1.10.09 "All's well that ends well" for Wolfgang Kaufmann

Two weekends in September concluded the inaugural season of the Formula Le Mans Series. This championship under the auspicies of the Le Mans 24 Hours organisers is run with sportscars based on LMP2 prototypes, and it offered some very strong driver pairings – even if this had not initially been intended by the regulations.

PODIUM

Formula Le Mans Courage ORECA LMP

Formula Le Mans Courage ORECA LMP

So the Pro-Am combination of Wolfgang Kaufmann und Luca Moro found itself for the most part locked out of podium places: "We could have been in the podium spots more often but Luca is a genuine privateer who had to compete with drivers fresh out of one of the single seater series."

The penultimate meeting of the year took place in support of the last 2009 Le Mans Series round, the 1000k race at Silverstone. Both races at the Home of British Motorsport got underway on Saturday, and the team noted a result of 6th and 7th place respectively. They had a starting position on row 2 for the second race; however, they had to concede this place in the race following a few spins by Moro as he fended off the "single seater aces".

Things went rather better for the German-Italian crew of French team DAMS at the season-ending event at Magny Cours. Initially announced as a 3hr race, the organisers changed it to three 1hr races, the reason being that not all teams had the necessary refuelling equipment on hand. Only the third race was to be a points scoring event. Qualifying was for the grid of race 1 while the results of the races then formed the grid for race 2, and then the third and final race on Sunday: "Compared to the initially announced 3hr endurance race, this format does seem a little strange", Kaufmann commented.

Sunday's deciding race finally brought the team its much-desired podium finish. For this race, the pit stop time window was lifted. Following a strong performance at the start, Moro handed the Formula Le Mans prototype to Wolfgang Kaufmann during a Safety Car phase. The man from Molsberg then fought his way up the order to finish in a strong third position: "In the end, it was a fine conclusion to a rather chequered season. Luca has managed to get his head round the prototype in his first season, and after some small mistakes, he did a really good job.

Still, the organisers should consider tweaking the rules a little if they want to have any genuine Gentleman drivers in this series in the future."