European Le Mans Series

European Le Mans Series
2012 European Le Mans Series season
Category	Sports car racing
Country or region	International
Inaugural season	2004
Prototype Classes	LMP1, LMP2, LMPC
GT Classes	LMGTE-PRO, LMGTE-AM, LMGTC
Current Drivers' champion/s	Emmanuel Collard, Julien Jousse
Current Teams' champion	Rebellion Racing
Official website	lemans-series.com

The European Le Mans Series (ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series based around the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and run by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) based in the United States and Canada that has been running with ACO backing since 1999, which is run by IMSA. ELMS team champions and runners-up receive an automatic entry to the following year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. Originally titled the Le Mans Endurance Series before becoming simply the Le Mans Series in 2006, the series was renamed once more in 2012, reusing a name previously utilized by IMSA in 2001.

History

With the allowing Don Panoz to bring the rules and racing formulas of the 24 Hours of Le Mans to North America with the creation of the Petit Le Mans in 1998, Don Panoz attempted to build up a series to be based around Petit Le Mans. The aged IMSA GT Championship was taken over and became the new American Le Mans Series, and met with much success in 1999.

Europe had lacked a major sports prototype series since the demise of the World Sportscar Championship in 1992. Following the success of the ALMS, Panoz attempting to bring sports prototype racing back to Europe. This led to the 2000 American Le Mans Series season, which included two races in Europe as the Nürburgring and Silverstone Circuit, as well as a round in Australia. These races would serve as a precursor to what would become the separate European Le Mans Series in 2001.

The European Le Mans Series was launched for 2001 with five races, including a premier 1000 km race at Estoril, which would be the European equivalent of the 1000 mile Petit Le Mans and earn automatic entries to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for each class winner.

To aid in the development of the ELMS, the 2001 season shared some races between both ALMS and ELMS. The 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans, normally ALMS races, were considered optional races for ELMS teams. At the same time, the ELMS races at Donington Park and Jarama were considered optional for ALMS teams. This allowed for the possibility of boosting the draw from international teams to either series.

The series was unable to earn much attention from European sportscar teams, especially since the final FIA Sportscar Championship and FIA GT Championship series used similar cars, but different rules which would require teams to modify their cars or buy new cars to comply with ELMS rules. For the ELMS events that included ALMS teams, very few teams actually bothered to make the trip across the Atlantic to participate in races that appeared to have very few serious competitors. Thus the entry lists for each race fell from 25 at the beginning of the season to a mere 14 at season's end, with some classes only having one or two competitors.

With a lack of involvement from teams, and less interest from the media due to the lack of teams, the European Le Mans Series folded following the 2001 season.

The ACO was not completely satisfied with the fact that IMSA did not fully comply with the ACO's regulations in order to help attract privateer teams, as well as the failure of the FIA Sportscar Championship to succeed in Europe. Seeing the success of the American Le Mans Series, the ACO decided that a series run by themselves would be a better alternative for Europe. The ACO would instead attempt to attract factory backed teams with longer endurance races than ALMS and FIA SCC ran. The series would also be European based instead of international, thus it could be closer to the factories of a large number of sportscar teams to help attract them to the series.

In 2003, the ACO announced their intentions to create their own European-based series, named the Le Mans Endurance Series, which would be similar to the original European Le Mans Series, but feature only 1000 km races instead of the shorter, 2 hour 45 minute races used by the ELMS, and less races in a season than the ALMS and FIA SCC to help keep costs down. Winners of the LMES championship would go on to earn automatic entries in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, similar to the American Le Mans Series.

The series was initially previewed in an open race run under the LMES banner in 2003 at the 1000km of Le Mans, a one-off event before the season started in 2004.

For the 2004 Le Mans Series season, the series participated in four events, including resurrecting classic races like the 1000km Monza, 1000km Nürburgring, 1000 km Silverstone and the Spa 1000 km. A large number of competitors turned out, making the racing very exciting.

2005 saw the series expand to a five race format with the addition of the Istanbul Racing Circuit. In 2007, the LMS held its first and single overseas race with Mil Milhas Brasil as the sixth round.

Champions

Season	LMP1 Team	LMP2 Team	LMGTS / LMGT1 Team	LMGT / LMGT2 / LMGTE-PRO Team	LMGTE-AM Team	FLM / LMPC Team
	LMP1 Driver(s)	LMP2 Driver(s)	LMGTS / LMGT1 Driver(s)	LMGT / LMGT2 / LMGTE-PRO Driver(s)	LMGTE-AM Driver(s)	FLM / LMPC Driver(s)
2004	Audi Sport UK Veloqx	Courage Compétition	Larbre Compétition	Sebah Automotive	None	None
	Johnny Herbert Jamie Davies	Alexander Frei Sam Hancock	Pedro Lamy Christophe Bouchut Steve Zacchia	Roman Rusinov	None	None
2005	Pescarolo Sport	Chamberlain-Synergy	BMS Scuderia Italia	Sebah Automotive	None	None
	Jean-Christophe Boullion Emmanuel Collard	Gareth Evans	Michele Bartyan Christian Pescatori Toni Seiler	Xavier Pompidou Marc Lieb	None	None
2006	Pescarolo Sport	Barazi-Epsilon	Aston Martin Larbre	Autorlando Sport	None	None
	Jean-Christophe Boullion Emmanuel Collard	Juan Barazi Michael Vergers	Pedro Lamy Gabriele Gardel Vincent Vosse	Marc Lieb Joël Camathias	None	None
2007	Team Peugeot Total	Ray Mallock Ltd.	Team Oreca	Virgo Motorsport	None	None
	Stéphane Sarrazin Pedro Lamy	Mike Newton Thomas Erdos	Soheil Ayari Stéphane Ortelli	Robert Bell	None	None
2008	Audi Sport Team Joest	Van Merksteijn Motorsport	Luc Alphand Aventures	Virgo Motorsport	None	None
	Alexandre Prémat Mike Rockenfeller	Jos Verstappen	Guillaume Moreau Patrice Goueslard	Robert Bell	None	None
2009	Aston Martin Racing	Quifel ASM Team	Luc Alphand Aventures	Team Felbermayr-Proton	None	None
	Tomáš Enge Jan Charouz Stefan Mücke	Miguel Amaral Olivier Pla	Patrice Goueslard Yann Clairay	Marc Lieb Richard Lietz	None	None
2010	Team Oreca Matmut	RML	Larbre Compétition	Team Felbermayr-Proton	None	DAMS
	Stéphane Sarrazin	Mike Newton Thomas Erdos	Gabriele Gardel Patrice Goueslard	Marc Lieb Richard Lietz	None	Andrea Barlesi Gary Chalandon
2011	Rebellion Racing	Greaves Motorsport	None	AF Corse	IMSA Performance Matmut	Pegasus Racing
	Emmanuel Collard Julien Jousse	Karim Ojjeh Tom Kimber-Smith	None	Giancarlo Fisichella Gianmaria Bruni	Nicolas Armindo Raymond Narac	Julien Schell Mirco Schultis Patrick Simon

See also

• FIA Sportscar Championship
• World Sportscar Championship

External links

• Official LMS website
• Official ACO website