Eric Hélary

Éric Georges Roger Hélary (born 10 August 1966) is a professional racing driver from Paris. His career has encompassed single seater formulae, endurance sports car racing, and touring cars. He won the French Formula Three Championship in 1990 and is best known for his win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1993. He was champion 2011 of Euro Racecar.

Single seater career Hélary's racing career began in a conventional way, with a period of karting between 1981 and 1984. He progressed to French Formula Ford in 1987 and won the title in the following year, then progressed to French Formula Three in 1989 and won that title in his second year. His single seater career ended in International Formula 3000.

Sports cars

Hélary first participated in sports car racing in the Peugeot Spyder Cup one-make championship in 1992 and secured the drivers' title in 1993. In the same year, he made his 24 Hours of Le Mans début in the factory Peugeot 905 alongside Christophe Bouchut and Geoff Brabham. He had previously driven this car with Bouchut in 1992.

After a period in touring cars, Hélary returned to endurance racing in the FIA GT Championship in 1996, driving a Chrysler Viper. He did not compete again in sports cars until a one-off return to FIA GTs in 2001. His next participation in endurance racing was another single race, this time in the FIA Sportscar Championship in 2003, driving a Pescarolo Courage-Peugeot alongside Nicolas Minassian. Hélary made another one-off appearance with Pescarolo in the 2004 Le Mans Endurance Series and returned to the series for a full season in 2006. He is currently employed by Peugeot as its official test driver for the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP.

Touring cars Hélary made his touring car début in the French Supertourisme championship in 1994, driving for Opel. He was classified fifth in the standings and improved to the championship runner-up position in 1995. He made a departure into ice racing during the winter of 1996 by entering the Trophée Andros with Opel. He adapted well and finished in fourth position over all, then finished second over all in the 1997 season.

Hélary spent the remainder of 1997 working as a test driver for BMW's Super Tourenwagen Cup team in Germany and then returned to Opel for two years of racing in the series in 1998 and 1999. When the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters was relaunched in 2000, Hélary and Opel remained together. He made one more appearance in the DTM in 2002 before returning to French Supertourisme for a third season, in which he finished fourth in the standings. A full season of sports car racing intervened before Hélary's next, and so far last, touring car programme. 2005 brought a fourth season in French Supertourisme as well as competing in one round of the World Touring Car Championship in a Peugeot 407 for Peugeot Sport Denmark.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DC Points 1991 First Racing Reynard Ford Cosworth VAL PAU JER MUG PER HOC 9th 9 CoBRa Motorsports Reynard Ford Cosworth BRH SPA BUG NOG 1992 DAMS Lola T92/50 Ford Cosworth SIL PAU CAT PER HOC NÜR SPA ALB NOG MAG NC 0

24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 1993 Peugeot Talbot Sport Christophe Bouchut Geoff Brabham Peugeot 905 Evo 1B C1 375 1st 1st 1994 Michel Hommel Alain Cudini Jean-Christophe Boullion Bugatti EB110 SS GT1 230 DNF DNF 1995 Courage Compétition Bob Wollek Mario Andretti Courage C34-Porsche WSC 297 2nd 1st 1996 Viper Team Oreca Philippe Gache Olivier Beretta Chrysler Viper GTS-R GT1 283 21st 12th 1997 Team BMW Motorsport BMW Team Schnitzer Peter Kox Roberto Ravaglia McLaren F1 GTR GT1 358 3rd 2nd 1998 Toyota Motorsports Toyota Team Europe Martin Brundle Emmanuel Collard Toyota GT-One GT1 191 DNF DNF 2002 Pescarolo Sport Stéphane Ortelli Ukyo Katayama Courage C60-Peugeot LMP900 144 DNF DNF 2003 Pescarolo Sport Nicolas Minassian Soheil Ayari Courage C60-Peugeot LMP900 352 9th 7th 2005 Pescarolo Sport Soheil Ayari Sébastien Loeb Pescarolo C60 Hybrid-Judd LMP1 288 DNF DNF 2006 Pescarolo Sport Sébastien Loeb Franck Montagny Pescarolo C60 Hybrid-Judd LMP1 376 2nd 2nd 2014 IMSA Performance Matmut Erik Maris Jean-Marc Merlin Porsche 997 GT3-RSR GTEAm 317 34th 13th

Complete French Supertouring Championship results (key)

Complete Super Tourenwagen Cup results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results (key) † — Retired, but was classified as he completed 90% of the winner's race distance.

Complete World Touring Car Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 DC Points 2005 Peugeot Sport Denmark Peugeot 407 ITA1 ITA2 FRA1 FRA2 GBR1 GBR2 SMR1 SMR2 MEX1 MEX2 BEL1 BEL2 GER1 GER2 TUR1 TUR2 ESP1 ESP2 MAC1 MAC2 NC 0

NASCAR (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

K&N Pro Series East NASCAR K&N Pro Series East results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Pts Ref 2012 Euro-RaceCar NASCAR Touring 61 Chevy BRI GRE RCH IOW BGS JFC LGY CNB COL IOW NHA DOV GRE CAR N/A -

Whelen Euro Series - Elite 1 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series - Elite 1 results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Pts Ref 2013 Still Racing 100 Chevy NOG NOG DIJ DIJ BRH BRH TOU TOU MNZ MNZ LEM LEM 36th ? 2017 Alex Caffi Motorsport 27 Ford VAL VAL BRH BRH VEN VEN HOC HOC FRA FRA ZOL ZOL 35th 60