Horag Racing has secured a place in the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours after being named as the winners of the 2008 Michelin Energy Endurance Challenge.

The ACO and Michelin announced earlier this year that it would run the Michelin Energy Endurance Challenge for the second consecutive year, with an entry for the 2009 Le Mans Hours going to the winner.

The objective of the MEEC was to reward those teams that succeeded in combining performance with energy efficiency during the races that make up the Le Mans Series calendar, with an Energy Efficiency Index being calculated after each event for each car, irrespective of category.

The formula employed this year to calculate the Energy Efficiency Index was a straightforward relationship between the car's average speed - excluding time spent in the pits - and its average fuel consumption during the race.

Horag Racing therefore took the honours with a total of 194 points, two clear of the LMP2 title-winning van Merksteijn Motorsport Porsche, while the Team Essex Spyder was a distant third.

"To begin with, the ACO would like to congratulate Horag Racing for their performance throughout the current season which has earned them an automatic selection for the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours,” ACO president Jean-Claude Plassart said. “The energy issue has become a part of all our day to day lives and this classification, which rewards the combination of high performance and careful attention to the way energy is used, mirrors the ACO's traditional approach to this question.

“We have always supported the use of new technologies and we have every intention to carry on doing so in the future."