2001 European Le Mans Series
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/31/ELMSLogo.png)
The2001 European Le Mans Series seasonwas the only season for theIMSAEuropean Le Mans Series. It is a series forLe Mans Prototypes(LMP) andGrand Touring(GT) race cars divided into 4 classes: LMP900, LMP675, GTS, and GT. It began 17 March 2001 and ended 6 October 2001 after 7 races.
The series came about following the expansion ofDon Panoz'sAmerican Le Mans Seriesto include European rounds in 2000. The ELMS become a separate series for 2001, although following the sameIMSAandACOrules that the ALMS followed, and even having shared events among the two series. Like thePetit Le Mansfor the ALMS, the 1000 km of Estoril was meant to be a unique event that would earn automatic entries to the24 Hours of Le Mansfor its winners. A lack of interest from the European racing community and competition from theFIA's series, meant that this would be the only season of ELMS. Another planned series, known as Asian-Pacific Le Mans Series (APLMS) was planned to begin in late 2001, but never occurred.
Following the demise of the European Le Mans Series, the ACO would attempt to create another European-based sportscar series in 2003 with the more successfulLe Mans Endurance Series.The Le Mans Endurance Series was eventually renamed the European Le Mans Series in2012.
History
[edit]With theAutomobile Club de l'Ouest(ACO) allowingDon Panozto bring the rules and racing formulas of the24 Hours of Le Mansto America with the creation of thePetit Le Mansin 1998, Don Panoz attempted to build up a series to be based around Petit Le Mans. The agedIMSAsportscar series was taken over and became the new American Le Mans Series, and met with much success in1999.Following this success, Panoz attempting to bring sportscar racing back to Europe, which had lacked a major sportscar series since the demise of theWorld Sportscar Championshipin 1992. This led to the2000 American Le Mans Series season,which included two races in Europe as theNürburgringandSilverstone Circuit,as well as a round in Australia. These races would serve as a precursor to what would become the separate European Le Mans Series in 2001.
The European Le Mans Series was launched for 2001 with 5 races, including a premier 1000 km race atEstoril,which would be the European equivalent of the 1000 milePetit Le Mansand earn automatic entries to the24 Hours of Le Mansfor each class winner.
To aid in the development of the ELMS, the 2001 season shared some races between both ALMS and ELMS. The12 Hours of SebringandPetit Le Mans,normally ALMS races, were considered optional races for ELMS teams. At the same time, the ELMS races atDonington ParkandJaramawere considered optional for ALMS teams. This allowed for the possibility of boosting the draw from international teams to either series.
Unfortunately the series was unable to earn much attention from European sportscar teams, especially since the finalFIA Sportscar ChampionshipandFIA GT Championshipseries used similar cars, but different rules which would require teams to modify their cars or buy new cars to comply with ELMS rules. This means that the car count for the 2001 season was small. For the ELMS events that included ALMS teams, very few teams actually bothered to make the trip across the Atlantic to participate in races that appeared to have very few serious competitors. Of the ALMS teams that did race, nearly all were factory backed squads that had the money to spend on transporting their equipment to Europe. Thus the entry lists for each race fell from 25 at the beginning of the season to a mere 14 at season's end, with some classes only having one or two competitors.
With a lack of involvement from teams, and less interest from the media due to the lack of teams, the European Le Mans Series was forced to fold following the 2001 season.
The demise of the European Le Mans Series would not be the end of sportscar racing in Europe. In 2003, theAutomobile Club de l'Ouestannounced their intentions to create their own European-based series, named the Le Mans Endurance Series, which would be similar to the European Le Mans Series, but feature only 1000 km races instead of the shorter, 2 Hour 45 Minute races used by ELMS. This series would be far more successful, with a large number of participants from the very beginning.
APLMS
[edit]At the same time in the development of the European Le Mans Series,Don Panozalso proposed the idea of yet another series.[1]Originally named the Asian Le Mans Series, it was later known as the Asian-Pacific Le Mans Series (APLMS). Like the European Le Mans Series, this APLMS would bring an ACO-backed sportscar series to Asia and the Pacific. This could be seen as a resurrection of theAll Japan Sports Prototype Championship(JSPC) which had ended in 1992. The ACO had previous backed a single Japanese event, the1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000kmwhich combined Le Mans cars withJGTCmachines for automatic entries to the2000 24 Hours of Le Mans.This idea was followed by the American Le Mans Series with the2000 Race of a Thousand Yearsrace at theAdelaide Street CircuitinAustralia.These two events served as a precursor to the planned APLMS series, and at the time of the creation of ELMS, Don Panoz announced his intention to hold an exhibition APLMS race atSepang International CircuitinMalaysiain late 2001.
As the ELMS season went on, it became apparent that there was a lack of interest in the series, and Don Panoz decided that the APLMS would likely have even less interest. Thus the APLMS exhibition race and all plans for a series were scrapped.
Schedule
[edit]Besides Sebring, Estoril, and Petit Le Mans, all events were 2 hours and 45 minutes in length.
Rnd | Race | Circuit | Date |
---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() |
Sebring International Raceway | 17 March |
2 | ![]() |
Donington Park | 14 April |
3 | ![]() |
Circuito Permanente Del Jarama | 20 May |
4 | ![]() |
Autódromo do Estoril | 15 July |
5 | ![]() |
Autodrom Most | 5 August |
6 | ![]() |
Autodromo di Vallelunga | 2 September |
7 | ![]() |
Road Atlanta | 6 October |
† - Joint event with ALMS.
Season results
[edit]Overall winner inbold.
Teams' Championship
[edit]Points are awarded to the finishers in the following order:
- 25-21-19-17-15-14-13-12-11-10-...
Exception being for 12 Hours of Sebring, 1000 km of Estoril, and Petit Le Mans which awarded in the following order:
- 30-26-24-22-20-19-18-17-16-15-...
Points were awarded in two separate ways. Only the best finish out of the two American rounds (1 and 7) was included. In addition to this, only the top five finishes for the entire season were included. Points earned but not counting towards the team's total are listed initalics.
Teams only score the points of their highest finishing entry in each race. Teams which participated at Sebring and Petit Le Mans but did not attend any European events are also not counted towards the ELMS championships.
LMP900 standings
[edit]Pos | Team | Chassis | Engine | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Rd 4 | Rd 5 | Rd 6 | Rd 7 | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() |
Audi R8 | Audi3.6L Turbo V8 | 22 | 19 | 19 | 26 | 25 | 26 | 115 | |
2 | ![]() |
Audi R8 | Audi3.6L Turbo V8 | 30 | 25 | 25 | 30 | 80 | |||
3 | ![]() |
Courage C60 | PeugeotA32 3.2L Turbo V6 | 18 | 17 | 30 | 65 | ||||
4 | ![]() |
Panoz LMP07 Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S |
Élan(Zytek) 4.0L V8 Élan6L8 6.0L V8 |
17 |
14 |
17 |
19 |
50 | |||
5 | ![]() |
Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S | Élan6L8 6.0L V8 | 21 | 25 | 46 | |||||
6 | ![]() |
Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S | Élan6L8 6.0L V8 | 15 | 15 | ||||||
7 | ![]() |
Chrysler LMP | Mopar6.0L V8 | 12 | 12 | ||||||
8 | ![]() |
AscariA410 | JuddGV4 4.0L V10 | 11 | 11 |
LMP675 standings
[edit]Pos | Team | Chassis | Engine | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Rd 4 | Rd 5 | Rd 6 | Rd 7 | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1= | ![]() |
DeboraLMP200 | BMW3.2L I6 | 30 | 21 | 25 | 76 | ||||
1= | ![]() |
Reynard01Q | JuddGV675 3.4L V8 | 21 | 25 | 30 | 76 | ||||
3 | ![]() |
Lola B2K/40 | Nissan(AER) VQL 3.4L V8 | 30 | 21 | 22 | 51 | ||||
4 | ![]() |
Reynard2KQ | Volkswagen2.0L Turbo I4 | 25 | 19 | 44 | |||||
5 | ![]() |
PilbeamMP84 | Nissan(AER) VQL 3.0L V6 | 25 | 25 |
GTS standings
[edit]Pos | Team | Chassis | Engine | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Rd 4 | Rd 5 | Rd 6 | Rd 7 | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() |
Saleen S7-R | Ford7.0L V8 | 25 | 19 | 30 | 25 | 25 | 124 | ||
2 | ![]() |
Saleen S7-R | Ford7.0L V8 | 30 | 21 | 25 | 26 | 19 | 26 | 121 | |
3 | ![]() |
Chrysler Viper GTS-R | Chrysler8.0L V10 | 24 | 17 | 41 | |||||
4 | ![]() |
Porsche 911 GT2 Saleen S7-R |
Porsche3.8L Turbo Flat-6 Ford7.0L V8 |
21 |
19 |
40 | |||||
5 | ![]() |
Porsche 911 GT2 | Porsche3.8L Turbo Flat-6 | 21 | 21 |
GT standings
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Watkins, Gary (13 September 2018)."How Panoz transformed sportscar racing - IMSA SportsCar - Autosport Plus".Autosport.com.Retrieved2020-06-11.
- ^"European LeMans Series - Season 2001: Results".Speedsport Magazine.Retrieved20 January2024.