Le Mans 1000KM entry list (originaly open by Seb72)

[kdr]

it just sat in the paddock at the back of the pits if i remember correctly...

[Fab]

It didn't run at all ? BernardB "the pics hunter" has a pic of this car taken in the paddock in 1997...

[Fab]

Just to mention that, in he Le Mans paper (Ouest France), Pescarolo says that he has still NO NEWS form Peugeot for next year... he's trying to end the 2003 season in a financial balance, but still looking for partners (lack of those ones explaining the fact that the second car is not on the grid for the 1000 kms).

Henri is focused on the 2004 season and expect a lot of the LMES. He says that ACO was right to manage the stuff, and that the 1000 kms grid is quite good, regarding the period (far end of the season, no money in the teams any more)...

This paper is still qualifying the Panoz as a "brand new one"

[Tim Northcutt]

A Few Notes:

Good to see Team Nasamax and Lister doing something with their cars besides collect dust in the garage....

At first I may have seemed negative about the list, but I guess that 17 prototypes is a pretty solid field compared to entries in other races (ALMS and FIA-SCC).....if I remember correctly, only Sebring, Le Mans and Monza had more cars (maybe Donnington had as many????)

VERY disappointed in the GTS list....thought there would be more....especially since it seems like the newer cars rumored to be developed for 2004 are GTS cars.....

BillChristy made a comment that the Corvettes and the Dyson team, by being at Petit, would get automatic bids to LM in 2004....

I have not seen any confirmation of that...the only thing I've seen in the original ACO announcement in June was that "8 ALMS bids" would be available for the 2004 Le Mans race next June....

Can we assume that the four class winners at Petit, and the four class winners at Sebring next March are those 8 bids...and if that is the case, would it be for the 2003 Petit and the 2004 Sebring only for this year to get it started, like this LM 1000 kam is a "one time only" thing for automatic bids??? Once the LMES is up and running the class champions from LMES and ALMS will get auto bids to 2005, plus the podium cars at the 2004 Le Mans...

Personally, I wouldn't make that assumption, but I don't know the answer to that question.....

I'm not doubting you, BillChristy, but I haven't seen anything that would confirm that Petit winners get automatic bids....if you have seen it somewhere, please let me know where I can find it...


Can someone help with these queries???? I just want to make sure I have all of this straight in my own mind...

Thanks!

[Tim Northcutt]

Two Other Notes:

Any team manager who sent an application that was not received byt the deadline shoudl be FIRED.....they had a full month to send in an application....with many overnight courier services available to any part of the globe, there is no excuse for missing such an important deadline.....period.....

My only other MAJOR disappointments are the absence of the Promec and the Durango entries....

why did Promec bother to change to the BMW engine if they weren't going to run in the LM 1000km race???

Ane we've been hearing all along that Durango (who made a respectable showing last June) would be thee in November....why aren't they on the list????


Hope you see this, Fulvio, and give us some insight....

[almzkid]

Durango and Promec???? No offense but throw in the Norma and you would have the three least competetive LMP 900's on the planet....The Promec is at least unusual but was blown away by the weak FIA SCC field.

[Waco Racer]

From what I recall wasn't the Panoz GT1 known for blasting the eardrums out of the drivers? I think I remember Donohue commenting that it was the loudest racecar cockpit in history. The field looks pretty good but I would like to see one more Pescarolo, RFH, and a couple more GTS cars from the FIA series. I would like to see Goosens teamed up with Clint in the R&S rather than Sutherland. GO INTERSPORT!!!!!!!!

[bernard b]

Originally posted by Fab
It didn't run at all ? BernardB "the pics hunter" has a pic of this car taken in the paddock in 1997...

sorry, I'm a bit late on this

here it is, 1998 test day :


(high def here)

[rdjones]

Ok heres a bit of info on the Panoz GTR from DSC:- The car is chassis #03 from 1998 and his required some minor mods to meet the current regs. By the sounds of things it just been sat in the workshop doing noting snice then

[paul-collins]

I thought that the chassis had been seeing action as an LMP01 and that the bodywork has been sitting around doing nothing. That was my read on the release.

[BobN]

What's interesting about the LMES round at Bugatti is that although the FIAGT season is over, the notion of supercars/GTS are the future doens't seem to be playing out yet. The proto entry is 17 and the GTS entry is 5. That GTS is worse than almost ANY ALMS race. I guess that as it is now, GTS/supercars will have to wait. No excuses about conflicting dates to fall back on here.

[Tim Northcutt]

To almzkid:

For whatever it is worth, I hope that as many builders as possible enter and race the cars they have created....

Promec is supposedly looking at building LMP2 cars for 2004....

Personally, I think the issue with their being slow was the Sodemo power....we've covered this in other threads in the past...their engines were probably not as developed or as strong as Pescarolo's and Henri himself said that the Sodemo power he was running wasn't enough....

Even though they were off the pace (3 laps down), they did take second place at Donnington....due to attrition by faster cars in horribly hot conditions, but you have to Finish a race if you are going to stand on the podium...at least they accomplished that on a day that was brutal to race cars....

The aero aspects of the chassis look pretty solid, though....and I hope they achieve some success in LMP2 by taking what they've learned from their experiences this year...

On the Durango, from what I've been able to gather it has been a question of team management of their sportscar program and decisions made by them, plus mechanical problems that have been their big issues....they did finish the 24 hours in June....

Finally, at least both of those teams were willing to enter races and learn and develop what they have on the track...something that Lister and Team Nasamax can't seem to grasp...

How far do you think those two teams are behind the curve right now????

And their results have been less than stellar...Lister has ten whole laps at Sebring to show for their money and efforts, and Team Nasamax has been incredibly off the pace in the two events they chose to enter....

I just want to see the sport grow, and it won't do it without new players, both big and small, getting into the mix and making a commitment to build, develop, and race their creations....plus retaining those who are already active in the sport....

Promec and Durango, as low budget operations that have really emerged to race in the last couple of seasons, still have growong pains and some learning to do....but I don't want to see them go away....I'd like for them to race and improve.....

I agree that both were not "competitive"...but in the big picture, nobody seems to be able to run with the Audis or the two bentleys anyway...

I'm not being critical of your comments...I agree with you on many fronts....but I just want to see diversity in this form of sportscar racing....

A Final Note:

I'd love to see some "Gentleman racer" or a fledgeling team take a flyer on the SnoBeck chassis that was unveiled a few years ago and run it in LMP2 or as a grandfathered LMP1....

Someone's dream got very close to reality, but not close enough to compete because of $$$$...I'd like to see someone run it just so the creator can see IF it would have worked, or WHY if it did not....

The lessons he would learn would help him in his next endeavor as a designer and engineer...

To me, that is the essence of this sport...creativity, expertise and innovation for speed and endurance....and the more who take their shot at it, the better off the sport will be in the future...

[almzkid]

Agreed diversity is good but the old adage of quantity vs. quality should also be considered. Personally I am more dissapointed that Oreca lets there Dallara(s) sit, that RFH has only entered one car as has Pescarolo, that the factory Courage team did not enter a C60 and that the Kondo team seem to have raced once and quit.. all of the above are much more dissapointing personally then the non-appearance of the Durango or Promec.

[SALEEN S7R]

Originally posted by BobN
What's interesting about the LMES round at Bugatti is that although the FIAGT season is over, the notion of supercars/GTS are the future doens't seem to be playing out yet. The proto entry is 17 and the GTS entry is 5. That GTS is worse than almost ANY ALMS race. I guess that as it is now, GTS/supercars will have to wait. No excuses about conflicting dates to fall back on here.

That isnt neccarily the case. There were 50 applications for the race, I wonder how many of them were GTS entries that got turned down? Also lets not forget the top 2 cars from FIA GT get automatic entry to Le Mans next year. And the same applies to GTS in the ALMS if I remember correctly. So thats 4 entries for GTS next year already confirmed in Le Mans. So 2 for the LM 1000KM race would seem logical. That would leave 4 slots left (well GTS normally gets 10 entries for Le Mans) and I imagine they would go to other cars. Like the Prodrive Ferrari's in the ALMS. Or perhaps the JMB Ferrari 575.

All Im saying is by the end of the ALMS and FIA GT season (which ISNT over yet by the way) there will be 4 of the 10 places (guessing here, but again thats how many GTS normally get for LM)already decided. So 2 more at the 1000km is about right. Otherwise depending on who wins GTS in the ALMS the Corvettes or Prodrive Ferrari's would miss out.

[Tim Northcutt]

To almzkid:

I am 200% in agreement with you there....on every single one of those cars that you mentioned....I also lament the fact that the two cadillacs that by the end of last year's ALMS season were regular podium finishers also sit in mothballs....

[Tim Northcutt]

BTW...in case I haven't done so before, welcome to this forum, almzkid!!!!

I enjoy it thoroughly...and I'm sure that you will, too...

[almzkid]

Thanks I sometimes post on the IMSA board as well but I like the openess of this board and the fact that it is much more global in nature...the European perspective is great.

Agreed completely about the Cadillac's with Audi being represented only by Privateers this could and should have been there year to shine....Sportscar racing is now about who isn't showing up as much as it is about who is showing up lately and unfortunately the losers are the fans

[Tim Northcutt]

And we are their bread and butter...plus their door of opportunity to land sponsors....

Finally....

The news that the DBA/Zytek will not be run (at least by its current team) is very sad news....

I know that teams did not have the opportunity to budget for a race that did not exist until June, but why wouldn't they pitch sponsors for Next Year to help them with this race since it will lead to automatic bids to the big event that is the key to the whole sponsorship package anyway...Le Mans in June 2004....

[PascaLM]

Well, some good entries..., some protos and GT... A good race of 1000kms.
We will have just a good day of relaxation.

[Karl Kling]

This could be an exciting race. Only one Privateer-Audi could make it possible for the smaller teams to get some good results.

It feels a bit strange to only see one Audi R8. What's the real reason for Audi UK not to be there in November? I can't recall having seen one.

Maybe they're still too embarrassed by that mistake in June...

The Panoz Esperante move feels like a grande finale and farewell to their prototype racing. Yes, it will be nice to see that car for real for the first time (it was, after all, the car that first made me interrested in prototype racing) but this scares me somehow. We need those front engined weird looking machines at Le Mans!

Another grand finale is the LMP675 race. This must be the last one for them. And also the last chance for the MGs to win Le mans...

And we can also wave a fond farewell to the Porsche 996 GT3 RS in it's last major race before the new GT3 RSR takes over next season. The King is dead and so on...

/k

[slicktsax]

yeah. well aside from the headline change the new 911 GT3 RSR looks exactly the same as the older GT3R's & RS's. i would have thought they would have refined teh aero a bit more. and too bad there isn't the a corvette C5-R or pagoni, or new ferrari 575 GTC in the GTS list

[aprescott]

WOW now that was a lot of posts!!! cheers lads and lasses!!

[ginettag27]

Panoz GTP entry is interesting - what if they qualify for a place at LM2004?

Are there any support races planned?

mtia

EPS


www.epsracing.co.uk

[Tim Northcutt]

That's a big question in my mind, too...what if they do earn a bid??

And it raises another question:

Does the Team get the automatic bid, that they can use with another chassis in 2004, provided it is in the same class, if they wish????

Or is it he Car that will carry over with the automatic bid???

And how will they handle the two LMP675 recipients???

Will they have the option of going LMP1 or LMP2???

[vandijk]

Originally posted by Tim Northcutt
That's a big question in my mind, too...what if they do earn a bid??

And it raises another question:

Does the Team get the automatic bid, that they can use with another chassis in 2004, provided it is in the same class, if they wish????

Or is it he Car that will carry over with the automatic bid???

And how will they handle the two LMP675 recipients???

Will they have the option of going LMP1 or LMP2???

Tim,

In art. 24 - "Classifications" they have grouped LMP900, LMP GTP, LMP1 and LMP2. Now this makes me curious too. Can you win in the GTP class and enter next year in, lets say, a LMP2? My feeling says yes otherwise the would stick with the old LMP's during the transition to P1 and P2.

But as you mentioned LMP675 is a seperate class according to this article. How will they threat these...?

/s.