The Formula Le Mans Cup saw the light of day in the cradle of endurance racing and is in its own back yard as part of the mythic Le Mans 24 Hours event. After the opening round on the Spa‐Francorchamps circuit at the start of May, the Formula Le Mans Cup is being held in the context of a meeting that is as prestigious as it is spectacular – and unique! It’s a privilege that Formula Le Mans can boast about: namely, being the only other branch of the sport to race on the awesome Le Mans 24‐Hours circuit ! The second round of the season sees two more cars joining the field that turned up for the Spa‐Francorchamps event, making a total of fourteen at the start entered by seven different teams.

The one to beat will be DAMS, the current championship leader and Jean‐Paul Driot’s squad will be racing at home. It has entered three cars including two for the driver lineups that appeared at Spa: Wolfgang Kaufmann‐Luca Moro and Gavin Cronje‐Nicolas Verdonck. The latter pairing, winners of the first two rounds in the history of the Formula Le Mans Cup, will arrive in the Sarthe as favourites even if the different profile of the field indicates that a third win on the trot is far from being a sure thing. The main rivals to the afore‐mentioned are also to be found in the ranks of the DAMS outfit – Vincent Capillaire‐Fabien Rosier. The two ex‐ ACO “Volants” will drive a car bearing the number 72 entered by the ACO itself!

The Hope PoleVision Racing team has already put down a marker as a potential title winner after its promising results in Belgium. Three out of the four drivers seen at Spa will race in the Sarthe. Mathias Beche and Valle Mäkele will again share the same car, while Christian Pillon’s partner will not be Thor‐Christian Ebesvik but Natacha Gachnang. This charming 22‐year‐old Swiss girl is no novice in motor sport. Since 2002 she has accumulated a lot of experience in Formula BMW, F3 Euroseries, Formula Mazda USA, as well as in the Spanish F3 Championship. She has a prestigious advisor Sébastien Buemi, the Toro Rosso F1 driver, who is her cousin! It will be very interesting to see the performance of the first woman driver in the history of the Formula Le Mans Cup.

Boutsen Energy Racing will again enter three cars. Dimitri Enjalbert has been replaced by young Austrian, 19‐year‐old Dominik Kraihamer, who will line up alongside Gary Chalendon, while Pascal Ballay will still be associated with Johan Boris Scheier. The third car will be shared by Anthony Beltoise, triple winner of the Porsche Carrera Cup, and newcomer Gabriel Abergel.

The Exagon Engineering team has also entered three cars. Stéphane Lemeret, who drove for DAMS in Belgium, will share his car with Sébastien Dumez, who knows the circuit very well having already raced in the 24 Hours twice. The Magny‐Cours‐based team will have another old Le Mans hand in one of its cars – Lionel Robert. Lionel from Le Man won the GTP category in 1986 and has eight Le Mans 24 Hours under his belt. He will team up with Thomas Duchêne who also knows the long 13.6‐km circuit having raced in the Le Mans Classic twice.

The Applewood‐LD Autosport team didn’t have much luck at Spa, and hopes to use this exceptional race to show that David Zollinger and Damien Toulemonde are two drivers to be reckoned with this season. The podium finish in the second race in Belgium was a bonus for the team from Alès, which is hoping for greater things in the Sarthe. A seventh team will make its appearance at Le Mans, Graff Racing. Like the Ibanez Racing Service team whose drivers are no longer Richard Mori‐François Desprez but William Cavailhes‐Frédéric da Rocha, Jean‐Philippe Grand’s squad has entered a car for local lad Julien Canal and Ludovic Badey from Lyon. The multiple Formula Ford and Formula 3 Championship winning team knows these two drivers very well as it is running them in this year’s Porsche Matmut Carrera Cup.

Taking the specific characteristics of the Le Mans circuit into account, there will be just a single race this weekend on Saturday morning between 10h55 and 11h55. The drivers will have an hour’s free practice to get to grips with the track on Wednesday afternoon at 16h30, followed by a 1‐hour qualifying session on Thursday.

Source : Formula Le Mans Cup