New championship now undoubtedly the ladder to Le Mans
Jacques Nicolet, owner of top Le Mans team OAK Racing, believes the SPEED EuroSeries to be an important step in the development of any endurance racer. From the next round, which takes place at Silverstone on September 9-11, he will be entering his son, Pierre for the championship in a factory run Wolf GB08
Nicolet senior is a major enthusiast for Le Mans and has driven there himself for the past five years with a third in class in 2009. This June, his team ran four cars in the race, two LMP1s and an equal number of LMP2s. Now 21-year old Pierre is about to start on his own road to Le Mans as he enters the highly competitive world of the SPEED EuroSeries. Pierre will make what will be his sports prototype debut at Silverstone before racing in the final rounds of the series at Estoril, Portugal on September 23-25 in preparation for a full assault on the 2012 SPEED EuroSeries.
The SPEED EuroSeries, a multi-chassis, mini-endurance sportscar formula that makes use of 2-lire Honda engines, has quickly become recognised as the natural ladder to a Le Mans drive. Two rounds are held at each Le Mans Series event enabling competitors to showcase their ability in front of the world’s top sportscar teams. There can be no better endorsement in that the owner of one of these has chosen to enter his own son for the championship.
Another plus for SPEED EuroSeries is the entry of another Frenchman, Frédéric Makowiecki for Silverstone. Frédéric, who has raced a Ford GT the FIA GT1 World Championship this season for Marc VDS Racing Team, competes in a Ligier JS51 at Silverstone for the Springbox Concept team of former Grand Prix driver Philippe Alliot. In 2010, Frédéric finished third in the GT championship driving an Aston Martin for Hexis AMR. He also contested the Le Mans 24-hours this year sharing a Luxury Racing Ferrari 458 Italia with Stéphane Ortelli and Jaime Melo. His entry for Silverstone is yet another indication of the growing significance of the SPEED EuroSeries.
