ELMS 2012 Cancelled

[Dino Scuderia]

One positive take away form this is the travel assistance to get some of the teams over for the PLM. Kudos to them for moving quickly with that decision.

In the second bombshell to be dropped from a sports car racing series organizer this week, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and Peter Auto announced Friday that it has canceled the two remaining European rounds scheduled for this season.

Following continued struggles of reaching an acceptable grid size, the ELMS has pulled the plug on the races at Brno (Sept. 7-9) and Algarve (Nov. 2-4) and has instead reached an agreement with the American Le Mans Series to invite its full-season competitors to the Petit Le Mans in October.

It's believed up to 14 ELMS teams, that were registered for the full-season, will receive transportation assistance for the 1,000-mile/10-hour enduro at Road Atlanta, where they’ll join an expected field of up to 40 ALMS cars taking part in its season finale.

The latest development comes as a major boost to the race, which was not picked up as a round of the FIA World Endurance Championship for 2012 after a two-year stint as a joint Intercontinental Le Mans Cup/ALMS race.

The Petit Le Mans is expected to serve as a double points-scoring round for the ELMS, which will still award auto-invites to the 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours for its class champions in LMP2, GTE-Pro and GTE-Am.

Like the FIA GT1 World and GT3 European Championships, which were axed by the SRO this week, the ELMS has also struggled with car count issues, notably this season, which saw 21 cars, across four categories, take part in the season-opener at Paul Ricard in April.

While the second round of the season at Zolder was canceled due to grid concerns, a series-low field of 13 cars competed in last weekend’s Six Hours of Donington. It prompted a series of internal meetings between the ACO, series promoter Peter Auto and eventually the ALMS late this week, to come up with a short-term solution.

The most recent ELMS outing saw nine LMP2 cars joined by two GTE-Am machines along with single LMPC and GTE-Pro entries. The influx of prototype machinery would come as a positive development to the ALMS, which currently features three full-season P1 cars and four P2 entries.

"This situation is the result of the current economic climate and a very competitive GT market with numerous championships that have led to the dispersal of cars of this type in Europe," a statement from the ACO read.

"The organizers of the European Le Mans Series are working flat out on the future of the series, which is one of the essential competitions for training teams and drivers for the top level of endurance racing, the FIA World Endurance Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hours. This work will result in a proposal for the coming seasons and will be announced in September."