Any Le Mans Drivers/Owners on F-Chat?

I did. Spicy helped out too. Seeing her haul around rain tires at the track told me that she was the right one for me.
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Nice shot of Road Atlanta!

 

that big grin says it all!! i knew it was fun !!!! i did ! i did !

 

My schedules still stink, but I am making an effort to be able to go racing/play with cars on the weekend more...

 

Cleaning the brake intakes on Kevin Crowders car (Challenge Endurance Champion in 2002). I bet the good Doc Earles car is not more than 50 feet from where you were working........Along with Bill Rands, Paul Frames, Forrest Barber and a few more FoH/FoD cars......

 

Doc didn't run the full season and wasn't at Atlanta. I want to say it was 2001. Forrest was in a 355 that year. The Hanks were both running 360s.

FoH/FoD won crew of the weekend that race, I was the only one Seibert recognized in the crowd and was asked to accept it. Still looking for a photo of it.

 

Great read guys. I have attended all of the Lemans races at Mosport here in Toronto and always enjoyed the RISI Comp. cars
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Has anyone solve the Roland Linder / Le Mans mystery? Roland?

 

\Nice pics. Did you notice how small they made the 360GT run the restrictors? The stock ones were almost twice the size of the race ones. If they had been allowed to open up a little the Porsche domination might have been a little less overpowering. Anthony and Ralf were a good combination of drivers. They complimented each others driving skills.

Judge4re,

Ah yes, the Hanks. Did you hear about the time they had their F50 flown in from Mexico to one of the Challenge races so they would have a car to get around town in? Wouldn't you just love it????

 

Great thread. Kram, did you ever race against Peter Hardman ?

 

Yes, I did. I seem to remember either Peter or the fellow in front of him reversing over the finish line in Donington at a Formual Ford race in '83. It was my first visit to the track so I was quite impressed by that particular line.

 

I'll pass on your comments when i see him at the w-end. This is what he's up to these days .

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75370&highlight=246s+dino

 

Many thanks for the link - I’m at the end of an ancient phone line at the moment, I’ll download it when I can.

I had a look at some old results - Donning, March 27th 1983 - Peter was hammering it out for 3rd with Andy Middlehurst and on the last corner on the last lap they came together. Peter’s car came out the worst, it was Andy that reversed across the finish line. I had the best view in the house - I was following the two of them and ended up with a surprise 4th place.

So...... He might not thank you for reminding him of the race!

 

I'll deffo remind him .

Rgds
Tony

 

Hey what happened to this thread. It's a great thread. Don't let it disappear into oblivion, we've got something going here, and I've enjoyed every part of it.

Cyrus

 

And the question remains.....

 

He hasn't logged on since December 24...

 

I was hoping someone had at least a story about parallel parking a Pontiac Le Mans at Safeways.

Come on!

Let’s hear it!

 

Pretty hard to top your stories...great stuff!

 

What great stories!

Was this "Thread of the Month?!" I don't know how I missed it until now...

 

I remember one story of I believe it was 2002 when one Doc Steve Earle, who has been Ferrari Challenge National Champion several times drove a Porsche there. He told me about a Nissan( I believe that was the manufacturer) coming up on him quickly as they entered one of the turns and the Nissan driver lost it and flipped. As Doc was making his turn, the Nissan came over the top of his Porsche upside down and actually scraped the roof of his car leaving paint marks. He said it hit the ground right beside him and kept spinning. He lost it from his vision as he exited the turn. Heard the other driver was okay. Image being roof to roof with another car at LeMans......Reminds of the opening of "Top Gun".

 

Since a few people asked, I will try to give some background on how I got where I am.

1.) Started in high school working for Skip Barber in summertime, etc. From this moved onto Bob Sharp Racing while in college. Worked with Bob Sharp, Gene Crowe, "Fitzy" (Driver) and one PLN (Paul Newman.) NOt bad ofr a 20 year old engineering student.

2.) Graduated and went to work for Sikorsky designing helo's. Met a guy who worked as a mechanics for Bobby Unser at Indy, who knew Dan Gurney. He called Dan and set up an interview for me.

3.) Meet Dan Gurney and crew/ interviewed with them. Flew home from CA. to CT. and had an offer on the answering machine!

4.) Worked with Dan on the Toyota GTP cars. Was one of the desgners of the last GTP car they did-the one that just kicked ass over everyone.

5.) Went to Nissan to work on the last Group C car they made-the P35, which never raced as a Nissan. (Wound up running as a "Momo" car a couple yars later.)

6.) Then did a stint at Swift, working on Atlantic cars and the Swift Wind Tunnel.

7.) From there I would up at Bobby Rahal's Team as senior designer. This would be the early Honda years, then the Mercedes/Ilmor, then the Ford!

8.) Got a call from Patrick Head at Williams asking me to visit him to discuss a project they had. Meet with Patrick, he "hemmed and hawed" that he wasn't in a position to offer a job, couldn't give details of program, etc. Just wanted to sound me out. Result-He offered a position that day and I accepted.

9.) Off to England to work with Williams Motorsports on the BMW LMP program. This would be 98, 99 and 2000. Program shut down as BMW decided to focus on F1. Williams offered me a spot on the F1 program,but I turned him down for next reason.

10.) Offered position as Technical director of Panoz Motorsports. We had a deal to do a proper LMP car with Ford backing and Cosworth power. Cosworth had started to design an engine to my configuration. (A 144 Degree V10 2- valve turbo with the exhaust ports on top and intake below the head!) {Need to understand the ACO rules to undestand engine}
The program died when Don Panoz got rid of the acting general manager (Who had gotten the program.) and told Ford he wasn't going to have any Panoz with a rear engine! I stayed on with Panoz, working on the LMP program, Trans Am car, IRL car, etc. and wound up as technical director for all of Elan Technologies.

11.) I decided to go on my own after the headache at Panoz and wound up as technical director for Team Goh. Ran an Audi at LeMans 2003 (4th overall) and then won it in 2004.

12.) I now contract out with a Canadian Company called MTC, in which I work with Ford on all non Nascar race programs. I also do engineering work on the Panoz GTLM Esperante, some Daytona Prototype cars, I also did (do) a lot of wind tunnel work for a Nascar manufacturer, I helped design the latest Lola LMP car, and I will also be running a Maserati MC12 with Team Goh in Japan for the Japanese Super GT Series in 2006. Finally I have a contract to design a small "D/C" sports racer type car for a non US series. So I am a bit busy!!

13.) I also have my own Formula Ford 2000 (95 Van Diemen) that I just bought and plan to try to race sometime this year.

14.) My education is in mechanical and aerospace engineering.

15.) All this makes it sound a lot simpler and straight forward than it was. I have left out a lot of detail but it gives a bit of history as too how I wound up being a race car designer.

 

Fascinating thread gents. Thanks for the real insights. I have been a spectator at Le Mans most years since 1984 and it is quite the most fantistic event to visit. The atmosphere is just amazing. Believe or not every year 60 - 80,000 Brits head over to France for the race and the party. The last two years I have taken my Dino on the trip. For me and the 30 or so people in our trip it is the highlight of the year.

Mal