Le Mans 24 Hours - Hours 10-12
Towards Halfway

The Virgo Ferrari has had no power steering for some time.

SAFETY CAR - the first of the the race - the #6 Courage Oreca is off the circuit somewhere out in the darkness - Ah it has hit the wall at the exit of the Porsche curves close to the point where Marc gene had his Test Day accident, Marcel Fassler is at the wheel, the car has hit the wall, no tyre protection at that point, backwards.  He is at the moment still in the car.

The #6 car was lying in tenth place when Fassler's accident happened, the sister #5 car meanwhile pits, from seventh place, lead petrol car, and is pushed into the box for attention.  The team have decided to deal with a recalcitrant clutch whilst the time damage is restricted by a safety car.

The KSM Lola Mazda has been in the pit to repair defective rear lights.

The #63 Corvette takes the lead in GT1 for a lap before pitting again.

The #82 Risi Ferrari was another car badly affected by the Dome pouring out oil, the screen requiring two attempts to clear the screen.

The Safety Car is withdrawn after 33 minutes and we're racing again.  Marcel Fassler has been taken to the medical centre, apparently winded but not otherwise injured.

The #25 RML MG Lola is being fuelled ahead of a return to action, Andy Wallace at the wheel, this just after Andy had told Martin Little:

“We’ve had all manner of problems. But, as you see with the guys, RML will never give up. But we have lost so much time now, you have to wonder what we can do. We had a pretty big slide up at the Porsche curves and it’s done lots of damage to the car. These things can happen, the same thing happened to me on the first day. But, you never give up in a 24 hour race; as soon as the guys have fixed the car I’ll be going out in it, but our biggest concern now is the 70% distance rule. The lead cars are going to do about 400 laps, so we have to do 280 laps or we won’t be classified anyway. If we can’t get the car out in the next hour things will be difficult.”

Another Lola though, the #12 Charouz Lola Judd is in some trouble with low oil pressure and clutch problems. Jan Lammers brings it in and the team pull the car into the box.  The car is a retirement, the engine seemingly blown.

The #55 Lamborghini is back in the garage again after a trying day (and night) for the IPB Spartak squad.

The Dome though rejoins after its massive oil leak, gearbox related we believe, was repaired.

At 1am there are still battles aplenty underway. McNish in the #2 Audi lost out with the Safety Car and is now just over 2 minutes behind the leading #7 Peugeot.

The GT1 lead battle is now for 16th place overall, Darren Turner is now 14 seconds clear of Ron Fellows, DT has just set the fastest GT1 lap of the race so far, a 3:49.387

Virgo Motorsport engineers have revealed the car has been hauled up the leader board in GT2 and is turning decent laps despite a complete lack of power steering since the second pit stop. Tim Mullen is currently in the car and circulating consistently, though a little time was lost when one of the front air jacks collapsed in the middle of a stop.

Hard work for the drivers, who are currently double stinting, but they’re hanging in there in second in GT2 and if the Risi Ferrari has a problem will pick up the pieces.

The #8 Peugeot seems to be getting all of the bad diesel luck, into the box with starter trouble. It drops behind the #17 Pescarolo, #5 Courage and #16 Pescarolo and now lies 8 laps behind the leader.

The #1 Audi pits out of sequence for tyres only - a low tyre pressure warning looks the likely reason.

On the retirement of the Muscle Milk Charouz Racing Lola-Judd,

Jan Lammers: “It started after the accident with the Courage under the safety car. Coming under the Dunlop Bridge and down through the Esses my throttle stuck wide open, which is a bit of a fright when you are in a line of traffic. I managed to control the car and brake against the throttle for about half a lap, but it didn’t sound right. And because you’re running behind the safety car you never know, so we came in and checked everything and went out again. Then when the lights went green I started racing with the others and then noticed it was really wrong – by then the engine had swallowed a valve.”

“I have raced with so many Judd engines here, it’s so unusual to have this sort of a problem at this stage in the race, but then the problem may not have actually been the engine itself, we don’t know yet.”

“Will I come back again next year? I think it’s too difficult for me to stay away from this race.”

Lucas Luhr wakes up a few people with a lurid spin at Mulsanne Corner. Among thus quite nonplussed by his action were the crew of Audi No. 3. They didn’t even stir from their slumber in the garage area. Indeed the car recovered fine—kein problem.

The No. 20 EE is back on the circuit after a hours and hours (six of them) long stop to rebuild the gearbox. A prior denizen of the pits, the No. 10 Charouz Lola, is now quite fast, and indeed has climbed into the top 18—which represents the front page of the ACO timing screen. The crew did bring the car back to the garage for a broad once over before another return to racing. The No. 6 Courage is now officially retired, in case there was any doubt.

McNish is wrapping up a “short” stint into the No. 2 Oh-Dee and still going like stink. His 3:27s are the fastest on the track by a long shot. He’s two seconds per lap faster than any of the three Pogos. It’s quite a contrast as the 908 trio are sluggardly—pushing 3:30.

Ray Mallock reports that while the No. 25 Lola looks ok from the outside, it’s not raceworthy. “It’s porposing, lost several body mounts, and is generally unsafe to continue. We’re withdrawing.”

The No. 2 Audi’s fight is somewhat mimicked in GT1. The third place No. 007 Aston Martin is the fastest in the class, indeed setting the fast lap in the class at the 7-1/2 hour mark.

Nicolas Minassian had a nearly race changing moment at 2:05 in the morning. He pirouettes the leading No. 7 Peugeot at the exit of the Ford Chicane.

Even the PP1 class is tight and fragile. Laurent Groppi makes a fairly standard call in the No. 5 Courage, and relinquishes the top petrol-loaded position to the No. 17 Pescarolo, now with Benoit Tremblay aboard.

The LM P2 contest is stable, just reversed from what it was a few hours ago. Now the No. 34 Porsche heads the Essex by about a lap. The No. 33 Lola-Judd spent a long time in the garage, was speedy for a while, and then went back in the garage. The team report that the issue is electrical and related to the gearchange.

The once mighty Porsches are off the charts in GT2, behind a Ferrari sweep. These include Risi, Virgo, BMS, and Farnbakrohn, or is it Krohnbacher? The fourth place in GT2 is occupied by the No. 90 F430 that started life as a Farnbacher entry but has cannibalized body parts from the departed and organ donor Risi entry. Nice to know that Tracy’s spirit lives on.

At 2:30 there is an incident on the run to Indianapolis as Jean de Pourtales has pulled off in the oft-troubled Kruse Schiller Lola-non whining Mazda. It appears to be a retirement as de Pourtales has stepped out and looking at the underbody that is emanated puffs of smoke.

The approach of the halfway point offers a bit of reflection and pattern finding. We do have the expected tactical battle between the diesel teams. Although there have been chinks in the Peugeot charge, really only the No. 8 car has suffered significant delays—thus far. It’s close. The Peugeots are clearly faster, but not by the margin some predicted. The Audis are more frugal, but not by the margin that some predicted.

The Porsches have proven more reliable than some expected. Significantly, they have reached the maximum success thus far for the new Spyder, i.e, the 12 Hours of Sebring. The Judds are not quite on their pace and short of a Porsche meltdown, one or the other will take the class. The lower levels of the class are experiencing some glitches these hours, placing LM P2 at a fulcrum point. It may at last have finishers higher than the production based categories—or it may melt down again—or maybe all but the Porsches will finish.

GT1, a class nearly moribound in some circles, is providing perhaps the most thrilling contest of the weekend. Note that many teams have swapped from Porsches to Ferraris in GT2 in recent years. The wisdom of that decision is quite noteworthy here.

As we move to halfway in this race the #4 Saulnier Pescarolo is in the garage, after a remarkably reliable, if pedestrian run thus far.