So, Slotracing Le Mans.com, and we don´t even have a real LMS series!

My first love in motor racing apart from F 1 has always been the big rumbling prototypes. And the LMP1 and LMP2 cars of the European Le Mans Series and Le Mans race really makes my mouth water. 2008 looks to be the best year in the past decade with more LMP1 and LMP2 cars than there have been for many years!

That’s why I would like to propose the Slotracing Le Mans Series (SLMS for short).
I am ready to organize a 3 race series in 2009 for LMP1 and LMP2 cars. For this series not to clash with the IMCA European Endurance Championship for FIA GT cars my plan is to run the races during September, October and November, maybe pushing into December of 2009.

The Venues
The races will be two 1000 KM races and one 24 hour race. The 1000 KM races will have an actual driving time of around 3 hours. The 24 hour race, depending on teams, will be a non stop race going on for 24 hours with as much running we can cram into this time frame for the entered teams.

Proposed race venues (Pending negotiations with the track owners, that has not been contacted yet.) RaceFuns Art of Speed 8 laner in Copenhagen, Titanic Bowlings Spa 6 laner in Alsdorf and the third venue could be a track in Belgium(The IMCA MMS track maybe?), Netherlands or France. However that remains to be decided on.

I have decided not to contact any track owners until I have found out whether there is actually interest in this race series.

The rules
Basically the rules will be very close to the ground rules of the EEC with the exception that the chassis rule makes it absolutely free to build your own parts and complete chassis. There will be a min. weight limit of 190 grams. Motors used will be ProSlot Euro IMCA edition with a fixed 9 tooth pinion on a hand out basis. There will be fixed spur gear as well, but this is pending on some testing at the venues. Tires will be ProComp 3 also handout. Max. drivers per car three. Details to follow before the summer break!

Why no GTs?
Well, first we have the EEC. Second I don´t want to see GT cars in this race series, and being the organizer I reserve the right to exclude the GT cars! Third, I believe that a max. of between 12 and 16 teams will enter into this kind of series.

Is there a carrot?
Well maybe! I am working with three potential sponsors for prices, nothing fancy, no one will get a free plane ticket or a free hotel or anything like that. However there will be some really nice prices from companies like Garmin, Acer, Apple and also from slotracing manufacturers.

There will be prices for the two categories LMP1 and LMP2 but there will also be prices for concourse in LMP1 and LMP2. There will also be some other competitions in the completion so to speak, so all teams will have a fair chance to get their hands on some of the prices.

These prices will be for the placement in the championship.

Entry fee
This has not been decided on quite yet, and is depending on the track owners and the prices we can negotiate from the suppliers of motors and tires. However I believe that the entry fee will have to be paid for entry in the series and not for the individual races. Again this depends on lots of things that has not been clarified yet. I am hoping that the amount should not exceed that of entry into the EEC.

The million dollar question
Does this sound interesting and would any of you, my fellow slotracing friends, enter this kind of race series?

sounds very interesting.... but i think you jumped the Gun, as someone else in planning the same......
I'm up for it, whoever organizes would be great to be able to race my 908 with the big boys,,,,,,

Subcribing with my almost ready to be laminated Peugeot 908!! It'll be painted in the 2008 colours seen at Sebring, the 'blue' livery.

Great idea Pal, I've actually been thinking the exact same thing to organise what you want organise here. Great I can just be a participant now Should be awesome to see these kind of cars back again, even if I like the GT's a bit more, the LMP's are really spectacular!

Pushing the series to the back of the year is indeed very nice, so we all have some time to make us some new LMP's.

How many of which cars are you going to allow? Cause I don't hope to be up against a dozen Carrera Audi's again, even if it's now the R10

Got my support 100%, and just MAYBE you could use GT's to fill the field if you're not getting enough entries. Just an idea, cause I wanna my 908!

I just read your article thouroughly You are talking about 2009? Thought it would be this year.

Does that make 2 908's ???
I was F I R S T ;-)

you checked this ??

Thanks for the vote of confidence, and the plan is that allowed cars/liveries will be 2008 LMS cars. So there you go.

I will finalise the rules, liveries etc. in the next couple of months.

Personaly I will be racing the Lola Aston Martin, if I can just get around to building the master for it.

And no Nick, there will be no 10 Audis, only two!

I am also working on a master for the Oreca Courage, should be ready some time in may. Might be able to take a sample to Alsdorf.

I have typed in the slot racing teams below alongside the cars.

BTW, these are he entries for 2008 LMS:

LMP1

Audi Sport Team Joest
Germany, Audi R10 TDI
• Rinaldo Capello
• Allan McNish

Audi Sport Team Joest
Germany, Audi R10 TDI
• Alexandre Prémat
• Mike Rockenfeller

Chamberlain - Synergy
United Kingdom, Lola B06/10 - AER
• Bob Berridge
• Gareth Evans

Charouz Racing System - Whitemouse Racing Paal
Czech Rep., Lola Aston Martin
• Jan Charouz
• Stefan Mücke

Charouz Racing System
Czech Rep., Lola B07/17 - Judd
• Klaus Graf
• Greg Pickett

Creation Aim
United Kingdom, Creation CA07 - Aim
• Jamie Campbell-Walter
• Stuart Hall
• Felipe Ortiz

Creation Aim,
United Kingdom, Creation CA07 - Aim
• Simon Pagneaud

Epsilon Euskadi
Spain, Epsilon Euskadi - Judd
• Angel Burgueño
• Miguel Angel de Castro

Oreca - Matmut
France, Courage-Oreca LC70 - Judd
• Soheil Ayari
• Stephane Ortelli

Oreca - Matmut
France, Courage-Oreca LC70 - Judd
• Nicolas Lapierre
• Oliver Panis

Pescarolo Sport
France, Pescarolo - Judd
• Jean-Christophe Boullion
• Emmanuel Collard

Pescarolo Sport
France, Pescarolo - Judd
• Harold Primat
• Christophe Tinseau

Rollcentre Racing
United Kingdom, Pescarolo - Judd
• Joao Barbosa
• Vanina Ickx
• Martin Short

Saulnier Racing
France, Pescarolo - Judd
• Marc Faggionato
• Richard Hein
• Jacques Nicolet

Scuderia Lavaggi
Monaco, Lavaggi LS1 - AER
• Wolfgang Kaufmann
• Giovanni Lavaggi

Team Peugeot Total - Slotfabrik Fola
France, Peugeot 908 HDi FAP
• Marc Gené
• Nicolas Minassian

Team Peugeot Total - RfH#1 Nick
France, Peugeot 908 HDi-FAP
• Pedro Lamy
• Stéphane Sarrazin

"LM" P2
Team Country Car Drivers
Barazi - Epsilon
France, Zytek 07S - Zytek
• Juan Barazi
• Michael Vergers

Bruichladich Radical
United Kingdom, Radical SR9 - AER
• Jan-Dirk Lueders
• Jens Petersen
• Marc Rostan

Embassy Racing
United Kingdom, WF01 - Zytek
• Mario Haberfeld
• Warren Hughes

Embassy Racing
United Kingdom, WF01 - Zytek
• Joey Foster
• Jonny Kane

Horag Racing
Switzerland, Porsche RS - Spyder
• Jan Lammers
• Fredy Lienhard
• Didier Theys

Kruse Schiller Motorsport
Germany, Lola - Mazda
• Hideki Noda
• Jean de Pourtales

Quifel - ASM Team
Portugal, Lola B05/40 - AER
• Miguel Amaral
• Olivier Pla

RML
United Kingdom, MG Lola EX 265 - MG
• Thomas Erdos
• Mike Newton

Racing Box
Italy, Lucchini - Judd
• Marco Didaio
• Filippo Francioni

Saulnier Racing
France, Pescarolo - Judd
• Bruce Jouanny
• Matthieu Lahaye
• Pierre Ragues

Speedy Racing Team Sebah
Switzerland, Lola B08/80 Coupé - Judd
• Andrea Belicchi
• Xavier Pompidou
• Steve Zacchia

Team Essex
Danemark, Porsche RS - Spyder
• Casper Elgaard
• John Nielsen

Trading Performance
Switzerland, Zytek 07S - Zytek
• Claude-Yves Gosselin
• Karim Ojjeh
• Julien Schroyen

Van Merksteijn Motorsport - Dutch Age Racing (Henri & Co.)
Netherlands, Porsche RS - Spyder
• Peter Van Merksteijn
• Jos Verstappen

WR / Salini
France, WR - Zytek
• Patrice Roussel
• Philippe Salini
• Stéphane Salini

Nick, maybe, just maybe there could be a posibility of doing a race in Alsdorf this fall or winter. I would be prepared if someone would help me setting up the deal with Titanic Bowl.

That could be a test race for a 2009 championship!?!

Seeing that we (Slotfabrik & Gert from Virage), should be doing a BIG WHEELS group 5 return race, we could make it an old school- new school event,
entrance race Gr5 and final race LMP....
would make an exiting weekend.....

Great idea Fola, when is that planned for??

Normally all contact to Titanic goes via Gabe, he's the contacter there.
If there's anything else you need me to do, just say the word.

Planned somewhere in December
But.... I geus that there will be a biggg entry field for the Biggggwheels
Just got home from the 24hr of Merlijn and did some talking to hear if there is interest from teams.
My gues is that there could be round 15 teams from just Belgium that would like to enter.

So the Old school / New school could be nice but maybe not enough time to do it in just one weekend.

Greetz Gert

Pal,

Can I already make a reservation for Van Merkestein Porsche Spider LMP2? This private owned team made an astonishing entrance in the LMS series. They won LMP2 this weekend in Barcelona.

Good initiative to have the protoypes "back on the tracks".

greetz,

Henri

look who copied your idea Pal, the whole EEC has been changed all of a sudden, apparently it's apealing

yo....
I think the EEC should stay with GT1/2 cars.... LMP's maybe as an add on with "Experimental chassis". As it makes no rteal sense making a chassis for a ferrari 430 challenge.......
I like the fact that the GT cars have looks in common with the street counterparts, makes the cars even more fun to build and race......

fola

Agree, please stay tuned........................

Just a wild suggestion. Is it possible to stretch a raceweekend with some hours to make it possible to have two races: both GT and Prototypes? For me it would be great to race two cars in one event! With a little imagination and effort we can do this.

Henri

Henri, your suggestion is very good I think, and if there are more teams that can spend a whole weekend somewhere in northern Europe to do a double header we could take that into consideration.

Right now its on the drwaing board, so stay tuned.

LMP... GREAT

Hoping well to be invited at the party where, when & whose ever it will take place.
LMP are simply our most favourite cars, in 1:32 for many years ago, 1:24 at dawn & of course 1:1 for ever.

kind regards,

Philippe L & Philippe D - Zmachine

Great idea - LMP's are great.

Me thinks we should keep the EEC GT races in the spring and spice it up with Pål's idea of racing LMP's with a opening sprint race with Group 5 in the fall season.

This may, however, require a 3 day weekend - but i could be a lot of fun.

Just my two cents.

Hi guys, thanks for the support for this proposal.

Now then, lets see what pans out, a double header could be really great with a combination of classes!

Raymond, naturally we hope to see you and your mates on the grid!

The rules are beeing worked on, so stay tuned...............

Now, what would be fun, would be if we had digital tracks and cars and ran GT and prototype cars at the same time....prototypes over taking GT cars.....ahhh, imagine the calamity. Oh dare to dream!

Great Idea to make some different! if you are looking for Tracks i can provide mine (www.amoslot.de) please contact me if you want to get more information.

Best regards

Oscar