The 2011 Le Mans Series roared into action at Paul Ricard in France yesterday. CRS drivers Adam Christodoulou, Klaas Hummel and Phil Quaife finished in fourth place after leading the GTE-Am class for the majority of the six-hour race.

The beginning of the race was lively, with the entire pack thrown into confusion during the rolling start. As the cars came around for the start, the safety car stayed out on track but despite this, the lights went green. The net result of this was that all the LMP cars at the front stayed at low speed, as they could see the safety car, but the GT cars behind could only see the change of lights, and put pedal to the metal thinking the race was on.

Adam Christodoulou, starting from fifth place in the GTE-Am Class for CRS, avoided the crashing cars and made fast progress through the pack.

“The start really was chaos,” said Christodoulou. “I had to go straight through the middle and do some serious debris dodging! Once the race got going I found I had little grip but as the fuel burnt away it all got better and I found myself in third place, battling for second. I got up into P2, but then when I came in for my stop, the guys really nailed it and we double-stinted the tyres so that took me into the lead. The engineers gave us a great strategy today. It’s a shame we had the starter problems but it’s good to get the first race done so we know where we stand on pace so I’m now looking forward to Spa.”

The starter problem occurred at the end of Phil Quaife’s first stint. Like Christodoulou, Quaife had a great run and built upon the lead, but when he tried to leave the pits after his first stop the starter motor failed. The team fixed it, but the problem reoccured at the next stop, and lost the team precious time.

“When I got in the car I pushed as hard as I could to lengthen the lead so we had a comfortable gap to hand over to Klaas,” said Quaife. “We struggled a bit with our entry speed into the corners but overall the car was good so hats off to the guys who have all worked hard this weekend to give us a car we can race with.”

Klaas Hummel was the last man in the No.82 Ferrari and as a non-professional driver, this was the highest level he has competed at.

“That was a fantastic race; I really enjoyed it a lot,” said Hummel. “I am on a learning curve and I learned more than ever today about lines and corners so it feels good to make progress. I was in the car for over an hour and a half, which is the longest run I have ever done in a race. The car felt good; it was very well balanced and good to drive, so it was a real shame that we lost time with the starter problem and an off that I had during my run. I think we could have gained a place without all that.”

The South of France plays host to the first race of the 2011 Le Mans Series this weekend, and it marks Adam Christodoulou’s return to the European race scene.

The 21 year-old is no stranger to sportscar racing after a season in Grand Am and some guest appearances in the GT Open last year. This year he will be competing in the five 1000km races with CRS Racing; the team with whom he won the 2008 British Formula Renault title.

Joining him in the CRS hot seat are two other experienced drivers. Klaas Hummel has been with CRS since 2009 and has completed seasons in FIA GT3 and International GT Open in the team’s Ferrari 430. Phil Quaife also competed for CRS in FIA GT3 in 2009 and last year stepped up to the Le Mans Series, so of the three team mates, he has the most experience of what lies ahead.

Christodoulou is looking forward to getting the season started and is aiming for the podium: “It’s going to be interesting to see how we compare to the others in our class. The test all looked promising for us but you can never tell until you go into a race situation. I’m hoping we will have some consistent weather conditions so we can really work to get the maximum out of the car. It will be good to get the season started and I hope we can go out there and bag our first podium.”

Quaife is very optimistic about the weekend ahead at Ricard, as he explains: “The car was good at the test and we had good pace on old rubber. Our new tyre run was spoiled by rain so we don’t know exactly where we, are but I feel confident that we’ll be up there. The team’s good and the car’s good so I have every reason to be optimistic. It will be good to race with my new team-mates. I spoke to Klaas the other day and he’s fully up for it. I hope it stays dry so we can finish off the set up work we started at the test and I hope we will be up on the podium steps by the end of Sunday.”

“I don’t see any reason why we can’t get some good results in the new LM GTE-Am class,” commented CRS Team Principal, Andrew Kirkaldy. “Klaas has come a very long way since 2009. He has learned a lot from his team-mates and I think this will be his best season yet. Phil did a great job in the Le Mans Series last year and really developed as a sportscar driver. Adam is a natural racer with a few championships under his belt and I have every confidence that he will have a great season.”

The full race will be shown live on Motors TV on Sunday, with coverage starting at 1045hrs in the UK. If you would like to check out the qualifying times on Saturday lunchtime, live timing is available at www.lemans.series.com.

After a two year spell racing in the USA, British driver Adam Christodoulou returns to the UK to compete in the 2011 Le Mans Series. This time he will find himself behind the wheel of a Ferrari 430, and rejoining his former team CRS Racing, with whom he won the Formula Renault UK Championship in 2008.

The No. 82 CRS Ferrari 430 will compete in the LM GTE Am class, and Christodoulou will be partnered by Klaas Hummel and Phil Quaife. The all-new LM GTE Am class provides a great opportunity for his team to enter into what is arguably the best sportscar series in the world.

Adam Christodoulou won the Formula Renault UK Championship with CRS in 2008 and returned to the team briefly in 2010 to compete in two GT Open events. After getting a taster for the Ferrari 430 last year he is eager to get stuck in again when the season kicks off at Paul Ricard.

“This is a great opportunity for me,” said Christodoulou. “I’m with a team that I know well, driving a car that they know well. I think we have a strong line-up and every chance of taking some good results this year, especially as anything can happen in those long races. To be racing in the Le Mans Series will be a great challenge too, competing against some of the world’s top drivers. I’m looking forward to getting back in the car next month to start testing.”

Team mate Klaas Hummel is a non-professional racer who has worked his way up through the SLR Trophy, FIA GT3 and most recently the International GT Open. He is more than ready for the challenges of the Le Mans Series and he has two good team mates to back him up.

Alongside Christodoulou and Hummel, Phil Quaife completes the lineup. He has already done a season in the Le Mans Series with CRS Racing, and the young Briton made rapid progress last year, ready for a full on assault in 2011.

“We’re very pleased to be in a position to continue racing in the Le Mans Series,” said CRS Managing Director, Mark Busfield. “We enjoyed our LMS racing last year so it’s great to be able to run a car to complement our programme in the new Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. We’re all very happy that Klaas Hummel and Phil Quaife are embarking on their third seasons with CRS, while Adam Christodoulou has won a championship with us, been away and then come back for more!”

What an experience. The Daytona 24 hours was unlike anything I’ve ever imagined or done before. A real proving ground that requires true grit from the drivers, team and car.

Even before I got into the car, I was very well placed. Being part of the SpeedSource team was my first advantage; these guys have form, having won the GT class two out of three times in the past three years, and I was hoping to help chalk up yet another victory over the weekend. Secondly, I was privileged to be partnered by a group of exceptional drivers for this feat of endurance; Number 70’s line-up was completed by Sylvain Tremblay, John Edwards and Jonathan Bomarito.

I arrived trackside on Thursday to prepare for testing, and it all went off smoothly, however it quickly became apparent that the Porsches and Chevvies had a straight line speed over the Mazdas, and we knew that at Daytona that was going to make it tough for us. On the corners the Mazda was unstoppable, but in a straights we just couldn’t compete.

Qualifying followed on Thursday afternoon, and Sylvain was our nominated driver. It was pretty close between the Mazdas, but as a whole we were still off the pace compared to the other manufacturers. We qualified 16th out of 35 in class, 31st out of 50 cars overall; it certainly wasn’t as good as we had been hoping for.

Friday gave us the quiet before the storm, and I was out of the car, but Saturday moved at a completely different pace as we geared up for the off. In the morning we had our driver and team photographs followed by a team meeting. We discussed various scenarios, tactics and our plans for safety car periods and pits stops.

At midday there was autograph signing and the fan walkabout. The cars were already in pit lane, but with a huge swell of fans it was pretty much impossible to see any of our competitors even from our pit stand. It was a pretty awesome sight.

At 3.30pm Eastern time the race started. The roar of the engines as the lights went green made the ground shake, and the following first hour went smoothly. I headed off to rest as my first go in the car would only be once darkness had set in, and I needed to be as fresh as possible for the off.

In the third hour of the race I was back in pit lane and John was in the car. We were in P15 and had had to take an unexpected pit stop due to a high speed puncture in the second hour. This had caused some unwanted damage to the rear of the car, but despite this we were still going well and making a comeback. Within 30 minutes we had moved into 9th position. I jumped in and took us through the next two hours or so, and my enduring memory is that there were plenty of wild drivers taking some unnecessary risks considering we still had 18 hours of the race remaining.

My next stint was roughly at 2am and towards the half way point of the race. On my way to the pits I was taken to the garage and my heart sunk when I saw the car in bits being stripped and repaired. Apparently we had been making huge progress within the top 10 before suffering an alternator failure, and as a consequence had lost our in-car radio link, lights and power steering. It forces us to pit.

Twenty five minutes later the car was back on the track. The SpeedSource crew had reacted quickly and repaired what they could. We had moved down to 20th and now were around 15 laps down. Our chances of winning had been blown to pieces, but we weren’t going to give up the fight that easily; in the remaining 12 hours anything could happen…

I was in the car after John again. We kept our driver sequence, starting with Sylvain, Jonathan, John then myself. I was in the car for another good 2 hours, but by now it had seen better days.

Not long after I finished my run, around 4am, the fog settled around Daytona. There was a three hour caution period where pit stops were allowed but no overtaking was permitted. It was the slowest part of the race, and we were all relieved when the safety car finally went back into the pit lane; we made our way back into the top 10.

By the time it had reached the 18 hour mark, we were as far up as 8th position. At 21 hours we gained 7th, and by the penultimate 23rd hour, I got out the car and handed over to Sylvain in 6th place. It had been a good recovery, and despite a bit of a battering, the car was still holding together with a few extra pieces of tape and straps wrapped around it.

With 7 minutes before the end of the 24 there was a final and sudden safety car due to debris on the track. It arrived just in time for the last lap, and every car was doing whatever it could to make up any last minute time and position before the finish line, but for us, there was just too much of a gap to the car in front to make a difference.

We crossed over the line in 6th position, completing 670 laps (2,385 miles) averaging a speed of almost 100mph for 24 hours. It had been a fantastically challenging 24 hours, but an awesome experience; I had completed my debut 24 hour race, perhaps not quite the result I was hoping for, but I was grateful for the strength of the team I had been a part of. There was never any sense of giving up even when the car wasn’t in its best condition towards the end of the race. A huge amount of respect to my co-drivers and crew – I was lucky enough to be able to rest during the night between being in the car – but the crew stayed up and endured it all to make sure the car kept on running.

Finally, I’d like to say congratulations to Mazda for providing a car that stood up to 24 hours of track abuse, pushing it to its limits. I’d like to thank the SpeedSource crew for being the best team out there, doing everything they could to keep the car on track, and of course to all my co-drivers for doing an awesome job behind the wheel. This is one race I want to be competing in every year.