- JMB Racing
JMB Racing is a racing team from
Monaco that competes insports car racing . It was originally founded inNice ,France , in 1995 as JB Racing by Jean-Michel Bouresche andJean-Pierre Jabouille . It was renamed JMB (Bouresche's initials) in 2000 after Jabouille left the partnership. JMB relocated its headquarters to Monaco in 2004, racing with a monegasque license since then.The team first raced in the
Andros Trophy and the Porsche Pirelli Supercup in the 1995 season, winning the 2 litre class in the first withJean-Pierre Malcher andJacques Laffite , and taking the title in the second with Malcher, repeating the win the following year withEmmanuel Collard .For 1997, Bouresche and Jabouille went international, purchasing a
Porsche 911 GT1 to race in the brand newFIA GT Championship , with Emmanuel Collard and Jürgen von Gartzen, also taking part in Le Mans. The team was backed by primary sponsor Marlboro.The increased presence of factory teams drove JB Racing away from the FIA GT Championship, so instead the team purchased two
Ferrari 333 SP s to race in theInternational Sports Racing Series from 1998, dropping Marlboro as a sponsor in place of Italian manufacturing firm Giesse. The French team stayed in thissports-prototype championship for three years, winning the drivers titles with Collard andVincenzo Sospiri in 1998 and 1999 andDavid Terrien andChristian Pescatori in 2000, in addition to taking the teams titles for three years in a row. The team ran one Ferrari in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 24hLM|1998 and 24hLM|1999.In 2000 JB, now called JMB, also made a return to GT racing with the new
Ferrari 360 Modena as official Ferrari demonstrator, taking second place overall in the6 Hours of Vallelunga . In 2001 they switched full time to GTs, winning the N-GT class in the FIA GT Championship, once more with Terrien and Pescatori, who also won the title in 2002. In both occasions, the team title was also retained. JMB also ran two cars in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and Bouresche created the JMB Racing USA operation to run cars in the international American races, such as theDaytona 24 Hours andSebring 12 Hours .In 2003, in addition to taking second place in the N-GT category with
Andrea Bertolini andFabrizio De Simone , JMB Racing graduated to the main GT category with aFerrari 550 Maranello . However, the French team used the car developed byN. Technology , more troublesome than theProdrive version, and drivers Pescatori andBoris Derichebourg were only competitive after upgrading to the 575 GTC.In 2004, JMB Racing changed address to
Monaco and began racing under the Monegasque flag. The team however retained their workships in Nice. The team managed to score third place in the FIA GT Championship with two 575 GTCs, in spite of a lack of consistency due to several drivers changes, but still managed to win the Donington race withKarl Wendlinger andJaime Melo . JMB also took the Drivers title in theLe Mans Endurance Series withRoman Rusinov in a 360 Modena and was third in theItalian GT Championship , with the old 550 Maranello.JMB was one of the first teams in the FIA GT to race the brand new
Maserati MC12 in 2005. Wendlinger and Bertolini won atMagny-Cours but missed the win at theSpa 24 Hours by two laps, taking third place at the end of the year for the drivers championship, with the team reaching second place. The 575 was also used in the LMES as well as at Le Mans. In 2006, JMB went back to the GT2 class with the newFerrari 430 , but in spite of a win in Silverstone, were outclassed by rivals Scuderia Ecosse as well as the Porsche teams and managed only fourth place in the teams championship at the end. JMB also entered three cars in the newFIA GT3 European Championship .In 2007, JMB divided their time between the FIA GT, European GT3 and the
Le Mans Series . The highlight of the year wasBen Aucott 's win of the Citation Cup, a series within the FIA GT for gentleman drivers. The team also won one race in the European GT3 series, and took second and third in the final round of the LMS at Interlagos.External links
* [http://www.jmbracing.com/ Official site]
* [http://www.fiagt.com/teaminfo.php?teamname=JMB%20Racing JMB's page in the FIA GT Championship site]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.