Three with a joker and one empty-handed

The LMP2 class received a new regulation set for the current season which spiced up things in terms of performance, but the four approved models aren’t exactly enjoying the improvements as Oreca had a good start and the other have their fixes to do, which triggered the proposal of a “joker” rule in order to iron these flaws and close the competition. But not only Oreca was left out of the joker, but they didn’t like the method employed to evaluate the rule.

The whole things is about the aero updates that were approved by the ACO to the Dallara P217, Ligier JS P217 and to the Riley Mk. 30 in order to close the competition in the LMP2 class in the sprint aero packages of the models. The Dallara is reported to have a flaw that, although offering the best top speed, the cornering doesn’t match its opponents, and since the change would involve an already homologated part, it would require an exemption to be modified. Being the car that is in the back of the LMP2 pack, the Riley Mk. 30 will be the only where a complete overhaul and homologation will be offered.

While these news are a bless for the three constructors and to their customer teams as the updates will be free of charge, the fourth constructor wasn’t even a tiny bit happy with the way things were decided. ORECA has the best overall package in the 07 model, which is part of why most of the teams went with them as well as Acura as a base model for their DPi machine, so they were left out of the joker rule by being the parameter of the class.

Once the announcement of the ACO came last week, the response from Oreca, more specifically from the head of it, Hughes du Chaunac, was almost immediate, with the first concern being that only the European races were used as a base for the analysis, since things in IMSA were a bit more even with Oreca team JDC/Miller having the company of Ligier customer VisitFlorida Racing as potential winners, of course taking out the DPis out of the equation.

ACO’s Vincent Beaumesnil explained their side of the situation, as once certain targets are decided and communicated, they will decide what will be done in each car, and that the updates should be brought until the end of 2017 as they should have everything ready for the Roar and the ROLEX 24 at Daytonam since the changes that will affect the LMP2s will also hit their DPi counterparts.

PHOTO: European Le Mans Series