ILMC, Zhuhai - Race Preview - Part 1 - LMPs

The last ever ILMC race this coming weekend at Zhuhai International Circuit is also the only race of the season that is actually a standalone ILMC round.

28 cars are set to take to the track in China with a near full house from the remaining ILMC full season entries making the trip.

LMP1

007 ILMC ASTON MARTIN RACING GBR M Lola Aston Martin Andy Meyrick (GBR) Stefan Mücke (DEU) Harold Primat (CHE)
1 ILMC AUDI SPORT TEAM JOEST DEU M Audi R18 TDI Timo Bernhard (DEU) Marcel Fässler (CHE)
2 ILMC AUDI SPORT TEAM JOEST DEU M Audi R18 TDI Tom Kristensen (DNK) Allan McNish (SCO)
7 ILMC PEUGEOT SPORT TOTAL FRA M Peugeot 908 Sébastien Bourdais (FRA) Anthony Davidson (GBR)
8 ILMC PEUGEOT SPORT TOTAL FRA M Peugeot 908 Franck Montagny (FRA) Stéphane Sarrazin (FRA)
12 ILMC REBELLION RACING CHE M Lola B10/60 Coupé - Toyota Nicolas Prost (FRA) Neel Jani (CHE)
15 ILMC OAK RACING FRA D OAK Pescarolo - Judd Matthieu Lahaye (FRA) Guillaume Moreau (FRA) Pierre Ragues (FRA)
23 ZHUHAI T OKAI UNIV YGK POWER JPN Y Courage-Oreca LC70 Mitsuyama Shogo (JPN) Yokomizo Naoki (JPN)
24 ILMC OAK RACING FRA D OAK Pescarolo - Judd Jacques Nicolet (FRA) Alexandre Prémat (FRA) Olivier Pla (FRA)

Nine LMP1s are on the entry with all but one full season entries.

The odd one out is the evergreen #24 Tokai University Courage Oreca LC70, the world's fastest Formula Student car though will struggle to make any sort of impact here.  Despite that they are a welcome addition to the grid.

The remaining field is split 50:50 between the petrol and diesel powered machines.  Jacques Nicolet's Oak Racing squad makes up half of the petrol powered effort, the Judd V8 powered Oak Pescarolos have looked stronger and stronger towards the end of the seaso, the team's plans though seem to have been constantly diverted with damage - it's a long way from home for the season closer though and they'll be hoping for no pre-race dramas this time out.

Both Gulf liveried cars have impressive driver line ups now, Nicolet is again listed in the #24 car alongside Pla and Premat with Guillaume Moreau anchoring the #15 car alongside Matthieu Lahaye and Pierre Ragues. Both cars are capable of getting in amongst what might be a tightly contested pack hoping for a diesel or two to stumble.

Rebellion Racing bring their usual single ILMC entered Lola Toyota to bear on the tasks ahead here and will be keen to put on another good show, and to gather as much data as possible ahead of a now confirmed 2012 return with the same package.

Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost need a little more mechanical luck to go with their undoubted pace though to bring this one home - If their luck holds this car might well pull off a very good finish to what has been a relatively successful season for the UK based Swiss team.

The final petrol car is the first of the five factory entered machines.  With the AMR One now all but confirmed as finished and a GTE programme in the 2012 WEC close to an official announcement, this might be the final LMP1 outing for a factory Aston Martin team for quite some time.

That said the team are on a roll with the still fantastic sounding Lola Aston Martin after a win in the ALMS at Laguna Seca and an overall podioum at PLM.  It will be the last race with AMR too for George Howard Chappell after a trophy studded decade with the boys in green.

Andy Meyrick joins Stefan Mucke and Harold Primat for this one - Don't bet against a podium once again for #007

For that to happen though there will need, once again, to be dramas amongst the factory diesels.  Diesel dramas though have been very much a part of the picture this season with incident, accident and mechanical dramas seeing diesels delayed substantially in all bar one ILMC races thus far in 2011 and a petrol runner on the overall podium in both the last two races.

With Peugeot already having wrapped up both the manufacturer and teams titles it's all about a race win here with Audi looking to score just their second race win of the season, albeit the only other win was the one that really mattered!

With the Chinese market a hugely important one for all manufacturers both the big factory teams will be looking for a headline from the weekend, and to get it the action will be fast and furious again.  And again it could well be the squad that makes no mistakes that comes out on top and if that's the case then the 2011 odds suggest that could be Peugeot - Audi are having to push very hard indeed, and sometimes of late that has equated to too hard.

On the flip side, if anything Audi seem to be finding more speed of late than their Gallic rivals - Here's hoping for a race worthy of the occasion, and a fine curtain closer for the ILMC

LM P2

26 ILMC SIGNATECH NISSAN FRA D Oreca 03 - Nissan Franck Mailleux (FRA) Lucas Ordoñez (ESP) Jean-Karl Vernay (FRA)
35 ILMC OAK RACING FRA D OAK Pescarolo - Judd Frédéric Da Rocha (FRA) Patrice Lafargue (FRA)

There are just two entries in LMP2 for this one with the Level 5 HPD a no-show this time out as, with the title already in the bag for the Signatech Oreca Nissan, the two race old HPD effort is parked until 2012.

Signatech meanwhile field the same driver squad as at PLM with Jean Karl Vernay completing the season and must start as the hot favourites of the pair.

Oak Racing meanwhile field only a two man squad here, the team looking to impress potential customers ahead of 2012. They'll be relying on reliability for the Judd BMW powered Oak Pescarolo here, though unreliability for the Oreca Nissan would suffice!

FLM

90 ZHUHAI PTRS RACING CHN M Formula Le Mans - Oreca - 09 Zhang Shan Qi (CHN) Wei Liang Chen (TPE)

The first of a pair of invitation classes features a singleton FLM Oreca with an unusual mix of Chinese and Taiwanese drivers in the PTRS Racing car.  It's good to see Asian drivers in the race and Zhang Shan Qi has shown pace in earlier outings for Hope Racing.