Road to Le Mans Race 2, 2022

  

The most interesting car in the race was this  Hydrogen Electric Prototype car, the Mission H24.

For those who got there early enough on Saturday, the last warm up race for the 24 Hours of Le Mans , was the second Road to Le Mans race for LMP3 and GT3 cars.  This is the flagship race and third round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup calendar.  The race was over 55 minutes and the winning car completed 11 laps.  The race was won by a Ligier driven by Michael Benham and Duncan Tappy from the other 44 cars that started.  There were some surprisingly good drivers and top teams in this race.

Particularly interesting this year is the Mission H24 car that is competing in the series. It is a hydrogen-electric prototype that it is part of a project to have a hydrogen powered class compete in the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans.  It is propelled by 2 electric motors which are powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.  It has zero emissions and runs in a special experimental category.  Total Energies have created a special mobile hydrogen refuelling station for it.  It had to refuel a few times during the race and was slower than the LMP3 and GT3 cars, but this could be the future.  I was actually quite excited by seeing it.

Another view of the Hydrogen car.  It completed 9 laps of Le Mans in just under one hour driven by the development driver Stéphane Richelmi.  It sounded different to both the other cars in the race and Formula E cars.

The first lap of the Road to Le Mans race 2.  These are the leaders.

The first lap of the Road to Le Mans race 2.  This is further down the field and we start to see the GT3 cars.

This is the second placed car - a LMP3 Ligier JS320-Nissan. This was driven by Mads Siljehaug and Freddy Hunt.  Freddy is the son of 1976 World Champion James Hunt.

The 3rd placed Ligier of Alexander Mattschull and Tom Dillman.

The other make of car in LMP3 was this Duqueine M30 D08 Nissan. This ios the fourth placed car of Kratz and Weiss.

In GT3 it was nice to see the Honda NSX.  This one won the class in the hands of Kasper Jensen and Kristian Poulsen.

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.

LMP3 Racing.

The No.6 Ligier crashed out after 4 laps.  It caused a safety car.

Road to Le Mans 2018

The winning Lanan Racing LMP3 Norma  M30-Nissan of Michael Benham and Duncan Tappy.

The Road to Le Mans support race for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, allows participants in the Michelin Le Mans Cup and other series to race on a classic circuit in front of a huge crowd of spectators.  The Michelin Le Mans Cup is for LMP3 and GT3 cars and is intended as a feeder series for the WEC and the 24 Hours.  The LMP3 cars are the fastest and the field is made up of Nissan engined Normas and Ligiers.  The GT3 cars form a much smaller class but add much needed variety although they were mainly Ferraris with one Porsche.

The Road to Le Mans cars head into the Esses.

The winning GT3 class car, a Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 of Christoph Ulrich and Maurizio Mediani.

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page. 

Road to Le Mans - LMP3 & GT3 support race

First lap action in the road to Le Mans race.

The Road to Le Mans race was a support race at the 2017 Le Mans 24 hours and a round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup series.  This huge field of LMP3 and GT3 cars featured cars from that series, the ELMS series plus a number of one-off competitors.  Although it had a great variety of cars, I didn't find the race particularly close or interesting. However, I am sure the drivers relished the chance to race on the full 24 hour circuit.  The race I saw was on the Saturday morning and lasted for 55 minutes and was the second race for these cars of the week. 49 cars took part and the format of the race was that each car had to have a mandatory pitstop to change driver.  The faster cars covered 13 laps.  Here are some of the cars that took part. As an experiment and to keep out of the sun I took all of these photos from the Tertre Rouge grandstand.

1st place overall and in the LMP3 class went to the DKR Engineering Norma M30-Nissan.  

Winner of the GT3 class was this TF Sport Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3.

This N'Race Ligier JS P3 finished sixth.

A lap behind in 35th place was this DKR Engineering Adess 03-Nissan.

Spectators watching the battle for the lead in the Road to Le Mans.

The Spirit of Race Ferrari 458 Italia completed 11 laps.

Third in the GT3 class was this SVC Sport management Lamboghini Huracan GT3.

The IMSA Performance Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Porsche GT3 leads Ligier LMP3

Optimum Racing Audi R8 LMS.

Spirit of Race Ferrari 488

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.

Ginetta P3 15 - Nissan