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Le Mans / ALMS
DAGYS: The Nightmare On ELMS Street
With a series-low car count and uncertain future, can the European Le Mans Series survive?
With a dwindling car count, the European Le Mans Series faces an uncertain future as it heads into this weekend's Six Hours of Donington. (Photo: DPPI/ELMS)
This weekend’s Six Hours of Donington, the second round of the European Le Mans Series season, could be poised to re-write the record books, but for all the wrong reasons.
The struggling continental sports car series, affected by the rise of the FIA World Endurance Championship as well as a handful of traditional post-Le Mans dropouts, is expected to see the smallest field in modern-era Le Mans racing on Sunday.
Thirteen cars, spread across four categories, are set to take part in practice beginning this Friday, the 13th of July. It’s what lendurance.co.uk’s Jake Yorath has coined “A Nightmare on ELMS Street,” not only referring to the coincidental unlucky number number of starters, but also perhaps the dark road the once-thriving championship is headed towards.
Once boasting 40-plus car fields back in the days when the ACO’s Intercontinental Le Mans Cup was just a dream, the ELMS (originally known as the Le Mans Endurance Series, then just Le Mans Series) thrived with a mix of factory and privateer entries, including the likes of Audi, Peugeot and Aston Martin.
Things however dramatically changed nearly three years ago with the formation of the ILMC. Initially a three-round pilot series, the ACO-run championship turned into a full-season global series in 2011, attracting many of the top European squads.
While some teams pulled double-duty between the two championships, especially as the ILMC and LMS shared three of the seven rounds (not including Le Mans), 2012 brought significant change with the transformation of the ILMC into the WEC and standalone races throughout Europe, South America and Asia.
The lure of the first FIA World Championship for sports car racing in two decades got the best of the Patrick Peter-run ELMS championship, which saw a number of its longtime privateers, including Rebellion Racing, Pescarolo and others, make the jump to the WEC and watch the European series slowly slide off the radar.
At the same time, the success of the various GT3 championships in Europe, notably the Blancpain Endurance Series, saw some teams shift their focus to that growing platform instead.
Dramatic changes to the ELMS were made in 2012, partially in response to the expected downturn of factory supported prototypes and GT machines. The LMP1 class was eliminated, making LMP2 the premier category, while GTC was introduced initially for Porsche, Ferrari and Lotus Cup cars.
While a scant 21-car field turned up at the season-opening Six Hours of Le Castellet in April, the series’ scheduled second round in Zolder was canceled due to low participation, believed to have been 19 entries.
Peter and the Le Mans Endurance Organization (LMEO) went to work to ensure the next race at Donington Park, some three months following Paul Ricard, would meet the self-imposed 25-car minimum. They expanded GTC to allow GT3-spec machines as a stop-gap measure in order to help give the grid a boost.
Yet, just like in France, not a single GTC car appeared on the entry list for the second consecutive round, this time aided by the fact that the International GT Open, a European-based championship featuring GTE and GT3 cars, will be racing 150 miles down the road in Brands Hatch.
The struggling continental sports car series, affected by the rise of the FIA World Endurance Championship as well as a handful of traditional post-Le Mans dropouts, is expected to see the smallest field in modern-era Le Mans racing on Sunday.
Thirteen cars, spread across four categories, are set to take part in practice beginning this Friday, the 13th of July. It’s what lendurance.co.uk’s Jake Yorath has coined “A Nightmare on ELMS Street,” not only referring to the coincidental unlucky number number of starters, but also perhaps the dark road the once-thriving championship is headed towards.
Once boasting 40-plus car fields back in the days when the ACO’s Intercontinental Le Mans Cup was just a dream, the ELMS (originally known as the Le Mans Endurance Series, then just Le Mans Series) thrived with a mix of factory and privateer entries, including the likes of Audi, Peugeot and Aston Martin.
Things however dramatically changed nearly three years ago with the formation of the ILMC. Initially a three-round pilot series, the ACO-run championship turned into a full-season global series in 2011, attracting many of the top European squads.
While some teams pulled double-duty between the two championships, especially as the ILMC and LMS shared three of the seven rounds (not including Le Mans), 2012 brought significant change with the transformation of the ILMC into the WEC and standalone races throughout Europe, South America and Asia.
The lure of the first FIA World Championship for sports car racing in two decades got the best of the Patrick Peter-run ELMS championship, which saw a number of its longtime privateers, including Rebellion Racing, Pescarolo and others, make the jump to the WEC and watch the European series slowly slide off the radar.
At the same time, the success of the various GT3 championships in Europe, notably the Blancpain Endurance Series, saw some teams shift their focus to that growing platform instead.
Dramatic changes to the ELMS were made in 2012, partially in response to the expected downturn of factory supported prototypes and GT machines. The LMP1 class was eliminated, making LMP2 the premier category, while GTC was introduced initially for Porsche, Ferrari and Lotus Cup cars.
While a scant 21-car field turned up at the season-opening Six Hours of Le Castellet in April, the series’ scheduled second round in Zolder was canceled due to low participation, believed to have been 19 entries.
Peter and the Le Mans Endurance Organization (LMEO) went to work to ensure the next race at Donington Park, some three months following Paul Ricard, would meet the self-imposed 25-car minimum. They expanded GTC to allow GT3-spec machines as a stop-gap measure in order to help give the grid a boost.
Yet, just like in France, not a single GTC car appeared on the entry list for the second consecutive round, this time aided by the fact that the International GT Open, a European-based championship featuring GTE and GT3 cars, will be racing 150 miles down the road in Brands Hatch.
Monterey
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