The European Le Mans Series is similar to the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) based in the United States and Canada that has been running with ACO backing since 1999, which is run by IMSA.
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The aged IMSA GT Championship was taken over and became the new American Le Mans Series, and met with much success in 1999.
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With allowing Don Panoz to bring the rules and racing formulas of the 24 Hours of Le Mans to North America with the creation of the Petit Le Mans in 1998, Don Panoz attempted to build up a series to be based around Petit Le Mans.
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The event weekend was shared with the European Le Mans Series, which ran the 3 Hours of Silverstone, and the FIA European Formula 3 Championship.
Plans for a new endurance championship were initially conceived by Don Panoz and backed by the ACO in 2000 with plans for an Asian-Pacific Le Mans Series, modeled after his American Le Mans Series and planned European Le Mans Series for 2001.
In 2001 he drove in the European Le Mans Series and FIA Sportscar Championship for Pescarolo Sport, winning races in both series and finishing 13th in the 2001 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In 2000, RML engineered the Saleen S7 supercar into a competition model, the S7-R, winning the European Le Mans Series in the GT1 class in 2001 and the Spanish GT Championship overall in 2002.