It’s been quite a year for Inter Europol Competition, and with the Asian Le Mans Series still to come it isn’t over yet!
There’s already a title in the bag with the team’s collaboration with PR1 Mathiesen bagging the IMSA LMP2 title for Nick Boulle and Tom Dillman with a win (overall) at CTMP, two further podiums and a pair of crucial fourth place finishes sealing the crown with consistency and the Le Mans entry for Boulle.
Things were also looking good in the European Le Mans Series for the team in LMP2 with two quick cars keeping the ‘Racing Bakers’ in contention right to the end of the season.
And there was a podium too at Le Mans, second place to the victorious United Autosports #22 car after the Polish team took the win in 2023.
So time to look back, and to look forward, as DSC took time with Team Manager Sascha Fassbender:
How many of your guys were traveling for the IMSA programme this year?
“For 2024 it was the drivers, except Nick (Boulle), because he lives in the US, Kuba (Śmiechowski), myself and our Technical Director Andi (Kohler).”
But you’ve taken the decision for next year that there will be a car solely branded by you. Is that going to be a collaboration again, or a solely Inter Europol effort?
“It’s an Inter Europol team, the car is going to be based with a small logistics crew in the USA and we will travel with our full crew for each race. For LMP2 there are no clashes so we’ll have a crew drawn from our ELMS people doubling up in IMSA too.”
You were in the running in 2024 for two major titles, IMSA, pretty much without doubt, the second biggest Sports Car Racing Championship on the planet, after the WEC and it went down to the wire in the European Le Mans Series, the third biggest sportscar race series and the top two in LMP2.
“ The possibility only really occurred to us at the very end of the season and, you have just told me that it has never happened before, that would have been very cool.
“ We had two very strong cars this year in the ELMS. The #34 had some bad luck, but was always in the position to fight for the win as well. To come to Portimao with the #43 fighting for the championship, and of course, we are a team of ambition and that was always the plan.
“ In IMSA we went to win, but more than anything we went to learn. We had worked with PR1 before and the reason we partnered with them this season was that we were given a very early indication by John Doonan at IMSA that if we placed an entry he could not guarantee we would get on the grid for the season, they were oversubscribed.
“ I always say if you don’t get something that you want, try harder. So then I called Bobby Oergel and asked him how does it look, because we did a couple of races in 2020 with him.
“He said that at that point he had nothing signed. So I said, Okay, give me the price for the season. And we did a deal.
“It has been a good season, we learned a lot, the car finished seven of seven races and in good positions. There is plenty to build on, but while it sounds maybe odd to say this after taking the title, the most valuable thing was learning how the differences in IMSA work.
“We’ve chosen to go our own path in 2025 for one major reason – because we enjoy that better. We think that’s better for us.
“We have ben talking to IMSA through the season, making it clear what we wanted to do for 2025.”
Tell me about the experience of racing in the States. Everybody that goes there from Europe seems to absolutely love it?
“Yes, we have nice paddocks here (in the ELMS), but not very big crowds, the IMSA paddock is full of fans, and it’s nice when you come into the event.
“The whole family, a barbecue on the campsites – it’s a real event and fun to be part of, particularly with the open paddock, the team in the awning and not in a garage so the fans can pretty much see everything that’s going on, ask questions, or just come and say hi.
“ That all gives a very nice atmosphere for sponsors and clients, and for the crew.
“Learning to race there though is tough, and we made our mistakes early. The way we run the cars in Europe is always based on endurance, on double or triple stinting tires to performance to attack at the end of the race. But what we found, very quickly, it that in the US this is not needed.
“So we said, after, I don’t know, four o’clock in the morning at the Rolex 24, you go to single stinting tires, Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Attack the race, We set the car up like we do it in Le Mans to go on for laps and laps and laps. We finished fourth at Daytona and it could have been better – but we learned fast about the way to race in IMSA.”
So what is the plan for ELMS next year?
“We plan to come with two LMP2 cars.”
What about LMP3?
“We bought a new Ligier in March for the ELMS and we will update two existing cars for the Michelin Le Mans Cup.”
Okay, so how many LMP2 chassis does the team have now?
“We have three plus one, three plus a spare. One is the Le Mans winning car that’s on permanent display.”
And for Le Mans, you’ll be looking for two entries?
“ We hope so, with two strong ELMS cars and with the Championship in IMSA, plus support for the rest of the ACO ladder in Europe and Asia, we hope to persuade the ACO that two cars is possible.”
I know there’s been ambitions from the team to get to hypercar?
“If possible.”
We now know more about the options, the opportunities, but there’s another question that occurs here. We also know the other big unknown was budgets, and those budgets have gone up?
“So of course it is our intention to participate in Hypercar or GTP, and I think we have proven over the years that we should be capable to do it. If you see the other contenders that stepped up from WEC LMP2 to hypercar its a clearly achievable ambition.
We have the structure to run it. We have the tools to run it. But unfortunately, so far we didn’t get the opportunity, though we have come very close.
“What we will say now though is that we will not pay to run Hypercar or GTP by ourselves. We need to have a manufacturer that supports the programme whether that’s a new programme, or a factory looking to change the team running their cars in the future.
“We plan to continue to show what we have to offer on track and off track, as I said before we have come close to a programme before, I believe we can get there.”
