Glickenhaus leaving WEC back in NLS

Dec 21

📷 © Luc Warnotte/ Left: Glickenhaus 007 LMH #709 at 24 Hours of Le Mans 2023. Right: Glickenhaus 004C at 24 Hours of Nürburgring.

After beating Porsche at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Peugeot at Spa and Le Mans, Glickenhaus is retiring from WEC but should be back at the Nürburgring. Let us look back at their WEC and Nordschleife adventures respectively in Hypercar and SPX classes.

In WEC with Hypercar 007

Glickenhaus became famous to endurance racing fans since the inception of hypercars with the Glickenhaus 007 Pipo in the top class of WEC (World Endurance Championship).

The Glickenhaus 007 developed by Podium Advanced Technologies in Italy began racing in WEC from the second round of the 2021 championship at Portimao for three consecutive championships demonstrating reliability during the 24 hours of Le Mans, beating manufacturers and scoring pole positions.

Podium and beating Porsche at Le Mans

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans 2021. Both Glickenhaus 007 #708 & 709 ending their first 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The private American team finished three consecutive editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans each year with the two cars.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans 2021. Glickenhaus 007 #708 & 709.

The 007 #708 driven by Derani-Mailleux-Pla finished fourth at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2021 after a close battle for P3 with the Alpine A480 LMP1. Briscoe-Westbroeck-Dumas brought #709 to P5, overall 3 laps behind the sister car.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022. Both Glickehaus 007 LMH.

The following year, the 007 #709 driven by Richard Westbrook, Ryan Briscoe and Franck Mailleux finished third behind both Toyota. Car #708 ended fourth with Romain Dumas, Olivier Pla and Pipo Derani, ahead of Alpine’s LMP1.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at 24 Hours of Le Mans 2023. Both Glickehaus 007 LMH.

This year, #708 with Dumas, Pla and Briscoe ended 6th ahead of sister #709 (Mailleux, Berthon, Gutiérrez) AND ahead of the three Porsche 963 participating in the centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and both Peugeot.

Beating Peugeot two consecutive years

In 2022, Glickenhaus 007 notched up three podiums (overall at Sebring, class at Spa, overall at Le Mans) and two pole positions (Spa and Monza).

P3 for Pla-Dumas-Briscoe with #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH at the 1000 Miles of Sebring.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps 2022. Pole for Glickenhaus 007 #708 ahead of both Toyotas.

At Spa, Olivier Pla qualified the Glickenhaus 007 LMH #708 in pole leading the race during 15 laps and ending 9th overall.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza 2022. Pole for Glickenhaus 007 #708 ahead of both Toyotas.

At Monza, it was Romain Dumas who clinched pole and the trio led the race during 86 laps (44% of the 6 hours race).

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza 2022. Glickenhaus 007 #708 ahead of both Toyotas at Prima Variante after clinching pole.

During the 2022 season, Glickenhaus accumulated 70 points participating in 4 WEC races (average: 17,5 points per race) versus 42 points for Peugeot which participated in the last three races of the Championship (average: 14 points per race). NDLR: OK! Glickenhaus’ points include a podium at Le Mans which scores for more points than a podium for a 6-hour race, but still…

Glickenhaus beated Peugeot at Le Mans in 2023.

At Nürburgring (NLS) in SPX class

The P4/5 from 2011 till 2014

📷 © Luc Warnotte at 24 Hours of Nürburgring 2022. #706 Glickenhaus 004

The name Glickenhaus was already well known by Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) fans since 2011 when Jim Glickenhaus commissioned his first competition car, the P4/5 Competizione. The P4/5 participated in the first two NLS races of the season in preparation for the famous 24 Hours of Nürburgring.

The 39th edition of the legendary Nordschleife race was won by Marc Lieb, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas together with Lucas Luhr in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. The #39 Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus P4/5 Competizione crewed by Mika Salo, Luca Cappellari, Nicola Larini and Fabrizio Giovanardi finished 39th overall and second in the small E1-XP2 (today SPX) class for non-homologated racers in the Eifel long-distance classic.

Larini, Giovanardi and Manuel Lauck finished the 2012 Nürburgring 24 Hours 12th overall and won the SPX class.

The 003C from 2015 till 2019

From 2015 to 2019 up to two 003 C were entered both by the factory team and by customer team Traum Motorsport with a best result of eigth overall in 2019 and a pole position in 2017 in the hands of Jeff Westphal.

The 004C from 2020 till 2022

The 004C made its racing debut in the SPX class for non-homologated machines at the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2020 and had a solid run to 14th overall. In 2021 Mutsch, Fernandez-Laser and Mailleux finished 20th overall with the 004C after ending NLS 3 in P21 and winning the SPX class.

In 2022, the same driver’s trio ended 14th overall with #56 004C and won SP-X class in preparation for the 24 Hours race. Together with Richard Westbrook, the trio made a strong performance with the #706 004C ending 12th overall (again winning SP-X class) despite an accident losing 10’ in pit for repairs.

Glickenhaus future

Considering the financial power of the eight manufacturers who’ll participate in the 2024 World Endurance Championship, we respect Jim Glickenhaus to pull the WEC plug and concentrate on making road-going vehicles. We hope to see his team back at the Nürburgring with the 004 sportscar for the next Eifel 24 Hours races.