Team NASAMAX – Le Mans 2004
The Race - Part ll

Werner Lupberger’s wishes for a boring race with uninterrupted stints may have come true after all.

The hours leading up to the half way stage have seen the team settle into a pattern of multiple stints for each of the three drivers, the DM139 no longer troubled by the earlier race problems - except the continuing misfire.

At 2100, Robbie Stirling had been in 38th position. By dawn, the car had reached 20th position, despite the drivers having to live with the misfire that has plagued the normally (and still) reliable Judd engine.

Werner Lupberger took over during a yellow caution period. The stop saw the Astek supported car in position 34, and the team took the opportunity to modify the engine mapping.

The next regular stops for fuel and tyres saw four more places drop away and the car in 30th after 8 hours and 47 minutes of running (at 00.47 hours).

Werner completed a solid treble stint and made use of a tyre change to hand over:

“You need to carry more speed into the corner to work with the misfire, but it’s very interesting out there. There are people flying off all over the place, perhaps a few who are new to Le Mans, plus the track is so dirty, worse than ever.

“I love the night driving, it’s so much fun. I like Indianapolis at night, I think it’s the scariest bit. You can’t see a thing and then there is this fast corner. I like scary stuff I guess ...”

Kevin McGarrity then put in a quadruple stint (four times 10 laps), with consistent laps in the 3 minute 50s. After an hour, there was a worry when the starter motor would not engage. The engine was still misfiring and now using a little more fuel, possibly because of the air temperature.

As a precaution because of the misfire, the stints were shortened to 9 laps, although the team had by now settled on a Dunlop tyre compound that suited the balance of the car.

At 03.19 the car was in 22nd position.

“We tried two sets of tyres,” said a relaxed Kevin McGarrity, when he got out of the car.
“The second set was so much better than the first. I’d had that type twice. We may need to play with compounds again as the sun comes up.”

Since then, stops have been on schedule for fuel, oil and tyres, leading to the half way position of 20th, on 169 laps, a great recovery by the team and drivers and a chance to show that wholly renewable fuel such as bio-ethanol can run competitively in the top levels of international motorsport.