ILMC: CRS Racing enters series

CRS RACING ENTERS INTERCONTINENTAL LE MANS CUP

CRS Racing will enter a Ferrari 430 into the new Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) in 2011. The car will be raced by Pierre Ehret, Shaun Lynn and Roger Wills in the GTE Am class.

The ILMC combines the best of the Le Mans Series, the American Le Mans Series and of course the Le Mans 24 Hours itself. This creates an exciting calendar of events that will take CRS Racing from Sebring in March, through Europe via Spa, Le Mans, Imola and Silverstone, before heading Stateside again for Petit Le Mans in October then the season finale in China in November.

Pierre Ehret is one of the best non-professional drivers in the business and with a Le Mans Series season already under his belt with CRS Racing, he is ready to take on the ILMC. He will miss a particular familiar face at CRS though, his race engineer, Craig Dawson, who very sadly passed away at Christmas.

"I am very excited to be driving in this newly created series which covers all of my favourite tracks and also to be back again with CRS," said Ehret. "I will certainly miss though the input I received last year from our engineer, Craig, as he helped my driving a lot."

Shaun Lynn has won many of the prestigious historic races, including the Le Mans Legends race, and now he will have his shot at the Le Mans 24 Hours itself.

"We're not underestimating the size of the challenge ahead of us," said Lynn. "But with CRS we feel confident that we can have a good year in the ILMC."

Roger Wills is also a talented historic racer with multiple wins including at the Le Mans Classic. In addition he secured a debut class win when he raced at the Spa 24 Hours in an Aston Martin GT4 in 2010.

"The ILMC is a huge challenge for a non-professional racing driver and it is not something we have taken on lightly," said Wills. "Both Shaun and I tested the Ferrari before Christmas and we are now looking forward to a great year of racing it at some of the top sportscar events in the world."

"The ILMC presents CRS with a great opportunity to go and do the biggest GT races in the world," commented CRS Team Principal, Andrew Kirkaldy. "It's a fantastic series for the drivers to participate in a championship that incorporates the big three of Sebring, Le Mans and Petit Le Mans. The GTE Am category is a great addition to the series and we think this will be hotly contested. Pierre has already been there and done these big events and knows exactly what to do. Both Shaun and Roger have got some impressive results not only in some quick historic cars but also in the modern racing that they have done; they also performed strongly in the tests in the GT2 Ferrari in December. Collectively they will be a very strong driving squad."

In addition to the ILMC, CRS Racing will launch a full assault on the Le Mans Series in 2011. Driver line-ups are currently being finalised for this five-event series.

-source: crs racing