Welcome, everybody to the opening race of the 2023 Le Mans Cup season in Barcelona, Spain, at Circuit de Catalunya. It is time to go racing with the LMP3 and GT3 cars in 2023. The first of six races in te championship on April 22nd. 42 cars are on the grid for the eighth season with 30 LMP3’s and a dozen GT3’s. Here are some of the LMP3 contenders to look out for. Nielsen Racing from England return and so do the defending 2022 champions, from Switzerland, Racing Spirit of Leman. So are the four-time title winners, DKR Engineering. We have a team returning after five years away, M Racing from France, are back in the championship. Inter Europol Competition, a familiar name from the Asian and European Le Mans Series and the FIA World Endurance Championship, bring three LMP3 cars to the Le Mans Cup in 2023.
GT3 is packed and stacked with talent as well. GMB Motorsport, the 2022 champions, are back with a pair of Honda NSX GT3’s (Acura NSX GT3’s as they are known stateside). Iron Lynx, the two-time defending champions, have switched brands from Ferrari to Lamborghini and are running an EVO2 version of the Huracan. Racing Spirit of Leman is also in GT3 with an Aston Martin Vantage. So, they have two cars, an LMP3 and a GT3. AF Corse, ever the Ferrari loyalists, have two brand new Ferrari 296 GT3’s on the grid. British GT champions, Steller Motorsports, make their Le Mans Cup debut with an Audi R8 LMS EVO II for drivers Sennan Fielding and James Wood.
Three Porsche 911 GT3R’s are entered in the GT3 class. Two cars from Team Parker Racing and one from Danish team HCR with CaffeineSix. Team Parker Racing have an all-British team lined up and ready to go. Car #18 for Nick Jones and Scott Malvern, and car #64 for Charles Bateman and Alex Martin. We now have a Captain Cook at the circuit here at Barcelona. Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya has indeed had upgrades. The track is 4.6 kilometers, 2.9 miles. The chicanes that were introduced to the track way back in 2007 are no more and the circuit is back to it’s original layout. Turns one and two have been improved with a slope, new barriers, and a wider gravel trap. Overtaking will work far better in this section of the circuit.
All the preliminaries are over and it is time to turn the LMP3 and GT3 fields loose for the first time in 2023! The crowd is ready to see some sports car racing. Graff Racing scored the LMP3 pole for the first one this season, the #39 Ligier JS P320 Nissan to be driven by James Sweetnam from England and Irishman Lucca Allen. Racing Spirit of Leman have the best GT3 debut they could have hoped for. Pole position for the #10 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 of the full-season, all-French lineup of Valentin Hasse-Clot (VHC) and Arnold Robin. The cars are ready, the drivers are ready, the fans are ready, and Bibendum, he too, is ready. It is time to go racing in Le Mans Cup 2023 for the first time, here in Spain.
Green flag and away we go! The front row is James Sweetnam in the #39 Graff Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan. He has the Algerian driver Julien Gerbi at his elbow. Gerbi driving the #16 car, the first of the Team Virage Ligier’s at his elbow. Gerbi sharing with Frenchman Gillian Henrion. He comes out of the Ligier JS P4 championship and into Le Mans Cup for this year. Green flag! Away we go. Tony Wells for Nielsen Racing goes late on the brakes trying to lunge for the lead into the first turn! Holy smokes! Will he make it? He does but look on the outside. That’s James Sweetnam getting after it and saying, “oh no you don’t, sunshine. I am going to lead the race.”
Sweetnam to the point and there’s trouble behind. Four cars all in LMP3 have gone off the road including two of the Inter Europol cars! This is a carambolage of epic proportions. This is right at the back of the LMP3 grid. Jonathan Brossard loops around into a huge knot of cars. That whole mess was triggered by Swiss driver Jonathan Brossard in the #6 ANS Motorsport Ligier. Safety car deployed. A terrible start to the year for the LMP3 cars. Marshals set about cleaning the wreckage up, but have a look too for the #66 car of Steve Parrow, who is stopped on the road, smoking heavily.
Parrow aboard the #66 Rinaldi Racing Ligier, part of a German duo with countryman Daniel Keilwitz. The safety car will be out for a wee while. The entire LMP3 division of the Inter Europol operation is wiped out in one fell swoop. A terrible beginning to the season for their three Ligier’s. #13 driven by Spaniard Santiago Concepcion Serrano and British driver Ben Stone, out. #14 for Canadian Daniel Ali and Australian Andres Latorre Canon, out. #15 for American Bryson Morris and British driver Chris Short, game over.
The Nielsen Racing #4 Ligier is also wiped out. Jon Melso, the American driver in their Duqueine M30-D08 Nissan, out of the event. His co-driver, Matt Bell, from England, won’t even have a drive in the race today. Game over. Dramas right from the very start of this race. When you qualify well you get out of the mid pack action. Although in GT3 we saw the polesitter hung out to dry. We have a couple of Porsche’s at the top of the shop in GT3. We’ll get to that in a minute because there is more damage as the marshals extract Steve Parrow from the gravel trap. The damaged car in question is the #9 Racing Spirit of Leman sister car, another Ligier for the Swiss team, with an all-German driver duo. Christian Gisy at the controls now, sharing with sports car racing veteran Ralf Kelleners.
Game over for the Parrow and Keilwitz duo, and more bad luck too for four-time champions DKR Engineaering. The #3 DKR Engineering Duqueine is in the garage. UAE domiciled Russian driver Alexander Bukhantsov sharing with James Winslow from England. Safety car lights out. We are half an hour into this two hour race with the safety car lights out. The top six cars are the #39 Graff Racing car, followed by Nielsen Racing #7, Team Virage #16, M Racing #68, CD Sport #11, and Cool Racing #87.
Green flag. Don’t overtake before the line. So, James Sweetnam leads over Julien Gerbi. Right behind them, it is Hugo Delacour on the outside and makes the pass aboard the #68 M Racing car. The two 360 Racing cars also go at it early doors. This is Mark Richards passing Terrence Woodward. Richards from England teamed up with Spaniard Belen Garcia in car #25. The sister car #26 driven by Woodward, he is sharing alongside another British driver, Tommy Foster. A good restart from him. Everyone spread out behind the safety car makes the restart cleaner.
We are looking at car #67 for Haegeli by T2 Racing in a Duqueine chassis shared by Pieder Decurtins from Switzerland and Belgian Brent Verheyen. This car liveried in the familiar berries and custard red and yellow colors. We have seen this team in GT3 racing in the Creventic and SRO GT World Challenge Europe ranks with this exact same berries and custard red and yellow livery mainly in a Porsche GT3 car. Now, they are tackling the prototype leagues in LMP3. James Sweetnam continues pulling away and now we have the second car for CD Sport. The team is running two Ligier LMP3’s.
The #11 car has Lebanese driver Shahan Sarkissian at the wheel of it now, sharing with Frenchman Franck Chappard. The sister car #2, which we have not seen yet, is that of Fabian Michal, also from France, and Russian open wheel racer Kirill Smal. Oh no! A punctured tire for Tony Wells! Wells has his hands full as the right rear Michelin tire on his LMP3 car has been cut down! That’s either a punctured right rear tire or the right rear wheel itself is cattywampus and he’s spun it! Wells is off the road and into the gravel trap! Dear oh dear.
He couldn’t stop at the bottom of the hill as Julien Gerbi passes Hugo Delacour. Sure enough, the CD Sport car in the hands Shahan Sarkissian is right behind, pouring on the steam. Safety car deployed, again. Tony Wells, beached. It is a puncture or a loose wheel. I think it was a punctured tire from debris. Into the gravel he goes. Safety Car lights out. We’re ready to race just over 40 minutes in. The second Team Virage LMP3 car has shot off to the side of the road. Let me see which car that is and who is driving it. That is actually the third Ligier for that team, car #59 in the hands of Oscar Bittar from Paraguay sharing the car with Alessandro Bracalente of Italy.
Julien Gerbi in the sister car is second. Bittar is still on track. Green flag and the racing resumes. Team Virage drops to 11th spot. So, let’s look at the top seven places in LMP3.
2. #16 Gerbi/Hennon Team Virage Ligier JS P320 Nissan
3. #68 Delacour/Oliveira M Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan
4. #11 Chappard/Sarkissian CD Sport Ligier JS P320 Nissan
5. #87 Chila/Oltramare Cool Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan
6. #77 Gundmundsson/Noble Team Thor Ligier JS P320 Nissan
7. #29 Luthen/Carde MV2S Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan
Hugo Delacour making his move on Julien Gerbi. Delacour sharing with Guillherme Oliveira in the #68 M Racing Ligier. Very defensive and very slow and Gerbi with cold tires and brakes is really pushing it and wants by James Sweetnam. Sweetnam hanging on by his fingernails but doesn’t make it and Gerbi is our new race leader with 45 minutes of racing gone. Julien Gerbi beginning to put daylight between himself and James Sweetnam as now Hugo Delacour too in the M Racing Ligier wants a bite of the cherry.
James Sweetnam is still under big pressure. Tiny contact but nothing to worry about as MV2S are in trouble. Christophe Cresp has missed his pit box! Oh my! Jerome de Sadeleer his co-driver, cannot believe it! Cresp now must come back into the pits as I believe reversing in the pit lane is forbidden. The Le Mans Cup teams use a separate paddock and are not using the garages like the European Le Mans Series teams are. We will bring you the European Le Mans Series race from here at Paul Ricard very soon.
Cresp will have to come back through the pit lane again. That is going to have them flying Plummet Airways down the race order for dead sure. Everyone else making pit stops. Leipert Motorsport are in the lane with their Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, car #70. That is the automobile of Brendon Leitch from New Zealand, and American Gerhard Watzinger. Murphy Prototypes are also back after a long time away from prototype sports car racing. It has been a dog’s age since we’ve seen them. They have the #48 Duqueine M30-D08 Nissan being shared by Englishman Adrian Watt and Czech driver Dan Skocdopole.
CD Sport passes M Racing in the pit lane. Wow, everyone hit your fast forward button because all these pit stops, we saw were before the halfway mark, just before, and so was the LMP3 battle between M Racing and CD Sport. Now, less than 45 minutes to go, and Colin Noble is threading the needle between the GT3 traffic. Noble in the #77 car for Team Thor of Iceland is being harried by Franck Chappard in the #11 CD Sport car, and someone is about to go off the road! The CD Sport car ran wide, clipping the Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini which is off in the gravel trap kicking up a load of dust!
Brendon Leitch, the Kiwi, in the barriers with minimal damage. Capard tries to go ‘round the outside Poor old Brendon Leitch had no place to go except skittering off into the gravel trap. Gracious me, not what he wanted. Bang. Leitch hits the fence. We’re into the last 25 minutes of the race. The battle in LMP3 is for the lead of the motor race in the final stage. This is Gillian Henrion of France in the #16 Team Virage car being harried by the #68 M Racing car of Guilherme de Oliveira, the Portuguese driver. We also have the battle of the Porsche’s, I think. Yes. I think both Team Parker Racing Porsche’s are about to be lapped by the leaders.
Correction. One Team Parker Porsche, the #64 of Charles Bateman being pursued hotly by the Danish driver Anders Fjordbach aboard another Porsche, the #86 HCR with CaffeineSix car he shares with British driver Tim Creswick. They are just outside the podium spots. Last year, the GMB Motorsports Honda NSX GT3’s were the class of the GT3 field but in 2023 they are not getting off to the start they wanted. They have two Honda’s and a BMW this year. The two Honda’s are scrapping. #55 shared by Thomas Anderson and Simon Birch, and #88 by Jan Magnussen and Lars Engelbrecht Pedersen. Simon Birch battling Jan Magnussen, a multiple Le Mans winner and an American GT champion.
Julien Gerbi tells us he did not have the best start, not the one he wanted. His restart also found Gerbi trying to bring the tires up to temperature. He is having fun out there or did during his stint. During the safety car scramble keeping temperature in the brakes and tires is critical. Gerbi alludes to this. Jan Magnussen has gone down to eighth spot in the GT3 class as we have only 22 minutes of racing to go for the first round of the championship. The battle remains hot and heavy for fourth in GT3 between Porsche’s #64 and #86.
Again, those are the cars for Team Parker Racing and HCR with CaffeineSix. Gillian Henrion and Julien Gerbi, with only 12 and a half minutes of racing now left on the board, they appear to be cruising to a certain victory. Nothing is certain in motor racing and things could still change. He has a couple seconds in hand over second place, the #68 M Racing car of Guillherme de Oliveira. Virage Racing and M Racing are looking for a 1-2. Keep in mind that it has been five years since M Racing competed in this championship, so that dates to 2018.
Valentin Hasse-Clot is a dyed in the wool Aston Martin campaigner. He is looking for GT3 victory here with Racing Spirit of Leman with just over five minutes of racing left. Team Parker Racing has their Porsche in second spot, the #18 Porsche 911 GT3R (992) in the hands of Scott Malvern from England. Then comes the first of the two new Ferrari 296 GT3’s for AF Corse, in the hands of their Japanese driving duo of Kei Cozzolino and Hiroshi Koizumi. Malvern and Team Parker Racing under team boss Stuart Parker, have had plenty of racing experience in the single make Porsche Cup ranks.
The gap is over six seconds in GT3 with five minutes and change left to race. Racing Spirit of Leman may hang on for victory. Valentin Hasse-Clot has run 48 laps, 139 miles. He leads Scott Malvern by 6.3 seconds as we said and Kei Cozzolino is in third place in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3. Racing Spirit of Leman may hang on. Team Virage keeping their lead. M Racing second with the #87 Cool Racing car in third spot. CD Sport not far behind and we could see a battle for the final podium place on the final lap of the race.
Adiren Chila started the car and Swiss co-driver Cedric Oltramare is taking the car to the finish. Oltramare runs wide and off the road, but it looks like he will recover! Yikes! That was a close shave for Oltramare! Oh no! That’s more than a close shave! He’s run off the road and into the gravel trap, rallycross style! He saves the car but in trying to pass the third place GT3 Ferrari of Kei Cozzolino, he loses a podium place. Oltramare is trying his best to make up for lost time and lost ground, but it isn’t going to work so well. Kirill Smal runs right behind Kei Cozzolino in the #2 CD Sport Ligier. A minute and a half of racing to go, yielding two more laps for Team Virage.
Racing Spirit of Leman making their debut in GT3 and they could very well be lapped by the leading LMP3 car before this race is done and dusted. A minute and counting. Calm. Breathe. You are almost here. Leader on the last lap. Race leader and GT3 leader side by side. Gillian Henrion and Valentin Hasse-Clot make the pass, or rather Henrion is allowed to go through by Hasse-Clot. Disaster for Cool Racing as the #87 car is off the road another time just before the end of the race here at Barcelona Catalunya.
Cedric Oltramare will not have the race end he was hoping for. He dove to the inside of GT3 second place runner Scott Malvern, the car wiggled, and he was off outside the racing groove. It is the final lap of the first race of Le Mans Cup 2023. This is the final lap and the final few corners of it. Checkered flag. Victorious in round one of Michelin Le Mans Cup 2023, Julien Gerbi and Gilian Henrion. In the GT3 class it is Racing Spirit of Leman who come home in first place with Valentin Hasse-Clot and Arnold Robin.
Overall/LMP3: #16 Gerbi/Henrion Team Virage Ligier JS P320 Nissan
GT3: #10 Hasse-Clot/Robin Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3
54 laps completed for the race distance in two hours totaling 156 miles. Tears of joy all over. The LMP3 podium is made up of Team Virage, M Racing, and CD Sport. In GT3 it’s Racing Spirit of Leman winning followed home by Team Parker Racing and AF Corse. Half a dozen cars went out in the first corner accident. 42 cars started this race of course. Gillian Henrion is so excited he can barely get through the post-race interview before jumping into his teammate’s arms to celebrate!
Team Virage win followed by M Racing and CD Sport. Team Virage head the points after the first of a dozen races for the season and Aston Martin climb to the top step in GT3. Arnold Robin is extremel happy. Valentin Hasse-Clot says the safety cars helped and this team will also run tomorrow’s European Le Mans Series season opener which we look forward to very much. AF Corse’s all Japanese crew third, Team Parker Racing second, and Racing Spirit of Leman with Aston Martin go to the top of the points standings.
Next time out, it is the big one, the two Road to Le Mans support races supporting the big one, the centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans. Join us in France for the big one! We’ll see you there. For now, so long, everybody.
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