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Éric Hélary

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Éric Hélary
Nationality French
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years1993 - 1998, 2002 - 2003, 2005 - 2006, 2014
TeamsPeugeot Talbot Sport, Michel Hommell, Courage Compétition, Viper Team Oreca, BMW Motorsport, Toyota Motorsport, Pescarolo Sport
Best finish1st (1993)
Class wins2 (1993, 1995)

Éric Georges Roger Hélary[1] (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.[2]

Single seater career

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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

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Hélary's Peugeot 905B

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. He 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

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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

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24 Hours of Le Mans results

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

Complete French Supertouring Championship results

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(key)

Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 DC Pts
1994 Opel France Opel Vectra NOG
1
Ret 		NOG
2
DNS 		MAG
1
13 		MAG
2
6 		PAU
1
7 		PAU
2
4 		DIJ
1
4 		DIJ
2
2 		CHA
1
Ret 		CHA
2
2 		VDV
1
2 		VDV
2
6 		CET
1
12 		CET
2
DNS 		LEC
1
5 		LEC
2
7 		ALB
1
Ret 		ALB
2
Ret 		BUG
1
3 		BUG
2
2 		DML
1
2 		DML
2
2 		LED
1
4 		LED
2
Ret 		5th 125
1995 Opel France Opel Vectra NOG
1
5 		NOG
2
Ret 		DIJ
1
2 		DIJ
2
2 		PAU
1
1 		PAU
2
1 		CHA
1
1 		CHA
2
2 		VDV
1
3 		VDV
2
3 		CET
1
2 		CET
2
1 		LEC
1
4 		LEC
2
5 		ALB
1
1 		ALB
2
1 		DML
1
2 		DML
2
1 		2nd 128

Complete Super Tourenwagen Cup results

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(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 Pts
1998 TNT Team SMS Opel Vectra HOC
1
Ret 		HOC
2
9 		NÜR
1
2 		NÜR
2
2 		SAC
1
19 		SAC
2
7 		NOR
1
7 		NOR
2
2 		LAH
1
2 		LAH
2
3 		WUN
1
7 		WUN
2
4 		ZWE
1
8 		ZWE
2
4 		SAL
1
Ret 		SAL
2
DNS 		OSC
1
9 		OSC
2
6 		NÜR
1
2 		NÜR
2
1 		4th 473
1999 TNT Team Holzer Opel Vectra SAC
1
6 		SAC
2
Ret 		ZWE
1
4 		ZWE
2
6 		OSC
1
8 		OSC
2
7 		NOR
1
3 		NOR
2
6 		MIS
1
14 		MIS
2
5 		NÜR
1
Ret 		NÜR
2
Ret 		SAL
1
2 		SAL
2
9 		OSC
1
2 		OSC
2
1 		HOC
1
Ret 		HOC
2
10 		NÜR
1
6 		NÜR
2
Ret 		8th 361

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results

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(key)

Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Pos. Pts
2000 Opel Team Holzer 2 Opel Astra V8 Coupé HOC
1
Ret 		HOC
2
7 		OSC
1
4 		OSC
2
10 		NOR
1
15 		NOR
2
15 		SAC
1
4 		SAC
2
16† 		NÜR
1
8 		NÜR
2
7 		LAU
1
C 		LAU
2
C 		OSC
1
4 		OSC
2
10 		NÜR
1
14 		NÜR
2
Ret 		HOC
1
6 		HOC
2
7 		9th 53
2002 OPC Euroteam Opel Astra V8 Coupé 2001 HOC
QR 		HOC
CR 		ZOL
QR 		ZOL
CR 		DON
QR 		DON
CR 		SAC
QR 		SAC
CR 		NOR
QR 		NOR
CR 		LAU
QR 		LAU
CR 		NÜR
QR 		NÜR
CR 		A1R
QR 		A1R
CR 		ZAN
QR
16 		ZAN
CR
14 		HOC
QR 		HOC
CR 		24th 0
  • † — Retired, but was classified as he completed 90% of the winner's race distance.

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

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(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 ITA
1 		ITA
2 		FRA
1 		FRA
2 		GBR
1 		GBR
2 		SMR
1 		SMR
2 		MEX
1 		MEX
2 		BEL
1 		BEL
2 		GER
1
Ret 		GER
2
DNS 		TUR
1 		TUR
2 		ESP
1 		ESP
2 		MAC
1 		MAC
2 		NC 0

NASCAR

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(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

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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 NKNPSEC Pts Ref
2012 Euro-RaceCar NASCAR Touring 61 Chevy BRI GRE RCH IOW BGS JFC LGY CNB COL IOW NHA
DNQ 		DOV GRE CAR N/A - [3]

Whelen Euro Series - Elite 1

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

References

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  1. ^ "Pilote des 24 heures du Mans : Éric Georges Roger Hélary". www.24h-en-piste.com (in French). Retrieved 16 June 2023.
  2. ^ AUTOhebdo.fr | Racecar – Éric Hélary aura tout tenté à Loudon USA Nascar Sep 22, 2012 – Éric Hélary n'est pas parvenu à se qualifier pour la G-Oil 100 des K&N Pro Series disputée sur l'ovale de Loudon au New Hampshire en marge de l'épreuve de Sprint Cup. Le champion 2011 de l'Euro Racecar n'a pas été ...
  3. ^ "Eric Helary – 2012 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  4. ^ "Eric Helary – 2013 Whelen Euro Elite 1 Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  5. ^ "Eric Helary – 2017 Whelen Euro Elite 1 Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
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Sporting positions
Preceded by French Formula Three Champion
1990 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans
1993 with:
Geoff Brabham
Christophe Bouchut 		Succeeded by
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