2006 Creation CA06/H

The CREATION CA06/H (DBA4-03S) was designed and built by Reynard in early 2002 and originally known as the 02S. The car was the successor to the failed 2KQ project and as such Reynard used every trick in the book to produce the ultimate LMP675 chassis in a bid to right the wrongs of the past.
Únfortunately the car came too late to save Reynard and the company went bankrupt and passed into the hands of IRM headed by Paul Shakespeare.




Second Creation CA06/H Sold
The British Creation Autosportif team has today finalised the sale of a second Creation CA06/H Le Mans Prototype chassis to the Escondido, California-based Autocon Motorsports. The car will be delivered within the next three weeks, and is expected to be raced by Autocon for the first time at the Salt Lake City round of the American Le Mans Series.

Ian Bickerton has been in contact with Michael Lewis for some time, and said of the deal, 'Mike Jankowski and I are delighted that Autocon has shown so much faith in us and our car, and we can't wait to see them racing it in the American Le Mans Series.



'I have to pay a big tribute to our friends at Intersport Racing who were the first team to take a massive leap of faith in replacing their previous car with a Creation. I'm sure that their actions have influenced the guys at Autocon into going with us. Intersport, after a difficult start at Sebring, are really getting to grips with the car now and finding out what's needed to run it successfully, and I know they will go from strength to strength with it.

'It's been a very hectic time here in Bicester for everyone at Creation, but the prospect of seeing all of our LMP cars out racing this year will make it worthwhile. The American Le Mans Series is the perfect home for these CA06/H chassis, and I know they've gone to good hands. I can't be happier.'

Creation will be providing support for their customer teams whenever required at the North American rounds, as well as campaigning their new 2007 Creation CA07 car in the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Source - Creation Sport

2008: Sebrings Brings Good Start

Autocon launched its 2008 campaign with a good showing at the 56th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring this past weekend, qualifying 9th out of 35 cars before an obscure ruling pushed its starting position to 15th, and finishing 22nd overall and fifth in class.

Race day preparations for the Saturday event began six days earlier on Monday, a day that included driver Bryan Willman laying down his fastest time ever at the 4-mile circuit. Co-driver Tony Burgess ran his first-ever prototype laps at Sebring, a track he has commandeered many times before in GT cars. Tuesday was lost to repairs resulting from a late Monday incident.



The BK Motorsports Mazda P2 entry found itself flipping (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qjddG3OC03I) through the air in turn one, and the clean up consumed the remaining 17 minutes of the 25 minute qualifying session. Autocon driver Chris McMurry turned the team's fastest lap of the weekend on just the second flying lap, and the team figures another 2-3 seconds would have been taken off that time with warm tires in the next lap or two. Typically, the best qualifying laps come on the 4th or 5th laps when tire temperatures and pressures are optimized, and grip is at its best.

As it stood Autocon had qualified 9th, but later learned that an obscure rule allowed officials to revert to practice times, as a result of the shortened qualifying session, to set the starting grid order. A number of entries had chosen to wait in pit lane rather than making an early qualifying run and never scored a qualifying time, yet ended up starting ahead of Autocon due to the ruling.



Initially the team thought the brake issue was related to the master cylinder, a part that took 30 minutes to repair. It later realized the issue was with the brake line, a comparatively simple fix, and the team was back on track 15 minutes later, but dropping all the way down to 28th position at the 45 minute repair job.

For the next seven hours the JEANRICHARD-sponsored Creation CAH06 battled a small oil leak and constant lap traffic as it began the long climb forward from the back of the pack. By nightfall it had reached 24th position, and ultimately 22nd position by the end of the race.

'Our eyes are very much set on the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, and I think we showed well in that we were clean, consistent, the engine held up very well, and other than the break issue, we ran like we would hope to in France,' said team owner Michael Lewis.

'I thought Chris did a great job and emerged as the team leader. He was driving smart, quick laps at the start and keeping touch with the prototype field. Bryan was the most improved driver out there and was turning personal bests in all his stints. Tony did what Tony always does and gave us very solid and fast laps, one after the other.'

The team will race at the Grand Prix of Long Beach next on Saturday, April 19 with Lewis and Trans-Am regular Tommy Drissi. Drissi, a Californian and long-time friend of Lewis, is quite familiar with Autocon, and tested with the team in January. After that race, which will be broadcast April 20th at 12:30pm EDT on ABC, the team packs its bags for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in June.

Source - Autocon Motorsports

2007: Autocon Finishes Second in Championship

The JeanRichard Autocon Creation team might not have seen the checker flag at the 2007's final event at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca, having experienced a rare mechanical failure deep into the event, but it reaped the rewards of many excellent performances throughout the year at the Annual ALMS awards banquet held on the day following the event.

Autocon scored an outstanding second place in the team championship, only bettered by the factory Audi effort and was the top gasoline powered P1 effort, truly a high achievement for the scrappy privateer team from San Diego in only their third season in the top prototype class. In addition, team co-driver Chris McMurry scored an impressive 5th in the driver championship behind three Audi pilots and Intersport's young talent, Clint Field. McMurry was also honored with a nomination for the prestigious Founders Cup, an award singling out outstanding driving by those not employed as race drivers. Autocon further contributed to their partner's successes as Creation finished second in the chassis standing, Dunlop second in the tire war, and Judd second in the engine competition. An outstanding effort indeed considering a mid-season switch of cars and the resulting absence at two events.



Willman took the initial stint in the late afternoon start. Laguna Seca has gone through massive modernization in recent seasons, mainly to adapt this historic venue in the foothills inland of Monterey for the challenges of MotoGP, the premier motorcycle series in the world. One byproduct of these changes is the large use of fine sand in the runoff areas around the track surface. They make the track much safer for an errant motorcycle but create headaches for a race car as the sand blows onto the track surface or is kicked onto the surface as race cars put a wheel off course. Bryan encountered sand and, in combination with the cold track temperatures, it made for a very slick surface requiring great care. Bryan did a great job however the progress was stalled by a power steering issue which caused an unscheduled pit stop.

Bryan worked to make up the positions lost in the pits before turning the car over to Tony Burgess who was shooting for his second podium of the year after helping Autocon score a third place finish at Mosport. He also was forced to deal with cold conditions and had two yellow flag spins aand he fought to get heat into the tires. Still he guided the car without major incident and moved the car into higher points paying position before turning the car over to McMurry for the run to the checkered flag. On Tony's final laps he began informing the crew of noises somewhere in the driveline and this information became the end of the Autocon effort. McMurry got into the car, fuel and tires were added, but when he fired the engine and went to engage the gearbox there was no drive and a broken drive shaft was diagnosed. End of the race was called and Autocon finished sixth in the P1 class.



Indeed the plans for 2008 are very aggressive. Autocon will be shipping the Creation back to the ÚK where it be fitted with a new tub to comply with 2008 ACO regulations, and will return basically as a new car. An aggressive testing program will follow and the team is considering the introduction of some new faces in the cockpit.

'2007 was the finest of the years of Autocon's participation in ALMS,' stated Lewis. 'We got points in seven races and reached the podium three times. Our goals for 2008 include even better results and we are working hard for an opportunity to represent ALMS at the 2008 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.'

Source - Autocon Motorsports