Le Mans News

Beating the highly-fancied Chevrolet Corvettes and racking up a first class victory at Le Mans for the Ferrari 550 Maranello was a major achievement for the fledgling Veloqx Prodrive combination - and the enormity of the success is still registering on the men behind the scenes who made it possib

The Le Mans 24 hour is one of the grueling on the world motorsport calendar, but this past weekend MG XPOWER lasted the distance to take the Durango team to the chequered flag in the French classic.

Graham Nash Motorsport's No.64 Saleen S7-R, driven by an all FIA GT line-up of Erdos, Newton and Chaves, suffered a double blow after running strongly for 5 minutes shy of 23 hours in the GTS class at this year's Le Mans 24 Hour race.

Oliver Gavin, Kelly Collins and Andy Pilgrim brought their #50 Corvette C5-R into second in the GTS Class and 11th overall at the 2003 Le Mans 24 Hours, the greatest sportscar race in the World.

The ACEMCO Motorsport Ferrari 360 Modena has retired from the Le Mans 24 Hours after ten-and-a-half hours and a spell at the front of the closely-contested.GT class.

Anthony Davidson is currently en route to the Le Mans circuit medical centre following a heavy impact with the barriers at the end of the Mulsanne straight.

JML Team Panoz may have held their positions of sixth and ninth through to the halfway point of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but Olivier Beretta was lucky to escape after suffering a major night-time incident at more than 300kph.

Anthony Davidson's first Le Mans 24 Hours ended prematurely when he suffered a big accident at the Mulsanne corner during the darkness hours of the endurance classic.

The 71st running of the 24 Heures du Mans began under sunny French skies at almost exactly 4pm local time with Bentley boys Rinaldo Capello and Johnny Herbert providing a memorable first lap demonstration run in the two dark green Speed 8's.

Despite a very promising second qualifying session and a good warm up, the gorgeous, but very new Pagani Zonda GR retired from the Le Mans 24 Hours after only 11 laps, the team's second early exit in two major 2003 endurances.

The Ferrari 550 Maranello GTS of Luc Alphand Aventures/Solution F has enjoyed a solid start to its Le Mans campaign, and the Care Racing-owned car has run steadily in the top three for most of the opening quarter of the round-the-clock event.

Team Bentley's two Speed 8 prototypes will start this weekend's Le Mans 24-hour race from the front row of the grid.

The British Lister Storm LMP 900 machine, which competed at Sebring earlier this year, was heavily damaged in an accident in the first qualifying practice session last night. Driver Jamie Campbell-Walter impacted the barriers after a long high-speed slide just after the Dunlop Bridge.

Jamie Campbell-Walter has admitted responsibility after the accident that forced the Lister team to withdraw from the Le Mans 24-hours after an accident during the second day of qualifying on Thursday.

The Automobile Club de l'Ouest today revealed the formation of a four-race series next year, confirming the announcement made at the Le Mans trials in May.

It's the most famous week leading up to the most famous race in sportscar racing, and Audi is out in force once again as it prepares to enter the 71st running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with three privateer teams - Team ADT Champion Racing, Audi Sport UK and Audi Sport Japan Team Goh.

US motorsport broadcaster SPEED Channel will return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the eighth consecutive year in 2003, ready to bring viewers 17 hours of live coverage from the 71st running of the round-the-clock classic.

23 year-old Englishman Gavin Pickering has signed to Paris based sportscar team Welter Racing for the forthcoming Le Mans 24 Hours.

Alex Job Racing [AJR] and Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing have taken on a full time job to partner with new sponsors for the No. 93 Porsche GT3 RS that will compete at the world famous 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 14 and 15.

Former Le Mans 24-hour race winner and Formula One driver Johnny Dumfries made a return to the cockpit after an 11-year absence last Sunday at this years' Le Mans pre-race test session.

The General Motors Chevrolet Corvette Racing team enjoyed its outing at the pre-race test at Le Mans last weekend, running quickly and efficiently despite completing a programme designed to evaluate the effectiveness of new and revised parts.

The two Care Racing owned Ferrari 550 Maranellos campaigned by Veloqx Prodrive Racing showed a clean pair of heels to their competitors in the GTS class throughout the entire 8 hours of track time available at yesterday's official preliminary test session.

1. Kristensen, Capello, Smith Team Bentley #7 Bentley Speed 8 GTP 3m34.820 secs 2. Ara, Werner, Magnussen Audi Sport Japan Team Goh #5 Audi R8 900 3m38.385 secs

One of France's most famous sporting names, Luc Alphand, will be taking on a new challenge at this year's 24 Heures du Mans as he takes to the wheel of the Solution F Ferrari 550 Maranello to challenge for GTS class honours.