Pescarolo Sport - Racing History

Racing History

Although Henri Pescarolo had been racing, and winning, at Le Mans for many decades, he had always been driving for other teams. From 1994 to 1998, Pescarolo had been driving for the Courage Compétition squad with some success, but decided in 1999 that he would like to run his own team for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, although he would remain connected to Courage and would be a customer team of the factory's chassis. The team was initially known as the Pescarolo Promotion Racing Team, and would take a well-deserved ninth place finish.

Following this success, Pescarolo decided that he would retire from racing as a driver, but remain in sports car racing as a team owner. On January 1, 2000, Pescarolo Sport was founded in the town of Le Mans, within the grounds of the Circuit de la Sarthe and near Courage Competition's headquarters. Pescarolo remained close to Courage, using their C52 chassis, as well as reaching an agreement with Peugeot to supply new turbocharged engines. The team initially concentrated on the Le Mans 24 Hours, although they would also make an appearance at the American Le Mans Series event at Silverstone Circuit. In their first run at Le Mans, the team managed an impressive fourth place finish for drivers Sébastien Bourdais, Olivier Grouillard, and Emmanuel Clerico, made even more impressive by the fact that the top three finishers were all from the factory Audi team.

With this success, Pescarolo Sport expanded vastly for the 2001 season, purchasing two new Courage C60 chassis (chassis numbers 03 and 04) for use in various races of the American Le Mans Series, European Le Mans Series, FIA Sportscar Championship, as well as the usual entry at Le Mans. Unfortunately the team saw their worst effort ever at Le Mans, with only a single car managing to finish in a distant 13th place. However this trouble was soon reversed in July of that year, when Pescarolo recorded their first win at the 1000km of Estoril, followed two weeks later by a win in front of a home crowd at Magny-Cours for the FIA Sportscar Championship, beating the likes of Ferrari 333 SP, Dome-Judd S101 and Ascari-Judd A410.

For 2002, Pescarolo Sport settled on running a full season of the FIA Sportscar Championship, and were able to continue on from their first two wins. The team took two more victories over the course of the season, clinching second place in the teams championship behind Racing for Holland. At Le Mans though, the team did not improve much, recording only a tenth place finish for their one finishing car.

Moving to 2003, the team unfortunately suffered major difficulties. Running in the FIA Sportscar Championship again, the team started the season with a win, but suffered three straight failures to finish in the following races. Although they would win once more, the team had to settle for once again being a runner-up to Racing for Holland in the teams championship. Le Mans saw some improvement, with both car finishing and taking eighth and ninth place, however Pescarolo began to suffer financial woes. Even though the team managed to take second place at the unique 1000km of Le Mans at the end of the year, Peugeot announced their discontinuation of supplying engines to the team, also leading to the loss of sponsorship money.

With the aid of investment from Sony and promotion of their PlayStation 2 as well as Gran Turismo 4, Pescarolo were able to find the money to purchase new Judd GV5 V10s, as well beginning their first work in engineering. Feeling the Courage C60s were not perfect, Pescarolo Sport began development of new bodywork and mechanical elements in order to increase the cars performance. For the 2004 the cars were renamed as Pescarolo C60s, due to the vast differences between them at standard Courage produced cars.

Although still strapped for cash, the team began a one car effort in the new Le Mans Endurance Series due to the FIA Sportscar Championship folding at the end of 2003. Managing to earn points in the first two races of the season, the team finished the year tied for sixth in the championship. At Le Mans however, the team managed to regain some of their past success, with their sole finishing car taking fourth place behind a trio of Audis but also finishing ahead of a fourth Audi.

2005 saw Pescarolo improve rapidly, with the team winning two rounds of the Le Mans Endurance Series season. These wins helped Pescarolo Sport earn their first championship, earning it by a mere two points. This success continued at Le Mans, with Pescarolo earning their best finish ever, a second place behind an Audi, separated by a just two laps, and also making the fastest lap of the race. Pescarolo had been backed heavily to cause an upset and trump the dominant Audis, especially after taking pole position.

Pescarolo Sport finally become a dominant, front-running team in 2006. In the Le Mans Series, Pescarolo out performed the competition and were able to sweep the entire season, winning all five races and easily defending their championship title. At Le Mans, the team also repeated their previous success by taking another second place, this time behind the new Audi R10 diesel, although the team did manage to finish ahead of the other R10.