24H Le Mans : ORECA entries in LM P2
Entered in the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series through its customer teams, as well as the United SportsCar Championship in the Prototype Challenge class, ORECA will again be the most represented prototype. Eight chassis will take part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in LM P2, seven ORECA 03R and one Alpine A450, which is designed and built by ORECA.
Victorious on 18 occasions since making its competition debut in March 2011, the ORECA 03 has never won at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Against tough competition, the ORECA 03R will be looking to succeed in the 82nd edition of the race. The ORECA delegation is composed of seven teams representing six countries : United Arab Emirates, France, Russia, Switzerland, Ireland and China.
Four of the six teams take part in the European Le Mans Series. Among the two French teams, Sébastien Loeb Racing will be competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time, with Sébastien Loeb as team manager, while Signatech-Alpine returns from last year, the « Bleus » looking for glory following their European Le Mans Series championship last year. Race Performance plays the veteran with five consecutive participations in the LM P2 class, fourth with the ORECA 03. After discovering Le Mans last year, Murphy Prototypes is one of the favorites for 2014.
Two other teams compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The Russian team SMP Racing is present in several top series and began fielding an ORECA 03 in the middle of the 2013 season. For the Chinese outfit KCMG, they decided to change constructors during the off season and chose the ORECA 03. In addition, Millennium Racing will be making its return to racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Two manufacturers provide tyres for the ORECA 03 : three entries are on Michelin rubber, while the other five race with Dunlops. With one car powered by a Judd V8, the rest of the ORECA 03 entries use a Nissan V8 powerplant prepared by the ORECA engine department. With collaboration from the engine technicians and members of the customer team service, ORECA brings an overall package to support teams running the ORECA 03R.
#22 – Millennium Racing
Fabien Giroix
Oliver Turvey
John Martin
#24 – Sébastien Loeb Racing
René Rast
Jan Charouz
Vincent Capillaire
#27 – SMP Racing
Anton Ladygin
Sergey Zlobin
Mika Salo
#34 – Race Performance
Michel Frey
Franck Mailleux
John Lancaster
#36 – Signatech-Alpine
Paul-Loup Chatin
Nelson Panciatici
Oliver Webb
#37 – SMP Racing
Nicolas Minassian
Maurizio Mediani
Kirill Ladygin
#47 – KCMG
Matthew Howson
Richard Bradley
Alex Imperatori
#48 – Murphy Prototypes
Nathanaël Berthon
Rodolfo Gonzalez
Karun Chandhok