European Le Mans Series
Template:Infobox Sports Car Championship
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The Le Mans Series (LMS) 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 series was originally named the Le Mans Endurance Series, but changed its name prior to the 2006 season. Starting 2010, it spun off to a world-championship series, called Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, in which entries must compete in several more races of ACO's current American, European and Asian series.
The 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. It is also seen as a rebirth of the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) which was created by IMSA and the ACO, but only ran in 2001. LMS champions and runners up in all four categories receive an automatic entry to the following year's Le Mans 24 Hour Race.
History
The ACO, seeing the success of the American Le Mans Series but 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, 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, but less races in a season to help keep costs down. 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. 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.
Over the years the series has attracted a lot of entries, often times nearly 60 cars regularly appear in an LMS event. In 2008, Peugeot and Audi competed the full season. Peugeot won 4 of the first 5 races but reliability issues saw 1 car win while the other did not finish. At Silverstone both Peugeots suffered misfortune and handed the championship to the #2 Audi of Premat/Rockenfeller, despite them not winning a race. In 2009 Aston Martin Racing took the championship after a season-long battle with Oreca. Team Felbermayr-Proton was also enjoying hard-earned success in GT2, taking both 2009 and 2010 titles.
For 2009 Audi had chosen not to defend both their LMS and ALMS titles with their new R15, leaving the R10 to be campaigned by the Kolles team. Audi needed more time developing their R15, consequently only appearing at Sebring before Le Mans, and then only at Petit Le Mans afterwards. Peugeot took the same route but did show up at the 2009 1000km Spa and won. As the financial crisis took place, the series began to change. Manufacturer entries gradually disappeared and more private entries turned up for the full season. The manufacturers only wanted to compete in the big events for time saving and other developmental reasons.
The resurrected classic events on tracks like Monza and Nurburgring gradually disappeared, while new 1000km races (except Spa and Silverstone) on brand new tracks prevailed. The ACO decided it was time to take action and launched the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC). This was intended for the major manufacturers and includes big enduros from both the LMS and ALMS, mainly Sebring, Spa and Petit Le Mans. With the ILMC a success the Le Mans Series gradually became smaller and had less significance to the ACO. Plans to turn the LMS into a feeder for the ILMC was considered, but the ACO had made it official that by 2012 LMP1 cars will no longer be accepted into the series.
Champions
See also
References
External links
