Éric Hélary

Éric 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.[1]

Éric Hélary
NationalityFrench
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)

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'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

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

24 Hours of Le Mans results
Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
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 GTE
Am		 317 34th 13th

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results

(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

(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

(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 NKNPSEC Pts
2012 Euro-RaceCar NASCAR Touring 61 Chevy BRI GRE RCH IOW BGS GRE LGY CNB COL IOW NHA
DNQ		 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 NWES Pts
2013 Still Racing 100 Chevy NOG NOG DIJ DIJ BRH BRH TOU
19		 TOU
10		 MNZ MNZ LEM LEM 36th ?
2017 Alex Caffi Motorsport 27 Ford VAL VAL BRH BRH VEN VEN HOC HOC FRA FRA ZOL
14		 ZOL
9		 35th 60

References
  1. 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 ...
Sporting positions
Preceded by
Jean-Marc Gounon		 French Formula Three Champion
1990		 Succeeded by
Christophe Bouchut
Preceded by
Derek Warwick
Yannick Dalmas
Mark Blundell		 Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans
1993 with:
Geoff Brabham
Christophe Bouchut		 Succeeded by
Yannick Dalmas
Hurley Haywood
Mauro Baldi
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