Petit Pre-Race

Storms, Rebuilds, Downforce, Strategy, and Credentialgate

The weather forecast ranges between wet and very wet with a pop of clear, making for the likelihood that this will be the first edition of the Petit Le Mans to reach the 10-hour time limit rather than the 1000-miles. There is also a good chance that we will have extended caution periods, meaning that the timing of stops may be where we see most of the changes of lead and greatly influence the outcome.

It can be expected that most teams will opt for low downforce setups, which seems to have been taken to extremes by the Robertson Ford, which lost its rear deck on the out lap of warm-up. That team, lead by David Murry, is by far and way the fan favorite this weekend. Their stunning qualifying performance, along with the LG Corvette, speaks volumes for the strength and variety of GT2 racing.

We’ve lost two Prototypes even before the start. The Eco Warrior team was concerned that the high temperatures were keeping the engine from getting up to power. Had they waited another night they would have found raceday temperatures dropping by about 20 degrees F.

An even more odd tale comes from the Van der Steur team. According to several though yet unconfirmed sources, a member of the team left the circuit and then realized that she had left her hard card credential in the team trailer. She borrowed someone else’s card to reenter and the person at the gate noticed the discrepancy in the photos. The identification was confiscated and the team fined $500. Apparently, cool heads did not prevail, there was some sort of a standoff and the known ending was that the Van der Steur left the premises at 6 pm yesterday.

The situation is much happier at Highcroft as the No. 9 is running well in the warm-up. David Brabham is doing the warm-up laps. 

JW