2003 1000 km of Le Mans explained

The 2003 1000 km of Le Mans was a one-off sports car event run under the organization of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) in preparation for the Le Mans Endurance Series that began in 2004. It was run on 9 November 2003 at the Bugatti Circuit near Le Mans, France.

Development

The ACO, having previous helped in the creation of the American Le Mans Series with the running of the 1998 Petit Le Mans, as well as a failed attempt at a Japanese sportscar series with the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000km, created the 1000 km of Le Mans as an experimental event to gauge the desire for teams to participate in a European-based endurance sportscar series under Le Mans rules.

Previously, the FIA Sportscar and FIA GT Championships had run primarily in Europe, but were not running as a combined series, one concentrating on prototypes and the other grand tourers, and featured mostly sprint or middle-distance races. Don Panoz, creator of the American Le Mans Series, had attempted to create a European series to combine the two types of sportscars with the European Le Mans Series, but had failed to gain enough entrants. The ACO, weary of the same occurrence, decided to hold a single race to see how much participation there would actually be.

Although officially run under the Le Mans Endurance Series name, this did not count towards any championship. In order to help bolster the number of entrants, the ACO promised winners in each of the four race classes automatic invitations to the 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Unlike the usual 24 Hours of Le Mans run in June at the 13 km Circuit de la Sarthe, the 1000 km of Le Mans ran on the 4.3 km Bugatti Circuit which did not use closed public roads.

Official results

Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 75% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).^{[1] [2]}

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Tyre	Laps
					Engine
1	LMP900	5	Audi Sport Japan Team Goh	Tom Kristensen Seiji Ara	Audi R8		208
					Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
2	LMP900	2	Pescarolo Sport	Stéphane Sarrazin Franck Lagorce Sébastien Bourdais	Courage C60 Evo		205
					Peugeot A32 3.2L Turbo V6
3	LMP900	8	Racing for Holland	Jan Lammers Andy Wallace	Dome S101		204
					Judd GV4 4.0L V10
4	LMP675	13	Courage Compétition	Wim Eyckmans Roman Rusinov Enrico Muscioni	Courage C65		197
					JPX 3.4L V6
5	GTS	88	Care Racing	Jamie Davies Darren Turner	Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello		195
					Ferrari F133 5.9L V12
6	GTS	80	Care Racing	Peter Kox Tim Sugden	Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello		194
					Ferrari F133 5.9L V12
7	LMP675	18	Intersport Racing	Jon Field Duncan Dayton Larry Connor	Lola B01/60		191
					Judd KV675 3.4L V8
8	GTS	86	Larbre Compétition	Christophe Bouchut Vincent Vosse Sébastian Dumez	Chrysler Viper GTS-R		190
					Chrysler 356-T6 8.0L V10
9	LMP900	9	Taurus Racing	Phil Andrews Justin Keen Giovanni Lavaggi	Lola B2K/10		190
					Judd GV4 4.0L V10
10	GT	47	Cirtek Motorsport	Philipp Peter Klaus Engelhorn Andrea Montermini	Ferrari 360 Modena GTC		189
					Ferrari F131 3.6L V8
11	GT	39	Freisinger Motorsport	Stéphane Ortelli Stéphane Daoudi Alexey Vasilyev	Porsche 996 GT3-RS		189
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
12	GT	38	PK Sport Ltd.	Robin Liddell Jean-Philippe Belloc	Porsche 996 GT3-RS		188
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
13	GT	36	Sebah QM Automotive	Xavier Pompidou Emmanuel Collard	Porsche 996 GT3-R		186
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
14	GT	33	Bernard Jubin	Sylvain Noël Christophe Tinseau	Porsche 996 GT3-RS		186
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
15	LMP675	24	Rachel Welter	Olivier Porta Richard Balandras Yojiro Terada	WR LMP01		185
					Peugeot 2.0L Turbo I4
16	GT	30	Scuderia Ecosse	Tim Mullen Marino Franchitti Chris Niarchos	Ferrari 360 Modena GTC		185
					Ferrari F133 3.6L V8
17	GT	46	DeWALT-Racesports Salisbury	Michael Caine Richard Stanton Bob Berridge	TVR Tuscan T400R		182
					TVR Speed Six 4.0L I6
18	GT	49	Morgan Motor Company	Adam Sharpe Neil Cunningham	Morgan Aero 8R		178
					BMW (Mader) 4.5L V8
19	GT	45	DeWALT-Racesports Salisbury	Amanda Stretton Fanny Duchateau Liz Halliday	TVR Tuscan T400R		175
					TVR Speed Six 4.0L I6
20	LMP675	12	PiR	Pierre Bruneau Marc Rostan	Pilbeam MP84		173
					Nissan (AER) VQL 3.0L V6
21	GT	40	Seikel Motorsport	Johnny Mowlem Alex Caffi Gabrio Rosa	Porsche 996 GT3-RS		173
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
22	LMP900	7	Fred Goddard	Earl Goddard Martin Short Warren Carway	Reynard 01Q		172
					Ford (Nicholson-McLaren) 4.0L V8
23	GTS	66	Konrad Motorsport	Wolfgang Kaufmann Toni Seiler Franz Konrad	Saleen S7-R		170
					Ford 7.0L V8
24	GT	32	System Force Motorsport	Peter van Merksteijn Sr. Frans Munsterhuis	Porsche 996 GT3-RS		169
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
25	GT	42	Spyker Automobilien	Patrick van Schoote Norman Simon	Spyker C8 Double-12R		169
					Audi 4.0L V8
26	GT	41	T2M Motorsport	Georges Forgeois Paul Daniels Wim Coekelberghs	Porsche 996 GT3-RS		165
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
27	LMP675	25	Gerard Welter	Jean-René de Fournoux Bastien Brière William David	WR LMP02		163
					Peugeot 3.4L V6
28	GT	34	Noël del Bello	Jean-Luc Maury-Laribière Patrick Caternet Philip Collin	Porsche 996 GT3-RS		161
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
29	LMP900	4	Lister Racing	Jamie Campbell-Walter Nathan Kinch Tom Coronel	Lister Storm LMP		144
					Chevrolet LS1 6.0L V8
NC	GT	48	Olivier Baron	Bruno Houzelot Denis Cohignac André-Alain Corbel	Porsche 996 GT3-R		125
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
DNF	LMP675	15	Didier Bonnet Racing	Renaud Denoit Roland Bossy	Debora LMP200		141
					BMW (Mader) 3.4L I6
DNF	LMGTP	10	JML Team Panoz	Olivier Beretta David Saelens	Panoz Esperante GTR-1		126
					Ford (Élan) 6L8 6.0L V8
DNF	GT	35	XL Racing	Gilles Vannelet Bernard Rousselot Gaël Lesoudier	Ferrari 550 Maranello		84
					Ferrari F133 5.5L V12
DNF	LMP675	14	RML	Thomas Erdos Mike Newton Chris Goodwin	MG-Lola EX257		65
					MG (AER) XP20 2.0L Turbo I4
DNF	LMP900	6	Intersport Racing	Clint Field Rick Sutherland John Graham	Riley & Scott Mk III C		23
					Ford (Roush) 6.0L V8
DNS	GT	31	RJ Cole Xero Competition	Ricky Cole Peter Le Bas Paula Cook	Chevrolet Corvette LM-GT		-
					Chevrolet LS1 5.7L V8
DNS	LMP900	3	Team Nasamax	Robbie Sterling Werner Lupberger Romain Dumas	Reynard 01Q		-
					Cosworth XD 2.7L Turbo V8 (Bio-Ethanol)

Statistics

• Pole Position - #5 Audi Sport Japan Team Goh - 1:27.775
• Distance - 869.44 km
• Average Speed - 144.952 km/h

Post-Race

Following a successful turn out from a large number of European teams, as well as a handful of American and Japanese teams, the event was considered a success. With this, the ACO pushed forward with their development of the Le Mans Endurance Series, debuting in 2004. This move would also lead to the demise of the FIA Sportscar Championship, as prototype teams chose instead to participate in LMES.

Since this event, the LMES has not returned to Le Mans as part of their regular schedule, although many LMES participants race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

External links

• Racing Sports Cars - 2003 1000km of Le Mans

Notes and References

1. Web site: November 2003 . Le Mans 1000 Km - Provisional Result . 30 July 2023 . DailySportsCar.
2. Web site: Le Mans 1000 Kilometres 2003 . 30 July 2023 . Racing Sports Cars.