Nic Minassian and Creation Autosportif prepare for Le Mans
By Kate Shaw
Photos © www.nicolasminassian.com
TORONTO, Canada (May 24, 2005) – The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the premiere automobile race in the world, and for the fifty teams invited to the show, preparation can’t begin too soon. For Creation Autosportif, heading for their maiden voyage to the big race in 2005 (although Minassian and third driver Andy Wallace, have been to the show many times with other teams), preparation for Le Mans began as soon as their Judd-powered car headed out on track to prepare for the Le Mans Endurance Series season. “All we do is endurance racing,” Nic explained, ”so the principle is to make the car last as long as possible: not less than 26 hours for the Le Mans 24hrs and 8 hours for the LMES series.” As many of the entrants come from the American Le Mans series in North America, where the cars alternate endurance racing with ‘sprint’ races of 2 hours 45 minutes, a focus on endurance racing for the whole season is, they hope, a step ahead of the pack. But how is Le Mans different from every other race that the DBA machine runs?

“Preparing for Le Mans is a little bit more complicated than for the LMES,” he said, “because the long straight makes it harder work for the Judd engine. For a whole lap at Le Mans, we are about 70% of the time on full throttle, and this can be very demanding. The preparation is massive for this event and nearly all the mechanical parts in the car are new for the race.”

With a busy racing season to contend with in addition, how much testing time does the team have to introduce all the new bits to each other? Plenty, as it happens!

“We tested at Paul Ricard at the end of March and again at the official 24 hour test ten days later, in preparation for both the first race of the season at Spa and of course for Le Mans. We experienced lots of little problems with the car, which were solved quickly by the team, but we struggled with handling and adapting the new Michelin tyres to the chassis and aero package. At Spa the team corrected this too and we qualified on the front row,” Minassian concluded proudly. The car was in strong contention during hurricane-like conditions at the opening race, and only a driveshaft failure kept them from beginning the season with a podium finish. Plainly the car has made giant strides even from the version that wowed North America at the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, Georgia and the final race of the ALMS season in Laguna Seca, California in 2004. Le Bleu even caused the powerful Champion Audi team to discover new heights as it kept up the pace into the rainy evening hours.

So just how much work remains to be done? While testing is never really completed, Minassian is confident that the team is getting ever closer to the elusive goal of perfection that will, they hope, carry them to the podium at La Sarthe.

“The last test we did at Magny Cours went really well,” said Minassian. “We fine tuned the car and made lots of changes to help us understand the car as much as possible: springs, diff, dampers, ride height, tyres, aero dynamics, the position of the lights for night driving, all the little adjustments you can make because when race day comes it is too late. By the end of the test we were really competitive both on qualifying and race simulation, and all through the days we went in the right direction and improved.”

Minassian and regular co-driver Jamie Campbell-Walter have had not only plenty of testing time, but battle-tested time on the track, in weather much worse than anything they are likely to meet at Le Mans, 2001 notwithstanding. Third driver Andy Wallace, a regular with the Dyson Racing team in the ALMS, will be joining the team at Le Mans, and they hope to get him ‘across the pond’ soon to introduce him to the car before the big show. Wallace is a seasoned professional and will add a solid veteran presence to the organization as he has most recently with the Bentley Boys on the podium in Bentley’s first time of asking! Nicolas Minassian is confident that among the three and with the solid backing of the team at DBA Creation Autosportif, anything is possible to the team.

“I feel we are ready for the challenge,” he said confidently. “Creation is doing a great job! It is difficult to give a prediction but a podium will be nice and who knows, a win -- even better!!”

Look for Le Bleu at the head of the parade, coming to an LMES or ALMS race near you one day soon. And check back here for more on how the DBA Creation Autosportif team get ready and how they run at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.