When Algarve Pro Racing was founded in 2010 by husband and wife team Stewart and Samantha Cox, the plan was to become a leading force in ACO rules endurance racing and with three class victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 2021 ELMS LMP2 Pro/Am title and three Asian Le Mans Series titles, the Portuguese flagged team is certainly that.
This weekend the team head to the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve at the top of the LMP2 standings for the team’s home event. The no25 Oreca trio of Kyffin Simpson, Alex Lynn and James Allen have a 17-point advantage after winning their second race of the season in Belgium last time out. However, with two races in Portugal and 52-points still on offer, the team know they still have a lot of work to do and will have their collective eye on the ball in Portimão.
So how would Stewart Cox sum up the past 14 seasons? “It was life-altering,” Stewart admitted. “The team consumes everything you do – we have no time for anything else and literally get up every day to do this. I knew it would require a lot of hard work if we wanted to succeed, but the whole experience has taught me that the harder you work, the more you get out. It really is that simple.
“You make a lot of sacrifices to ensure it works, and that’s the bit you don’t really appreciate when you first set off. For example, the phone can ring anytime 24 hours a day and you have to make yourself available. It’s important for us to give our customers the respect and service they deserve. I look at it as though we’re serving up a really expensive meal and, if they’re not happy, they have the right to complain. It’s all about customer satisfaction, providing a great experience and making sure they improve. In fact, we take as much happiness and enjoyment from that as we do winning.”
Stewart’s background is in F1 and A1GP, so what made them decide to concentrate on endurance racing when they set up APR? “All I’ve ever done is work on racing cars, even before I left school, and the road simply took us into endurance racing. I mean, if you had the money, you’d run a Formula 1 team, but the affordable opportunities that came our way were in Le Mans Prototypes.
“We started as a test team and I was happy to stop once that programme ended, but it was Sam’s idea to continue and go racing. I knew what would happen, I knew what the downsides would be and how much effort it would take to build a competitive racing team, but she didn’t due to a lack of experience."
“We didn’t have the money to invest and were just playing and having fun in the lower formulas, but passing on a lifetime of knowledge to help the team succeed when we got to this level was very difficult."
“Thankfully, Sam is a quick learner and that’s probably because of her maths background. As I said before, I knew it would be all-consuming – this year, we haven’t had any time off at all – and from that perspective I don’t know what Sam was thinking when she agreed to take the team on. However, we made it work in our first season and went down the ‘gentleman driver route’ because it was slightly easier; they just want to do as well as possible while enjoying a good service.”
Algarve Pro Racing have been successful with the Pro/Am entries at Le Mans, with their third class title secured at the special 100th anniversary event in June. You would think Le Mans was a special place for Stewart Cox and the team, wouldn't you? “To be honest, every race we contest is as special and enjoyable as the next. We’re lucky to be among the few in the population who get up in the morning and enjoy what we do seven days a week. I don’t take it for granted.”
So how would Stewart Cox sum up the ELMS season so far? ““It has actually been a bit disappointing. I was unhappy with what happened in the first round in Barcelona and I’m disappointed we haven’t had more wins so far. If I look back beyond 2023, the Russia situation hurt the business badly. However, we managed to get through it and went into this year in a much better position to go forward and invest in making the cars quicker with a lot more testing. That has resulted in improved performances.
“Our job is to give each team member the resources they need to carry out their roles to a level that makes the cars competitive."
“We were contacted by Ian James, the Team Principal of Heart of Racing who represents CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz. He saw our potential and we ended up running the CrowdStrike Racing LMP2 in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the USA. It has been a very successful toe-in-the-water exercise, because we’ve achieved race wins, podium finishes and pole positions, and we won the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup and the Jim Trueman Cup for Bronze drivers, with a guaranteed entry to the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans for George. Ultimately, there are a lot of positives coming out of everything we’re doing at the moment and I’m very happy about it.”
The ELMS Grand Season Finale will feature two 4-Hour races on the same weekend, and this is the first time in the long history of the championship that this has happened. So the inevitable question for Algarve Pro Racing’s Team Principle is this weekend going to present any special challenges for the team and as championship leaders how are you going to approach the first race on Friday?
“Portimão is our home circuit because it’s only 30 minutes down the road, but we don’t have any sort of advantage there because testing availability is limited, and rival teams are usually there with us when we do test. We’re not looking at the double-header finale any differently to previous rounds because we just want to put the car on pole and stay out of trouble. It was unfortunate for our competitors that they had relatively bad outcomes at Spa, but then I could point to the fact earlier races didn’t go our way. It has sort of levelled out now, which generally happens over the course of a season.”
The ELMS Grand Season Finale will take place at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve on the 20-22 October, with the 4 Hours of Algarve on Friday 20 October followed by the 4 Hours of Portimão on Sunday 22 October.
