The 2023 season saw seven teams compete for the LMP2 honours for all pro driver line ups, with Algarve Pro Racing coming out as champions ahead of United Autosports USA, with both teams receiving automatic invitations to the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Kyffin Simpson from Barbados, Australian James Allen and British driver Alex Lynn scored a total of 113 points during the six races, with two wins in Le Castellet and Spa-Francorchamps, three further podiums and two pole positions.
The first weekend of the 2023 European Le Mans Series was held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with Alex Lynn putting the no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca-Gibson on the front row of the grid alongside the pole sitting no47 COOL Racing Oreca of Vladislav Lomko. Lynn missed out on the single championship point for pole by just 39 thousandths of a second.
A Safety Car period after the opening lap due to an accident at the rear of the field slowed everything down and it wasn’t until 20 minutes into the race that the cars got back up to racing speed.
The second placed no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Kyffin Simpson was pushing Vladislav Lomko’s lead no47 COOL Racing Oreca hard and it wasn’t long before Simpson went into the lead and started to open up a gap to the following pack.
At the halfway point of the race, James Allen was now at the wheel of the Algarve Pro Racing Oreca, with the Australian being tapped into a spin by the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca of Laurents Hörr as the German tried to unlap himself on the lead car. Allen’s Oreca slid off the track, the rear wheels ending up in the gravel and Allen was unable to get back on track unaided.
A Full Course Yellow was declared, and this delay dropped Algarve Pro Racing down to 12th place, one lap behind the leaders, with Hörr later given a drive through penalty for causing the collision.
This put Algarve Pro Racing out of the running for a podium finish and, despite a spirited drive, Alex Lynn took the chequered flag in 8th overall and 5th in LMP2.
After the disappointment of Barcelona, the no25 Algarve Pro Racing crew got their championship back on track with a hard-fought win at the 4 Hours of Le Castellet.
Alex Lynn took part in qualifying for the second time but a shortened 10-minute session due to an early red flag, saw the British driver qualify in 5th place for the French round of the ELMS, 0.5 seconds behind the pole sitting no47 COOL Racing Oreca of Jose Maria Lopez.
On the opening lap of the race the no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Kyffin Simpson moved up to 4th, getting ahead of the no43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Rui Andrade and closing up to challenge and pass Manuel Maldonardo in the no65 Panis Racing for third on the second lap. He then caught and passed Paul Lafargue in the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca on the next lap to move up a further place and then set off after the leading no47 COOL Racing.
It wasn’t long before the Algarve Pro Racing Oreca was leading the race, with Alex Lynn five seconds ahead of the no47 COOL Racing Oreca of Reshad De Gerus and the no30 Duqueine Team Oreca of Rene Binder. However, the no34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca was moving up the order and the LMP2 Pro/Am leader took the overall lead with Louis Deletraz at the wheel.
As the race entered the final stages Deletraz was struggling with worn tyres with James Allen closing the gap rapidly.
With 8 minutes left on the clock the two cars were side by side into the final corner.They then headed down the start -finish straight still side by side, with Allen taking the lead on the exit of Turn 1 in a great display of race craft by both drivers.
The chequered flag was shown with the no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca finishing 1.078s ahead of the no30 Duqueine Team Oreca, with the no34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca finishing third overall 5.6 seconds behind the lead car and at the head of the LMP2 Pro/Am class.
Algarve Pro Racing had moved up to second in the championship standings on 35 points, seven behind Duqueine Team on 43 points.
The first ever visit to Motorland Aragon for the ELMS and the only night race on the calendar was widely anticipated by the whole grid.
During qualifying the LMP2 session was red flagged before any of the eight cars had set a time after the no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of James Allen stopped on track.This reduced the session time to 11 minutes for the rest of the field and meant that the no25 Oreca would start the 4 Hours of Aragon at the very back of the 42-car field for causing the red flag.
In the first 30-minutes of the race on Saturday evening, James Allen was making rapid progress through the field and was up to 7th overall. This progress continued with both Kyffin Simpson and Alex Lynn at the wheel, with Lynn during the final part of the race was in a four-way fight for an overall podium.
At the end of the four hours the no22 United Autosports USA Oreca took the chequered flag 14.9 seconds ahead of the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca, with Algarve Pro Racing taking the final podium position, an impressive 36 places higher than where the car had started the race.
Even though they finished 6thin Aragon, the Duqueine Team left Spain still at the head of the championship standings on 51 points, with Algarve Pro Racing heading to Spa-Francorchamps just one point behind on 50 points.
Qualifying for the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps was the complete opposite from Aragon for Algarve Pro Racing, with Alex Lynn claiming pole position for the first time in 2023 for the Portuguese team.
The no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca-Gibson went on to score the second win of the 2023 season with Kyffin Simpson, James Allen and Alex Lynn standing on the top step of the Spa-Francorchamps podium at the end of a race that saw five Safety Cars and three Full Course Yellows.
After a Safety Car period after an accident at La Source, Kyffin Simpson started to pull away from the chasing pack, opening up a ten second lead over the no43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Rui Andrade in second, with the no47 COOL Racing Oreca of Vladislav Lomko in third.
With many interruptions during the 4 Hour race, the lead changed hands several times, with Alex Lynn taking over the final part of the race, the British driver regaining the lead just before a final Full Course Yellow. Alex Lynn took the chequered flag 1.8 seconds ahead of the leading LMP2 Pro/Am entry, the no37 COOL Racing Oreca of Malthe Jakobsen but over 30 seconds ahead of the nearest LMP2 contender, the no65 Panis Racing Oreca.
The maximum 26 points scored in Belgium propelled Algarve Pro Racing into the championship lead for the first time, heading to Portugal for the final two races with a 17-point advantage over the Duqueine Team.
James Allen scored Algarve Pro Racing’s second pole position of the season in the team’s home race, the 4 Hours of Algarve. With six minutes left on the clock of the 15-minute session, the no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca went to the top of the timing screens, with the Australian improving on every lap until the chequered flag, with a final lap of 1m48.674, eight tenths ahead of the rest of the field.
The race started under blue skies and a dry track, with a strong wind blowing. The race began with Kyffin Simpson leading from the front in the no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca, with Paul Lafargue moving up to second in the IDEC Sport car and Phil Hanson up to third by the end of the opening lap in the no22 United Autosports USA Oreca-Gibson.
Rain started to fall 20 minutes into the race and the Safety Car was deployed as cars slid off the track. At the restart Kyffin Simpson was still ahead of Phil Hanson, with Rene Binder in the no30 Duqueine Team Oreca challenging Hanson for second place. The rain had ceased but the track was still wet with a lot of spray kicked up by the cars.
James Allen had taken over the leading no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca and the Australian built up a 30 second lead over Marino Sato in the United Autosports USA Oreca and Tijmen Van Der Helm in the no65 Panis Racing entry.
The no25 Oreca continued to hold the lead after of Alex Lynn had taken over, with the British driver ahead of Neel Jani in the no30 Duqueine Team Oreca. Jani was tapped into a spin by the no55 Ferrari, and this moved Oliver Jarvis in the no22 United Autosports USA Oreca up to second place.Lynn was being caught by Jarvis, with the Algarve Pro Racing and United Autosports USA Orecas going side by side as they negotiated traffic. After several laps of door-to-door action Jarvis took the lead.
At the chequered flag it was the no22 United Autosports USA Oreca that crossed the line first, Jarvis finishing 0.8 seconds ahead of Alex Lynn.
The result moved United Autosports USA up to second place on 75 points, with Algarve Pro Racing 20 points ahead with one race, the 4 Hours of Portimao, remaining.Algarve Pro Racing did secure the 2023 ELMS Overall Team Championship and the team were looking to add the LMP2 Team and Driver Trophies in the final race of the season.
James Allen took part in qualifying for the final race, the Australian putting the no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca on row 2 of the grid.
Torrential rain forced the race start to be delayed by 90-minutes before the decision was made to start the race behind the safety car. However, after two laps the race was red flagged, and the cars lined up on the grid for 45-minutes as the heavy rain abated.
The race went green with the no22 United Autosports USA Oreca of Phil Hanson taking the lead at Turn 3, moving ahead of Paul Lafargue in the pole sitting IDEC Sport Oreca. Lafargue dropped back as he was passed by the no65 Panis Racing and the no25 Algarve Pro Racing of Kyffin Simpson.
Rene Binder in the no30 Duqueine Team was also moving up, passing Simpson for third on lap 8 and then went second two laps later passing Panis Racing Oreca.
After several interruptions from Safety Car and Full Course Yellow periods, Alex Lynn was still challenging for a podium finish. With 30 minutes remaining, the Panis Racing Oreca of Job van Uitert spun after contact with Neel Jani’s Duqueine Team Oreca, while the second placed IDEC Sport Oreca went off into the gravel in a separate incident as well, bring out a Full Course Yellow.
The restart saw Jarvis leading Jani by just 2.3 seconds with Alex Lynn in the no25 APR Oreca in third 1 second behind Jani. Jani was then given a drive through penalty for causing Van Uitert’s earlier spin, dropping the no30 car back to 6thand promoting Lynn into second spot.
A final FCY saw a final 90 second sprint to the chequered flag. There was contact between the no65 Panis Racing and the no25 Algarve Pro Racing as Job Van Uitert attempted to take the second-place finish from Alex Lynn. Lynn continued in second until the chequered flag, with Van Uitert reaching the finish in third.
The result gave Algarve Pro Racing 113 points, 13 ahead of United Autosports USA, with both teams claiming an automatic entry to the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans. Kyffin Simpson, James Allen and Alex Lynn were crowned 2024 LMP2 Drivers’ Champions.
CLICK HERE for the final championship positions for the 2023 European Le Mans Series.
