[ELMS] ELMS (was LMS) 2012 discussion

[Deleted]

I was hoping to see Manthey in WEC but now that it's clear they won't be participating, I pray that they at least head to ELMS. Ferraris surely will dominate the GTE-PRO ranks unless we get some further opposition.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by AGD

Oh, ok. Is Murphy a new investor/pay driver or what? Also, is MG not putting their name on the cars like Lotus?

The only report I could see was that it's an investor/pay driver and that the engine may be badged MG for the WEC Shanghai race; plus they've switched to an Oreca 03 from the old B05/40 Lola, basically the same package as Race Performance have been running last year and will continue to run this year.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

The only report I could see was that it's an investor/pay driver and that the engine may be badged MG for the WEC Shanghai race; plus they've switched to an Oreca 03 from the old B05/40 Lola, basically the same package as Race Performance have been running last year and will continue to run this year.

You would think that the ACO would give Murphy/RLR a Le Mans invite after screwing them out of cost-capped status last year!

[Marcel ten Caat]

Originally Posted by Chiana

I was hoping to see Manthey in WEC but now that it's clear they won't be participating, I pray that they at least head to ELMS. Ferraris surely will dominate the GTE-PRO ranks unless we get some further opposition.

Don't expect them to be in ELMS...unless something changed recently :-)

[911targa]

I think Manthey have almost no choice besides enter ELMS, at the end of last year they left VLN / N24 and confirmed they'll be racing in some world class event with Porsches this year.

[Coach Ep]

No WEC, no ELMS, that leaves FIA GT (very unlikely although it seems there´s gonna be some announcements soon - not necessarily concerning Porsche) or GT Open (in which Manthey have run before occasionally, 2010?).

[Marcel ten Caat]

911targa: they have said they will not run a works Porsche in VLN or N24, but will run customer cars there.

[courageous]

Originally Posted by lms

Maybe the entries on the reserve list of lm24 will show up. Like jetalliance.

I may have imagined it, but I think a new rule for 2012 is all teams at LM have to have run at other ACO races; so it'll be Spa and/or ELMS if they want to keep their chances of an invite alive.

[lms]

Originally Posted by courageous

I may have imagined it, but I think a new rule for 2012 is all teams at LM have to have run at other ACO races; so it'll be Spa and/or ELMS if they want to keep their chances of an invite alive.

wow, that would be cool.
(but hopefully this rule doesnt apply to the 56th car )

[AndrewF31]

Maybe Porsche has reversed their decision to run in the N24 and Manthey will be back.

For a team like Manthey, it would make more sense to see them in the Blancpain or FIA GT. GT Open only makes sense if they want to try to demolish the dominant Ferraris.

[911targa]

But before Olaf said more than once that he hates the VLN/N24 Performance/Balance rules and that'll put GT3 R in disadvantages.His original mean, if I'm right, is Manthey'll again be a 911 customer team this year, but in another series.

At present Porsche support little to teams in 24h series(Dubai,Bathurst12..) Blancpain, FIA GT and GT Open

[LC2guy]

The suspense is getting to me now. When is the announcement ???? I'm still excited about the series, even without P1.

[911targa]

Now confirmed on Manthey official sites, wish they can continue VLN project with other teams.
http://www.manthey-racing.de/

[gwyllion]

The full season entry list is available on http://www.autohebdo.fr/resultats.ph...2012&idEpr=969

13 LMP2 entries, 5 GTE Pro, 2 GTE Am, 1 GTC, 0 LMPC -> 21 entries in total

[AGD]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

The ELMS entry list, at least for the 1st round (Paul Ricard),

Well, that's pretty disappointing. 21 cars plus reserves? Why are there reserves though? Who is DownForce1? Loeb Racing with a P2? Only 1 GTC?

EDIT: Is there some hope that this is a work in progress entry list and that more entries may be added? If nothing else, hopefully none are subtracted or else it may not make the minimum!

[gwyllion]

http://www.lemans-series.com/en/s03_....php?news=2065 contains a bit more info.

In the LMPC category, whose tests programmed at the Paul Ricard circuit were cancelled because of snow, the number of entries will be confirmed after the upcoming sessions on 23 and 24 February. Between six and eight Formula Le Mans are already confirmed for the whole season.

The GT grid should boast some ten cars. As of today, the new GTC category only has one full season entry. It will be joined by other GTC contestants on a race by race basis.

In total, thirty five cars are expected in the different 2012 European Le Mans Series races.

[morningview66]

Are the entries bearing the MG name see:

18 LMP2 MG Oreca 03-Judd Msport/Murphy Prototypes Firth-Hughes
LMP2 MG EX265-Judd Guess Racing Europe

Are they anything to do with MG during the production or simply a branding/naming exercise like the Morgan deal??

[NaBUru38]

5 GTE Pro! That's very worrying to me. Splitting them between WEC and ELMS is a terrible idea. They should have kept races together, so e.g. Schnitzer would cover European races and Rahal the North American races.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by morningview66

Are they anything to do with MG during the production or simply a branding/naming exercise like the Morgan deal??

Branding exercise. I wonder if the MG Lola will be cost-capped this year. Granted, Guess Racing Europe is running it so that question may never actually matter.

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

They should have kept races together, so e.g. Schnitzer would cover European races and Rahal the North American races.

BMW is done with European GTE racing so it's not like it really matters. But, yeah, that list plus LMPCs and a few other odd balls is very concerning.

[KA]

Originally Posted by AGD

Well, that's pretty disappointing. 21 cars plus reserves? Why are there reserves though? Who is DownForce1? Loeb Racing with a P2? Only 1 GTC?

EDIT: Is there some hope that this is a work in progress entry list and that more entries may be added? If nothing else, hopefully none are subtracted or else it may not make the minimum!

Could be that with the FLM and race-by-race GTC entries, they think they'll have a maximum grid, hence a couple of reserves- Seems odd to leave P2's out of the race, in favour of spec-class FLM/LMPC cars or GTC cars. Then again, both the reserves are Guess Racing entries, so maybe they just figured there wasn't much point giving them an entry as they wouldn't show up...

No clue about Downforce 1- new Aston customer team, or just a sponsor's branding for an existing team?

Originally Posted by morningview66

Are the entries bearing the MG name see:

18 LMP2 MG Oreca 03-Judd Msport/Murphy Prototypes Firth-Hughes
LMP2 MG EX265-Judd Guess Racing Europe

Are they anything to do with MG during the production or simply a branding/naming exercise like the Morgan deal??

When the Le Mans list was released, did someone suggest that MSport/Murphy might be the RLR outfit from last year, (they ran the ex-RML Lola Spyder), now with some money from Ireland, and an MG badging deal and maybe some Chinese money as well? IIRC, it's been rumoured that they'll be doing the Chinese WEC round. Interesting to see Jody Firth and Warren Hughes listed as drivers- both ex-Embassy/WFR, although Hughes ran with RLR a couple of times last year

The Guess MG is probably the RLR car, RML's Lolas were rehomologated as MGs- again, basically just a badging deal, although IIRC they're supposed to have a certain amount of RML modifications under the skin compared to an off-the-shelf Lola? If it is the RML/RLR car though, it might not suggest that they've got any backing from MG as such- just that the car's called an MG Lola on the paperwork...
http://www.mg-lola.com/ex265.htm

[AGD]

Originally Posted by KA

Could be that with the FLM and race-by-race GTC entries, they think they'll have a maximum grid, hence a couple of reserves- Seems odd to leave P2's out of the race, in favour of spec-class FLM/LMPC cars or GTC cars.

If there are a number of LMPC/GTC teams that can't find the budget to run the whole of a short continental championship, I really wonder how legitimate those teams are. I guess I can kind of understand GTC as perhaps teams will be running those cars elsewhere in other series, but LMPC? That does not make a whole lot of sense. I guess that's why I'm a bit concerned about the car count.

[KA]

Originally Posted by AGD

BMW is done with European GTE racing so it's not like it really matters. But, yeah, that list plus LMPCs and a few other odd balls is very concerning.

Might we be seeing the beginning of the end of GTE in Europe?- certainly might explain why GTE Pro numbers were fairly small on the Le Mans entry this year, and why a few names ended up on the reserve list.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by KA

Might we be seeing the beginning of the end of GTE in Europe?- certainly might explain why GTE Pro numbers were fairly small on the Le Mans entry this year, and why a few names ended up on the reserve list.

It certainly seems like that could be the case. Given what Black Swan said about GT budgets vs. P2 budgets, I'm not so sure if privateer GTEs will be returning anytime soon either. On top of that, we know that the European TV directors don't like to show anything but the top of the P1 class. That ran BMW off it seems.

[KA]

Originally Posted by AGD

If there are a number of LMPC/GTC teams that can't find the budget to run the whole of a short continental championship, I really wonder how legitimate those teams are. I guess I can kind of understand GTC as perhaps teams will be running those cars elsewhere in other series, but LMPC? That does not make a whole lot of sense. I guess that's why I'm a bit concerned about the car count.

Looking at the list as reported on Auto-Hebdo, they don't seem to have announced any LMPC entries yet (apart from a mention of a Loeb entry alongside their P2), but appear to be waiting until after the test scheduled later this month for some reason- They seem to be confident that they've got 6-8 full-season cars confirmed, but just aren't naming them yet...

'In the LMPC category, whose tests programmed at the Paul Ricard circuit were cancelled because of snow, the number of entries will be confirmed after the upcoming sessions on 23 and 24 February. Between six and eight Formula Le Mans are already confirmed for the whole season.'
http://www.lemans-series.com/en/s03_....php?news=2065


For the GTC class, maybe they're expecting a number of local entries at each round, rather than full-season regulars?

[AGD]

Originally Posted by KA

Looking at the list as reported on Auto-Hebdo, they don't seem to have announced any LMPC entries yet (apart from a mention of a Loeb entry alongside their P2), but appear to be waiting until after the test scheduled later this month for some reason- They seem to be confident that they've got 6-8 full-season cars confirmed, but just aren't naming them yet...

I guess that makes sense even if it does not really make sense. But, yeah, the ELMS has had a bit of a drop off at certain rounds over the past few years (particularly the Portuguese rounds) so I'm just not sure what to expect over the course of the season.