72nd Le Mans 24 Hours - Hours 19, 20, 21
We are struggling
- both to find the energy to write lucidly, and to find something
exciting to write about.
We learn that
the no 16 RfH Dome has had its fifth gear cluster replacement, which
is in stark contrast to the way the drivers in the lead car last
year looked after their gears for 24 hours. The Firman / Wilson
car has dropped behind the GT class leader, which is still the Freisinger
Porsche, after the two problems that hit the Petersen car.
'These F1 guys,'
you could think to yourself. Tom Kristensen and Guy Smith are grinding
out some blindingly quick laps, even at this stage, but it is stalemate
again at the front. Stalemate in GTS too.
And the stalemate
continues, apart from the fact that the 17 Pescarolo Judd is retired
from the race: some might argue that this is a form of justice.
“I was
the faster car, he should have got out of the way.”
That’s
what Sebastien Bourdais told Speed Channel about the contact he
had with the Rollcentre Racing Dallara in the Dunlop Curves, an
incident which almost certainly led directly to the later accident
which left the Dallara seriously damaged, Martin Short in the medical
centre and Rollcentre Racing’s dreams of a good finish shattered.
Whether or not Bourdais was faster does not excuse contact:, a
word of remorse with regard to the incident would surely have been
more appropriate than the words the Frenchman actually used.
The facts are simple – Short was pushing on in defence of
fourth place, while Bourdais was on a recovery drive some seven
laps adrift. Immediately behind him at the time of the incident
was the similarly recovering #8 Audi R8.
If Bourdais really believed his stance was correct then why did
he not allow the clearly quicker Audi by?
“Because he’s a racing driver,” was the response
offered by several when this debating point was fielded.
The response implies that from a racing driver’s perspective,
either deliberate contact is justifiable or that it is acceptable
to divorce yourself from the consequences of your actions, deliberate
or otherwise, so long as you have a greater professional standing
than the victim. Surely there cannot be widespread acceptance of
either.
It is of course particularly disappointing that a driver fielded
by a cash strapped French privateer with a huge crowd following
was responsible for the removal from the race of a similar undertaking
from the UK.
Joao
Barbosa on the accident:
“I haven’t seen the (first) accident where the car finished
in the gravel, but sometimes there is unavoidable contact, particularly
with so much traffic and slower cars. Every time I am on the track
I try to make room for a faster car that is coming through, by lifting
off a little or braking earlier. There is no point in racing them
when it is not for position in a race that is this long.”
On the
car coming into the race:
“I knew we could do well here. The car is well developed and
we know plenty about what the tyres can do too. Sebring proved our
pace and we knew we could do it again here too.”
On the
Dallara's performance in the race:
“We had some understeer problems from the start and the car
was a little slower than we’d have liked as a result. Our
lap times suffered a little. At one of the pit stops we made a change
at the front of the car and after that it was really nice. I could
set quicker times and the car was just fantastic.”
On Rollcentre
Racing:
“The team is wonderful. Everyone gets on very well together,
it is like a family and everyone wants to do well. For a team new
to a car like the Dallara their work has been fantastic. Everybody
works incredibly hard.”
On the
car after the race:
“The car is a mess. Martin tells me there is a hole in the
tub where the wishbone came through and hurt his leg. Thankfully
there is a second car but there will be a lot of work in the next
few weeks if we are going to make the Nurburgring.”
At 11.40, four
hours 20 minutes from the end, the 66 Care Racing Ferrari has a
puncture, left front, near the start of the lap. Tomas Enge crawls
home, but unusually, the punctured tyre (and wheel) don't rotate.
Enge grinds his way round to the pit, and the GTS class leader is
pulled into the garage, for some fairly lengthy work. A five lap
lead suddenly doesn't seem very safe at all. Olivier Beretta immediately
cuts his times from 3:57 to 3:56, then 55... as he knocks the laps
off one by one.
To add to the
drama, just when we didn't think we were due any, Jamie Davies spins
at the Dunlop Chicane, from a position right behind Kristensen (who
is exactly a lap ahead).
Then Thomas
Erdos is spotted going very slowly in the RML Lola B160, just as
TK pits and changes to Dindo Capello.
At midday, Beretta
knocks off the last lap to pull Corvette level - and pits, just
as the 66 Ferrari is rolled out of its garage... and they leave
the pits together, Magnussen a few seconds ahead of Menu. Game on.
And it's a game
that Magnussen looks to have upper hand in, he draws away from the
550 steadily.
Fiona Miller
tells us that the cause of the 550's woes was a seized wheel bearing,
which locked he wheel solid. The tyre damage was then inevitable
and there is damage to the front splitter too, caused by the car's
(necessarily) rather abrasive return to the pits.
Britpack update
-
Ian Dawson on
the No 4 Taurus Lola Judd - "She's run beautifully all day,
no problems at all. Let's see if we can bring it home. We've just
got a clutch problem right now which means we'll struggle to start
the car from the pits. But once it's going it's fine."
Dawson's words
are brought into sharp focus immediately as Didier Andre pits, struggles
to restart, grinds to a halt at the pit exit and rolls back down
into the pit lane - the car is put into the garage for attention.
Christian Vann
- No 4 Lola "Of course we always knew we couldn't compete on
pace but we also knew that if we could put together a reliable run
we could finish well up. We've still got to look after the car for
a while yet though."
Bob Berridge
- No 89 Chamberlain Synergy TVR - "I've spent every minute
that I've not been in the car on the pit wall. My nerves won't stand
it."
Michael Caine - 89 TVR - "We've had problems
throughout the race with pick up on the tyres, other than that all
we've had on 89 is a holed rad and a broken exhaust. The car is
great though."
David Dowse - TM Morgan Works team - "We've
had just a couple of sily problems since Neil's adventure yesterday,
a trhrottle cable and a holed rad from a bit of kerb hopping. We've
passed 8:30am though which is when the car retired in 2002 - I was
trying not to look at my watch around then."
The RML MG Lola is in trouble again, Thomas Erdos
reports that it may be a piston but the team is checking - It's
been a very long Le Mans for Ray Mallock's crew.n
The lead car pits - Dindo Capello aboard
and as he pulls away a small fire erupts around the fuel filler
- Capello looks to make a hasty exit and then thinks better of it
- the fire is extinguished immediately, the car pulled back the
few metres to the pit and a quick check is made before despatching
Capello back on track, still ahead but in a race to the finish,
every little helps.
Pierre Kaffer is forced into a grassy excursion
in the No 8 Audi as he stumbles over Rick Sutherland in the Intersport
Lola B2K/40 Judd.
Another class lead changes as the 85 Freisinger
car hits oil feed problems. The Petersen etc Porsche retakes the
lead it lost hours ago.
The Cirtek Ferrari 360 is in the gravel at the entrance
to the Porsche Curves with Hugenholtz at the wheel.
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