Creation Autosportif will return to the scene of one of its most thrilling races this weekend as the Le Mans Series heads back to
Silverstone for the final round of the European season.
Back in 2005, the last time the series visited the circuit, the Creation team was embroiled in a heated battle for the victory, with Nicolas Minassian and Jamie Campbell-Walter mastering wet conditions to lead for over five hours before being pipped at the finish by the Audi of Allan McNish and Stephane Ortelli.
Although Minassian has moved on to Peugeot, the Bicester-based team retains an international flavour going into its home event, where the team will be seeking to secure an elusive podium with the new CA07.
Campbell-Walter will once again be joined at the wheel by Felipe Ortiz, but Shinji Nakano will not be present at Silverstone – with Haruki Kurosawa coming in to take his place.
"It will be good to be back racing in front of our home crowd again," team principal Ian Bickerton said. "We've been testing again since Spa, working on damping and suspension and have found half a second round Magny Cours compared to our last visit there. The car, using the third spring arrangement which we've designed, is now much easier on the tyres. Dunlop has done a lot of work with us on developing their medium tyres for our car so well done to them. We did 150 laps without any problems so it's all looking good.
"The star of the test was Felipe Ortiz. He found seven tenths of a second over a lap, and was very consistent in that improvement. He's now really pumped up and looking forward to this round of the series. Alongside he and Jamie will be Haruki, who is new to the team but comes highly recommended. He drove the LMP2 Zytek which came second at Le Mans this year, and has a good deal of experience with these types of car. I'm expecting him to slot straight in.
