Official LeMans thread (spoilers)

1972 all over again?
























With Ferrari winning every WSC except for Le Mans. Why were four Ferrari 312PBs on the entry list, but didn't race?

http://wsrp.ic.cz/wsc1972.html

 

Due to the strong rainfall that flooded the circuit in the last hour of the race, the Race Directors, led by Daniel Poissenot, decided to neutralize the race and deployed the safety cars for 50 minutes. It was a decision that didn't affect the outcome of the race. The first priority of all teams was to finish the race safely.

The team of Peugeot No.8 had a huge warning, when the engine displayed some problems in the last hour. But 22 minutes before the checkered flag, Sebastian Bourdais was able to enter the track and ensure the second place finish for Team Peugeot Total and his teammates Sarrazin and Lamy. The French prototype finished 8 laps behind the Audi, but can be proud of a strong podium finish in its first 24 Hour entry.

Pescarolo Sport finishes on the podium for the third year in a row, this year with the driver lineup of Collard, Dumas, and Boullion. This is the second consecutive win for this exact driver lineup from Audi Sport.

Even if each car spent time in their garages near the end of the race, the only two finishers in LM P2, the No.
31 Binnie Motorsports Lola-Zytek with Binnie, Timpany, and Buncombe at the wheel, and the No.33 Barazi Epsilon Zytek 07S/2 driven by Fernandez, Kurozawa, and Kerr finished the race in that order.

In LM GT1, Aston Martin proves that the third time is the charm. The British make, with the help of Prodrive and the driver lineup of Brabham, Rydell, and Turner, break the reign of Corvette with a win in class and fifth place overall.

While LM GT2 was dominated by Ferrari, the 75th Edition of the 24 Hours was won by the Porsche No.76 IMSA Performance Matmut and drivers Long, Narac, and Lietz. They returned the title to the Stuttgart manufacturer after the win by Panoz last year.

 

The SC was dumb. The lack of one could have affected the race.

It is nice to see a car manufacturer in LMP1 after Audi won it by default a few times.

 

I assume the winning GT2 Porsche was a 997 GT3RSR (vs 996). Finally, despite being slower (again), it brings home the big one versus the consistently quicker F430. Was it the (nemisis) Melo's car in the lead when it broke down?

I hope Porsche isn't going to concede GT2 mediocrity in favor of worrying about P2 in ALMS.

Too bad the Murci broke down and didn't give GT1 even more interest.

And then the big question of whether Porsche and/or Acura will show up at next year's race. I sure hope so. That would have made every class with a real showdown. This year LMP2 seemed the odd man out without a major manufacturer's battle. I know it is supposed to be the privateer's class, but people want to see the big dogs scrapping, like Audi vs Pugeot, Chevy vs Aston, and Porsche vs Ferrari.

Anyone know if they will reshow any of the race on Speed at some point? There are portions I missed that I would like to catch.

In general, I can't believe how little press Le Mans gets in the US and how hard it is to find anyone talking about it.

 

Sorry I missed the race but does anybody know what happened to the Ferraris in GT2? I thought they were leading and dominating most of the race. Then I checked the results and saw that the Porsche team won!
Please tell me what happened!

 

As far as I know the leading Ferrari had a major cooling system failure which couldn't be repaired.

 

Just got back from the annual pilgrimage. For those that haven’t been and the opportunity presents itself to go, it’s well worth the effort, it’s the best race in the world imho. Drove down on Thursday with a few friends, which in itself is a great journey with lots of exotic cars on route, and some nice cafes to enjoy. Seems like most of the UK’s population was heading down. It’s a great opportunity to meet other race fans along with a few fellow UK marshals who were working the race, talking to them was a great way to catch up on what’s been going on.

The weekend went by in a blur, highlights were the legends race on Saturday morning. They really do give those cars ten tenths and it makes you cringe seeing a GT40 cut through a gravel trap and bounce 3 foot in the air! For the race itself watching the cars on track while the sun sets and dawn breaks are always amazing experiences. We try to walk the track as much as possible at these times, and spend the night in the grandstands opposite the pits. Really glad the bad weather held off for most of the race, we were expecting a large portion of the night to be done under pace car. The final green flag laps were terrifying, especially for the Aston fans, who expect the worst. The standing water was big problem and we were half expecting to see some cars aquaplane off at any time.

Congrats to Audi for the win, and also Peugeot for going the distance. Poor luck for McNish, I was really hoping he’d get a win this year, to me he was Audi’s unofficial lead driver this year, it’s just a shame the essential element of luck at Le Mans was not with him. Delighted to see Aston win, they’ve been so fast in previous years but not been able to finish the deal, finally they do! Nice to see Corvette get a serious challenge, from their preparation in ALMS I thought they’d walk it this year (that'll teach them to put Corvette Racing stickers on the Aston team boss's DB9 ) . The best part is Corvette will just return stronger. Desperately sorry for the Flying Lizards guys, they deserved a great result and it seemed had the pace of the GT2 field at one time. Any team that treats their fans like Flying Lizard do gets full support from me. Also great to see Martin Short and Rollcenter Racing finish in 4th in LMP1

Unfortunately it was my most expensive Le Mans ever this year after my laptop and camera went for a swim in the downpour during Thursday qualification, along with everything else in my tent .This meant I didn’t get any pics of the Flying Lizard colour scheme oh and I need some new rears on my car after celebrating Aston’s win, well it’s the done thing!

Absolutely exhausted now, hope this all makes at least some sense, going to watch a recording of the race and find out exactly what happened.

Hope to possibly see some of you next year.

Regards

 

Thanks.

 

Strange race for sure - don't know how many times I ended up soaked only to dry off and get wet again. Never slept Saturday night - took the bus excursion to Arnage and Mulsanne, got dropped off at the little bar that's the "headquarters" - met some folks from the UK - had several beers and wanderded back to watch the race after a ferris wheel ride at 4:15 am. Left the track with about 4 hours to go (rain coming down again - ugh!) - went into town got something to eat, caught an earlier train to Charles de Gaulle Airport and called our son for udates on the USGP. At first we thought it might be an all out sprint race but obviously not the case. The real racing in GT2 was Risi 97, Scuderia Ecosse, Flying Lizard and Matmut. Af Corse lost a wheel in front of us at daybreak (at the esses - across the Dunlop bridge); the green Ferrari never seemed to compete against anyone; drive shafts plagued the 430's again. I felt really bad for Dindo when the tire came off - I was so hoping for a win for Audi #2. Glad for David to get the win in the Aston. (Don't know what happened to the Saleens - we saw them run in April at Monza and they performed much better than they did this weekend. The rain sure kept the tire changers busy. The driver's parade Friday evening occurred despite the intermittent rain - the parade of super cars was fantastic unfortunately John had my camera and wasn't right upfront with me. Rik was driving his SLR 722 - beautiful car! I have photos on the camera (mostly from the pit walk on Friday) - I'll try to get them downloaded asap as we are off to Italy on Thursday for the celebration for 60 Years of Ferrari.

Carol

 

correction - it was GPC who lost the wheel . . .

Carol

 

T2M Motorsport (P2 team) first tested/received their Dome S101.5 Mader in early May. The Radical SR9 crashed (http://www.radicalmotorsport.com/news_folder/spa_2007/index.php).

P2 had a manufacturer's battle. It was Lola, Zytek, Radical, Courage, Dome, etc.

 

Some photos of the ferraris at Le Mans:

http://provamodena.blogspot.com/

Regards,

Manuel Taboada