Namur. 12th March 2010 – The young 19 year old Belgian Nicolas De Crem will be taking a step onto the international motorsport scene this season. In previous seasons De Crem competed in the Belgian Touring Car Series, with as a highpoint a brilliant victory in the 12 Hours of Spa, and is now heading for the internationally renowned Le Mans Series. This season the young Belgian will compete in the legendary 1000 Km-races, at the wheel of an Oreca Formula Le Mans 09 entered by the Belgian Thierry Boutsen Energy Racing team. His team mate for these endurance races is the young Austrian Dominik Kraihamer, who in previous years competed in FIA GT3 and Formula Le Mans amongst others.
Last season the Formula Le Mans was launched as a separate race formula which pro- ved to have an immediate success. The concept and the Formula Le Mans cham- pionship was created and developed by the organiser of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the ACO, whilst the renowned French motorsport company Oreca – which amongst others is entering a Peugeot 908 HDI Fap in the Le Mans Series – has taken on the development and build of the cars. The aim of this series is to offer young drivers the opportunity to gain experience in prototypes prior to moving on up to LMP1 and LMP2. In 2010 the decision was taken to make the Formula Le Mans an integral part of the Le Mans Series (LMS) and the American Le Mans series (ALMS). This will allow young drivers to truly get to grips with endurance racing, seeing the Le Mans Series are a pure endurance championship
The Le Mans Series saw the light of day in 2004 and combine five long distance com- petitions throughout Europe, amongst which the 1000 Km of Spa-Francorchamps on 9th and 10th May. The Le Mans Series kicks off on 10th and 11th April on the French Paul Ricard circuit and following on from the Belgian round held in May, there are further races in Portugal (Portimao), Hungary (Budapest) and England (Silverstone).The races vary from between 6 hours or 1000 Km up to 8 hours.
After two full seasons in the BTCS, where Nicolas De Crem clinched victories for both BMW and Audi , he is now on the eve of his international career. Last year, to- gether with Marc Goossens, De Crem probably clinched his best victory up until now at the wheel of an Audi A4 Silhouette. Prior to the BTCS De Crem had his first real motorsport experience at the wheel of a Formula Renault 1.6, a step he took after se- veral years of karting.
Quotes: Nicolas De Crem: “I’m not following the customary path of many young single-sea- ter drivers, by opting for endurance racing and the Le Mans Series. My ambition is to grow on through, from Formula Le Mans to LMP2 and on up to LMP1, but this season I’m going to fully concentrate on the Formula Le Mans. Together with my Austrian team mate I’m out to win the title, that’s for sure.”
Source : Nicolas De Crem