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From press release

The 82nd 24 Hours of Le Mans kept fans on the edge of their seats from the moment that Fernando Alonso waved the French Tricoleur to the chequered flag at the finish, with elation and despair being experienced in equal measure.

Deserving and joyful winners of the world's most famous endurance race were André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer and Marcel Fässler in the No.2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro. Tom Kristensen, Lucas di Grassi and Marc Gené made it an Audi 1-2, but it was a bitter-sweet podium place as that car had been in a strong position for victory until a turbo problem delayed it in the pits.

Photo: Audi Motorsport

Recovering from accident damage in the first of two heavy rain showers in the first quarter of the race, and finishing in the final overall podium place was the No.8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Nicolas Lapierre, the result allowing them to keep their lead in the World Endurance Drivers Championship. 

LMP2 was a triumph for ELMS entrants and a disappointment for its FIA WEC runners, and the result was too close to call until the very end. It was the No.38 JOTA Sport Zytek Z11SN of Simon Dolan, Harry Tincknell and late replacement Oliver Turvey who lifted the winner's trophy.

Photo: Adrenalmedia.com/Gabi Tomescu

World GTE Champion driver Gianmaria Bruni, his teammates Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella were in a class of their own in the LMGTE Pro class, bringing the No.51 Ferrari 458 Italia home for their second class win in three years.

It was undoubtedly a very emotional LMGTE Am class victory for the No.95 Danish-crewed Aston Martin Vantage V8 of Kristian Poulsen, David Heinemeier Hansson and Nicki Thiim, who lost teammate Allan Simonsen last year.

Photo: Adrenalmedia.com/Gabi Tomescu

Race results* - 24 Hours of Le Mans
1 - Treluyer-Fassler-Lotterer (Audi R18 e-tron) - Audi - 379 laps
2 - Genè-Di Grassi-Kristensen (Audi R18 e-tron) - Audi - 3 laps
3 - Lapierre-Davidson-Buemi (Toyota TS040 Hybrid) - Toyota - 5 laps
4 - Heidfeld-Prost-Beche (Rebellion R One-Toyota) - Rebellion - 19 laps
5 - Dolan-Tincknell-Turvey (Zytek Z11SN-Nissan) - Jota - 23 laps
6 - Thiriet-Badey-Gommendy (Ligier JS P2-Nissan) - Thiriet By TDS - 24 laps
7 - Chatin-Webb-Panciatici (Alpine A450b-Nissan) - Signatech - 24 laps
8 - Capillaire-Rast-Charouz (Oreca 03R-Nissan) - Loeb Racing - 25 laps
9 - Brundle-Mardenborough-Shulzhitsky (Ligier JS P2-Nissan) - OAK - 25 laps
10 - Klien-Hirsch-Brandela (Morgan-Judd) - Newblood By Morand - 27 laps
(...)
*Unofficial results

Photo: Adrenalmedia.com/John Rourke

Retirements
Ragues-Taylor-Ihara (Morgan-Judd) - Larbre Competition
Bernhard-Webber-Hartley (Porsche 919 Hybrid) - Porsche
Sarrazin-Wurz-Nakajima (Toyota TS040 Hybrid) - Toyota
Bertolini-Shaitar-Basov (Ferrari 458) - SMP
Perrodo-Collard-Palttala (Porsche 911 GT3-RSR) - Prospeed
Griffin-Parente-Leo (Ferrari 458) - RAM
Rusinov-Pla-Canal (Morgan-Nissan) - G Drive
Mann-Casè-Giammaria (Ferrari 458) - AF Corse
Howson-Bradley-Imperatori (Oreca 03R-Nissan) - KCMG
Belicchi-Leimer-Krahamer (Rebellion R One-Toyota) - Rebellion
Berthon-Gonzalez-Chandock (Oreca 03R-Nissan) - Murphy Prototipes
Munemman-Latif-Winslow (Zytek Z11SN-Nissan) - Graves
Rigon-Kaffer-Beretta (Ferrari 458) - AF Corse
Bonanomi-Albuquerque-Jarvis (Audi R18 e-tron) - Audi
Wyatt-Rugolo-Bird (Ferrari 458) - AF Corse
Minassian-Ladygin-Mediani (Oreca 03R-Nissan) - SMP
Ordonez-Reip-Erdos (Nissan Zeod RC) - Nissan

Photo: Adrenalmedia.com/Gabi Tomescu

From NASCAR

Jason Hathaway survived a ferocious battle with Mark Dilley and won the Budweiser 300 on Sunday.

Hathaway and Dilley swapped the lead eight times in the inaugural NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race at Autodrome Chaudière and battled to the end on a green-white-checkered finish before Hathaway emerged with the win.

It was the fourth series career victory for the driver of the No. 3 Rockstar Energy Drink/HGC Chevrolet out of Dutton, Ontario. Dating back to last season, it was Hathaway's third triumph in his last five starts.

Jason Hathaway (Photo: Matthew Murnaghan/NASCAR)

Dilley settled for second while Steve Mathews, who won his third career pole position earlier in the day, crossed the line in the third position. Defending and three-time series champion Scott Steckly battled back from a start toward the rear of the field to finish fourth followed by Louis-Philippe Dumoulin in fifth.

Alex Guenette, D.J. Kennington, J.R. Fitzpatrick, Noel Dowler and Jason White completed the top-10 finishers on the day.

The race was postponed to Sunday after persistent rain showers washed out all on-track activity on Saturday. 

The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1 returns to Quebec for a July 6 date at Mirabel's Circuit ICAR for the Jiffy Lube 100 presented by La Petite Bretonne, the season's second of four road course events.

The key players of Formula 1 must find a way to turn the sport away from the "wrong turn" it has taken.

That is the view of Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, who is asking for a "collective brainstorming" to re-establish the key values of F1, in a letter to Bernie Ecclestone and CVC president Donald McKenzie.

Di Montezemolo is inviting all high-end players of the sport to the table, but also representatives of important companies such as Google or Apple.

All this to help F1 draw more sponsors and fans.

"Formula 1 has to be based on technical innovation, research and development, but this must all be done with sustainable costs and above all, must be move forward as part of a product that can put on a show," said a report from Ferrari.

Luca di Montezemolo (Photo: Ferrari)

Gilles Pironi, the son of former F1 driver Didier, has joined Mercedes AMG F1 Team.

Frenchman Pironi won three grands prix over the course of his career, including the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, infamous for ending his friendship with Ferrari teammate Gilles Villeneuve.

Pironi died in 1987, while racing offshore boats.

In January 1988, his partner Catherine Goux gave birth to twins. She named them Gilles and Didier in honour of the two former friends.

Before joining Mercedes in F1, Gilles Pironi studied engineering and worked for Hyundai in WRC.

Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi, Ferrari 1982 (Photo: WRi2)

From press release

Albatec Racing's Jacques Villeneuve scored his first heat victory, and secured the fastest lap overall in heat one, on only his second FIA World Rallycross Championship outing in Norway.

After making his World RX debut in Portugal in April, the former F1 World Champion was forced to miss round two at Lydden Hill due to a clash with the Indy 500, and so spent two days testing at Holjës, Sweden this week in preparation for the first of the three Scandinavian World RX rounds.

Although the French-Canadian crashed late on the second day of testing causing extensive damaging his two litre, 16v Peugeot 208, the development work done by the team and its technical partners, Oreca, Sadev and Evo to both Jacques' car and the sister 208 of Team Principal Andy Scott allowed the Dumfries-based team to immediately show its potential of challenging for outright victory.

Jacques Villeneuve, Albatec Racing Peugeot 208 (Photo: FIA World RX Championship)

At the wheel of Andy's #26 600bhp Supercar Jacques was immediately on the pace at the Lånkeban track in this morning's open practice, setting a competitive lap time on only his first run, and first ever visit to the Norwegian track.

Starting on pole position for his opening heat, he beat local hero former World Rally Champion Petter Solberg into the first corner and timed his joker lap to perfection, holding off pressure from the round one victor to claim the win and post the ninth fastest time.

After a 4th place finish in the second race of the day, Villeneuve lay 12th in the overnight standings. On Sunday, he added a 3rd and a 4th place finishes, which wasn't enough to qualify him for the semi-finals.

News 14 Jun, 2014

Auto Express interviews Mark Webber ahead of his Le Mans 24-hour return in the Porsche 919 prototype

Tesla Motors says its decision to make hundreds of its electric-vehicle patents openly available to competitors will help accelerate the fight against climate change.

From press release

Wolfgang Reip, behind the wheel of the Nissan ZEOD RC, turned a whole lap at Le Mans powered only by electricity. That's 8.5-mile (14km) with a pair of 110 kW electric motors rotating at 40,000rpm.

Reip and his teammate for the 24 Hours of Le Mans Lucas Ordóñez and Satoshi Motoyama are occupying “Garage 56” - an additional entry reserved by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest for cars showcasing new an innovative technology.

The Nissan ZEOD RC (zero emissions on demand) allows the drive to switch between two power sources - the pair of electric motors or the unique 1.5 liter, 40 kilogram, 400 horsepower three-cylinder internal combustion engine.


Photo: Christophe Jouniaux/Vision SPO

“It is a huge thrill for me to become the first ever driver to complete an all-electric lap of Le Mans - especially since this is my debut at the race,” Reip said.

“I used electricity to originally become a racing driver through GT Academy and now I've used it again to achieve this tremendous goal. I'm really thrilled for the entire team and honored I got the chance to be behind the wheel when it first happened. I actually got held up by a GT car during the lap. I was able to get past and it was quite a strange sensation to go by on electric power.”


“This is the only true prototype on the grid - literally the team have been testing, changing and updating the car every hour as we worked towards achieving our goals,” said Darren Cox, Global Head of Brand, Marketing & Sales, NISMO.


“Nissan is the global leader for electric vehicles for the road and we proved today that we'll be taking the same leadership role in electric vehicles for the race track. The lessons learned from the development of electric drive systems and battery technology will not only improve the Nissan road car of tomorrow but will also be transferred into the Nissan GT-R LM Nismo - our new LM P1 car which will race at Le Mans next year.”


Nissan launched its upcoming LM P1 program on May 23 in London. The Japanese manufacturer will compete against Audi, Toyota and Porsche from 2015 at Le Mans and in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Bad weather has forced NASCAR Canadian Tire series officials to postpone the start of the inaugural Budweiser 300 at Autodrome Chaudiere.

The drop of the green flag was scheduled for Saturday, but plenty of rain over the course of the week and a bad forecast for the race has convinced the organizers to push back the start of the race by one day.

"The Budweiser 300 has been postponed to tomorrow," confirmed Andre Gagnon from the Autodrome Chaudiere.

"The rain from these past three days and the forecast for Saturday have forced NASCAR officials to take this decision."

Qualifying is now expected to take place at 12:30 pm and the race at 14:00 pm.

From GMM

From either end of the F1 grid, teams ended the working week by sending out very different signals about their respective futures.

At the back of the grid, struggling Caterham's supremo Tony Fernandes batted off speculation his green cars might be missing in Austria next weekend.

"Caterham F1 will be racing in Austria. There is no question," the Malaysian aviation entrepreneur told his almost 1 million Twitter followers.

But the message coming out of Ferrari, F1's most famous team, was very different.

Earlier this week, with Fernando Alonso heading to Le Mans on Saturday to flag off the famous 24 hour endurance race, reports suggested the Maranello marque might be planning a prototype sports car project.

But president Luca di Montezemolo, whose criticism of F1's rules often accompanies a quit warning, said that a Le Mans project would mean the end of Ferrari's long association with formula one.

Photo: Ferrari

"Formula one isn't working," he told the Wall Street Journal.

"It's declining because (the FIA) have forgotten that people watch the racing for the excitement. Nobody watches racing for the efficiency, come on."

Also on Friday, Ferrari said on its official website that it is "a bit of a stretch" for the media to be suggesting the team is threatening to quit the sport after 2020 to focus on Le Mans.

But Montezemolo told the Wall Street Journal: "Of course, we cannot do sports car racing and formula one. It's not possible."

The Ferrari website post, however, said Ferrari can juggle both Le Mans and F1, insisting "there's nothing to stop Ferrari upping the ante and competing in both disciplines".

The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series visits the Autodrome Chaudière for the first time ever this weekend. Here are 10 things you should know before the race.

• Autodrome Chaudière will become the 10th different oval track to welcome the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1 with Saturday's maiden visit to the Quebec quarter-mile.

• Four drivers entered for this week's Budweiser 300 have a chance to add Autodrome Chaudière to their list of inaugural oval track victories: Scott Steckly, D.J. Kennington, Mark Dilley and J.R. Fitzpatrick.

D.J. Kennington (Photo: DJK Racing)

• Autodrome Chaudière opened in 1992 as a dirt track and was converted to an asphalt racing surface in 2005.


• The track has held ACT Castrol Series, PASS North, ISMA and Sportsman Quebec touring series events.


• It's nickname is "petit Bristol".


Bristol Motor Speedway (Photo: BMS)

• Chaudière is the 16th different all-time facility to play host to a NCATS event, and the 10th oval.

• The race will cover 300 laps of the 1/4-mile oval, for a total of 75 miles (120 kilometres).

• The banking of the track goes up to 16 degrees.

• Current owners Dany Lagacé and Kevin Roberge took over in 2012 and have already invested $500,000 in the facility.

• ISMA driver Ben Seitz has held the track record (10.77 seconds) since June 22, 2013.

Autodrome Chaudière (Photo: Autodrome Chaudière)

From press release

On the occasion of this weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans, ACO President Pierre Fillon , and FIA President, Jean Todt, have signed the contract extending the agreement between the ACO and FIA for the organizing of the FIA World Endurance Championship for seasons 2015, 2016 and 2017.

The Automobile Club de l'Ouest, who created and have organized the 24 Hours of Le Mans since 1923 remains the promoter of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) via its subsidiary LMEM (Le Mans Endurance Management).

The WEC will consist of 8 rounds, encompassing Europe, America and Asia with the Le Mans 24 Hours as the pinnacle of the season.

Since its launch in 2012, it has continued to grow by welcoming new competitors attracted by the technological challenge that is inherent in this discipline.

Encouraged by this success, the FIA and ACO have decided to continue their collaboration for the development of WEC during the next 3 seasons.

"This is great news for the WEC paddock," said Gérard Neveu, CEO of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

"Next year, Nissan will join Audi, Porsche and Toyota in LMP1, demonstrating the attractiveness of endurance racing to big manufacturers in the development of new technologies and to help them in the markets we visit in the World Endurance Championship. The FIA WEC will continue to grow and progress in 2015 and beyond."

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel is probably going through his most difficult season yet in F1. But he is happy about racing in Austria again, at the Red Bull Ring.

Vettel was only 13 years old when he discovered the track, which was known as the A1-Ring at the time.

"I had the chance to test a Formula car from the Auinger family," remembers the German. "That is a huge step if you're coming from a karting background. It was something completely new and it took me a while to get used to it.

"I have great memories of the Red Bull Ring."

Red Bull Ring (Photo: Red Bull)

Which is probably why the Red Bull driver is "really happy", as F1 returns to Spielberg after an absence of 11 years.

"I'm really happy that we will race there. The circuit is actually very pretty, not only the track, but the whole area. The circuit's set amid a beautiful natural landscape. There are not many distractions there - it's just about racing.

"The Red Bull Ring is a short track, with only a few turns, but it's very challenging. There are also a lot of elevation changes, which makes it interesting and fun."

Federal prosecutors have begun interviewing present and former GM employees as part of a criminal probe into the automaker's delayed ignition-switch recall that has been linked to at least 13 deaths, The Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported,...

Ford faces new challenges to its ambitious effort to become the industry's fuel economy leader after revising mpg numbers downward on six models.

Volkswagen is warning drivers in China of the dangers of texting and driving, but a video spot used in the effort seems to be resonating with a broader audience on YouTube. The clip, as of this afternoon, had about 17.8 million views on YouTube.

VW is warning drivers in China of the dangers of texting and driving, but a video spot used in the effort seems to be resonating with a broader audience on YouTube. The clip, as of Saturday morning, had nearly 19 million views on YouTube.

Chrysler Group has appointed six new directors to its board, effective June 10, adding five more board seats, the company said today.

As we've pointed out, Swedes love big American cars, preferably from the 1946-1980 period.

Hot on the heels of the announcement of the new 2015 BMW X6, the Bavarian automaker has unveiled a version of the crossover designed and equipped by