Amongst the torrent of good news in the FIA WEC Hypercar class there are a couple of departures to mark at the end of 2023. Whilst the short-lived ByKolles-run Vanwall effort stuttered through a single season that was defined by a lack of reliability, a couple of sizeable shunts and some off-track controversy, the three-year history of Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus in the FIA WEC will be much, much more fondly remembered.
James and Jesse Glickenhaus arrived with lofty ambitions, and a distinctly anti-corporate outlook with a self-conceived, designed and built concept that will be remembered as a foundation stone for the Hypercar era, with a record for the team at Le Mans in particular that stands proudly as one of the most astonishing achievements in the race in the 21st century.
The team’s Podium Engineering-built, Joest Racing prepped SCG 007 cars finally fell victim to the utterly predictable cycle of manufacturer-driven development at a pace that Glickenhaus couldn’t match.
The Pipo Moteurs-powered cars featured in only 12 races over the three years, but the effort provided a much-needed fillip for the Hypercar class as it staggered into and through the COVID pandemic.
Whilst the WEC adventure never produced a race win, the SCG 007 did take pole positions at both Spa and Monza in 2022 after topping the times at the Le Mans Test Day in 2021. The team also scored a WEC podium at Sebring in 2022.
The team’s racing cv though included a trio of two-car efforts at Le Mans and that’s where the truly impressive part of the story emerged.
Six starts, and six finishes, including a podium finish in 2022, from a privately funded programme is a truly historic set of results.
More impressive still is the fact that despite the massive increase in the field size in Hypercar this year the team will still complete its Le Mans history having had no car finish lower than seventh overall. It’s a record that ranks with some of the very best.
It’s a record that Jim Glickenhaus is rightly proud of:
“This year we beat Peugeot and we beat Porsche and that’s yet another chapter in an adventure that we can cherish.
“We’ll wave farewell with some regrets that the ruleset effectively rendered us uncompetitive, but will wish everyone well for an exciting era in a sport that all at Glickenhaus are totally passionate about.”
