Swiss team COOL Racing won back-to-back LMP3 titles with the no17 Ligier being victorious for the second time in two years.
This year’s driver line up of Mexico’s Alejandro Garcia, Argentina’s Marcos Siebert and French driver Adrien Chila took three wins, two other podium finishes and a single pole position from the six races, securing the titles after five races and giving them a mammoth 51-point advantage over their nearest rivals at the end of the season.
Maximum points at the end of the 4 Hours of Barcelona saw COOL Racing’s defence of their LMP3 title get off to a perfect start even if the no17 Ligier finished the race in second place behind the no31 Racing Spirit of Léman.
Marcos Siebert took the first point of the season, lapping the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in 1m35.250, three tenths faster than the nearest challenger in the 12-car field.
By being on pole position was fortunate allowing Adrien Chila to keep ahead of the field into T1 as chaos ensued further back as several cars collided bringing out the Safety Car. At the restart Chila was leading, with the no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Miguel Cristovao and the no35 Ultimate Ligier of Eric Trouillet in close pursuit.
After the pitstops the no17 COOL Racing Ligier was now in the hands of Alejandro Garcia, the Mexican leading from the no31 Racing Spirit of Léman Ligier of Antoine Doquin. Doquin closed the gap to challenge Garcia for several laps, eventually taking the lead on the inside at Turn 1.
Garcia kept pace but was unable to get ahead of the lead car before handing over to Marcos Siebert. Doquin had to work hard to keep the charging Siebert behind for the final laps of the race, taking the chequered flag by just 0.4 seconds.
However, a post-race penalty of 105 seconds for the no31 Ligier for not carrying out one of the mandatory pitstops promoted COOL Racing into 1st place, Inter Europol Competition into 2nd and Racing Spirit of Léman being 3rd in the final classification.
Marcos Siebert qualified the no17 COOL Racing Ligier in 5th place for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet. In the race Chila had a solid stint to hand the car over to Alejandro Garcia in third spot.
Garcia was being challenged by the no31 Racing Spirit of Léman Ligier of Antoine Doquin, with the French driver moving ahead of the Mexican and then up into second place a few laps later.
While Doquin went into the lead of LMP3 ahead of the no12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine, the no17 COOL Racing Ligier went back into a podium finishing position in the hands of Marcos Siebert and this is how it remained at the chequered flag.
The 15 points for third place allowed the no17 COOL Racing crew to leave Le Castellet with a slender 1-point lead in the championship over the no31 Racing Spirit of Léman Ligier.
The second victory of the 2023 season for COOL Racing came at the end of 4 Hours of Aragón, the only night race on the calendar.
Marcos Siebert qualified 6th for the third race of the year, finishing the session 0.5 second behind the pole sitting no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier. At the start Adrien Chila had moved up a couple of places before handing over to Garcia. A Safety Car infringement meant the cars in first and second positions were given stop and go penalties, putting the no12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine into first place and Alejandro Garcia’s no17 Ligier into second.
After Marcos Siebert took over the driving duties, the young Argentinian got ahead of the no12 Duqueine, with the no35 Ultimate in third, with Siebert holding a 17-second gap to his rivals and pulling away from the chasing pack.
By the time the chequered flag was shown Marcos Siebert was a lap ahead of the two chasing cars. With the no31 Racing Spirit of Léman not finishing the race, the no17 COOL Racing crew left Aragon with a 26-point advantage in the championship standings.
Victory number three in Belgium put the no17 COOL Racing crew in an almost unbeatable lead.
Fourth fastest in qualifying put the no17 Ligier on the second row of the LMP3 grid for the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
In the race, a first lap incident caused a long Safety Car period before racing began properly. The LMP3 leader was the no11 Eurointernational Ligier with Matthew Richard Bell was holding a comfortable lead over the no17 COOL Racing Ligier of Adrien Chila, who had moved up two places at the start. The no35 Ultimate Ligier of Eric Trouillet was challenging Chila for second place, with Trouillet eventual gaining the position around the outside at Les Combes.
Chila handed over to Garcia, with the Mexican driver moving up the order to hit the front before handing over to Siebert to bring the car home for their third win from four races.
This put COOL Racing on 91 points, 46 points ahead of the no13 Inter Europol Competition crew with just 52 points available from the final two races in Portugal.
A fourth-place finish in the first of two races at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve gave the crew of the no17 COOL Racing Ligier enough points to secure the LMP3 Team and Driver titles with one race to go.
Starting from third on the grid the team stayed out of trouble for the four-hour race to take the chequered flag on the lead lap, 44 seconds behind the winning no12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine.
The no17 Ligier qualified on the front row of the LMP3 grid for the final race of the season alongside the no15 RLR MSport Ligier on a wet track that provided some challenging conditions for all of the competitors.
With the LMP3 titles already decided in favour of Marcos Siebert, Alejandro Garcia and Adrien Chila, there was just the glory of winning the final race of the season at stake. Heavy rain caused the race to start behind the Safety Car before being red flagged for 90 minutes.
Once the race got underway Adrien Chila briefing went into the lead before Matthew Richard Bell in the no11 Eurointernational went ahead and set off to build a big lead to the rest of the LMP3 field. In the wet conditions Bell’s Ligier was coping better than some of the LMP2 cars and was leading the entire LMP2 Pro/Am field within a few laps.
Several Safety Cars and Full Course Yellow periods followed, interrupting the race on several occasions as the track started to dry out. The no11 Eurointernational Ligier of Canadian Adam Ali took the chequered flag, one lap ahead of the rest of the field led by Marcos Siebert in the COOL Racing Ligier, the Argentinian crossing the line to take the team’s fifth podium finish from six races.
The final championship standings saw the no17 COOL Racing Ligier on 121 points, 51 points ahead of the rest of the field, with the no11 Eurointernational Ligier in second place on 70 points.
CLICK HERE for the final LMP3 championship standings.
