Courage's engine supply drama

The French teams were only able to salvage their 2004 Le Mans campaigns after sourcing last-minute replacement engines for the Mecachrome-built JPX-badged V6. Courage's C65 will now run with a AER four-cylinder turbo while Epsilon has switched to an IES normally-aspirated unit based on the same block as the JPX.

"Converting the car to run a turbo engine is really a job that should take two months, not a week," said a spokesman for the Courage team, which has raced at every Le Mans since 1982. "We could have withdrawn both our cars, but Courage needs to be at Le Mans and that was formost in our minds."

Epsilon also blamed a lack of time for the need to withdraw one of its two entries. "Normally a team should be cleaning its car in the week before Le Mans scrutineering, but we had a lot of work to do," said Epsilon team boss Michel Lecomte.

Former F3000 driver Sam Hancock and fellow Briton Gavin Pickering have signed late deals to drive for the Courage Competition and Epsilon teams respectively.