were presented by the ACO to the teams and international motor sport press presented last Thursday in Paris.

Only four weeks after announcing the team’s bold decision to move up from GT1 to race a Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S in LMP1, the news that Strakka Racing’s entry for the Le Mans 24 Hours has been accepted by the ACO brought both delight and relief to the Silverstone-based outfit.

The ACO have announced the 2009 entry list for Le Mans.

The List of Invitations for the Le Mans 24 Hours, as announced by the ACO (Automobile Club de l'Ouest), revealed a well-kept secret: in order to strengthen its strategy for the conquest of a victory in Le Mans, Peugeot Sport decided to entrust a Peugeot 908 to Pescarolo Sport.

The greatest Le Mans 24 Hours have always been the theatre of thrilling battles between works cars, and the 77th event is no exception to the rule. There will be 3 manufacturers at the start: Aston Martin, Audi and Peugeot with a total of 12 cars all out for victory. You dreamed it: it’ll happen at Le Mans!

Full Speed Racing has completed the signing of sportscar superstar Christophe Bouchut to drive their Saleen S7R in the Le Mans Series.

After an exceptional 2008 season -five podiums and two victories in five races - the LMGT1 title winner is back in the race.

Team Essex will be returning to Le Mans this year. After having won three driver titles in the Danish Touringcar Championship, numerous team titles and taken second place in last year's 24 hour Le Mans race as well as finishing second in the Le Mans Series, Team Essex will be returning to the European circuits aiming for a Le Mans win.

Newly founded Team ECOSpeed, based in Lugano, Switzerland, is ready to challenge the established competitors in Le Mans Series, Asian Le Mans Series, selected events of American Le Mans Series, and, if the entry is accepted, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The first test of the LMP1 Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S proved every bit as successful as that of its LMP2 counterpart the week before. Now, with more Zyteks appearing in the Le Mans Series than ever, the year looks particularly promising for the Repton-based operation.

This is the news of the day: Michael Vergers, the Dutch driver who drove the Barazi Epsilon's LMP2 in 2008, will be the spearhead of the Virgo Motosport team this season.

Multiple champions Larbre Competition will return to the Le Mans Series with one of their GT1 Saleen S7Rs in 2009.

After last week’s confirmation of Tom Coronel as a Spyker factory driver, Spyker Squadron today reveals Tom’s team mate for the upcoming race season: Czech talent and former Spyker Squadron pilot Jarek Janis will share the Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R with Tom in the Le Mans Series and in the most grueling endurance race of all; the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Although both have raced the Spyker GT2 race cars before they have never shared a car in the past.

Strakka Racing confirmed today that Danny Watts will join the squad's driver line-up for the full Le Mans Series season in 2009, co-driving the team's Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S alongside Peter Hardman and Nick Leventis. Pending confirmation of an entry, Danny will also be the team's third driver for the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.

Jarek Janis passed really impressive return to racing car wherewith he raced in season 2007. Team Snoras Spyker Squadron invited him to test in Italian Vallelunga circuit. Young Czech spent two days behind the wheel in Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R. The former factory driver of team raced with Dutch car in Le Mans Series and in 24h Le Mans two years ago. Jarek shared about approximately 200 laps with Dutch Tom Coronel on track not so far from Rome.

Tests came through in sunny wheather in temperature over 10 centigrades. There was return for Jarek to car of LMS after one and half year. Last he raced with Spyker 1000 km in Spa LMS in July 2007. During that time he had serious accident in famous corner Eau Rouge due to burst tyre and he injured his backbone.

First time after his medication, he raced twice in autumn last year. He raced with Mercedes AMG DTM C-Klasse of Charouz Racing System team in Czech Touring Car Championship. Once in Automn Prix of Brno and second time in Epilog at Brno as well. He got always on podium positions. The most important was that Jarek fixed up. The same is true of Vallelunga.

Jarek Janis: "The tests were really very interesting. Together with Tom Coronel we had two days of testing with newly modified Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R. Everything went well. The wheather was very important. We ran together about 200 laps. We shared half and half. I'm really happy that I felt perfectly. It just proved that medication of my backbone injured in Spa 2007, was successfull. We mainly tried newly modified back axletree of the car. I raced in the team in season 2007, in Le Mans Series and in 24h Le Mans but car has changed a lot since that time. It's much better than before. The instrument board is completely new as well. Team sent me the instrument board on photos by e-mail and I studied rigorously every single buton on it. I was pleased to meet Tom Coronel individually. He is very experienced and very kindly and opened guy. We discussed everything together and we agreed on almost everything. I would be glad not to test only with this team. I thank to team boss Peter van Erp that he invited me."

The new Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S proved particularly rapid during a second round of testing at the Autódromo do Estoril in Portugal last week. During three days of trials, Zytek Motorsport and the Quifel-ASM team worked on the development of the LMP2 version. The result, after over 2,000kms, indicated that, despite the new ACO regulations, the latest Ginetta-Zytek is going to be an even more potent racecar than its class winning predecessor.

Team Modena took possession of their new Ferrari 430GT racecar yesterday when it was handed over at Ferrari's Fiorano test track and immediately put through a shake-down by the team.

Team West-Tec is delighted to announce the unveiling of an attack on the inaugural Formula Le Mans Championship in 2009.

For the second year in a row, Franck Montagny will drive a Peugeot 908 HDi-FAP in the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours (13th and 14th of June). The French driver, who finished 3rd last year after a very good race, will compete before in the 12 Hours of Sebring, California (14th of March) and the 1000 Kilometers of Spa in Belgium (10th of May) where the Peugeot team will be preparing for the French classic.

Double Le Mans GT1 class winner David Brabham is set to return to the P1 category for the Le Mans 24 Hours 2009 race with Peugeot Sport, it was announced at a Paris press conference today, Monday 9 February. Brabham, who lives in Henley-on-Thames, will chariot the new-liveried Peugeot 908 HDi FAP in his bid to take his third consecutive Le Mans victory in the year that his father, Sir Jack, celebrates the 50th anniversary of his first Formula One World Championship crown.

Despite today's difficult economic context, Peugeot has chosen to pursue its different motor sport activities in 2009. These range from its high profile endurance racing programme to the promotion of its products through its various single-make series. The current crisis has led Peugeot's management to seek synergies within Groupe PSA Peugeot Citroen with the appointment of Olivier Quesnel at the helm of Peugeot Sport.

We might be in the middle of a financial crisis and we might have grids that are smaller than we would like for 2009, but it is likely that the world will recover and these are just some of what we could expect when things improve (or earlier!).

Following in the footsteps of Frenchman Dino Lunardi, who won the 2007 THP Spider Cup, it was this weekend the turn of the 2008 champion Simon Moulton to profit from the opportunity to sample the 908 HDi FAP at a special test at Barcelona, Spain, on Saturday, February 7.

Sub-zero temperatures and overnight snow were not enough to deter RML AD Group from carrying out a first shakedown of the team's new Mazda-powered Lola B08/80 LMP2 Coupe. The two-day test at Snetterton was also an opportunity to finalise the car's revised livery for the 2009 season, with Mazda's distinctive corporate blue now a significant element of the familiar colour scheme.

Tom Coronel will rejoin the Spyker Squadron, the works racing team of Dutch car sports Car manufacturer Spyker. Coronel will participate in the full race program of Spyker, which consists of the Le Mans Series and the Le Mans 24 hour race. These races neatly fit in with Tom's program in the FIA World Touring Car Championship with SEAT.

DETROIT -- Corvette Racing will have a new driver lineup for the 2009 American Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Antonio Garcia will join defending ALMS GT1 champions Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R for the Sebring 12-hour, Le Mans 24-hour, and 1000-mile Petit Le Mans endurance races. Marcel Fassler will be teamed with 2005-07 GT1 champions Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta in the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R in the three long-distance races. Canadian Ron Fellows, a member of Corvette Racing since its inception, will continue with the team in an advisory and ambassadorial role.

Lola will supply LMP1 sportscars to Aston Martin Racing for the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours and Le Mans Series. The Huntingdon designed and built cars will be powered by a production based V12 Aston Martin engine and race in the evocative blue and orange livery of Gulf Oil.

Lola Cars International Ltd today reveal the 2009 development updates to its LMP2 Coupe sportscar, which will see significant performance gains for this already successful design.

Quifel-ASM took delivery of its new Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S/2 LMP2 last week. The Portuguese team successfully completed a shakedown of its new car at the Autódromo do Estoril. The Ginetta-Zytek ran faultlessly for 78 laps of the Portugeuse track, completing over 320km.

It appears that despite only entering one car for the Le Mans Series, Spyker will enter two cars for Le Mans.

The Le Mans 24-Hours event is in rude good health and doesn’t mind admitting it! The ACO has received 82 entry requests for the 2009 race. Despite the quality of all these candidatures only 55 cars will line up on the starting grid.

There will be 49 cars carefully selected -12 LMP1s, 16 LMP2s, 4 LMGT1s and 17 LMGT2s-, which will take place all along the season on the 2009 Le Mans
Series starting line. The grid is rich and varied with six makes in LMP1, ten in LMP2, three in LMGT1 and five in LMGT2. In addition, when the circuit capacity will allow it, some more cars, entered race-by-race, will enrich the grid.

Gaydon, 27 January 2009. On the 50th anniversary of its outright win at Le Mans, Aston Martin will return to La Sarthe with two Works LMP1 cars bearing the iconic blue and orange livery of Gulf Oil.

After two seasons under the supervision of new owner Jacques Nicolet, and following a string of impressive results in 2008, Saulnier Racing has changed its name to become OAK Racing*.

When some people hasten to announce that motor sport is passing away due to the financial crisis period, the number and quality of the 2009 Le Mans Series entry forms received is the best proof they are definitely misled!

Out of the 29 cars automatically selected for the 2009 Le Mans 24-Hours qualifications, 15 have confirmed their participation. The 2009 field is already taking shape!

Strakka Racing have confirmed that they will move from GT1 to LMP1 in 2009.

Silverstone-based Strakka Racing has confirmed an agreement with Ginetta-Zytek that will see the team competing in the Le Mans Series this season with a Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S LMP1 chassis. The deal came about following a very successful track test in Spain towards the end of November, and means that Strakka’s regular driver pairing of Peter Hardman and Nick Leventis will be moving up into the top level of sportscar and endurance racing.

Ingolstadt – The successful Audi R10 TDI is likely to appear again on European race tracks in 2009. While Audi will contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans as part of its factory commitment with the new R15 TDI in 2009, Dr Colin Kolles is planning to buy two Audi R10 TDI cars for his racing team. The privately fielded prototypes are planned to return to the venues of their greatest exploits in 2009: to the European-based Le Mans Series and to the 24-hour race at Le Mans, in which the Audi R10 TDI has not been beaten so far.

Ingolstadt -- In the 2008 season Audi won everything the brand had set its sights on: The Four Rings stood for the four victories in the DTM, the American Le Mans Series, the Le Mans Series in Europe and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in what has so far been its most successful racing season. Audi now received special recognition for its string of successes with the R10 TDI and the A4 DTM by the Motorsport Industry Association (MIA), an important organisation of the British motorsport industry.

While the rest of the motorsport world struggles with car counts, the Le Mans Series seems to be standing up to the pressure with the addition of two new cars to the 2009 grid.

Team Modena Ferrari 430 GT2 Team Modena are delighted to today announce that Leo Mansell, son of 1992 Formula One World Champion Nigel Mansell, will be one of the drivers in the team's LM GT2 Ferrari 430GT for the 2009 Le Mans Series - and the Le Mans 24-Hour race itself. Leo will share the new car with team regular Antonio Garcia, one of the world's leading GT drivers, with Nigel himself lending his experience from a lengthy and successful race career to the team's cause.

ATLANTA - January 15 -- The driver line-up for Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, is now complete. A total of ten works drivers will contest various sports car and GT series around the world in the 2009 season, with five factory drivers having season-long assignments in the United States.

A Brief News Update for the Le Mans Series

The Dakar is considered one of the hardest races in the world. This edition running from Argentina to Chile to Argentina is proving to be as hard as ever. Some of sportscars best are taking it on - so how are they going.

Rob Bell has secured drives with two top level teams for an assault on three 2009 sportscar titles – the FIA GT championship, the Le Mans Series and the Le Mans 24 Hours race. Bell, double Le Mans Series GT2 champion, will drive a Ferrari 430 GT2 racer with CRS Racing in FIA GT and contend with the same model of car with JMW Motorsport in the Le Mans Series and the Le Mans 24 Hours race.

Sportscar legend David Brabham seized a rare opportunity to meet his British fans at Europe’s biggest motorsport show, Autosport International, held at the NEC Birmingham (UK) 8-11 January. The British-born Australian double Le Mans GT1 class winner and former Formula One driver attended the show to fulfil his various ambassadorial roles, make appearances and raise £45,000 for charity.

It seems talk on Charouz's and Audi's future in the Le Mans Series has started for 2009.

Paul Drayson (London/Gloucestershire, UK) officially announced the formation of Drayson Racing at today's Autosport International Show. Drayson Racing (DraysonRacing.com) will contest a select number of professional sports car racing events on three continents in 2009 including the three most prominent races in the American Le Mans Series

RML last night collected the Motorsport Industry Association (MIA) Business Excellence Award for Business of the Year 2008. The award was a result of nominations from fellow MIA members who voted for companies they feel have achieved outstanding performances in their field over the last year.

The eligible years for the 2009 Le Mans Legend, the historic support race organised by Motor Racing Legends on the Saturday morning of the Le Mans 24 Hours, have been announced. This great historic event, on 13th June 2009, will be for cars built between 1949 and 1965.

Lola Group Executive Chairman, Martin Birrane, has today announced the appointment of Robin Brundle as Managing Director of Lola Cars International, the Huntingdon based racecar manufacturer and provider of services to the motorsport and automotive sectors.

The 2009 calendar has been announced and the rumours are heating up for the 2009 driver and team line up. So we thought this would be an ideal time to get our 2009 page underway.

Frenchman Franck Mailleux will compete for Signature on the Le Mans Series in 2009 as well as the Le Mans 24 Hours, where he will share the team's LMP1 Oreca-Judd with his compatriot Pierre Ragues.

Guillaume Moreau's first season with the Luc Alphand Adventures team yielded a Le Mans Series title in LM GT1, and they have renewed their collaboration for 2009. The man from the Limousin region will drive the French team's Corvette C6.R and has a double objective: fighting for the FIA GT title and taking the battle to the works teams in the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Harold Primat Broadcast - Crans Montana hosts Pescarolo drivers' winter training camp for second successive year

Crans Montana hosts Pescarolo drivers' winter training camp for second successive year

Following a strong 2008 season*, Saulnier Racing will expand their LMP2 sportscar program in 2009. The French team, based in Nevers, will run two Pescarolo LMP2 prototypes powered by AER developed-Mazda MZR-R engines, the 4 cylinder 2.0 Turbo powerplant, which made its debut in the 2007 American Le Mans Series. Mazda Automobiles France partners with Saulnier Racing.

Speedy Racing Team Sebah have confirmed their plans for 2009 which involve an expansion into the LMP1 category in the Le Mans Series.

Many weeks back we brought you the rumour that Racing Box was to return to the Le Mans Series with a new car for 2009. The team have now confirmed their plans.

David Brabham was awarded the BRDC Woolf Barnato Trophy, sponsored by Gulf, on Monday 8 December during the British Racing Drivers’ Club Awards 2008 ceremony at the Café Royal, London. For the second year in a row, Brabham jointly collected the award with Aston Martin Racing teammate Darren Turner, as the highest-placed finishing British or Commonwealth drivers in a British car, following their double GT1 Le Mans 24-Hour class victory in the Aston Martin DBR9 #009.

ATLANTA - December 7 - Alex Davison from Australia, who won his first big professional race in the Porsche Supercup contest at the Indianapoils Motor Speedway in 2002, has earned the 2008 Porsche Cup, awarded the world's most successful private Porsche driver.

Without a shadow of a doubt, sportscar racing led the green push in the motorsport world and made quite a few PR, competitive and positive business blows in 2008.

The Automobile Club de l’Ouest always listens attentively to the manufacturers’ needs, and so in agreement with teams that may be invited to the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours, the Club, remaining faithful to its firmly-held objective to reduce costs, has taken the decision to cancel the test day scheduled for 31st May 2009, and to rethink the format of the Le Mans Series events.

On the initiative of Peugeot Sport, Citroën Sport and Total, which is a partner of both teams, Sébastien Loeb and Stéphane Sarrazin were today given a chance to sample each other’s cars, namely the Citroën C4 WRC and the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP.

Ingolstadt – In future, the AUDI AG motorsport programme will be based on three pillars: During the 2009 season, the brand with the four rings will compete once again in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the DTM. Additionally, with the new Audi R8 LMS, Audi Sport offers for the first time a racing sports car specifically developed for customer use.

Strakka Racing's driver pairing of Nick Leventis and Peter Hardman were in Spain last week for some early winter testing ahead of finalising plans for next season. The two drivers have shared the team's Aston Martin DBR9 this year in the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Le Mans Series, as well as raced their BMW M3 GTR in ETCS and Britcar events. With all the scheduled races for 2008 now completed, the team has a number of key decisions to make in preparation for 2009.

As the races and championships whose results are taken into account for the automatic selections for the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours have finished, 29 entrants have been invited out of the 55 at the start.

Eleven entries and nine teams from the American Le Mans Series received automatic invitations to next year's running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Automobile Club de l'Ouest announced the first 29 entries for the June 13-14 endurance classic, the most prestigious race in the world.

Team Modena are delighted to today announce the first of their 2009 race campaigns to be unveiled, the team entering a Ferrari F430 GT in the LM GT2 category of the Le Mans Series and, entry permitting, the Le Mans 24-Hour race itself. Having won three out of five LMS races in the GT1 category this season, hopes are high the team can continue that form into 2009.

The traditional Awards Ceremony closing the 2008 LMS Championship took place in Paris on last Saturday 15 November. All the Very Important Persons of the Endurance world met for what certain journalists called a "serious" evening!

Ferndown, Dorset, November 20, 2008: The Brabham family would like to absolutely and categorically state that the range of cars and accessories being publicised under the Brabham name at the Essen Motor Show 2008 and on global websites, has nothing to do with the Brabham family, or its long and respected motor racing heritage, in any way. It is clear to us, as it must be to the whole world, what these people are trying to do. In our opinion, it is a clear case of using our name, our history and our success, without the backing of the Brabham family.

The 2009 set of regulations defined by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest has already come out; it contains the technical regulations for all entrants in the LM P1 and LM P2 prototype categories and LM GT1 and LM GT2 grand touring car categories.

British GT/sportscar team, Barwell Motorsport, is returning to European competition in 2009, having spent this season contesting the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). The former British GT Champions operated under the banner of ‘Drayson-Barwell’ in the 2008 ALMS, as part of its joint venture with driver Paul Drayson. The Surrey-based outfit, which is an official partnership team of Aston Martin Racing, spent the season honing the new Aston Martin Vantage GT2 into a competitive proposition against world class opposition in the US.

Ingolstadt/Neckarsulm – Four rings, four wins. The end of season party at the Audi Forum Neckarsulm was celebrated under this motto, and at which Audi thanked its teams and drivers for the most successful motorsport season in the company’s history. Chairman of the Board of Management Rupert Stadler and Michael Dick, Member of the Board of Management with responsibility for Technical Development, emphasised the importance of motorsport for the brand.

After the Swiss Spirit's aborted attempt at running a private Audi engine in a Lola, it appears that the Le Mans Series could see another customer Audi effort.

New details have emerged regarding the sale of the Aston Martin Lola cars that we published a few days ago.

Last month we bought you the story that Racing Box could be entering the Le Mans Series in 2009 with a different car.

RML’s LMP2 sports prototype programme has been one of the most successful of the last five years, with back-to-back victories in the Le Mans 24 Hours, and the class title in the Le Mans Series in 2007. Co-drivers Mike Newton and Thomas Erdos have established an excellent reputation as the driving line-up to beat in LMP2, especially at Le Mans, and for seven years the team has championed the motorsport heritage of iconic British marque MG.

Peugeot Sport, Citroën Sport and Total, which partners both operations, have taken the joint initiative of organising a special event that will see star drivers Sébastien Loeb and Stéphane Sarrazin share their respective experience and cars for a day.

The ACO has just won a major victory in its battle against counterfeit goods by having 13,000 counterfeit products worth a total of 200,000 euros seized and destroyed.

The Charouz Aston Martin Lola Coupes have been advertised for sale on the website www.racingcars24.com.

Japanese engine supplier, AIM has ended their four year association with Creation and has signed up to supply engines to Oreca.

Quifel-ASM, one of the leading LMP2 teams in the Le Mans Series, has become the first customer for the Ginetta-Zytek 09S, as Zytek Engineering's latest car is to be called. Developed from the already impressive Zytek 07S, the 09S will feature a revised aero package and will be powered by a new version of the 2007 Le Mans class winning, 3.4-litre Zytek ZG348 engine. The power unit improvements include a 3kg reduction in weight and increases in both power and torque.

The Automobile Club de l'Ouest's 2009 season is going to be an intense one full of exciting events for 2, 4 and 6-wheel vehicles on the Bugatti track as well as on the big Le Mans 24-Hours circuit. Get out your diaries now -- weekends like these are not to be missed!

The 2008 Le Mans Series was truly a battle of the titans. Audi vs Peugeot – a battle for diesel and manufacturer glory. The Le Mans Series has always had battles, but not usually at the front. 2008 changed that.

A few days ago we bought you the story that Racing Box is looking to enter the 2009 Le Mans Series P2 Class. More information has come to light.

Laguna Seca ALMS will be my last race with an Audi prototype.

The agreement to end this part of my career together with the R10 TDI was taken a long time ago with Dr. Ullrich as Audi is preparing their future with a new generation of drivers.

Ingolstadt/Laguna Seca -- Emanuele Pirro will race an Audi sports prototype for the last time in his career at the American Le Mans Series finale on 18 October at Laguna Seca. The Italian has served the brand since 1994 and is one of the most successful Audi factory drivers ever with three touring car titles, two sportscar championship victories in the American Le Mans Series and five wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

After Racing Box's disasterous foray into LMP2 with Lucchini, the team could be back for 2009.

2008 was a cracking season! The Le Mans Series races contributed to giving the colours of Le Mans and endurance racing an even higher profile on the international scene.

Embassy Racing has announced today that the doors to its two car Le Mans Series racing efforts have been closed to business.

Rumour is rife regarding who will run Porsche RS Sypders in the Le Mans Series in 2009.

Team Modena Gallery from Silverstone Team Modena went into the final round of the Le Mans Series at Silverstone knowing that only a win would secure them the Teams and Drivers LM GT1 class titles in the five-race championship, and even then the championship leader only had to score one point to claim the crown. The team did all it could, the Aston Martin was right on the pace all weekend and Antonio Garcia and Tomas Enge drove flawlessly in the 1000km race to win by a lap - but the French run Corvette declined to challenge the DBR9 and cruised home to take third and enough points to win the titles by six points.

Following a period of three years of fruitful cooperation together, and by common accord, Paolo CATONE and Peugeot Sport have decided not to extend the contract between them which extended until the end of 2008. Indeed, Paolo Catone wishes to give a new direction to his career.

Fans of Liz Halliday have the opportunity to own one of the dual sportswoman's race suits, signed by the California-born racing driver and equestrian.

Silverstone: Post Race Driver and Team Recaps pt5
Ferrari
Guillaume Moreau
Ryan Lewis
Lola Cars
Strakka

The fifth and final round of the 2008 Le Mans Series at Silverstone, Great Britain, today saw HORAG RACING clinch the "Michelin Energy Endurance Challenge" to earn itself a guaranteed entry for next year's Le Mans 24 Hours .

Silverstone: Post Race Driver and Team Recaps pt4
Audi
Peugeot
Charouz
Porsche

Silverstone: Post Race Driver and Team Recaps pt3
Van Merksteijn
Horag
RML
Speedy Sebah

Silverstone: Post Race Driver and Team Recaps pt2
Team Modena
Strakka
Zytek
Saulnier
Quifel ASM

Silverstone: Post Race Driver and Team Recaps
Spyker
James Watt Automotive
Michelin
Tomas Enge
Harold Primat

PHOTOS: First Pics of the Peugeot 908HY

Audi recorded its first win in the 2008 Le Mans Series at the fifth and final race, the Autosport Silverstone 1000kms. By so doing, the German manufacturer claimed the teams' and manufacturers' titles, while with fourth place on the road, Alexandre Premat and Mike Rockenfeller won the drivers' title

Silverstone: Race Results

Silverstone: Selected Post Qualifying Team and Driver Recaps pt2
Peugeot
Audi
Charouz
Van Merksteijn
Quifel ASM

Silverstone: Selected Post Qualifying Team and Driver Recaps
James Watt Automotive
Spyker Squadron
Tomas Enge
Michelin

Peugeot locked out the front row of the grid for the fifth and final race of the 2008 Le Mans Series at Silverstone. Stephane Sarrazin set a new qualifying record of 1m30.359s to beat his team-mate Nicolas Minassian by one hundredth of a second. Minassian recovered from a collision with Xavier Pompidou's Speedy Racing Lola which damaged the rear of the 908 Hdi FAP in which he, and co-driver Marc Gene, have won twice to lead the series.

Peugeot Sport will profit from the final round of the 2008 Le Mans Series at Silverstone to unveil a 908 HDi FAP demonstration car equipped with hybrid power featuring a kinetic energy recovery system. The 908 HY will be shown in a new, specific silver-grey livery and will provide a foretaste of what Peugeot’s next endurance racing challenger could resemble, although its use will depend on the regulations that will govern LMP1 cars from 2009.

The 2009 endurance season will be marked by the application of new equivalence that prefigure the new regulations for the years 2010 and 2011.

Silverstone: Qualifying Times

Sunday's 1,000 Kilometers of Silverstone will not only bring the 2008 Le Mans Series (LMS) to an end, but it will also mark the last race for Horag Racing driver Fredy Lienhard.

Silverstone: Practice 2 Times

Silverstone: Practice 1 Times

With all the hype surrounding Petit Le Mans entries, it seems we could be in for more news.

Silverstone: Team Previews of the Silverstone 1000km pt3
Pescarolo
Charouz
Van Merksteijn

Silverstone: Team Previews of the Silverstone 1000km pt2
Quifel-ASM
Saulnier
Tomas Enge

Ryan Lewis is back in the UK this week, preparing to compete in the ‘Autosport 1000km of Silverstone', the final round of the 2008 Le Mans Series. The British driver who only made his sportscar debut a few weeks ago in the American Le Mans Series has teamed up with Creation AIM for the UK round of the Le Mans Series this weekend.

Peugeot
Audi
Porsche
Modena
Harold Primat

After Eco Racing announced their intention to race at the Silverstone 1000km and at Petit Le Mans, people were getting excited at the prospect of seeing the Radical LMP1 on track and to see what this car could do.

Eccleshall, Staffordshire -- James Watt Automotive (JWA) is pleased to confirm that it will utilise this weekend's 'Autosport 1000km of Silverstone', Round 5 of the 2008 Le Mans Series, to officially launch its 2009 activities, using the 'home' event for the much anticipated debut of the team's #93 Aston Martin Vantage GT2 entry. The Staffordshire-based squad will field the car in the GT2 class in the Le Mans Series season finale with Tim Sugden, Alan van der Merwe and Michael Outzen sharing driving duties, Friday 12th -- Sunday 14th September.

After RML released the best kept secret - see this story so to complete this story, here are some pictures...

Just seventeen days after competing in round four of the 2008 Le Mans Series at the Nurburgring, RML was testing their LMP2 sports prototype again at Snetterton in Norfolk. At first glance, perhaps there is nothing significant or even surprising about that fact, but pause to consider that the car on test was both the same car, and yet a totally new one.

RML and AD Group will contest the final round of this year’s Le Mans Series with a comprehensive upgrade of the MG Lola EX265 LMP2 sports prototype. In collaboration with Lola Cars of Huntingdon, the team is to carry out a final shakedown test of the fully revised EX265C at Snetterton on Wednesday, where regular drivers Mike Newton and Thomas Erdos will assess their first experience of the new closed-cockpit configuration.

Locally-based Strakka Racing will make a high-profile return to the 2008 Le Mans Series for the season finale at Silverstone on September 14th. The team's regular pairing of Nick Leventis and Peter Hardman will be calling upon the services of one of the trio of drivers who helped steer Aston Martin to a second successive GT1 victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours this year, Darren Turner.

The fifth and final round of the Le Mans Series at Silverstone over 12-14 September will be sponsored by Autosport -- the UK's biggest selling weekly motorsport magazine.

With the relaxing of the engine rules for Le Mans Style series, rumour has been heating up on who may use the 7.0 litre Chevrolet unit that is currently been used in the GT1 car.

Nurburgring: Recaps After the Race pt4
Peugeot
Audi
Porsche
Charouz Aston Martin

Nurburgring: Recaps After the Race pt3
Ferrari
Modena
Van Merksteijn
Horag
Saulnier Racing

Nurburgring: Recaps After the Race pt2
Spyker
Lola
Zytek
QUIFEL-ASM

Nurburgring: Recaps After the Race pt1
Harold Primat
Liz Halliday
Rob Bell
Tomas Enge
Michelin

A perfect race in perfect conditions saw Peugeot score a 1-2 finish at the fourth race in the 2008 Le Mans Series at the Nurburgring. In front of 22,000 spectators, Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy led home their team-mates Marc Gene and Nicolas Minassian, the two diesel-powered prototypes crossing the line 16 seconds apart after 1000kms. The race was completed in five hours, 44 minutes at an average speed of 174km/h (108 mph) around the 5.137km circuit.

Magnifique! What other word to describe the performance of the Peugeot Total team in qualifying at the Nurburgring, as Marc Gene snatched pole position from his team-mate Pedro Lamy to put the 908 HDi-FAP diesel prototypes on the front row of the grid. And in third place was the Aston Martin Lola of the Charouz Racing System team after a fantastic performance from Berliner Stefan Mucke, who out-paced Alexandre Premat and Rinaldo 'Dindo' Capello in their Audi R10 TDI diesel prototypes.

In addition to its bid to defend its Le Mans Series title, Peugeot Sport is already focusing its resources on its preparations for the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours. To this end, an entry for October's Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta has been added to the 908 HDi FAP's programme.

Peugeot
Audi
Charouz Aston Martin
Porsche
Van Merksteijn

Speedy/Sebah
QUIFEL-ASM
Spyker Squadron
Tomas Enge
Michelin

After announcing a deal to race with Creation AIM at the final two rounds of the American Le Mans Series earlier in the week, Liz Halliday will get a much earlier opportunity to race the team’s CA07 chassis than originally expected, having been called up to contest this weekend’s Nurburgring 1000kms.

Nurburgring: LMS Previews Ahead of Round 4 pt2
Peugeot
Audi
Porsche
Pescarolo
Harold Primat

Nurburgring: LMS Previews Ahead of Round 4
Van Merksteijn
QUIFEL-ASM
Spyker Squadron
Michelin

Zeewolde, 9 august 2008 - Earlier this year Volvo Truck Nederland and Spyker Squadron negotiated an agreement for the use of two Volvo trucks until the end of the 2010 race season. The trucks will be used to transport the race trailers with the race cars of the SNORAS Spyker Squadron team that races in the famous 24-hours of Le Mans and in the Le Mans Series. Last Friday, at the Spyker Cars factory in Zeewolde, Spyker Squadron took delivery of their two state of the art Volvo FH520 Trucks.

Rumour has surfaced surrounding van Merksteijn's continued participation in the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2009.

The test organized by the German based team KSM has become a great success for the two young Italian pilots that have participated at this test held on the "Lausitzring" Francesco Sini from Pescara (Italy), driver of the Radical SR8 of Radical Italy in the Radical European Masters has amazed even at his first experience with a LMP-2 racing car.

Monday the 4th of August will be a good day for Italian Autosport and in particular for 2 young Italian pilots as they will have the opportunity to test in one of motorsports most appraised series.

Just after Le Mans, we brought you a story that claimed Takuma Sato could be racing for the Dome squad.

With the recent announcement that the British F1 GP is moving to Donington, this would effect the sportscar world whose main races take place on the Silverstone circuit.

Le Mans 2008 has, so far, provided many memorable moments

More memorable moments from Le Mans

Le Mans 2008 has, so far, provided many memorable moments

The main battle at Le Mans was certainly a Goliath vs Goliath affair. A titanic diesel battle between the French Peugeot and the German Audi squads. But there was more – a petrol battle with Charouz, Oreca and Pescarolo and interlopers to the crown also in the field.

The 2008 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans was a great battle with Audi again taking the prize.

You said before Le Mans that it was likely to be the biggest challenge of your career so far. Did that turn out to be the case?

The LMP2 class is usually one that rewards they team that simply makes it to the end. This is something that was, again, expected in 2008. But it was something we did not get

Le Mans: Provisional Results

Feedmesportscars has been tipped from a friend, Mike Harris, that Honda's favourite driver, Takuma Sato was hanging out at the Le Mans paddock.

37 cars out of the 55 entrants of the 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours are Le Mans Series regulars!

Figures are edifying! There is no doubt about the sporting justification of the series which are celebrating this year their fifth season.

In LMP1, is it necessary to underline Audi's strategic victory? Obviously based on their Le Mans -good!- experience, but also on the observation of their main challenger during the three first races of the season...

It was a last minute thing for Allan Simonsen. Originally the Aussie Dane was to pilot the Tafel Racing Ferrari 430 GT2 that he raced so successfully at Sebring earlier this year, teaming with hotshots Dominik Farnbacher and Dirk Müller. Without warning, Tafel pulled the pin, citing economic reasons. With only 55 cars allowed to start (all must be invited by the ACO other than those who are 1st and 2nd in each class in 2007 plus various LMS champions) that means 165 drivers are needed and everyone wants a shot at the worlds greatest race.

Aston Martin vs Corvette - it seems to already be ingrained in Le Mans mythology. Its something that we look forward to each year and yet, even though it has only been with us for a few

Well what can one say? A Ferrari wins without a Porsche in site.

Not only do Ferrari win by they take second, third and fourth. The best Porsche is that of Feblermayr-Proton, some 17 laps off the winning Ferrari – that of Risi Competizione.

So where did it all go wrong for Porsche? Or as we prefer to think – where did it all go right for Ferrari?

RUMOUR: Le Mans - Just Some of What Could Happen From What We Have Heard...

A delighted Guillaume Moreau saw the chequered flag on his second outing in the famous Le Mans 24 Hours. The man from the Limousin region drove a fault-free race with Luc Alphand and Jerome Policand in the no.72 Corvette C6.R to finish 5th in the LM GT1 category.

Le Mans: Post Race Recaps pt5
Porsche
Pescarolo
RML
Team Modena
Shell

Ingolstadt/Le Mans – At one of the most exciting and fastest races in Le Mans history, AUDI AG clinched another triumph at what is arguably the world’s toughest motor race.

Le Mans: Post Race Recaps pt6
Ferrari
Trading Performance
Loic Duval
Johnny Mowlem

Alan McNish finally got his Rolex at Les 24 Heures du Mans after a tough fight to victory in the legendary 24-hour race. McNish's Audi team fought hard to overcome the three Peugeots ahead on the grid, eventually took the lead after thirteen hours and never looked back, winning in front of 285,500 spectators.

Among the extraordinary elements that may convince you to pay Les 24 Heures du Mans circuit a visit during the event, there are some activities in the area that awaken the imagination and let you dream. Even once the teams have taken off from the start following the official Rolex countdown, there is plenty to see in Le Mans…

The 24 Heures du Mans are always held the weekend closest to the shortest night of the year in France, the 21st of June. In fact, there is something magic about the moment the race passes from day into night- it becomes a wholly different challenge, and as they say, it is the stuff that legends are made of.

At 14:51h on June 1st, while negotiating one of the Porsche curves of the Le Mans racetrack, the Peugeot 908 Hdi-FPA number 7 flew into the air going 270 km/h. Spaniard Marc Gené was driving. When watching the violence of the crash, no one could have imagined that the Catalan driver would drive the car again, especially not for the 2008 edition of Les 24 Heures du Mans.

Le Mans: Post Race Recaps pt4
Tim Sugden
Alex Davison
Pierre Ragues
Caparo

Le Mans: Post Race Recaps pt3
Paolo Ruberti
Stuart Moseley
Guy Smith
Cheng Congfu

Le Mans: A Winners Story - Audi
Taking the Lead
Leading in the Rain
Taking the Win

Le Mans: Peugeot's Race - the One That Got Away
2 Hours
5 Hours
8 Hours
10 Hours
12 Hours
15 Hours
18 Hours
21 Hours
24 Hours

Le Mans: The Race According to the GT1 Winners - Aston Martin
3 Hours
6 Hours
9 Hours
12 Hours
15 Hours
18 Hours
21 Hours
24 Hours

Le Mans: The Corvette Race
6 Hours
12 Hours
18 Hours
24 Hours

Le Mans: The Risi/Krohn Recap
4 Hours
8 Hours
15 Hours
24 Hours

Le Mans: The Race by Larbre
8 Hours
19 Hours
Finish

Le Mans: Harold Primat's Race
6 Hours
19 Hours
Finish

Le Mans: Quifel-ASM's Race
5 Hours
22 Hours
Finish

Le Mans: The Michelin Race
3 Hours
6 Hours
12 Hours
18 Hours
24 Hours

Le Mans: The Race According to the Flying Lizards
3 Hours
3.5 Hours
7 Hours
12 Hours
21 Hours
Finish

Le Mans: Post Race Recaps pt2
Van Merksteijn Motorsport
Saulnier Racing
Charouz Racing Systems
Spyker
Vitaphone Racing

Le Mans: Post Race Recaps
Allan McNish
Jos Menten
Lola
Zytek

All the news and the top three class positions after 24 hours

All the news and the top three class positions after 23 hours

All the news and the top three class positions after 22 hours

All the news and the top three class positions after 21 hours

All the news and the top three class positions after 20 hours