European Le Mans Series 2012

The 2012 European Le Mans Series season was the ninth season of the Le Mans Series and the first to be known as the European Le Mans Series (ELMS). The season began on April 1st in Le Castellet and ended on October 20th in Road Atlanta . Three events were held.

Rule changes

LMP1 vehicles were no longer allowed to compete in the European Le Mans Series this season. As of this year, these are reserved for the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). The LMP2 thus became the first class of the series. The Formula Le Mans was in LMPC renamed. In addition, the GTC class was introduced. Three vehicles ( Porsche 911 GT3 Cup , Ferrari F430 Challenge and Lotus Evora GT4 ) were allowed to start in this class . At the start of the season, however, there were no participants in this category.

Teams and drivers

LMP2

team	vehicle	engine	tires	No.	driver	run
Greaves Motorsport	Zytek Z11SN	Nissan	D.	01	Alex Brundle	1-3
					Tom Kimber-Smith	1-3
					Lucas Ordoñez	1, 2
					Alex Buncombe	3
Pecom Racing	Oreca 03	Nissan	D.	10	Gianmaria Bruni	1
					Pierre Kaffer	1, 2
					Luís Pérez Companc	1, 2
					Soheil Ayari	2
Race performance	Oreca 03	Judd	D.	11	Michel Frey	1
					Jonathan Hirschi	1
					Ralph Meichtry	1
Status GP	Lola B12 / 80 Coupé	Judd HK	D.	17th	Yelmer Buurman	1
					Alexander Sims	1, 2
					Dean Stirling	1
					Julien Jousse	2
					Maxime Jousse	2
Murphy prototypes	Oreca 03	Nissan	D.	18th	Jody Firth	1-3
					Warren Hughes	1-3
					Luca Moro	1
					Brendon Hartley	2, 3
Sébastien Loeb Racing	Oreca 03	Nissan	D.	19th	Nicolas Marroc	1, 2
					Nicolas Minassian	1, 2
					Stéphane Sarrazin	1, 2
OAK Racing	Morgan	Judd	D.	24	Dominik Kraihamer	1
					Guillaume Moreau	1
					Jacques Nicolet	1, 2
					Matthieu Lahaye	2
		Nissan		35	Bertrand baguette	2, 3
					Dimitri Enjalbert	2
					Olivier Pla	2, 3
					Jacques Nicolet	3
JOTA	Zytek Z11SN	Nissan	D.	38	Simon Dolan	1, 2
					Sam Hancock	1, 2
Extreme limit ARIC	Norma M200P	Judd	D.	44	Fabien Rosier	1
					Philippe Thirion	1
Boutsen Ginion Racing	Oreca 03	Nissan	D.	45	Bastien Brière	1
					Sébastien Buemi	1
					Jack Clarke	1
Thiriet by TDS Racing	Oreca 03	Nissan	D.	46	Mathias Beche	1-3
					Pierre Thiriet	1-3
					Christophe Tinseau	3

LMPC

team	vehicle	engine	tires	No.	driver	run
Boutsen Ginion Racing	Oreca FLM09	General Motors	M.	40	Thomas Dagoneau	1, 2
					Jean-Marc Merlin	1
					Massimo Vignali	1
					Jean-Charles Battut	2
					John Hartshorne	2
CURTIS Racing Technologies	Oreca FLM09	General Motors	M.	42	John Hartshorne	1
					Alex Kapadia	1
					Phil Keen	1

LMGTE Pro

team	vehicle	tires	No.	driver	run
Kessel Racing	Ferrari 458 Italia	D.	61	Michal Broniszewski	1
				Philipp Peter	1
JMW Motorsport	Ferrari 458 Italia	D.	66	Jonny Cocker	1, 2
				James Walker	1, 2
JMB Racing	Ferrari 458 Italia	M.	83	Marco Frezza	1
				Jaime Melo	1

LMGTE Am

team	vehicle	tires	No.	driver	run
AF Corse	Ferrari 458 Italia	M.	60	Marco Cioci	1-3
				Matt Griffin	1-3
				Piergiuseppe Perazzini	1-3
IMSA Performance Matmut	Porsche 911 RSR (997)	M.	67	Nicolas Armindo	1-3
				Raymond Narac	1-3
				Anthony Pons	1-3
Gulf Racing	Aston Martin Vantage	D.	69	Roald Goethe	1
				Stuart Hall	1
Prospeed Competition	Porsche 911 RSR (997)	M.	75	Marc Goossens	1
				Maxime Soulet	1
JMB Racing	Ferrari 458 Italia	M.	99	Alain Ferté	1
				Philippe Illiano	1

Racing calendar

The racing calendar for the 2012 season originally comprised five events. Each race was six hours long. Shortly after the start of the season, the Zolder 6-hour race originally planned as the second race on the Circuit Zolder was canceled without replacement due to insufficient number of participants. On July 23, it was announced that the last race of the year as part of the Petit Le Mans supporting program would take place in the USA. The 6-hour race in Brno and the 6-hour race in the Algarve, which were originally intended to be the last events of the season, have been removed from the racing calendar instead.

No.	date	Race name / place	Winner LMP2	Winner LMPC	Winner LM GTE Pro	Winner LM GTE Am
1	0April 1st	6-hour race of Castellet ( Le Castellet )	Thiriet by TDS Racing	CURTIS Racing Technologies	JMW Motorsport	Prospeed Competition
			Mathias Beche Pierre Thiriet	John Hartshorne Alex Kapadia Phil Keen	Jonny Cocker James Walker	Marc Goossen's maxim Soulet
2	15th of July	6 Hours of Donington ( Donington )	OAK Racing	Boutsen Ginion Racing	JMW Motorsport	IMSA Performance Matmut
			Bertrand Baguette Dimitri Enjalbert Olivier Pla	Jean-Charles Battut Thomas Dagoneau John Hartshorne	Jonny Cocker James Walker	Nicolas Armindo Raymond Narac Anthony Pons
3	the 20th of October	Petit Le Mans ( Road Atlanta )	Thiriet by TDS Racing	no participant	no participant	IMSA Performance Matmut
			Mathias Beche Pierre Thiriet Christophe Tinseau			Nicolas Armindo Raymond Narac Anthony Pons

Web links

Commons : European Le Mans Series 2012  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ “LE MANS: ACO, ORECA Launch LMPC Trophy” ( Memento from June 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (auto-racing.speedtv.com on September 8, 2011)
2. ↑ “LE MANS: LMS Confirms GTC Class For 2012” ( Memento from January 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (auto-racing.speedtv.com November 10, 2011)
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax} “The participants” ( Memento from December 16, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) (europeanlemansseries.com on March 29, 2012)
4. ↑ ^{a b} "Ayari injured: Bruni jumps in at Pecom" (Motorsport-Total.com on March 28, 2012)
5. ↑ ^{a b c} “Alexander Sims joins Status GP for European Le Mans Series” (autosport.com on March 29, 2012)
6. ↑ “TRACKS FOR DRIVERS…” ( Memento of March 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (europeanlemansseries.com on November 22, 2011)
7. ^ "ELMS run in Zolder canceled without replacement" (Motorsport-Total.com on April 3, 2012)