The 2017 LMP2 regulations were, in several ways, a controversial move from the ACO that resulted in a new, much faster breed of second tier prototypes.
The regulations introduced two concepts to ACO-regulated racing for the first time – a spec. engine, and an effective license for chassis manufacturers, moves that have been repeated since in both the initial and second generation of LMP3 regs, and in the forthcoming second generation of LMP2 for 2024.
The initial move in LMP2 though was hugely controversial, prompted by concerns that costs in the class – nominally capped – could spiral, that view fuelled by two programmes which rulemakers viewed as ‘bespoke’ designs, designed with less of an eye to cost that perhaps they should, and with the view taken that neither were true customer-focused plans – Oddly enough, in the time that both programmes had available before effectively being rendered obsolete in contemporary competition, neither came close to dominant form.
The first of the two was the Strakka Dome S103, the programme damned by a late-running engineering programme in Japan, a required redesign to the rear suspension geometry and latterly, by the apparent unwillingness of the rulemakers to approve the intended low downforce aero package.
More significant in both its contemporary results, and in the number of cars fielded was another 2015 race debutant, and in contrast to the Dome, it was a brand new constructor for the international sportscar scene.
BR Engineering, named for the project’s founder Boris Rotenburg, was an off-shoot of the squad based close to Monaco that had undertaken many of SMP Racing’s successful GT campaigns, in ELMS, FIA WEC and elsewhere – and after a season with Oreca 03s in the WEC assisted by AF Corse, now the team wanted to take a step up as the LMP2 Coupe era dawned.
That project emerged as the BR01, designed by serial LMP designer produced an LMP2 Paolo Catone whose cv included both the Peugeot 908 HDI FAP, and its later 90X sister as well as a number of influential designs when at Courage, one of which went on to further success when it evolved into the Pescarolo.
Catone’s brief was to take the fight to the established order with a no-compromise, ground-up LMP2 design, the existing cars for the 2011 rules cycle had designs evolved from earlier cars (including ironically some of Catone’s own designs!)
ORECA’s 03, for example, was developed out of the Courage LC70 LMP1, designed by Catone for the 2006
season and its successor, the 05, had its roots in the Rebellion R-One P1 that came on stream in
2014.
Catone, teamed up with Italian engineering consultancy Ycom (which includes the Maserati MC12 GT1 car on its own cv), drew inspiration from a number of designs, notably the un-raced 1992 Peugeot 905 Evo 2 ‘Supercopter’ with a chassis built by the ARS Tech concern that Catone would later steer to the production of the Ginetta LMP1 chassis.
That was no coincidence – Catone (pictured below left) had been one of the designers on the 905 Group C project of 1990-93 and was race engineer for the 1993 Le Mans 24 Hours winning car.
The LMP2 rules of the time mandated that the car must be designed to accept two different engines, a clause designed to emphasise that the cars should be customer-team focused and the BR01 was equipped to be powered either by the Nissan or Judd-BMW V8s though it only ever raced with a Nissan installed.
After a design, production and test phase that took much of 2014 and the first quarter of 2015, the first car arrived at Paul Ricard to be presented to the rulemakers and media at the official pre-season test (above), but would not be ready to race until the second round of the ELMS in May, at Imola, with little time to prepare for Le Mans the following month.
For commercial reasons the BR01s had started the 2015 season on Michelin tyres, which proved to be a handicap against the then dominant Dunlops! By September though a work-around had made a switch to Dunlop possible, and there was an instant change for the better in the cars’ pace.
The two cars, qualified second and third, Mikhael Aleshin, Kirill Ladygin and Viktor Shaytar taking a close second position in what was then, by far, the best showing for the new car. There was a third place too at the season finale at Estoril (above).
2016 saw SMP Racing green-light an expanded programme with full efforts in both the ELMS and the FIA WEC, AF Corse handling the two-car WEC programme (with some BR Engineering support), and the French-based SMP Racing outfit responsible for a single-car full season ELMS effort.
And there was an IMSA debut too, a single car effort at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona – on the Championship’s Continental spec. rubber which saw Aleshin start from Pole Position in a car he shared with Kirill Ladygin, Nicolas Minassian and Maurizio Mediani, having set fastest time in the Prototype session on a wet track and despite the fact that those times were beaten by the GTLM cars that ran later, after the track had dried very considerably!
The qualifying form could not be carried through in the race however, the car suffered an engine blow-up in warm-up and was clearly not back to full health by the time of the race.
2016, the final season of the ruleset, was a tough nut to crack both significantly better results in the ELMS than in the WEC, the Oreca’s and Ligier though had the benefit of numbers in depth and more opportunity to test, and influence Dunlop tyre development whilst the G-Drive Gibson hit a sweet spot in its final year, a top team, strong driver line-up and one of the best pre-Gibson era LMP2s combining to dominate the season.
Despite that Formula 2 regular Stefano Coletti and ex Champ Car driver Andreas Wirth finished third in the ELMS after a strong and consistent season with the full season duo scoring three podium finishes two of them alongside another ex F2 man, Julian Leal, and the last with ex-F1 driver Vitaly Petrov.
The WEC meanwhile saw just one standout result, but it was a memorable one – finished third in class and seventh overall at Le Mans with Petrov, Ladygin and Shaytar. In truth though, with the knowledge that the car would be obsolete at year’s end, the heart had gone out of proceedings, in particular when BR Engineering had confirmation that they would not be one of the four chassis constructors for 2017 – From there on in the rule makers, and not the marketplace, would determine who had the right to field a car.
A well-funded, well resourced and highly professionally operated effort then came to a hard stop at the end of 2016 with LMP1 the only available option going forward – The remarkably similarly monickered BR1 story though is for another day.
BUT – that was not the end of the story.
Many race cars, left behind in the wake of a rule change become ‘garage queens’ or sit gathering dust and waiting for either auction opportunity, and/ or fall victim to the every present possibility of a team simply needing to make a more economical use of available space.
In the case of the BR01 though that ‘dust sheet’ period was remarkably short as Masters Endurance Legends saw the opportunity of utilising cars that were accessible financially for purchase and running costs, and were a huge step forward in safety standards for their customers.
As Masters Historic and Peter Auto did the Historic Racing commercial two-step, investigating a new post-historic marketplace and looked for points of difference to ensure a stable and committed customer base for their own Series, the Masters product decided that they would target a later time-frame for prototypes, leaving the earlier cars to their friends. colleagues and market rivals in France.
The prospect of making that move had already attracted the attention of a number of interested parties, teams, car owners and car preparers.
In Daventry, UK, BBM Sport saw the opportunity immediately, and whilst others clamoured for the best available options in the marketplace from Oreca, Ligier, Zytek etc, BBM made a bold move, replicating the commercial effort they put in place to obtain for preparation and sale a large batch of ex-factory Peugeots 908s, they bid successfully for the BR01 project, the available cars for rebuild, with a view to putting at least some of the cars straight back on track.
All in all enough parts to rebuild five cars were obtained as part of the deal, and, after the rebuilds and significant preparation, under the gaze of Paulo Catone and with SMP Racing’s contemporary Race Engineering wizard Nick Wyilesu overseeing a programme to develop the rear suspension, the early cars to track proved to be a revelation.
With standard rubber and with a ruleset that was designed from the off to attract true gentleman drivers the BRs proved to tick plenty of boxes.
Relatively speaking they were not expensive for a car of their capabilities. Spares, via BBM Sport, were readily available, Judd had established a programme of Nissan engine rebuilds and, with the mileage in historic racing being tiny by comparison with contemporary ELMS/ WEC calendars, rebuild requirements were tiny by comparison with the Historic F1 and Group C equivalents.
Interest came immediately, as did the racing results – indeed the BR01s proved to be pacy enough in the hands of experienced historic racers to give some of the LMP1 cars a hard time in competition.
And the market elsewhere is responding, at least one Oreca 05 is set to join the Russian cars on track in 2022 with Ligier JS P2s also likely to see the light of day too.
But as one experienced racer told DSC earlier this year:
“We aren’t Pro drivers, and the BR01 was close enough in its day to be ultimately competitive in Pro hands – In our hands there is going to be nothing between this car and an Oreca.”
That’s a sensible point, which means the major point of difference between the BR01s and any emerging rivals is going to be the level of preparation of the cars, and the engineering input, as well of course as the driver!
Thus far the BR01s have shown excellent and sustained form, little wonder that of the 5 cars built up by BBM just one remains available for sale.
Bob Berridge, BBM Sport: “The cars arrived to us needing to be rebuilt but everything was in excellent shape. Since we have had them pon track there’s been nothing but praise from those that have worked on them and, in particular, those that have driven them.
“We did the deal thinking perhaps that this would be a slow burn, running a car or two and having enough on the shelf for a full replacement if anything untoward happened – But to my surprise the demand for the cars has been very strong. And I think that’s because potential customers have both seen, and heard from those that are driving them, how strong a package they are.”
There’s the irony – an outlier at their birth, and a catalyst for change in a popular class they may have been, but they did not have a reputation as a winning package in contemporary competition.
Now though, in a different racing world they have found their place, and they are cementing that with winning form almost every time they race!
The Russians aren’t coming – They’re already here!
With thanks to Gary Watkins
