2001 European Le Mans Series

Only season for the IMSA European Le Mans Series right The 2001 European Le Mans Series season was the only season for the IMSA European Le Mans Series. It is a series for Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) and Grand 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 of Don Panoz's American Le Mans Series to include European rounds in 2000. The ELMS become a separate series for 2001, although following the same IMSA and ACO rules that the ALMS followed, and even having shared events among the two series. Like the Petit Le Mans for the ALMS, the 1000 km of Estoril was meant to be a unique event that would earn automatic entries to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for its winners. A lack of interest from the European racing community and competition from the FIA'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 successful Le Mans Endurance Series. The Le Mans Endurance Series was eventually renamed the European Le Mans Series in 2012. History With the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) allowing Don Panoz to bring the rules and racing formulas of the 24 Hours of Le Mans to America with the creation of the Petit Le Mans in 1998, Don Panoz attempted to build up a series to be based around Petit Le Mans. The aged IMSA sportscar series was taken over and became the new American Le Mans Series, and met with much success in 1999. Following this success, Panoz attempting to bring sportscar racing back to Europe, which had lacked a major sportscar series since the demise of the World Sportscar Championship in 1992. This led to the 2000 American Le Mans Series season, which included two races in Europe as the Nürburgring and Silverstone 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 at Estoril, which would be the European equivalent of the 1000 mile Petit Le Mans and earn automatic entries to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for each class winner. To aid in the development of the ELMS, the 2001 season shared some races between both ALMS and ELMS. The 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans, normally ALMS races, were considered optional races for ELMS teams. At the same time, the ELMS races at Donington Park and Jarama were 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 final FIA Sportscar Championship and FIA GT Championship series 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, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest announced 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 At the same time in the development of the European Le Mans Series, Don Panoz also proposed the idea of yet another series.Watkins Gary How Panoz transformed sportscar racing - IMSA SportsCar - Autosport Plus https://www.autosport.com/imsa/feature/8494/how-panoz-transformed-sportscar-racing 2020-06-11 Autosport.com 13 September 2018 en 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 the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship (JSPC) which had ended in 1992. The ACO had previous backed a single Japanese event, the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000km which combined Le Mans cars with JGTC machines for automatic entries to the 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans. This idea was followed by the American Le Mans Series with the 2000 Race of a Thousand Years race at the Adelaide Street Circuit in Australia. 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 at Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia in 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 Besides Sebring, Estoril, and Petit Le Mans, all events were 2 hours and 45 minutes in length. Rnd Race Circuit Date 1 USA Exxon Superflo 12 Hours of Sebring† Sebring International Raceway 17 March 2 GBR ELMS Race at Donington Park† Donington Park 14 April 3 ESP ELMS Race at Jarama† Circuito Permanente Del Jarama 20 May 4 PRT 1000 km of Estoril Autódromo do Estoril 15 July 5 CZE ELMS Race at Most Autodrom Most 5 August 6 ITA ELMS Race at Vallelunga Autodromo di Vallelunga 2 September 7 USA Audi presents Petit Le Mans† Road Atlanta 6 October † - Joint event with ALMS. The Salzburgring had planned to host a race on the 5th of August but was cancelled.21 May 2001 Salzburgring race is given the boot from schedule https://www.autosport.com/gt/news/salzburgring-race-is-given-the-boot-from-schedule-5004121/5004121/ 12 November 2025 Autosport Season results Overall winner in bold. Rnd Circuit LMP900 Winning Team LMP675 Winning Team GTS Winning Team GT Winning Team Results LMP900 Winning Drivers LMP675 Winning Drivers GTS Winning Drivers GT Winning Drivers 1 Sebring DEU #1 Audi Sport North America None DEU #26 Konrad Team Saleen USA #23 Alex Job Racing Results ITA Michele AlboretoITA Rinaldo CapelloFRA Laurent Aïello GBR Oliver GavinUSA Terry BorchellerAUT Franz Konrad DEU Sascha MaassenDEU Lucas LuhrFRA Emmanuel Collard 2 Donington DEU #1 Audi Sport Team Joest GBR #21 Rowan Racing GBR #41 RML USA #23 Alex Job Racing Results DNK Tom KristensenITA Rinaldo Capello GBR Martin O'ConnellGBR Warren Carway BEL Bruno LambertGBR Ian McKellar Jr. DEU Lucas LuhrDEU Sascha Maassen 3 Jarama DEU #1 Audi Sport Team Joest USA #5 Dick Barbour Racing DEU #26 Konrad Team Saleen DEU #43 Team Schnitzer Results DNK Tom KristensenITA Rinaldo Capello BEL Eric van de PoeleBEL Didier de Radigues CHE Toni SeilerCHE Walter BrunAUT Franz Konrad DEU Dirk MüllerSWE Fredrik Ekblom 4 Estoril FRA #72 Pescarolo Sport None GBR #41 RML DEU #77 Freisinger Motorsport Results FRA Jean-Christophe BoullionFRA Laurent RedonFRA Boris Derichebourg BEL Bruno LambertGBR Ian McKellar Jr.GBR Chris Goodwin FRA Xavier PompidouFRA Romain Dumas 5 Most GBR #7 Johansson Motorsport FRA #38 ROC GBR #41 RML GBR #60 P.K. Sport Results SWE Stefan JohanssonFRA Patrick Lemarié ESP Jordi GenéCHE Christophe Pillon BEL Bruno LambertGBR Ian McKellar Jr. GBR Robin LiddellGBR Mike Youles 6 Vallelunga GBR #9 Lanesra FRA #28 Didier Bonnet Racing GBR #41 RML GBR #66 Harlow Motorsport Results GBR Richard DeanZAF Gary Formato FRA François JakubowskiFRA Xavier Bich GBR Ian McKellar Jr.GBR Chris Goodwin GBR Terry RymerSWE Magnus Wallinder 7 Road Atlanta DEU #2 Audi Sport North America USA #57 Dick Barbour Racing USA #4 Corvette Racing USA #6 PTG Results DEU Frank BielaITA Emanuele Pirro CAN Scott MaxwellCAN John GrahamVEN 1930 Milka Duno USA Kelly CollinsUSA Andy PilgrimFRA Franck Fréon DEU Hans Joachim StuckUSA Boris SaidUSA Bill AuberlenSource:European LeMans Series - Season 2001: Results https://www.speedsport-magazine.com/motorsport/sportscars/lemans-series-lmes-elms/2001-results.html Speedsport Magazine 20 January 2024 Teams' Championship 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 in italics. 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 Pos Team Chassis Engine Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Rd 6 Rd 7 Total 1 GBR Johansson Motorsport Audi R8 Audi 3.6L Turbo V8 22 19 19 26 25 26 115 2 DEU Audi Sport North America Audi R8 Audi 3.6L Turbo V8 30 25 25 30 80 3 FRA Pescarolo Sport Courage C60 Peugeot A32 3.2L Turbo V6 18 17 30 65 4 USA Panoz Motorsports Panoz LMP07Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S Élan (Zytek) 4.0L V8Élan 6L8 6.0L V8 17 14 17 19 50 5 GBR Lanesra Racing Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S Élan 6L8 6.0L V8 21 25 46 6 GBR Westward Racing Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S Élan 6L8 6.0L V8 15 15 7 FRA Team PlayStation (Oreca) Chrysler LMP Mopar 6.0L V8 12 12 8 GBR Team Ascari Ascari A410 Judd GV4 4.0L V10 11 11 LMP675 standings Pos Team Chassis Engine Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Rd 6 Rd 7 Total 1= FRA Didier Bonnet Racing Debora LMP200 BMW 3.2L I6 30 21 25 76 1= USA Dick Barbour Racing Reynard 01Q Judd KV675 3.4L V8 21 25 30 76 3 USA Roock-KnightHawk Racing Lola B2K/40 Nissan (AER) VQL 3.4L V8 30 21 22 51 4 FRA Racing Organisation Course Reynard 2KQ Volkswagen 2.0L Turbo I4 25 19 44 5 GBR Rowan Racing Pilbeam MP84 Nissan (AER) VQL 3.0L V6 25 25 GTS standings Pos Team Chassis Engine Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Rd 6 Rd 7 Total 1 GBR Ray Mallock Ltd. Saleen S7-R Ford 7.0L V8 25 19 30 25 25 124 2 DEU Konrad Team Saleen Saleen S7-R Ford 7.0L V8 30 21 25 26 19 26 121 3 GBR Brookspeed Chrysler Viper GTS-R Chrysler 8.0L V10 24 17 41 4 DEU Konrad Motorsport Porsche 911 GT2Saleen S7-R Porsche 3.8L Turbo Flat-6Ford 7.0L V8 21 19 40 5 GBR Cirtek Motorsport Porsche 911 GT2 Porsche 3.8L Turbo Flat-6 21 21 GT standings Pos Team Chassis Engine Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Rd 6 Rd 7 Total 1 GBR P.K. Sport Porsche 911 GT3-RS Porsche 3.6L Flat-6 19 17 26 25 14 101 2 ESP Paco Orti Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R Porsche 3.6L Flat-6 14 14 20 19 19 86 3 GBR Harlow Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3-R Porsche 3.6L Flat-6 11 24 15 25 75 4 USA Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3-RS Porsche 3.6L Flat-6 30 25 19 24 74 5 GBR Sebah Automotive, Ltd. Porsche 911 GT3-R Porsche 3.6L Flat-6 8 10 13 21 13 16 73 6 DEU Seikel Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3-RS Porsche 3.6L Flat-6 19 17 13 22 18 71 7 DEU Freisinger Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3-RS Porsche 3.6L Flat-6 16 30 21 67 8 DEU BMW Motorsport BMW M3 GTR BMW 4.0L V8 24 10 25 26 61 9 CAN Kyser Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R Porsche 3.6L Flat-6 18 15 17 33 10 GBR Cirtek Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3-R Porsche 3.6L Flat-6 15 15 30 11= AUS Skea Racing International Porsche 911 GT3-R Porsche 3.6L Flat-6 12 17 29 11= FRA Noël del Bello Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R Porsche 3.6L Flat-6 12 17 29 13 GBR Atomic Kitten Motorsport Chevrolet Corvette LM-GT Chevrolet LS1 5.7L V8 14 11 25 14 FRA Luc Alphand Aventures Porsche 911 GT3-R Porsche 3.6L Flat-6 19 19 15 ESP Racing Engineering Porsche 911 GT3-R Porsche 3.6L Flat-6 16 16 References External links IMSA European Le Mans Series 2001 European Le Mans Series Category:European Le Mans Series seasons European Le Mans Series