The FIA Endurance Trophies for LMP2 proved to be the most hotly contested awards of the 2013 season, with four different teams climbing onto the top step of the podium. This meant the names of the winners would only being known as the chequered flag dropped for the final time in Bahrain.
In the end it was the Le Mans winning trio of Bertrand Baguette, Ricardo Gonzalez and Martin Plowman that finished at the top of the classifications in the nr35 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan, edging out their OAK Racing teammates Alex Brundle, David Heinmeier Hansson and Olivier Pla in the nr24 Morgan-Nissan.
Baguette, Gonzalez and Plowman scored five podium finishes in 2013, including victory at Le Mans and the winner’s trophy in Japan. After consistently scoring all season it was a fourth place finish in Bahrain that was enough to secure the Driver’s crown by just nine points. The nr24 car failed to record a win in 2013 but scored five second place finishes from eight starts, including a second at Le Mans to record an impressive 1-2 for the French team at the biggest event of the season.
OAK Racing also entered a third car with team owner Jacques Nicolet providing the mainstay for this entry. The French driver was joined by the only female driver on the grid, Keiko Ihara from Japan, for the second half of the season and David Cheng for the last two races of 2013.
The nr26 G-Drive Racing Oreca Nissan of Mike Conway, John Martin and Roman Rusinov was the 'winningest' car on the grid, taking four wins in Brazil, USA, China and in Bahrain. However a technical infringement at Le Mans denied the team of valuable points that proved to be decisive at the end of the season.
The nr49 Pecom Racing Oreca Nissan of Luis Perez Companc, Pierre Kaffer and Nicolas Minassian was also victorious in 2013, taking a single win at Spa-Francorchamps in May. Three further podium finishes in the first five races put them on course to challenge for the title but a combination of bad luck and technical problems saw them only score 12 points in the last three races despite Minassian claiming pole position in Bahrain.
In fifth overall was the nr41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Nissan, the team celebrating a good end to a difficult season with a podium finish for Jon Lancaster, Bjorn Wirdheim and Wolfgang Reip.
The other car to record a class victory in 2013 was the nr25 Delta-ADR Oreca-Nissan with Tor Graves, Antonio Pizzonia and James Walker securing pole position and victory at the season opener on home soil at Silverstone. However this was the high point of a season that saw three non finshes in the next three races. However the British team bounced back to record two fourth places at the Circuit of the Americas and in China.
The pair of Lotus-Praga T128s had high hopes at the start of the season as the FIA WEC welcomed these two brand new cars. A difficult development year, that saw a combination of technical issues and bad luck, faced the Czech team. However there were some high notes with the nr32 Lotus of Jan Charouz, Thomas Holzer and Dominik Kraihamer scoring a podium finish at the American round of the Championship. The nr28 Gulf Racing Middle East Lola-Nissan entered for two races but technical issues meant the car was withdrawn after Le Mans.
The teams and drivers are now looking forward to the third season of the FIA World Endurance Championship and it is expected that once again the LMP2 class will provide the spectators at the circuit and at home watching on television with some of the most exciting action that is the trademark of Endurance Racing. See you all again in 2014.
Jeff Carter
