Courage Compétition

Cougar C28S with 3-liter Porsche 6-cylinder boxer engine ; With this vehicle, Bob Wollek , Henri Pescarolo and Jean-Louis Ricci finished in sixth place in the overall standings

Courage C26 at the Silverstone Classic 2009

Courage C36 in the 1997 Donington 2-hour race . At the wheel is Emmanuel Clérico, who finished fourth overall with Henri Pescarolo

Pescarolo Sport Courage C52 with 3.2 liter turbo engine from Peugeot

Courage C65 of Paul Belmondo Racing at the Spa-Francorchamps 1000 km race in 2005

Courage last development of the LC as Courage-ORECA LC70 at the 1000 km race of Silverstone 2008 ; at the wheel is Olivier Panis

Courage Compétition is a former French motorsport team and manufacturer of racing cars.

Development history

The cougar phase

Courage Compétition was founded in 1981 by the French racing driver Yves Courage . The name Automotive Engineering Team Mancelle originally chosen became Courage Compétition a little later. Yves Courage, born in Le Mans , began a career as a racing driver in the 1970s and was primarily active as a sports car driver. In 1987 he finished third overall in a Cougar C20 together with Hervé Regout and Pierre-Henri Raphanel in the 24 Hours of Le Mans . At that time, Courage was already a racing driver and team boss in personal union and announced his retirement as a driver immediately after the race.

Courage was spurred on by the success of Jean Rondeau to found his own team and to develop his own racing vehicles . Rondeau was two years older than Courage and, like him, was born in Le Mans. The place of birth also ensured the close connection between the two and the Le Mans 24-hour race . In 1980 , Rondeau won the 24-hour race on a Rondeau M379 B both as a driver and as a team boss and is still the only one who was able to win the overall standings at Le Mans on an in-house design.

Initially, Courage called his construction Cougar , derived from the North and South American cat species Puma . The development of the team was financed by the French offshoot of the liquid gas supplier Primagas , a company that Courage had already supported as a driver. The first chassis was the Cougar C01 , a closed Group C prototype, the most distinctive feature of which was the elongated rear end with a large wing. The car was powered by a Cosworth 3.3 liter V8 engine . The vehicle made its racing debut (synonymous with Courage's first appearance as a team) in the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring in 1982 , a race of the 1982 World Sports Car Championship ; at the wheel Yves Courage and his two compatriots Patrick Gaillard and Jean-Philippe Grand . After finishing 23rd in qualifying, the car broke down after a suspension damage. There was nothing to win for the young team at Le Mans either. After 78 laps, the race ended prematurely after a gearbox damage. The first finish came in the fall of 1982 at the 1000 km race in Spa-Francorchamps . Courage, this time with Nick Faure and Ragout as partners, finished the race in 21st place in the final classification. However, the gap of 40 laps on the winners Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass in the Porsche 956 was more than considerable.

In 1984 a new chassis was constructed with the C02 , which, like its predecessor, was powered by a Cosworth engine. Since there were no successes in the first three years, Courage looked for a cooperation partner.

The collaboration with Porsche

In the winter of 1984/85 Courage signed a delivery contract for technical equipment with Porsche in Zuffenhausen . Gist was the transfer of the Type-935 to 2.6-liter 6-cylinder turbo - flat motor . The engine was delivered with complete drive technology. For the engine was awarded the C12 a new chassis built with it in Le Mans in 1985 with the 20th rank, the first finish in this long distance race was: driver alongside Courage were Alain de Cadenet and Jean-François Yvon .

Courage's first successful racing car was the C20, which was introduced in 1987. With this car, Courage, Raphanel and Regout achieved third place in Le Mans; beaten only by the Porsche 962 of Hans-Joachim Stuck / Derek Bell / Al Holbert and Jürgen Lässig / Pierre Yver / Bernard de Dryver , a car that was also reported and used by Courage. In the following years, Courage established himself as a starter in selected races of the sports car world championship . In addition, the cars were also driven in the interseries . The last car to be named Cougar was the C28S from 1992. From 1993 the racing cars were named after the team's patron, Courage. In the final year of the sports car world championship in 1992 , a C28 with Bob Wollek , Henri Pescarolo and Jean-Louis Ricci at the wheel achieved sixth place in Le Mans and won the C3 racing class. Courage had the greatest chance of winning Le Mans in 1995 . The WSC prototypes were the favorites for overall victory; the two Kremer K8 Spyder , the Courage C34 by Bob Wollek, Eric Hélary and Mario Andretti , as well as the new C41 by Henri Pescarolo, Franck Lagorce and Éric Bernard . The decisive factor in the race was Mario Andretti's accident in the C34 in heavy rain and poor visibility in the Porsche corners at night. When overtaking a Kremer K8 Spyder, he missed the braking point and hit the guardrail. The subsequent repair threw the car back six laps. By the end of the race, the team was able to catch up five laps on the winning team on the now dry track and still achieve second place overall. Without the accident, Courage would have won the race with superiority.

In 1996 and 1997 Courage got involved in the newly created FIA Sports Car Championship and expanded the relief to a full-year program. In 1997 the team celebrated their first overall victories with the C41 after more than 15 years of involvement in sports car racing. In September Didier Cottaz and Jérôme Policand won the stateless 4-hour race of Le Mans , which, unlike the 24-hour race, which was contested over the entire Circuit des 24 Heures , only took place at the Bugatti circuit . Another overall victory followed in November, again driven out by Cottaz and Policand who won the 2-hour race in Jarama , which is part of the FIA ​​sports car championship .

The partnership with Porsche ended at the end of the 1997 season. Since the new turbo engines developed by the German sports car manufacturer for the 911 GT1 were not available, the next ones with the conventional Type 935 units should have been sufficient. Although these engines were easy to maintain, they were technologically inferior to competing products from other manufacturers.

Nissan engines

When looking for a new engine partner, Yves Courage found what he was looking for at Nissan . The Japanese car manufacturer had the 390 GT1 developed in 1997 , which had a 3.5-liter V8 turbo engine. Courage received this engine in 1998 for the new car, the C51 . Another Courage model with a Nissan engine followed in 1999 with the C52 . In the 24-hour race of Le Mans , the car entered by Courage was sixth overall, two places better than the car entered by Nissan Motorsports .

New partnerships

During the winter break in 1999, the team developed a new car, the C60 . Initially, the works vehicles should continue to be equipped with racing engines from Nissan. During the preliminary tests for the Le Mans 24-hour race in April 2000, the team reported with a 3.5-liter V8 turbo engine from the C52, but the cooperation between the Japanese car manufacturer and Renault ended Nissan's cooperation in endurance racing at short notice . Courage had to look for a new engine supplier for Le Mans in June 2000 . Philippe Gache , who ended his contract with the rival manufacturer Riley & Scott at the end of 1999 , stepped in and reported the already assembled chassis to the pre-test in Le Mans. The C60 was converted to a 4-liter V10 engine from Judd . The engine compartment had to be redesigned for the Judd GV4, which was developed from a Formula 1 engine. But they showed up in time for the pre-test on April 30, 1999, in which Gary Formato also drove alongside Gache . In preparation for the Le Mans endurance race in June, the Courage works team also completed the 500 km race at Silverstone . Despite some technical difficulties, the C60 finished the race in ninth place overall. At the actual race at Le Mans, the driver trio Gache, Formato and Didier Cottaz retired on Sunday morning with a technical defect. The subsequent championship run of the American Le Mans Series was ended prematurely due to an accident.

Despite the difficulties, Yves Courage sold two C60s to Henri Pescarolo during the winter break , who started the C60 in 2001 in his own racing team Pescarolo Sport . Pescarolo installed the 6-cylinder turbo engine from Peugeot .

The C60 was followed by the C65 . The C65 was largely based on the C60 and was developed as an alternative to the LMP900 vehicle in 2003 for the smaller LMP675 class. Courage produced a total of 10 chassis, which were used by the works team on the one hand and given to various private teams on the other.

Takeover by ORECA

In the mid-2000s, Courage had run into considerable financial difficulties. At the end of 2007 the problems became so great that Yves Courage was just about to face the task. With the takeover of Courage by Hugues de Chaunac , the owner of Oreca , the name Courage disappeared from the race tracks at the end of the 2000s, but almost all employees found a new job. The last Courage development, the LC70 , was used in 2008 as the Courage-ORECA LC70 . Yves Courage's wife Lillian, who died in 2004, was honored with the new type designation LC.

Special feature of the number assignment

In almost all facets of motorsport, the starting number 13 is not given due to the number symbolism . In contrast, this number was always used on the Courage company car. The number 113 was often added to the number 13 for another car.

Cougar and Courage racing cars at the Le Mans 24-hour race

This table shows all Cougar and Courage missions in Le Mans up to the takeover of ORECA. In addition, there are messages from the Courage team with third-party chassis such as the Porsche 962 1987, as well as vehicles given to other teams.

year	No.	team	vehicle	Driver 1	Driver 2	Driver 3	Result
1982	35	Courage Compétition	Cougar C01	Yves Courage	Jean-Philippe Grand	Michel Dubois	failure
1983	13	Primagaz	Cougar C01B	Yves Courage	Alain de Cadenet	Michel Dubois	failure
1984	13	Primagaz	Cougar C02	Yves Courage	John Jellinek	Michel Dubois	failure
1985	13	Primagaz	Cougar C12	Yves Courage	Alain de Cadenet	Jean-François Yvon	Rank 20
1986	13	Primagaz Team Cougar	Cougar C12	Yves Courage	Alain de Cadenet	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Rank 18
1987	72	Primagaz Compétition	Porsche 962C	Jürgen Lässig	Pierre Yver	Bernard de Dryver	Rank 2
	13	Primagaz Compétition	Cougar C20	Yves Courage	Hervé Regout	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Rank 3
1988	113	Primagaz Compétition	Cougar C12	Max Cohen-Olivar	Patrick de Radiguès		not classified
	13	Primagaz Compétition	Cougar C20B	Michel Ferté	Pierre-Henri Raphanel		failure
	30th	Courage Compétition	Cougar C22	Paul Belmondo	François Migault	Ukyō Katayama	failure
1989	113	Courage Compétition	Cougar C20B	Jean-Claude Andruet	Philippe Farjon	Shunji Kasuya	Rank 14
	12	Courage Compétition	Cougar C22LM	Patrick Gonin	Bernard Santal	Bernard de Dryver	failure
	13	Courage Compétition	Cougar C22LM	Pascal Fabre	Jean-Louis Bousquet	Jiro Yoneyama	failure
1990	113	Establishments Chereau	Cougar C20S	Jean Messaoudi	Philippe Farjon		failure
	13	Courage Compétition	Cougar C24S	Pascal Fabre	Michel Trollé	Lionel Robert	Rank 7
	12	Courage Compétition	Cougar C24S	Alain Iannetta	Pascal Pessiot	Bernard Thuner	failure
	82	Courage Compétition	Nissan R89C	Alain Cudini	Hervé Regout	Costa's lot	Rank 22
1991	12	Courage Compétition	Cougar 26S	Jean-Daniel Raulet	François Migault	Lionel Robert	Rank 11
	47	Courage Compétition	Cougar C26S	Claude Bourbonnais	Michel Trollé	Marco Brand	failure
	13	Courage Compétition	Cougar C26S	Johnny Dumfries	Not so Olofsson	Thomas Danielsson	failure
	49	Courage Compétition	Porsche 962C	Steven Andskar	George Fouché		failure
1992	54	Courage Compétition	Cougar C26LM	Bob Wollek	Henri Pescarolo	Jean-Louis Ricci	Rank 6
	56	Courage Compétition	Cougar C28LM	Tomás Saldaña	Denis Morin	Jean-François Yvon	failure
	55	Courage Compétition	Cougar C28LM	Pascal Fabre	Marco Brand	Lionel Robert	failure
1993	14th	Courage Compétition	Cougar C30LM	Pascal Fabre	Derek Bell	Lionel Robert	Rank 10
	13	Courage Compétition	Courage C30LM	Jean-Louis Ricci	Pierre Yver	Jean-François Yvon	Rank 11
	12	Courage Compétition	Courage C30LM	Tomiko Yoshikawa	Carlos Moran	Alessandro Gini	failure
1994	9	Courage Compétition	Cougar C32LM	Jean-Louis Ricci	Andy Evans	Philippe Olczyk	Rank 7
	2	Courage Compétition	Courage C32LM	Alain Ferté	Henri Pescarolo	Franck Lagorce	failure
	3	Courage Compétition	Courage C32LM	Pascal Fabre	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Lionel Robert	failure
1995	13	Courage Compétition	Courage C34	Bob Wollek	Eric Helary	Mario Andretti	Rank 2
	11	Courage Compétition	Courage C41	Eric Bernard	Henri Pescarolo	Franck Lagorce	failure
1996	5	La Filière	Courage C36	Emmanuel Collard	Henri Pescarolo	Franck Lagorce	Rank 7
	4th	Courage Compétition	Courage C36	Derek Warwick	Jan Lammers	Mario Andretti	Rank 13
	5	Courage Compétition	Courage C36	Didier Cottaz	Philippe Alliot	Jérôme Policand	failure
1997	8th	La Filière Elf	Courage C36	Emmanuel Clérico	Henri Pescarolo	Jean-Philippe Belloc	Rank 7
	10	Courage Compétition	Courage C36	Jean-Louis Ricci	Fredrik Ekblom	Jean-Paul Libert	Rank 16
	9	Courage Compétition	Courage C36	Olivier Grouillard	Michael Andretti	Mario Andretti	failure
	13	Courage Compétition	Courage C41	Didier Cottaz	Marc Goossens	Jérôme Policand	Rank 4
1998	15th	Courage Compétition	Courage C36	Olivier Grouillard	Henri Pescarolo	Franck Montagny	Rank 15
	24	Courage Compétition	Courage C41	Yōjirō Terada	Franck Fréon	Olivier Thévenin	Rank 15
	13	Courage Compétition	Courage C51	Didier Cottaz	Marc Goossens	Jean-Philippe Belloc	failure
	14th	Courage Compétition	Courage C51	Tetsuya Tsuchiya	Fredrik Ekblom	Patrice Gay	failure
1999	14th	Pescarolo Promotion Racing Team	Courage C50	Michel Ferté	Henri Pescarolo	Patrice Gay	Rank 9
	13	Courage Compétition	Courage C52	Alex Caffi	Andrea Montermini	Domenico Schiattarella	Rank 6
	21st	Nissan Motorsports	Courage C52	Didier Cottaz	Fredrik Ekblom	Marc Goossens	Rank 8
2000	16	Pescarolo sport	Courage C52	Olivier Grouillard	Sébastien Bourdais	Emmanuel Clérico	Rank 4
	17th	SMG Compétition	Courage C60	Didier Cottaz	Gary Formato	Philippe Gache	failure
2001	17th	Pescarolo sport	Courage C60	Jean-Christophe Boullion	Sébastien Bourdais	Laurent Rédon	Rank 13
	18th	Pescarolo sport	Courage C60	Didier Cottaz	Boris Derichebourg	Emmanuel Clérico	failure
	19th	SMG Compétition	Courage C60	Jérôme Policand	Anthony Beltoise	Philippe Gache	failure
2002	17th	Pescarolo sport	Courage C60	Jean-Christophe Boullion	Sébastien Bourdais	Franck Lagorce	Rank 10
	13	Courage Compétition	Courage C60	Didier Cottaz	Boris Derichebourg	Thed Bjork	Rank 15
	18th	Pescarolo sport	Courage C60	Stéphane Ortelli	Eric Helary	Ukyō Katayama	failure
2003	13	Courage Compétition	Courage C60	Jonathan Cochet	Stéphan Grégoire	Jean-Marc Gounon	Rank 7
	17th	Pescarolo sport	Courage C60	Jean-Christophe Boullion	Stéphane Sarrazin	Franck Lagorce	Rank 8
	18th	Pescarolo sport	Courage C60	Nicolas Minassian	Eric Helary	Soheil Ayari	Rank 9
	31	Courage Compétition	Courage C65	David Hallyday	Philippe Alliot	Carl Rosenblad	failure
2004	31	Courage Compétition	Courage C65	Alexander Frei	Sam Hancock	Jean-Marc Gounon	failure
	35	Epsilon sport	Courage C65	Renaud Derlot	Gunnar Jeannette	Gavin Pickering	failure
	37	Paul Belmondo Racing	Courage C65	Paul Belmondo	Claude-Yves Gosselin	Marco Saviozzi	failure
2005	12	Courage Compétition	Courage C60 Hybrid	Alexander Frei	Dominik Schwager	Christian Vann	Rank 8
	13	Courage Compétition	Courage C60 Hybrid	Jonathan Cochet	Shinji Nakano	Bruce Jouanny	failure
	36	Paul Belmondo Racing	Courage C65	Karim A. Ojjeh	Claude-Yves Gosselin	Adam Sharpe	Rank 21
	37	Paul Belmondo Racing	Courage C65	Paul Belmondo	Didier André	Rick Sutherland	Rank 22
	30th	Kruse Motorsport	Courage C65	Tim Mullen	Ian Mitchell	Phil Bennett	Rank 24
	35	G-Force Racing Bokkenrijders	Courage C65	Val Hillebrand	Frank Hahn	Gavin Pickering	failure
	34	Miracle Motorsports	Courage C65	John Macaluso	Ian James	Andy Lally	failure
	31	Noël del Bello Racing	Courage C65	Romain Iannetta	Christophe Pillon	Ni Amorim	failure
	33	Intersport Racing	Courage C65	Juan Barazi	Sergei Slobin	Bastien Brière	failure
2006	27	Miracle Motorsports	Courage C65	John Macaluso	Ian James	Andy Lally	Rank 14
	32	Barazi epsilon	Courage C65	Juan Barazi	Michael Vergers	Neil Cunningham	Rank 21
	36	Paul Belmondo Racing	Courage C65	Karim A. Ojjeh	Claude-Yves Gosselin	Pierre Ragues	failure
	37	Paul Belmondo Racing	Courage C65	Patrice Roussel	Didier André	Yann Clairay	failure
	35	G-Force Racing	Courage C65	Franck Hahn	Jean-François Leroch	Ed Morris	failure
	12	Courage Compétition	Courage LC70	Alexander Frei	Sam Hancock	Gregor Fisken	failure
	5	Swiss Spirit	Courage LC70	Harold Primate	Marcel Fässler	Philipp Peter	failure
	13	Courage Compétition	Courage LC70	Haruki Kurosawa	Shinji Nakano	Jean-Marc Gounon	failure
2007	12	Courage Compétition	Courage LC70	Alexander Frei	Jonathan Cochet	Bruno Besson	Rank 30
	13	Courage Compétition	Courage LC70	Guillaume Moreau	Stefan Johansson	Jean-Marc Gounon	failure
	35	Saulnier Racing	Courage LC75	Jacques Nicolet	Alain Filhol	Bruce Jouanny	failure
	24	Noël del Bello Racing	Courage LC75	Romain Iannetta	Vitaly Alexandrovich Petrov	Liz Halliday	failure
2008	24	Terramos	Courage LC70	Yōjirō Terada	Hiroki Kato	Kazuho Takahashi	not classified

literature

• Thomas Nehlert, Group C: The sports car races 1982-1992 , Verlag Petrolpics, Bonn 2011, ISBN 3-940306-14-2 .
• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. 2 volumes. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .

Web links

Commons : Courage Racing Cars  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Results of the Cougar racing cars at Racing Sports Cars
• Results of the Courage racing cars at Racing Sports Cars
• Oreca website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cougar C01
2. ^ 24 Hours of Le Mans 1982
3. ↑ 1000 km race of Spa-Francorchamps 1982
4. ↑ Cougar C02
5. ↑ Cougar C12
6. ^ 4 Hours of Le Mans 1997
7. ↑ Courage C41
8. ↑ 2-hour race of Jarama 1997
9. ↑ Oreca takes on Courage (French)