Le Mans Series – Barcelona – Final Hour
All The Way
© Janos Wimpffen

To run the risk of repeating on some of these; No. 4 Pescarolo is out because of clutch problems. The No. 6 Courage-Oreca has had major starter motor problems and is just running in test mode. Starter problems killed its sister car, No. 5. The No. 44 Kruse-Schiller Mazola has cooked its water. The No. 3 car has retired because, well, it’s a Lavaggi. The Chamberlain Synergy may have terminal gearshift problems.

Jan-Dirk Leuders: “The first two stints the car was very nervous with oversteer into the corners and understeer out of it [explains the spins]. After the second stint they took off one of the dive planes and the car became much more pointable.”

Gareth Evans: “I felt like death warmed up all weekend. I told the team that after a double I wouldn’t get back in. So Hugh made me do a triple.”

Gianmaria Bruni: “We’re going very well. I’m leading again. We’ve had another incident. This time it came with an LM P2 Porsche. He punted me off and into the gravel, breaking the front splitter.”

Marc Gene is experiencing some pain in his right leg so Nicolas Minassian will take the lead Peugeot to the end. The P2 class Saulnier entry has had a long stop and has lost 4th in class to the RML Lola MG. These two events appear to represent the final half-hour dramas.

There is another flourish as Xavier Pompidou is putting on a charge. The second place Lola won’t catch the presumptive P2 class winning Porsche, but near the end he ties the fast lap in P2 of Verstappen down to the thousandth of a second. Barcelona will represent a second and a third place finish on the first run of the new Lola Coupes—party in Huntingdon.

Both Audis took on splashes during the closing minutes. It did not effect their now solid 2nd and 5th place, respectively. It’s been a good race, a good intro to 2008, and a good crowd. The announced crowd was 28,000—a figure deemed likely by the photog crew (if one believes that they are capable of counting).

The timing is perfect. Minassian crosses the line the 214th time with just under two minutes to go. The race concludes to its full length. Ole!

Post-Race Conclusions
Audi beaten by Peugeot, and by another diesel, for the first time

Peugeot continues its unbeaten run in the LMS

Lola gets podium finishes in two classes by brand new cars on their race debuts

Marc Gene wins his home race!

The Porsche RS Spyder wins on its European debut

Judd gets a podium finish for the new LMP2 engine on its debut

Aston Martin’s V12 grabs a podium finish on its LMP1 debut

Larbre Competition scores a podium finish with its fourth different GT1 car (Viper, Ferrari 550, Aston Martin DBR9 and now Saleen S7R).

IPB Spartak scorse Lamborghini’s first LMS podium finish in GT1

Virgo Motorsport scores yet another GT2 win with the Ferrari 430 GTC

The new Courage Oreca LC70 leads on its debut

The two leading LMP2 finishers match fastest race laps to the thousandth of a second

Just one of the top six finishers in the LMP2 class raced in the series last season

The Epsilon Euskadi, LMP2 Pescarolo, 2008 LC70, Spyker Laviolette, WR Zytek and the AIM V10 engine all finish on their debuts.