24h Le Mans
Local team SO24! by Lombard Racing can count on the support of accomplished sportsman Erik Maris who will be keen to help his teammates to a class win.
SO 24! BY LOMBARD RACING (FRA)
Base: Le Mans
www.so24.fr
2016 ELMS results:
4 Hours of Silverstone: 3rd Capillaire/Lombard/Coleman (FRA/FRA/GBR) Ligier JS P2 - Judd #22
Imola 4 Hours: 11th Capillaire/Lombard/Coleman (FRA/FRA/GBR) Ligier JS P2 - Judd #22
Motorsports fans Jean Lombard and Dominique Payen joined efforts in November 2015 to form SO24! by Lombard Racing, making it one of the newest outfits on the grid. Lombard is a driver trainer and manager while Payen is associate chairman of asset management company Opti-Finance and co-founder of SO24! The association, the name of which stands for Sarthe Objectif, was set up in 2011 to help local drivers take part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Every year, the group signs a partnership with a team that signs a driver from La Sarthe. Last year, local man Vincent Capillaire drove in the World Endurance Championship with Signatech Alpine in LM P2.
The newly formed outfit originally intended to field a Judd-powered Ligier JS P2 and a Ligier JS P3 in the European Le Mans Series. In the end though, only the P2 will do the full season this year, including Le Mans 24 Hours.
Unsurprisingly, the driver line-up includes Capillaire, ACO Le Mans Driver instructor who drove for Sébastien Loeb Racing in 2014 and Signatech Alpine in 2015 and accomplished sailor and endurance driver Erik Maris. The Frenchmen have a British teammate: Jonathan Coleman. This will be Coleman’s first Le Mans 24 Hours. However, he has spent the last two seasons driving the Morgan for Pegasus Racing in the ELMS and therefore knows most of the the circuits in the championship.
The inexperienced team’s prudence proved profitable at the first round of the ELMS at Silverstone and earned them third place. At Imola however their chances were dashed from the start when Capillaire was handed a drive-through for not keeping his distance in the warm-up lap. In the hotly-contested LM P2 class, the penalty was crippling and the Ligier JS P2 crossed the finish line in 11th place. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the young crew will have their work cut out against the seasoned WEC drivers but will clock up useful experience
