The three-year contract between CLAAS and the ACO includes the provision of CLAAS SCORPION telehandlers as recovery vehicles for car and truck races on the Le Mans circuit. The arrangement is inline with the ACO's CSR obligations and consistent with their desire to work closely with local partners.
CLAAS has been working with the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) – organisers of the world-renowned Le Mans 24-hour endurance race – for several years already. This longstanding and successful collaboration is the reason why CLAAS has now been chosen as the technology partner to assist with safety on the Le Mans circuit. Over the next three years, CLAAS will provide SCORPION telehandlers for each race organised by the ACO – supported by CLAAS France and the CLAAS Material Handling product area. The main race, the legendary '24 Hours of Le Mans', is eagerly watched by around 146 million viewers worldwide via TV and streaming channels. "CLAAS is extremely proud to have been chosen by the organisers to provide course and driver safety for the world's ultimate endurance race," explains Dr Martin von Hoyningen-Huene, CTO of the CLAAS Group. "Our SCORPION telehandlers have a high-performance hydrostatic ground drive which makes them exceptionally agile and powerful, and also very manoeuvrable. As a result, they are ideally suited to recovering vehicles promptly and keeping the racetrack free from obstacles."
Personal and professional relationships between the race organisers and the CLAAS tractor factory in Le Mans have developed over many years, especially through past events and the thousands of international visitors to the CLAAS tractor factory who include a trip to the Le Mans racetrack during their stay. "But these are not the only things that connect the ACO and CLAAS," adds Dr Martin von Hoyningen-Huene. "The competitive nature and sportsmanship in motor racing resonate with our own engineering values and in many respects contribute to accelerating technical progress and R&D, especially in terms of performance and steadfastness."
Reducing the carbon footprint with sustainable HVO fuel
For all races in 2024, CLAAS will be providing different types of powerful, dynamic and efficient SCORPION telehandlers, including 22 for the '24 Hours of Le Mans' alone (12 – 16 June 2024, endurance race on 15/16 June 2024). The SCORPION used will run on HVO fuel, hydrotreated vegetable oils recovered from food industry waste. This will help to further reduce the carbon footprint of the race, alongside other measures introduced by the ACO and participating teams. "One of our challenges in the agricultural sector is to provide alternatives to fossil fuels to help our customers work sustainably in future, even with combustion engines," adds Dr Martin von Hoyningen-Huene. "Our support for the ACO and especially the legendary 24-hour endurance race serves as an acid test to persuade the international public of the reliability and efficiency of sustainable technical solutions for agricultural machines."
The use of HVO100 can reduce CO2 emissions form agricultural machinery by up to 90 per cent. At the same time, HVO can be mixed with fossil fuels in any ratio or diesel can be used only when HVO is unavailable to ensure maximum flexibility at all times. HVO can compete with fossil fuels in terms of energy density and fuel consumption. A further advantage is that it has a direct impact on the environment: HVO consists of plant oil residues and – depending on the provider – a proportion of animal fats.