Inter Europol overcomes adversity to win LMP2 at Le Mans

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emailBy Stephen Kilbey | June 11, 2023 12:55 PM ET

In LMP2, there was drama all the way to the final hour of the 24 Hours of Le Mans before the No. 34 Inter Europol ORECA completed what was a coming-of-age performance from the organization, which scored the first-ever Le Mans win for a Polish team.

Albert Costa, Jakub Smiechowski and an injured Fabio Scherer (who drove with a broken foot after being run over by the Corvette in pit lane) were superb in the second half of the race when things started to die down. They were pushed to the very end by WRT’s No. 41 ORECA of Louis Deletraz, Rui Andrade and Robert Kubica, who were just 21 seconds behind by the end of the race.

“When I started the race I thought it was over after 15 minutes because my foot hurt so much,” admitted Scherer, who hopped to the car at each pit stop. But with a lot of treatment, I was able to race. The adrenaline kicked in and I was in the flow. Now I start to feel my foot more and more but it doesn’t matter — to win Le Mans means everything. I don’t care if I can’t walk out of here!”
There were multiple late-race scares for the Inter Europol team, in addition to managing Scherer’s injury. It was under investigation for a pit infringement two hours from the end that would have cost the team its lead if a drive-through was handed out. Thankfully, the penalty was limited to a reprimand.

However, the team’s focus quickly shifted as it had to manually place signage on the pit wall to instruct Scherer to pit in the closing hour as the car’s radio had failed. But they shook it all off and will now celebrate long into the night.

“After our podium at Spa, I thought Le Mans was still too big for us,” said Costa. “But it happened and I am lost for words. I was always following this race when I was younger. So to do it in my first attempt, to win this, is all I can say. It’s amazing.”
Inter Europol Competition’s Jakub Smiechowski, Fabio Scherer and Albert Costa let loose on the Le Mans podium. Alexander Trienitz/Motorsport Images

The No. 41 WRT ORECA of Andrade, Deletraz and Kubica held on to finish second. In the closing stages there was little to separate the Belgian-flagged car and its rival from Poland. But every time the gap between them threatened to get into single digits Inter Europol’s Costa and later Scherer responded.

Completing the class podium was the No. 30 Duqueine ORECA, which was promoted to third after WRT’s sister No. 41 07 Gibson had a nose change at its final stop and dropped out of the top three. It was a frustrating end for Robert Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Sean Galael, who recovered nicely from a front and rear change early in the race after an off in the tricky sodden conditions.

Inter Europol’s victory looks even more impressive when you scan down the final classification and study the teams that failed to feature in the 24-car-strong category. It really was one of the more unlikely victories in the history of the LMP2 class…

Both of United Autosports’ ORECAs, which struggled for ultimate pace in qualifying, hit trouble and came home a distant eighth and 11th.

Prema’s ORECAs struggled too — the No. 63 which featured Doriane Pin, Daniil Kvyat and Mirko Bortolotti in its lineup crashed out overnight and the No. 9 was caught up in the rain, getting speared the out-of-control Racing Team Turkey ORECA at Indianapolis. It limped home 16th.

Panis Racing’s ORECA, with the rapid Job van Uitert aboard, threatened to challenge at times too, but it had a starter motor master switch failure that dropped it down towards the end.

With a 10th-place finish in class, the No. 45 Algarve Pro Racing ORECA of George Kurtz, Colin Braun and James Allen won LMP2 Pro/Am, which was a rather chaotic affair. Of the nine cars that took the start, five of them retired, including the No. 80 AF Corse crew of Francois Perrodo, Ben Barnicoat and Norman Nato that looked set to run away with the subclass honors before Barnicoat crashed out at the Porsche Curves after sunrise on Sunday morning.

PROVISIONAL RESULTS BY CLASS