the finale of the 2011 Le Mans Series

REBELLION Racing is heading to Portugal for the 6 Hours of Estoril, the finale of the 2011 Le Mans Series.

After making Lola-Toyota the winners of the LMS LMP1 Manufacturers’ Championship with a second win in a row at the 6 Hours of Silverstone earlier this month, the Swiss team have two other titles to potentially win at the final LMS round. 

 For REBELLION Racing, their target is to win both the LMP1 Teams’ and LMP1 Drivers’ championships.

REBELLION Racing is leading the LMP1 Teams’ classification with a two point advantage over Pescarolo Team prior to this weekend’s final round.

In the LMP1 Drivers’ classification, Andrea Belicchi and Jean-Christophe Boullion are currently in the runner-up position just a single point behind the trio of Pescarolo (car #16) drivers.

The race strategy for #13 Lola-Toyota duo Andrea Belicchi and Jean-Christophe Boullion is quite simple, they will have no other choice than to win in front of the #16 Pescarolo-Judd squad to win the LMP1 Drivers’ championship.

With a ten point deficit over the leaders, Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost in the team’s sister car, #12 Lola-Toyota, are not mathematically out of the chase for the LMS LMP1 Drivers’ crown, but they would need to win the race with the sister car #13 and #16 Pescarolo both retiring in order to win the championship.

For the LMP1 Teams’ championship, REBELLION Racing would need to clinch the pole position to score one more point in order to target as a minimum a second place finish in the race to win the title.

Bart Hayden, REBELLION Racing Team Manager :

« We are in a strong position to potentially win both the LMS LMP1 Teams’ and LMP1 Drivers’ Championships at the 6 Hours of Estoril event. Those championship titles are our main target for this season, especially as this year is the last of the Le Mans Series with LMP1 cars. The most powerfull and impressive Le Mans Prototypes will be not be allowed to compete in the LMS next year with the new 2012 sporting regulations.

As SEBAH Racing, when my father Hugh was at the helm, this team twice won the LMS GT2 Teams’ Championship (in 2004 and 2005) and the LMS GT2 Drivers’ championship in 2005. Now, as REBELLION Racing we want to win in LMP1 before leaving a series that has been a really important part of our story over the past decade.

The team will continue in LMP1 next year, but it is too soon to say what exactly our racing programme will be. »