The first official blood! The Le Mans Series comes of age in 2006 with full grids for all five events in the series. No fewer than 47 cars (due to Estoril Racing team's drop) have been entered for the season of 1,000 kilometre races, of which 20 are in the Prototype sportscar group, and more are expected on a race-by-race basis. The teams, some with brandnew cars, will have the opportunity to test and develop their machinery on the world’s finest high-tech test track at Le Castellet (Paul Ricard) on March 26-27. Most have registered for night-time driving as well, aiming to complete a 24-hour test. Two weeks prior to the Official Testing, we know who will be watching who. Further to their cars' performance, the team managers will have the opportunity to study their challengers' behaviour faced against the clock, even without classification...

There will be new teams, such as Swiss Spirit and Luc Alphand Aventures, whose Corvette will be keeping an eye on Belgian PSI's sister cars. Special attention will be given to Rollcentre's Radical, a car never yet seen on the Series' track. The Saleen and Panoz Esperante will also be showing up. In a nutshell, the grid at Paul Ricard, will offer a diversity of cars (except for missing Aston Martins and Spykers) and definitely be the window of the series. Pescarolo Sport, the 2005 champion in the prototype division, leads the entry for the test days with a single Pescarolo C60 ‘hybrid’ powered by a lightened version of the Judd GV5 (5-litre) V10 engine. The Xtrac gearbox, which Henri blamed for his defeat at Le Mans last June, has undergone modifications and is narrower so that the rear diffusers will be more effective. “We have tested a lot of small things on the aerodynamics, but also to speed repairs” says the Le Mans legend. Also from the Technoparc at Le Mans come three brand-new Courage LC70s, two of which are registered for the test in the south of France. Courage Competition will run one, powered by the Japanese Mugen V8 engine, and the other is entered by the newly formed Swiss Spirit team, and Swiss drivers Harold Primat and Marcel Fassler, who rely on the powerful Judd V10 engine. Creation Autosportif, the team run by Michael Jankowski and Ian Bickerton, doubles its effort this year with two Judd powered Creation CA06/H prototypes. One will be tested at Le Castellet by Nicolas Minassian and Jamie Campbell-Walter, who narrowly failed to win at least two major events last season. The second Creation will be driven this year by the charismatic pairing, Beppe Gabbiani and Felipe Ortiz.
Chamberlain Synergy Motorsport has entered a Lola in each of the two prototype classes and it is the new B06/10 that will make its debut at the Le Mans Series test in the hands of owners Bob Berridge, Peter Owen and Gareth Evans, the latter the reigning "LM"P2 champion driver. They will run their Lola, powered by a new AER V8 turbocharged engine, throughout the 24 hours to complete as many laps as possible. Their LMP2 class Lola B05/10 AER will also run at the test in the hands of Portuguese drivers Miguel Ramos and Pedro Chaves. A dark horse in the prototype category this year is the Chevrolet powered Lister Storm LMP which will test at Le Castellet, and will be driven this year by Italians Andrea Belicchi and Stefano Zonca, with Dane Jens Moller. A newcomer in the LMP2 category is the Radical SR9, the bodywork and aerodynamics of which have been designed by Peter Elleray, the creator of the 2003 Le Mans winning Bentley Speed 8. Further enhancing the Radical’s pedigree, two Judd V8 powered cars are entered for the Le Mans Series by Martin Short’s Rollcentre Racing team, which campaigned Dallaras with great success in 2005. One will take part in the test, when the Rollcentre team will be able to judge its performance against last year’s pace-setters, the RML MG Lola EX264, the G-Force team’s Courage C65, and the Chamberlain Synergy Lola B05/40. Mike Newton and Tommy Erdos have switched from Judd power to the AER 4cylinder turbo engine in the RML MG Lola. The Belgian G-Force team includes the youngest driver on the grids this year, 18-year-old Briton Ed Morris who has earned his laurels in the Britsports series. Morris will share the driving with team owner Frank Hahn and Jean-Francois Leroch. Three Chevrolet Corvettes will take part in the test, those of rally-raid expert, and former ski ace Luc Alphand, who has bought the 2004 Le Mans class winning C5-R, while the Belgian PSI Experience team will test both its C5-R and its new C6-R. Facing the American cars in the GT1 category will be Team Oreca’s new Saleen S7R and the Ferrari 550 Maranello of the Convers MenX team. Russian driver Alexei Vasiliev will drive with Peter Kox. Two Panoz Esperantes will appear the Paul Ricard circuit in the orange colours of Lawrence Tomlinson’s Team LNT. Tomlinson, who has run TVR Tuscans in the past two seasons, has switched to Don Panoz’s products which regularly challenge the Porsche GT3 RSR in the American Le Mans Series. The TVR Tuscans will nevertheless appear run by the Racesport Peninsula team. The GT2 class will be the largest on the grids with 18 cars entered for the full season, which opens at the modern Istanbul circuit on April 9. For any further information: