News From The Paul Ricard Paddock #4 Still no official word from the European Le Mans Series organisers but DSC has been told by several sources in the paddock that the second round of the series at Zolder, Belgium has indeed been cancelled. A replacement round might take place later this season, possibly in October, but at this moment we’re simply down to four rounds. The LMP2 teams can join the FIA World Endurance Championship round at Spa-Francorchamps next month, with the European Le Mans Series organisers refunding 8,000 euros to the teams that will race at Spa. This will help the teams to pay the Spa entry fee, which is set at 20,000 euros. It does however indicate that the GTE and LMPC teams as well as LMP2 teams not running at Spa-Francorchamps will not get a refund as of yet – no confirmation there if they will get some of their money back should there be no replacement round later this year. Interesting to note: the entry deadline for Spa is Monday night - with ELMS LMP2 teams reportedly going to be in the old pitlane should they enter. For several teams racing at Spa-Francorchamps is not an option as their drivers are contracted with FIA World Endurance Championship teams, whilst other teams are entered in both – but simply don’t have enough cars to run at the same time. As for the replacement round in October there are also mixed reactions. Some people are happy should there be another race in October, others are not so happy as again it clashes with other events. October 14 clashes with FIA WEC and Blancpain Endurance Series, October 20 is Petit Le Mans and then it’s Shanghai for FIA WEC again. The only viable option seems to be October 7, when current support series SPEED EuroSeries racing at Barcelona with a couple of national championships. Adding the European Le Mans Series to that seems to be a perfect match. The only problem is the clash with GT Open and GT1 World racing elsewhere that same weekend. Another option is a race in France - teams are not really happy though with the fact that there will not be a second race before Le Mans. This story is to be continued for sure... | 
