The Embassy WF01 is an

Le Mans Prototype A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is a type of sports prototype race car used in various races and championships, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series, and Asian Le M ...

LMP2

race car Race, RACE or The Race may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

designed, developed and built by British team, Embassy Racing, for the

Le Mans Endurance Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

and the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

. The car was powered by the Zytek ZG348 with a total of two cars produced. The car was named after the team owner Jonathan France's son, William.

Racing history

2008

Delivery of parts were delayed which meant that there was next to no testing done on the new car before the first round of the

Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the ...

. Two cars were brought to the opening round at

Catalunya Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

with drivers

Mário Haberfeld Mario Haberfeld (born January 25, 1976, in São Paulo) is a Brazilian former racing driver. Racing career After winning the British Formula 3 Championship in 1998, he drove in Formula 3000 from 1999 until 2002. He posted some decent results bu ...

and

Warren Hughes Warren Hughes (born 19 January 1969) is a racing driver from Sunderland, England. He has raced in a variety of different series, most notably the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), the FIA GT1 World Championship, the Le Mans Series, the ...

in the #45 and

Jonny Kane Jonathan Ernest Kane (born 14 May 1973) is a British racing driver who has competed at various levels of motorsport. He currently drives for Strakka Racing in the Le Mans Series. Kane, who was born in Comber, Northern Ireland, began his career ...

and

Joey Foster Joseph Nathaneal Foster (born 5 July 1982 in London) is a British racing driver. He has competed in such series as Le Mans Series, Australian Formula Ford Championship and the German Formula Three Championship The German Formula Three Ch ...

in the #46. The #45 qualified 19th and the #46 qualified in 22nd. In the race, a steering component failed on one car with the other retiring as a safety precaution. At the following race at

Monza Monza (, ; ; , locally ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the Lambro, River Lambro, a tributary of the Po (river), River Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the province of Mo ...

, Embassy Racing finished eighth in class to score its first points with the WF01. The other car was running in the podium positions before stopping with 30 minutes left in the race. The 1000 km of Spa was a tumultuous race for the car. Joey Foster crashed the #46 car on the warm-up lap and the #45 retired with a similar problem from the last race. The lineup for the

2008 24 Hours of Le Mans The 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 76th Grand Prix of Endurance, taking place on 14–15 June 2008 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France, organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The test day was on June 1. The race was atten ...

was announced on May 13. One car was entered with drivers Warren Hughes, Jonny Kane and Joey Foster. The car qualified 24th overall with a time of 3:39.926. During the race, the car would run into a multitude of issues beginning with an ECU problem that was fixed once it was recycled. Later on, the starter motor had to be replaced which cost the team 21 minutes in the pits rejoining the race in 35th. Joey Foster had an accident at the second chicane on the

Mulsanne Mulsanne () is a commune in the Sarthe department in the region of Pays de la Loire in north-western France. Population Motor racing The Circuit de la Sarthe, which is used in the sports car endurance race 24 Hours of Le Mans, features the l ...

which resulted in damage to the front and rear of the car. The car was brought back to the pits but was subsequently retired after 17 hours. The following race at the

Nürburgring The () is a 150,000-person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long configuration, built in the 1920s ...

, the car would achieve its highest career finish with

Darren Manning Darren Manning (born 30 April 1975) is a British motor racing driver who has raced in the IRL IndyCar Series for Chip Ganassi Racing and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Career history Early career Manning was born in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire ...

and Joey Foster finishing 11th overall and fourth in class. In the final race of the Le Mans Series season at

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The village is about south-southwest of Towcester and northeast of Brackley, both accessed via the A43 road, A43 main ...

, the #45 car was running in podium positions but after a pit stop, Jonny Kane missed the red light at the end of the pit lane and received a five minute post-race time penalty, dropping them to fifth in class. Despite the promising results in its debut season, the team folded two weeks later.

2009

The car made one last appearance at the season finale of the

. Team WFR received support from multiple sponsors to run the race with drivers,

and Jody Firth. They would finish 14th overall and fourth in class.

References

{{Reflist Le Mans Prototypes Sports prototypes 24 Hours of Le Mans race cars