The 2006 Le Mans Series covered five rounds and ran from April to September. Cars competed across four classes: LMP1, LMP2, GT1, and GT2. The series offered automatic entries to the following year's 24 Hours of Le Mans for the top two finishers in each teams championship. Istanbul's round that year was shortened from 1000 km to a four-hour limit due to a fuel logistics problem, and the planned Monza round was cancelled and replaced by a race at Jarama. The Donington round was the penultimate event in the calendar before the season-closing Jarama race.
Donington Park is a motorsport circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. It was created as a racing circuit in the 1930s and hosted pre-war Grand Prix racing featuring the German Silver Arrows. After falling into disrepair during the Second World War and a subsequent period of neglect, the circuit was bought and revived by businessman Tom Wheatcroft in the 1970s. The Melbourne Loop was added in 1985 to bring the circuit's length to 2.498 miles, qualifying it for Grand Prix motorcycle races. The circuit hosted the 1993 European Grand Prix, a race made famous by Ayrton Senna's dominant drive from fifth to first on the opening lap. Donington was also a regular venue for MotoGP from 1987 to 2009.
For sportscar racing, Donington hosted a round of the 2001 European Le Mans Series, won by Audi Sport Team Joest with Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello. The 2006 Le Mans Series 1000 km event was among the notable sportscar races the circuit hosted during its Wheatcroft-ownership era.
Pole position was claimed by the number 12 Courage Compétition entry with a lap time of 1:20.756. The fastest lap during the race was set by the number 9 Creation Autosportif car, recording 1:21.527. The race average speed was 167.211 km/h.
Courage Compétition was a racing team and chassis constructor based in Le Mans, France, founded by Yves Courage in 1981. In 2006 the team ran a two-car effort in the Le Mans Series with backing from Yokohama Rubber Company and Mugen Motorsports, fielding the new Courage LC70 LMP1 chassis fitted with Mugen V8 engines. Creation Autosportif was an Oxford-based team that had competed in the series since 2004. For 2006 their DBA 03S chassis was upgraded and rehomologated as the Creation CA06/H with Judd engines. At Donington Park that year, Creation fielded a second CA06/H entry and managed to take both second and third place overall in the race.
Class winners were designated in bold in the official results. Cars that failed to complete at least 70 percent of the winner's distance were marked as Not Classified.