2001 European Le Mans Series

Last updated March 19, 2024

The 2001 European Le Mans Series season was the only season for the IMSA European Le Mans Series. It is a series for Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) and Grand Touring (GT) race cars divided into 4 classes: LMP900, LMP675, GTS, and GT. It began 17 March 2001 and ended 6 October 2001 after 7 races.

The series came about following the expansion of Don Panoz's American Le Mans Series to include European rounds in 2000. The ELMS become a separate series for 2001, although following the same IMSA and ACO rules that the ALMS followed, and even having shared events among the two series. Like the Petit Le Mans for the ALMS, the 1000 km of Estoril was meant to be a unique event that would earn automatic entries to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for its winners. A lack of interest from the European racing community and competition from the FIA's series, meant that this would be the only season of ELMS. Another planned series, known as Asian-Pacific Le Mans Series (APLMS) was planned to begin in late 2001, but never occurred.

Following the demise of the European Le Mans Series, the ACO would attempt to create another European-based sportscar series in 2003 with the more successful Le Mans Endurance Series. The Le Mans Endurance Series was eventually renamed the European Le Mans Series in 2012.

History

With the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) allowing Don Panoz to bring the rules and racing formulas of the 24 Hours of Le Mans to America with the creation of the Petit Le Mans in 1998, Don Panoz attempted to build up a series to be based around Petit Le Mans. The aged IMSA sportscar series was taken over and became the new American Le Mans Series, and met with much success in 1999. Following this success, Panoz attempting to bring sportscar racing back to Europe, which had lacked a major sportscar series since the demise of the World Sportscar Championship in 1992. This led to the 2000 American Le Mans Series season, which included two races in Europe as the Nürburgring and Silverstone Circuit, as well as a round in Australia. These races would serve as a precursor to what would become the separate European Le Mans Series in 2001.

The European Le Mans Series was launched for 2001 with 5 races, including a premier 1000 km race at Estoril, which would be the European equivalent of the 1000 mile Petit Le Mans and earn automatic entries to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for each class winner.

To aid in the development of the ELMS, the 2001 season shared some races between both ALMS and ELMS. The 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans, normally ALMS races, were considered optional races for ELMS teams. At the same time, the ELMS races at Donington Park and Jarama were considered optional for ALMS teams. This allowed for the possibility of boosting the draw from international teams to either series.

Unfortunately the series was unable to earn much attention from European sportscar teams, especially since the final FIA Sportscar Championship and FIA GT Championship series used similar cars, but different rules which would require teams to modify their cars or buy new cars to comply with ELMS rules. This means that the car count for the 2001 season was small. For the ELMS events that included ALMS teams, very few teams actually bothered to make the trip across the Atlantic to participate in races that appeared to have very few serious competitors. Of the ALMS teams that did race, nearly all were factory backed squads that had the money to spend on transporting their equipment to Europe. Thus the entry lists for each race fell from 25 at the beginning of the season to a mere 14 at season's end, with some classes only having one or two competitors.

With a lack of involvement from teams, and less interest from the media due to the lack of teams, the European Le Mans Series was forced to fold following the 2001 season.

The demise of the European Le Mans Series would not be the end of sportscar racing in Europe. In 2003, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest announced their intentions to create their own European-based series, named the Le Mans Endurance Series, which would be similar to the European Le Mans Series, but feature only 1000 km races instead of the shorter, 2 Hour 45 Minute races used by ELMS. This series would be far more successful, with a large number of participants from the very beginning.

APLMS

At the same time in the development of the European Le Mans Series, Don Panoz also proposed the idea of yet another series.^[1] Originally named the Asian Le Mans Series, it was later known as the Asian-Pacific Le Mans Series (APLMS). Like the European Le Mans Series, this APLMS would bring an ACO-backed sportscar series to Asia and the Pacific. This could be seen as a resurrection of the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship (JSPC) which had ended in 1992. The ACO had previous backed a single Japanese event, the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000km which combined Le Mans cars with JGTC machines for automatic entries to the 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans. This idea was followed by the American Le Mans Series with the 2000 Race of a Thousand Years race at the Adelaide Street Circuit in Australia. These two events served as a precursor to the planned APLMS series, and at the time of the creation of ELMS, Don Panoz announced his intention to hold an exhibition APLMS race at Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia in late 2001.

As the ELMS season went on, it became apparent that there was a lack of interest in the series, and Don Panoz decided that the APLMS would likely have even less interest. Thus the APLMS exhibition race and all plans for a series were scrapped.

Schedule

Besides Sebring, Estoril, and Petit Le Mans, all events were 2 hours and 45 minutes in length.

Rnd	Race	Circuit	Date
1	Exxon Superflo 12 Hours of Sebring ^†	Sebring International Raceway	17 March
2	ELMS Race at Donington Park ^†	Donington Park	14 April
3	ELMS Race at Jarama ^†	Circuito Permanente Del Jarama	20 May
4	1000 km of Estoril	Autódromo do Estoril	15 July
5	ELMS Race at Most	Autodrom Most	5 August
6	ELMS Race at Vallelunga	Autodromo di Vallelunga	2 September
7	Audi presents Petit Le Mans ^†	Road Atlanta	6 October

† - Joint event with ALMS.

Season results

Overall winner in bold.

Rnd	Circuit	LMP900 Winning Team	LMP675 Winning Team	GTS Winning Team	GT Winning Team	Results
Rnd	Circuit	LMP900 Winning Drivers	LMP675 Winning Drivers	GTS Winning Drivers	GT Winning Drivers	Results
1	Sebring	#1 Audi Sport North America	None	#26 Konrad Team Saleen	#23 Alex Job Racing	Results
1	Sebring	Michele Alboreto Rinaldo Capello Laurent Aïello		Oliver Gavin Terry Borcheller Franz Konrad	Sascha Maassen Lucas Luhr Emmanuel Collard	Results
2	Donington	#1 Audi Sport Team Joest	#21 Rowan Racing	#41 RML	#23 Alex Job Racing	Results
2	Donington	Tom Kristensen Rinaldo Capello	Martin O'Connell Warren Carway	Bruno Lambert Ian McKellar Jr.	Lucas Luhr Sascha Maassen	Results
3	Jarama	#1 Audi Sport Team Joest	#5 Dick Barbour Racing	#26 Konrad Team Saleen	#43 Team Schnitzer	Results
3	Jarama	Tom Kristensen Rinaldo Capello	Eric van de Poele Didier de Radigues	Toni Seiler Walter Brun Franz Konrad	Dirk Müller Fredrik Ekblom	Results
4	Estoril	#72 Pescarolo Sport	None	#41 RML	#77 Freisinger Motorsport	Results
4	Estoril	Jean-Christophe Boullion Laurent Redon Boris Derichebourg		Bruno Lambert Ian McKellar Jr. Chris Goodwin	Xavier Pompidou Romain Dumas	Results
5	Most	#7 Johansson Motorsport	#38 ROC	#41 RML	#60 P.K. Sport	Results
5	Most	Stefan Johansson Patrick Lemarié	Jordi Gené Christophe Pillon	Bruno Lambert Ian McKellar Jr.	Robin Liddell Mike Youles	Results
6	Vallelunga	#9 Lanesra	#28 Didier Bonnet Racing	#41 RML	#66 Harlow Motorsport	Results
6	Vallelunga	Richard Dean Gary Formato	François Jakubowski Xavier Bich	Ian McKellar Jr. Chris Goodwin	Terry Rymer Magnus Wallinder	Results
7	Road Atlanta	#2 Audi Sport North America	#57 Dick Barbour Racing	#4 Corvette Racing	#6 PTG	Results
7	Road Atlanta	Frank Biela Emanuele Pirro	Scott Maxwell John Graham Milka Duno	Kelly Collins Andy Pilgrim Franck Fréon	Hans Joachim Stuck Boris Said Bill Auberlen	Results
Source:^[2]

Teams' Championship

Points are awarded to the finishers in the following order:

25-21-19-17-15-14-13-12-11-10-...

Exception being for 12 Hours of Sebring, 1000 km of Estoril, and Petit Le Mans which awarded in the following order:

30-26-24-22-20-19-18-17-16-15-...

Points were awarded in two separate ways. Only the best finish out of the two American rounds (1 and 7) was included. In addition to this, only the top five finishes for the entire season were included. Points earned but not counting towards the team's total are listed in italics.

Teams only score the points of their highest finishing entry in each race. Teams which participated at Sebring and Petit Le Mans but did not attend any European events are also not counted towards the ELMS championships.

LMP900 standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Total
1	Johansson Motorsport	Audi R8	Audi 3.6L Turbo V8	22	19	19	26	25		26	115
2	Audi Sport North America	Audi R8	Audi 3.6L Turbo V8	30	25	25				30	80
3	Pescarolo Sport	Courage C60	Peugeot A32 3.2L Turbo V6	18	17		30				65
4	Panoz Motorsports	Panoz LMP07 Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S	Élan (Zytek) 4.0L V8 Élan 6L8 6.0L V8	17	14	17				19	50
5	Lanesra Racing	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S	Élan 6L8 6.0L V8					21	25		46
6	Westward Racing	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S	Élan 6L8 6.0L V8		15						15
7	Team PlayStation (Oreca)	Chrysler LMP	Mopar 6.0L V8		12						12
8	Team Ascari	Ascari A410	Judd GV4 4.0L V10		11						11

LMP675 standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Total
1=	Didier Bonnet Racing	Debora LMP200	BMW 3.2L I6				30	21	25		76
1=	Dick Barbour Racing	Reynard 01Q	Judd GV675 3.4L V8		21	25				30	76
3	Roock-KnightHawk Racing	Lola B2K/40	Nissan (AER) VQL 3.4L V8	30		21				22	51
4	Racing Organisation Course	Reynard 2KQ	Volkswagen 2.0L Turbo I4					25		19	44
5	Rowan Racing	Pilbeam MP84	Nissan (AER) VQL 3.0L V6		25						25

GTS standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Total
1	Ray Mallock Ltd.	Saleen S7-R	Ford 7.0L V8		25	19	30	25	25		124
2	Konrad Team Saleen	Saleen S7-R	Ford 7.0L V8	30	21	25	26		19	26	121
3	Brookspeed	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	Chrysler 8.0L V10				24			17	41
4	Konrad Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT2 Saleen S7-R	Porsche 3.8L Turbo Flat-6 Ford 7.0L V8			21				19	40
5	Cirtek Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.8L Turbo Flat-6						21		21

GT standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Total
1	P.K. Sport	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	Porsche 3.6L Flat-6		19	17	26	25	14		101
2	Paco Orti Racing	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Porsche 3.6L Flat-6		14	14	20	19	19		86
3	Harlow Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Porsche 3.6L Flat-6			11	24	15	25		75
4	Alex Job Racing	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	Porsche 3.6L Flat-6	30	25	19				24	74
5	Sebah Automotive, Ltd.	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Porsche 3.6L Flat-6		8	10	13	21	13	16	73
6	Seikel Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	Porsche 3.6L Flat-6	19	17	13	22			18	71
7	Freisinger Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	Porsche 3.6L Flat-6	16			30		21		67
8	BMW Motorsport	BMW M3 GTR	BMW 4.0L V8	24	10	25				26	61
9	Kyser Racing	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Porsche 3.6L Flat-6	18	15					17	33
10	Cirtek Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Porsche 3.6L Flat-6	15					15		30
11=	Skea Racing International	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Porsche 3.6L Flat-6				12	17			29
11=	Noël del Bello Racing	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Porsche 3.6L Flat-6		12		17				29
13	Atomic Kitten Motorsport	Chevrolet Corvette LM-GT	Chevrolet LS1 5.7L V8				14		11		25
14	Luc Alphand Aventures	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Porsche 3.6L Flat-6				19				19
15	Racing Engineering	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Porsche 3.6L Flat-6				16				16

Related Research Articles

The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Endurance racing is a form of motorsport racing which is meant to test the durability of equipment and endurance of participants. Teams of multiple drivers attempt to cover a large distance in a single event, with participants given a break with the ability to change during the race. Endurance races can be run either to cover a set distance in laps as quickly as possible, or to cover as much distance as possible over a preset amount of time.

The European Le Mans Series is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the former American Le Mans Series (ALMS) based in the United States and Canada that was running with ACO and IMSA between 1999 and 2013. ELMS team champions and runners-up receive an automatic entry to the following year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. Originally titled the Le Mans Endurance Series before becoming simply the Le Mans Series in 2006, the series was renamed once more in 2012, reusing a name previously utilized by IMSA in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panoz</span> American sports car manufacturer

Panoz is an American manufacturer of luxury sports automobiles founded in 1989 as Panoz Auto Development by Dan Panoz, son of Don Panoz. The company has also been extensively involved in professional racing, and designs, engineers and builds its own race cars. Panoz products have included the Panoz Roadster and AIV Roadster, the Panoz Esperante, and the Panoz Avezzano.

The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive director of SCCA, and his wife Peggy in 1969 with help from Bill France Sr. of NASCAR. Beginning in 2014, IMSA is the sanctioning body of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the premier series resulting from the merger of Grand-Am Road Racing and the American Le Mans Series. IMSA is owned by NASCAR, as a division of the company.

Krohn Racing is a professional sports car racing team based in Houston, Texas. The team competes in the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Prototype class, and has competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship, Intercontinental Le Mans Cup GTE-Amateur class; the American Le Mans Series GT2 class; and the Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype class.

The 2006 American Le Mans Series season was the 36th season for the IMSA GT Championship, with the eighth as the American Le Mans Series. It was a series for Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) and Grand Touring (GT) race cars divided into 4 classes: LMP1, LMP2, GT1, and GT2. It began March 18, 2006, and ended October 21, 2006 after 10 races.

The 2003 1000 km of Le Mans was a one-off sports car event run under the organization of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) in preparation for the Le Mans Endurance Series that began in 2004. It was run on 9 November 2003 at the Bugatti Circuit near Le Mans, France.

The 2001 American Le Mans Series season was the third season for the IMSA American Le Mans Series, and the 31st overall season of the IMSA GT Championship. It was a series for Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) and Grand Touring (GT) race cars divided into 4 classes: LMP900, LMP675, GTS, and GT. It began March 4, 2001 and ended October 6, 2001 after 10 races.

The 2000 American Le Mans Series was the second running of the IMSA American Le Mans Series, and overall the 30th season of an IMSA GT Championship, dating back to the 1971 edition. It was a series for Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) and Grand Touring (GT) race cars divided into 3 classes: LMP, GTS, and GT. It began March 18, 2000 and ended December 31, 2000 after 12 races.

The 1999 American Le Mans Series was the inaugural season of the IMSA American Le Mans Series, and is now recognised as the 29th season of the IMSA GT Championship. It was a series for Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) and Grand Touring (GT) race cars divided into three classes: LMP, GTS, and GT. It began March 20, 1999, and ended November 7, 1999, after eight races.

The 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000 km was an endurance race backed by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), who ran the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF), who ran the JGTC race series. It was run on November 7, 1999.

The 1998 Petit Le Mans was the seventh race for the 1998 IMSA GT Championship season, then known as the Professional SportsCar Racing series. It also served as a prelude to the first American Le Mans Series race held at Sebring in 1999. Don Panoz's American Le Mans Series was developed with the backing of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), the ruling body of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It took place on October 11, 1998.

Advanced Engine Research, Ltd. is an auto racing engine manufacturer based in Basildon, Essex, England. Established in 1997, AER has developed winning engines for a number of high-profile international race series in sports car, prototype racing, rallying, touring car, and open wheel racing. They have designed engines derived from road car platforms, but their emphasis is on clean sheet designed engines with a focus on electronics and turbochargers. Their engines have raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the World Endurance Championship (WEC), the European Le Mans Series (ELMS), the United SportsCar Championship (TUSC), GP3, British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), Nissan/Renault World Series, Grand-Am, Paris Dakar and FIA Sportscar Championship. They have worked with a number of manufacturers including Mazda, Ford, Hyundai, MG/Rover, Nissan, and Toyota. In 2012, AER developed and built Formula One turbo test engines to current rules and in July 2012, AER was chosen as engine partner and supplier to the new GP3 racing series. They currently supply engines for the Indy Lights series.

Risi Competizione is an Italo-American auto racing Ferrari factory-backed team formed by Giuseppe Risi in 1997. Initially, the team had a partnership with Doyle Racing using the name Doyle-Risi Racing, but soon Giuseppe Risi took full control of the project and it was rebranded with its current name in 2000. Risi Competizione has won races and championships in the IMSA GT championship, American Le Mans Series, and Rolex Sports Car Series, as well as earning three class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1998, 2008 and 2009. Much of Risi Competizione's success has come through the use of Ferrari machines.

The Asian Le Mans Series (AsLMS) is an Asian sports car racing endurance series created by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and based in Asia. It is the successor to the defunct Japan Le Mans Challenge which folded in 2007 after its second season. The ACO aims to attract teams and drivers from Asian countries.

The 2010 American Le Mans Series season was the 40th overall season for the IMSA GT Championship, and the twelfth as the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón. It was also the first season in which the ALMS used a revised structure for its four classes, as well as the first year in a three-year sponsorship deal with Patrón. The season began with the 12 Hours of Sebring on March 20 and ended with the Petit Le Mans on October 2, completing nine total races.

The DeltaWing is a racing car designed by British race car designer and engineer Ben Bowlby and debuted at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans. The entry was run under the Project 56 name, composed of Ben Bowlby (design), Dan Gurney's All American Racers (constructor), Duncan Dayton's Highcroft Racing and International Motor Sports Association owner Don Panoz. Nissan's NISMO division provided the engine in return for naming rights for part of 2012.

Muscle Milk Pickett Racing was a motorsports group from Indianapolis, Indiana. The team was founded in 2007 by CytoSport co-founder and former IMSA GT Championship driver Greg Pickett. Since 2007, Pickett's team has competed in the United SportsCar Championship, the American Le Mans Series, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge. The team officially closed in 2014.

Champion Racing was a sports car racing team based in Pompano Beach, Florida, USA. Founded in 1994 by Dave Maraj, a former rally driver from Trinidad, as the motorsport wing of the Champion Motors car dealership, the team has campaigned various Porsches and Audis in North American road racing series. Champion Racing's extensive record includes a win at the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2005, and 5 straight American Le Mans Series LMP1 championships, 2 as a private team and 3 as a factory team under the name Audi Sport North America.

References

↑ Watkins, Gary (13 September 2018). "How Panoz transformed sportscar racing - IMSA SportsCar - Autosport Plus". Autosport.com. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
↑ "European LeMans Series - Season 2001: Results". Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 20 January 2024.

External links

IMSA European Le Mans Series 2001

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Watkins, Gary (13 September 2018). "How Panoz transformed sportscar racing - IMSA SportsCar - Autosport Plus". Autosport.com. Retrieved 2020-06-11.

[2] "European LeMans Series - Season 2001: Results". Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 20 January 2024.

[1]

[2]

v t e European Le Mans Series
Main topics	Automobile Club de l'Ouest 24 Hours of Le Mans FIA World Endurance Championship Classic Endurance Racing Le Mans Cup
Classes	LMP Classes list LM GTE LMGT3 (from 2024) Le Mans Prototype Challenge 2009 Cup
Seasons	2001 (only season) 2003 (one event) 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Statistics	Champions Circuits