DAGYS: ORECA won’t be making the trip to the ALMS season-ending round at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, but the team will be participating in the inaugural Asian Le Mans Series championship in Oakayama, Japan next month. Why go to Japan?

ORECA will send over one car for the inaugural Asian Le Mans Series championship in Okayama, Japan next month. (LAT)

DE CHAUNAC: There’s also two reasons for participating in the Asian Le Mans Series. First, our engine program is supported by a Japanese company, AIM. Second, we’d also like to support the ACO’s good ideas to try and promote long distance races in Asia. I think it’s a good way to do it.

DAGYS: With the team’s involvement in the U.S. and Asia, plus Europe of course, it appears ORECA is targeting the major worldwide sportscar races. The ACO hopes to launch the Intercontinental Challenge, a four or five race championship incorporating existing endurance events, in 2011. Are you a supporter of the ACO’s proposed plan?

DE CHAUNAC: Absolutely. It’s very important in 2011 that the ACO manages to try something new. We need it to attract new sponsors and have something strong. For me, that would be big events, but not too many of them. Between four and five races would be perfect. I think it’s a very big project, but it’s a must. In the hard economic situations today, we need something which is exciting for manufacturers, teams and drivers.

I like comparing it to tennis, where there’s the Grand Slam of events: the U.S. Open, Wimbledon, and the French and Australian Opens. Those are the four big events in tennis, and I think we need to have the four big events in endurance racing. After that, you can have many other races, but nothing like the big ones.

DAGYS: The ACO recently released the 2010 prototype regulations, which calls for a tightening of the reigns between the performance of the diesel and gasoline-powered prototypes. Do you think the balance is now correct?

Bruno Senna and Tiago Monteiro gave ORECA its second podium finish of the season at Algarve last month. (ORECA)

DE CHAUNAC: No, I don’t think it’s perfect, but the problem is not with the ACO. It’s instead the equivalency for Le Mans and the other tracks that are completely different. Le Mans has very long straights, which you don’t see at other tracks. The changes for 2010 are about halfway there, but the diesels will definitely still have the advantage for Le Mans. On top of that, it’s an advantage for the closed-top car. That means Peugeot will continue to have the edge at Le Mans.

DAGYS: Looking ahead, French weekly magazine Auto Hebdo reported this week that Audi may be looking at building a closed-top prototype for 2011. Do you think that could be the new trend for top LMP1 manufacturers? Would ORECA consider potentially following Audi in that route?

DE CHAUNAC: As everybody, we’re waiting for the 2011 regulations to find out which kind of car we have to build. If the regulations stay as they are, we have no other choice but to build a closed-top car.

But first, we’re thinking about our plans for next year. We just found out the regulations for 2010, so all the decisions will be made at the end of October or early November. Like I said before, we’d like to begin the year in Sebring. That’s our intention.

The standalone Formula Le Mans Series, run as a support series during LMS weekends, expands to a winter championship at Paul Ricard this year. (LAT)

DAGYS: ORECA has played a key role in the development of the Formula Le Mans championship in Europe. With the cars now making their way to the U.S. to be run in the newly created LMP Challenge category in the ALMS, have you been pleased with the rate of growth for this new formula?

DE CHAUNAC: I think it’s really a fantastic compromise between a full LMP car and a very low-budget program. The car is top quality, as it’s the same monoquoue as our LMP1 car. It’s very reliable, with a Corvette-based engine and gearboxes from X-Trac, as well as carbon fibre brakes. You can compete a full season with the same engine and gearbox, making it a very affordable and exciting formula.

There’s been more and more interest because everyone wants to drive a prototype car, but the costs have generally been too high. But now, with the Formula Le Mans car, more people can get that experience, and I think that’s great.