Autocon Motorsports has been selected by the ACO to race in the next 24 Hours of Le Mans. The team had previously come in the Sarthe two years ago, with a Creation Judd. In 2010, Autocon Motorsports will field a Lola AER B06/10. Michael Lewis, Autocon Motorsports’s Team Owner, has kindly agreed to answer a few questions about the Le Mans race and the upcoming season :
What are your feelings about this Le Mans entry? Did you expect it?
“Obviously, we’re very happy to be involved with what I consider the biggest race on the planet. Given the interesting criteria used by the ACO to select entrants, I don’t know that you can ever ‘expect’ acceptance unless your name is pescarolo, but I do feel we’ve earned it by supporting le mans racing in the US for years. Of course the same was true last year and we got nowhere? I think our rookie performance in the ’08 race where we went over 18 hrs was perhaps taken into account.”
What will be your objective for Le Mans?
“As a team owner I want to finish this thing, That’s job one. We came close in ’08 and I need to be able to look back and see a finish when I’m done with racing! As a privateer the chances of podium are small so I think the strategy is to keep your head down and pushing with minimal pit time for 20 hours, and then maybe you take a look at what’s possible for the finish. At the end of the day I really just want to know that we all performed to potential, car, crew, drivers and strategy. If we do that, our result might surprise.”
Do you regret the Le Mans Test Day, or do your believe that you can rely upon your 2008 experience?
“It’s always nice as a driver to get laps, especially since we never see this track. But from a team owner standpoint, it’s more economical they way they have it now and is easier to organize. So I guess I’m a bit torn…”
What will be the Le Mans line-up? Tony Burgess, Pierre Ehret, yourself? If not, Chris, maybe?
“Pierre is busy in a GT2 Ferrari I think so it will be Bryan Willman, Tony and I. If anyone has to drop out I don’t think it would be hard to convince Chris to take a French vacation!! There are other options. It’s amazing how popular one becomes with a le mans entry in hand…”
What is the support from Lola? Has the car been developped during the off-season, apart from the regulations requirements?
“Understandably Lola’s attention has been focused on the new coupes, but they answer any questions we have and are always available. A very professional outfit.
A more fitting discussion for development with us is the AER engine. It’s got a few years under it’s belt now and has matured nicely. We are working a few angles with them to provide power and reliability in June. That’s exciting for us. AER is much like our team in many ways, a group of dedicated and passionate racers. They’re keen to challenge the diesel straightline speed superiority.”
Will you be at Sebring for the Winter Test?
“No, the winter test is quite a logistical undertaking for us being based on the west coast. And the track always seems to change massively from the test to the race weekend so you sometimes wind up starting from scratch again? So we’ll run some private testing in California. Primarily to get Pierre comfortable before Sebring and work on a few things. We will also try and test at Miller Motorsports Park in May with an eye on working out a balance for Le Mans. In my opinion the first 4-5 corners at Miller really provide a good Le Mans simulation.”
What will be your objective for the ALMS season? Do you think that your Lola will be competitive face to the HPD, the Dyson or the Drayson Lola?
“Again… we’d like to run to potential. If we do that we can podium. And if you podium enough times there’s no telling where you might end up at seasons end. We are not really in with a shot at the drivers championship as we have 4-5 drivers alternating throughout the season, but we will be watching that team championship quite closely.”
We do think Michael Lewis for his kindness
Claude Foubert