Sportscars News

The ACO has announced a list of 18 teams that have accepted entries into the Le Mans 24 Hours in June - with two high profile teams having not taken up their automatic slots for the famous endurance event.

Reigning Le Mans Series LMP2 champion Barazi-Epsilon has decided to defend its titles with the all-new Zytek 07S, the British manufacturer has revealed.

Team Modena finished its maiden Le Mans Series season with a third place finish in the GT1 class at Jarama - a result that saw Antonio Garcia take second place in the drivers' championship.

RML have finally secured their first win of the 2006 Le Mans Series season after Tommy Erdos and Mike Newton took advantage of late misfortune for the Rollcentre Radical team to secure the LMP2 class victory.

Pescarolo Sport have claimed the 2006 Le Mans Series title after Emmanuel Collard, Jean-Christophe Boullion and Didier Andre took the flag at Donington Park to make it four wins from four this season.

Ben Devlin is to join the Bruichladdich Radical team for the latest round of the Le Mans Series at Donington Park, while former WRC title winner Colin McRae will be a guest of the team and will race in the supporting Radical World Cup.

The ACO has announced that it will examine the performance of diesel engines at Le Mans to ensure that all teams are on a level playing field for the 2007 Le Mans 24 Hours.

After working alongside the Creation Autosportif team to develop the current CA06/H, KW Motorsport has announced plans to a build a coupe LMP1 prototype for the 2007 season.

The Team Modena Aston Martin DBR9 survived all that was thrown at it through the Le Mans 24 Hours to claim fourth in class and eighth overall on its debut appearance at the French classic.

British teenager and Le Mans rookie Ed Morris has spoken of a Le Mans 24 Hours that promised so much but delivered so little for him and his hard-trying G Force team.

The Russian Age Racing #61 Ferrari 550 Maranello, with the all British driver line-up of Nigel Smith, Tim Sugden and Christian Vann, was retired from the Le Mans 24 Hours in the ninth hour after a bizarre accident caused the engine to overheat.

Lawrence Tomlinson's Team LNT Panoz outfit could be on the verge of a historic GT2 class victory after mechanical problems stranded the class leading Seikel Porsche out on the track with just 90 minutes of the Le Mans 24 Hours remaining.

The hot French temperatures is certainly taking its toll on the competing teams at Le Mans with more than half a dozen teams striking trouble in the opening 30 minutes of the race.

Twenty three-year old French driver Yann Clairay has walked away from one of the most potentially disastrous accidents seen at Le Mans since Peter Dumbreck's infamous Mercedes flip in the late 1990's after suffering a tyre failure in his Paul Belmondo Courage.

Just three and a half hours into the 2006 Le Mans 24 Hours and Tom Kristensen's bid for a seventh consecutive victory in the classic La Sarthe race could be over after his #7 Audi suffered a mysterious cut out problem.

The IMSA Performance Matmut team should have been celebrating pole position in the GT2 class after qualifying for the Le Mans 24 Hours, but instead the team is left sweating on whether or not it will compete in the race after a heavy accident in the final qualifying session.

Dunlop has confirmed that it is to support young Briton Ed Morris in the Le Mans 24 Hours this coming weekend.

Rinaldo Capello was one of a number of drivers to be caught out by the conditions after an accident halted the challenge of the #7 Audi R10 during the opening qualifying sessions for the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Although he won't form part of the driver line-up, Scottish racer Alan Bonner is to again team up with Bill Binnie as the Binnie Motorsport team prepares to take on the Le Mans 24 Hours this coming weekend.

Dunlop, the most successful tyre supplier in the history of the Le Mans 24 Hour race, is commemorating its renewed relationship with Jaguar by transporting the 1956 race winning Jaguar D-Type to Le Mans for a lap of honour before the 2006 race.

Creation Autosportif team boss Ian Bickerton didn't mince his words when asked to sum up his teams' Le Mans 24 Hours test day calling Sunday ?a day from hell.'

Flying Lizard Motorsport are in France preparing for its second run the Le Mans 24 Hours, and following the team's recent win in the American Le Mans Series at Mid-Ohio, confidence his high ahead of the race on the 17 and 18 June.

Creation Autosportif will look to build on its debut in the Le Mans 24 Hours when the British team returns to La Sarthe for the second time later this month.

Intersport Racing's Liz Halliday will make her second appearance at Le Mans this weekend for the official test, ahead of the Le Mans 24 Hour on the 17, 18 June in the LMP2 AER powered Lola.