TRACKS FOR DRIVERS…

For its 9th season, European Le Mans Series will propose a 6 event calendar, with five races held on circuits chosen for their very selective layouts that will highlight the competitors’ driving skills. The season will begin on the 9th and 10th of March with the official testing session on the Paul Ricard HTTT (High Tech Test Track) circuit. All categories will be able to attend: LMP2, FLM (Formula Le Mans), LM GTE Pro, LM GTE Am and GTC (the new category launched in order to offer to new teams and new drivers the opportunity to access the GT Endurance world at a European level for a limited budget).

The 6 hour races format will remain, still with the aim to optimize exposure and TV broadcast of the series, provided through a live production.

The first event of the 2012 season will be held on the 30th – 31st of March and 1st of April. As tradition has it, the first round, the 6 Hours of the Castellet, will take place on the Paul Ricard circuit (in the 5,8km specification) and will establish the first ranking of the season.

After this first round in Provence, direction Belgium and the Zolder circuit (located between Brussels and Liege) that will welcome a European Le Mans Series event for the first time from the 18th to the 20th of May. The 3,977 km long track offers alternately long straight lines and tight turns that drivers will have to take carefully in order to avoid crashes.

Mid-July, the middle of the season will be reached for the competitors by attending the 6 Hours of Donington, in the heart of the UK, from 13th to 15th of July. Witness of historical fights of the Formula 1 World Championship and Moto GP, the 4,023 km long track is famous for being very fast and very selective. The 2006 European Le Mans Series competitors keep great memories of it. The younger drivers will discover the long series of very quick curves.

After the summer break, the 4th round of the season will be held on 7, 8 and 9 September on the Brno circuit in Czech Republic. The track will host European Le Mans Series for the first time. Located 200km from Prague in the southeast, Brno is the country’s second biggest town. Drivers will discover one of the most sinuous tracks of the season (13 corners) in which precise driving and setups will be the keys of success.

The season will end on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of November, on the Algarve circuit, in the South of Portugal: a 4,692km long track, very sinuous, where the series has already been in 2009 and 2010 for night races. At this date, Organisation has not yet decided if the experience will be repeated in 2012.

At the end of the season, 6 invitations to the 2013 24H of Le Mans will be offered to the winners of the categories.