[EN] - 24H KARTING OF LE MANS – TEAM SWISS PRO PROUDLY REPRESENTS THE SWS !
2016-09-28

Thanks to their performance during the 2016 SODI WORLD FINALS in Paris, the SWS team "TEAM SWISS PRO" has been invited to take the start of the 31st edition of the 24 hours Karting of Le Mans 2016 ! This amazing reward, offered by SODIKART (creator & organizer of the SWS), enabled to 4 drivers of this team to fight against the world elite of competition karting. During this legendary race, TEAM SWISS PRO has impressed many observers and proudly represented the SWS community !

Participate to the 24H Karting of Le Mans remains a very special dream for any karting driver in the world... This year again, the queen race of endurance karting welcomed in September 17/18th a SWS Endurance Cup team - TEAM SWISS PRO - invited to take the start of the GP2 category. The happy N°10 team, TEAM SWISS PRO, was supported for the event by a professional structure refearsed for this type of events : the REK team (Rouen Espace Karting) managed by Nicolas Scelles.

An ambitious yet realistic goal : reach the top 20 !

The team could first attend a test day on the International Circuit of Le Mans before the race, in order for the drivers to familiarize themselves with the competition karting requirements and to make some adjustments on the chassis. It is true that participating to this type of event was a first for Helmy Hamrouni, Guillaume Faye and Matthieu Madder - usual drivers of the SWS TEAM SWISS PRO - who have been joined for the occasion by Yohann Vaugarni, already participating in 2014. Despite their relative inexperience on the new machine, these drivers have proven to be pretty comfortable with the kart and very combative on this test to even achieve very satisfying lap times, often faster than other teams who are used to this type of competition. This session also allowed the team to set the ambitious yet realistic goal to be in the overall top 20 at the end of the 24 hours of racing.

The SWS team has thus taken the start, given at 3pm, from the 17st position on the grid (8th in GP2 category) among the total 31 participating teams. A promising start, even if any specialist of long distance racing perfectly know that nothing is done until the very last lap is completed ! In good shape and highly motivated, the TEAM SWISS PRO even managed to climb up to the 13th position of the global ranking after a few racing hours, before that the arrival of the rain started to disturb the pit stops and the race strategy in the end of the afternoon.

Saturday unfortunately ends up by a mishap on the track... Victim of a collision during overtaking, the SWS team is forced to pit with a broken rear axle. A part that the mechanic team - supervised by Jean-Louis Gatti - managed to change in less than 10 minutes but which still penalizes the team with a 10 lap delay after this episode...

After 1384 laps, a beautiful 9th position in GP2 category !

The rest of the night passes in the pain but the team manages to maintain its position in the cold and still under the Sarthe's rain, helped in particular by the massage team available to them for the occasion and by the valuable advices of the mechanics. Then they became fully aware of the physical and mental difficulties of such an endurance race over its lenth and they seek for the necessary ressources to still overtake 5 teams during the night ! The sun wakes up on the International Circuit of Le Mans with a TEAM SWISS PRO at the 18th position overall, a position that the team will manage to keep up to 3pm when Guillaume Faye crosses the checkered flag after 1384 laps on track.

This experience proved a great success and once again confirms the very high level of performance met on any SWS race all over the world. The adventure will surely remain unforgettable for these talented drivers with a perfect state of mind... who eventually reached their goal (Top 20 overall) and a beautiful 9th place in the GP2 category (6th Rotax out of 15).