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30-621: Chamberlain raced on the amateur level in the 1960s before entering the Clubman series in 1968. Developing engines for his own Mallock U2 sports cars led to the formation of Chamberlain Engineering to build and sell engines for road and race cars as well as fund his own entries in Clubmans; the company later moved into their permanent race shop in Buntingford in 1978. After teaming with Will Hoy in 1982

60-597: A Dome-Judd chassis for use in the American Le Mans Series at the end of 2002. Chamberlain once again became sporting partners with another British entry, Gareth Evan's TVR Tuscans from the British GT Championship. The new Chamberlain-Synergy team campaigned the cars internationally in 2004 at select events including the American Le Mans Series, Le Mans Series , FIA GT Championship, and at

90-507: A class now led by manufacturer teams from Mercedes-Benz , Jaguar , Toyota , Nissan , and Porsche , as well as returning to competing against the factory Spice team. A variety of drivers rotated through the team's two cars, although Vélez later moved to the Spice team and the season ended with Chamberlain not scoring any championship points. New regulations coming into effect for the series left Chamberlain to enter only select races in 1991 before

120-637: A more upmarket image, the alternative formula was renamed National Supersports , but over the years grids declined due to increased costs. Many of the marques that made their debut in National Supersports now compete in alternative prototype series such as Britsports or VdeV , which provide prototype racing on a relatively affordable scale. Clubmans in the UK continues as a highly popular and affordable form of racing with two race series catering for "Classic" cars (up to and including 1980 running almost exactly as

150-463: A popular class in hillclimbing . Clubmans has remained a relatively low-cost formula with cars having a long life and stability of rules meaning that drivers tend to remain in the formulae and develop their cars. In a straight line, Clubmans cars were often almost as quick as Formula Three single-seaters. The formula acquired a reputation for close competition, varied grids, and a healthy social scene. Engine rules varied somewhat over time. Initially

180-643: A return to a full-season effort in 1992, once more in the newly established FIA Cup category. Chamberlain Engineering won the 1992 FIA Cup for Teams and Ferdinand de Lesseps, the only driver in the FIA Cup category to compete in all six races that season, handily won the drivers' title. The World Championship folded after the 1992 season and Chamberlain began a slew of GT programs in the 1990s. A partnership with Lotus Sport came in 1993, codeveloping Lotus Esprits for competition. Although intended for Le Mans, Chamberlain returned to their British racing roots by competing in

210-560: A very popular class of racing. The Clubmans Sports Prototype Championship is organised by The Clubmans Register and currently races with Motor Sport Vision Racing (MSVR) and is a Motor Sports UK (MSUK) recognised club. The championship runs with four classes; CSP1 for cars up to 2000cc developing 200bhp from 4 cylinder road derived engines or motorcycle engines up to 1600cc. CSP2 for cars using sealed 1600 K series engines developing 125bhp. CSPA for Classic A cars built before 1981. CSPB for Classic B cars built before 1981. The class

240-576: The FIA World Endurance Championship (including the 24 Hours of Le Mans ). The car showed promising speed but did not finish at Le Mans due to a large crash involving one car and mechanical problems sidelining the other. On September 14, 2007, Oreca announced their plans to purchase sports prototype manufacturer Courage Compétition . Its first project was the Oreca 01 , made for the LMP1 class. It

270-533: The Lotus 7 , which had been crowded out of the mainstream by rear-engined cars such as the Lotus 23 . Before long, the cars rapidly evolved into highly specialised and very quick sports-racers – retaining the front-engined/rear wheel drive layout, but acquiring in due course wings and slicks. Unlike endurance-oriented forms of sports car racing, Clubmans tend to run at club-level meetings. Races were typically short (15–30 miles) and driver changes and refueling were not part of

300-582: The Supersports class which allows rear engines and motorbike powered cars where the original clubman class did not. Clubmans cars also compete in the US, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and Switzerland. Oreca ORECA ( Organisation Exploitation Compétition Automobiles ) is a French racing team and race car constructor, founded in 1973 and run by Hugues de Chaunac, former team manager of F1 team AGS . Oreca has had success in many areas of motorsport . Since

330-630: The 2005 Le Mans 24 Hours with support from Audi France. Also for 2006 Oreca ran the Saleen S7R in the Le Mans Series . The Oreca Saleen S7R had already won the 2006 Spa-Francorchamps Le Mans race. Oreca worked closely with Dodge on the Dodge Viper Competition Coupe, producing well over 100 customer cars in the period 2006–2007 to GT3 specification. Oreca entered a customer-specification Peugeot 908 HDi FAP with 'Semi-works' help for

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360-715: The 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours, as well as for the rest of the Le Mans Series races, taking overall honours at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve and the overall championship ahead of the factory Peugeot teams. In 2011, Oreca won the 12 Hours of Sebring race despite still using the Peugeot 908 HDi-FAP, a model retired at the end of the previous season. In 2012 Oreca was selected to run the Toyota TS030 Hybrid LMP1 car with support from Toyota Motorsport GmbH in

390-486: The 24 Hours of Le Mans. Gareth Evans then made the transition to prototypes with a new Lola-AER chassis and won the LMP2 championship for the Le Mans Series. The partnership between Chamberlain and Evans continued through to 2008 when the team made their last start at Le Mans. Hugh Chamberlain would later continue to serve as a consultant and sporting director for British teams. Hugh Chamberlain passed away on 25 February 2024, at

420-529: The Ford units drifted into obsolescence, other units replaced them. Sports 1600 gave way to "K Sports" with a Rover K-series engine and the 16-valve two-litre Vauxhall temporarily replaced the 1700 cc Crossflow unit in 1993 for the short-lived rear-engined Supersports category. Rear-engined cars with the Vauxhall unit were admitted to the series for the first time in 1995 alongside traditional front-engined cars. Seeking

450-659: The GT2 class with a Chrysler Viper GTS-R and overall with a Mazda 787B in 1991, on their second attempt and first after a decade. Also, the team prepared the Renault Clio S1600 for rallying and won the ice racing Andros Trophy with a Toyota Corolla driven by Alain Prost. In the 2000s, Oreca assisted Renault Sport in building the new Mégane V6 for the Renault Eurocup Mégane Sport and fielding an Audi R8 in

480-449: The age of 82. Clubman (racing car class) The Clubman is a class of prototype front-engined sports racing cars that originated in Britain in 1965 as a low-cost formula for open-top, front-engined roadgoing sports cars like the Lotus 7 , which had been crowded out of the mainstream by rear-engined cars such as the Lotus 23 . The cars have evolved and specialised, but it remains

510-433: The best result of seventh in class at Spa . The team purchased a new chassis from the defending C2 world champions Spice Engineering for 1987 and Nick Adams became the team's lead driver after the departure of Hoy. Although not a successful championship bid, Adams and Graham Duxbury won their class at the non-championship Kyalami event. Owner-driver Jean-Louis Ricci also added his own Spice to Chamberlain's team in

540-665: The early 1990s the team has concentrated on running sports cars and GT cars. In the 1970s and 1980s, drivers including Alain Prost , Jacques Laffite and Jean Alesi won the French Formula Three Championship for the team a record 11 times. In the 1990s, Oreca ran a BMW operation in the French Supertouring Championship . It also won the FIA GT Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hours in

570-468: The first customers of the Viper GTS-Rs , entering a two-car team in the FIA GT Championship . By 1999 Chamberlain had moved up to second in the championship behind the factory-backed Oreca team. Chamberlain Engineering returned to prototype racing in 2001 at the behest of MG for a two-year campaign of their new cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Although ultimately unsuccessful, the team later purchased

600-489: The formula used 1000 cc or 1500 (later 1600) cc pushrod engines that had to be based on Ford or BMC units – practically, the 1,000 cc units were detuned ex-F3 engines). For most of the formula's life, the engines were the 1000 cc ex F3 units and 1600 cc Ford Kents or Ford-based Holbay, and finally the 1600 Kent in Formula Ford spec ("B sports/Sports 1600") and 1700 cc crossflow units ("A sports") in high states of tune. As

630-463: The latter half of 1987 and continued the partnership into 1988. Although winless, the two Spices were consistent finishers and the team was runners-up in the C2 teams' championship behind Spice Engineering, while Ricci and co-driver Claude Ballot-Léna were sixth in the drivers' standings. In 1989, Spice moved to the upper class of the championship and Chamberlain switched from their turbocharged Hart motor to

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660-459: The more dominant Ford Cosworth V8 . Nick Adams, partnered with Fermín Vélez and sponsored by Repsol , won the first four races of the season. Their control of the category was enough that the team skipped the final race of the season, entering their Spice-Ford in the upper class of the championship instead, yet still winning the teams and drivers' championships in the C2 category. The lower class became defunct in 1990, moving Chamberlain into

690-548: The newly founded BRDC National Sports GT Challenge in 1994, winning their class title with Thorkild Thyrring , as well as entering some other international events on the BPR Global GT Series . As Lotus took full control of the project in 1995, Chamberlain began various projects with British teams, developing a Jaguar XJ220 and running a Porsche 911 GT2 . The team eventually became involved in Chrysler's new GT program as

720-560: The original formula with classes catering for cars from most periods of the formula's history) and the Clubmans Sports Prototype Championship running in four classes CSP1, CSP2, CSPA and CSPB as described above. Clubmans has also been popular in Scandinavia since the 80s when Swedish car enthusiast Stefan Mumm bought a Mallock and promoted the formulae. The results of his enthusiasm are more than 20 cars registered in

750-620: The pair led the Clubmans series for three years before signing Creighton Brown , purchasing a Tiga sports car and Hart turbocharged engine to move into the Thundersports series, although the engine suffered reliability issues throughout the season. Once sorting the Hart's issues for 1986 Chamberlain gathered the funding to move to an international series, entering the C2 category of the World Sports-Prototype Championship with

780-575: The series. In addition to the ubiquitous Mallock, local marques such as Bodin and Phantom are now produced and are still being developed; in 2008 three brand new cars were produced. The Scandinavian Clubmans class uses 1800 cc Ford Zetec engine, and is one of the fastest sportscar series in Scandinavia. Australia has also had a thriving clubman class since the 50's known as the Clubman Sports 1300 class based on 1300cc engine cars. this has now morphed in

810-542: The strategy. Marques such as Chevron made their debut in the formula and the long-lived series of Mallock U2 cars came to dominate numerically (and often in terms of results). Over the years, marques such as Gryphon, Centaur, Bladon, Haggispeed, Phantom, Vision, Pulsar and Slique as well as specials like the St Bruno Roughcutter and the Hustler graced the grids with varying degrees of success. Clubmans cars also became

840-596: Was first raced at the 2009 1000 km of Spa with two entries. During 2009, Oreca started producing the Formula Le Mans 'FLM09'. This was initially run in its own series named the Formula Le Mans Cup until 2010 when it was adapted to allow it to be run three other endurance series including the American Le Mans Series which gave the car its own category (LMPC). The idea was to give an affordable platform for smaller teams to get into endurance racing. The Oreca 03

870-523: Was initiated by Nick Syrett of the British Racing and Sports Car Club (BRSCC) and organised by the Clubmans Register which represent car owners, drivers and constructors. Clubmans evolved from categories such as the 1,172 cc formula for Ford-based specials and several of the 750MC 's entry-level formulae. It was intended as a low-cost formula for open-top, front-engined road-going sports cars like

900-493: Was launched to accommodate the new LMP2 regulations for 2011. In 2015, the Oreca 05 was unveiled, winning the LMP2 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Oreca was selected as one of the four 2017 LMP2 manufacturers, and launched the Oreca 07 . Two variations of the 07 were also created to race in different classes, in the form of the Rebellion R13 , created for the LMP1 class to race in the FIA World Endurance Championship , and

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