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Le Mans 24 Hours –
Warm-Up Notes There’s mixed news this morning with bright sunshine, light cloud and 52 cars fit for the start of 45-minute warm-up session. Stuart Hall, slightly stiff but otherwise OK, was due out in the warm-up in the rebuilt #14 Creation AIM but was in early trouble with a starter motor reluctant to live up to its billing. Marc Goossens: “We found a problem with one of the rear dampers; the input shaft was sticking and this meant we were grounding at some parts of the circuit. But this is fixed now. In terms of race pace, “ For us it’s hard to say. We didn’t get too much running in the Thursday session because there were a lot of little problems. We will just get out there, settle down and see.” Stephane Daoudi was aboard the previously crumpled #99 JMB Ferrari and Hideki Noda was ready to go with the final touches being made to the #55 Kruse-Schiller Motorsport Lola Mazda. One car in trouble though is the #20 Epsilon Euskadi, the team, pointedly unwilling to discuss the issue, are apparently awaiting a new Judd V10 to replace that most unusual of things, a broken Judd. The #76 IMSA Performance is in the process of a minor rebuild after the team discovered a fluid leak. “No drama, just being careful,” says Pat Long. Miguel Amaral has ground to a halt in the Quifel ASM Lola AER on the run down to the Porsche Curves. Seth Neiman has a big moment under braking into the first Mulsanne chicane, the car going straight on but avoiding the tyre wall in the escape road by bumping over the gravel trap, he continues at a much reduced pace. The Virgo Ferrari is also reported to be running slowly on track but it pits, seemingly without drama, Tim Sugden at the wheel. Midway through the session and we’re up to 54 mobile cars as the KSM Lola makes its way back on track with Noda at the wheel. “Unbelievable, totally proud of my crew, all of the suppliers and Lola.” A great effort to effectively rebuild an entire car after Noda’s horrendous multiple roll on Thursday. In terms of session times the session ended with (again) a Peugeot 1,2,3, #9 with a 3:20.332 and the remaining pair in the 3:22s. The three Audis were next up, McNish in the #2 car in the 3:23.319 (fastest Audi time of the meeting thus far!) and the remaining pair in the 3:25s. “That’s real race pace from us,” said a slightly jaded McNish, reportedly disturbed from his slumbers earlier this morning by a pair of amorous pigeons. Fastest of the petrol runners was the Dome, a car that had been in some gearbox troubles, a 3:33.1 best of the session ahead of the Lola Aston and the #6 Courage Oreca. Simon Dunnett of Zytek Engineering who supply the electronic gearshift systems for the car gave us the lowdown on the Dome: “Everything is ready – the gearbox is changed and we have been building new clusters in case of further problems. The team knows the car very well already as most of the parts of the car were designed and built by them, down to the smallest detail. If there are problems we have plenty of spares.” How far can they go? “We had a really good test at Spa and have a very good race pace, even though we only managed about three clear laps in qualifying. We expect to be up there with the fastest petrol cars and make a statement. We are not necessarily worried about reliability, but it’s our first time and Le Mans is a tough race.” The impression is that this is a well prepared team. We will see. LMP2 was again a Porsche 1,2, the Essex racing car (3:38.105) ahead of the van Merksteijn RS Spyder (Peter van Merksteijn having a brief spin at the Dunlop Esses late in the session) with the Barazi Epsilon Zytek third fastest. GT1 was headed by the #009 Aston (3:50.489) with the factory Corvettes next up, Gavin in #64 in the 3:50s, fellows in #63 in the 3:53s. Darren Turner: “We’ve kept a bit of a low profile during qualifying, but we’re pretty happy. Last year we had a bit of an edge over the Corvettes but I would say this year that little advantage has swung back to them. That said, this is Le Mans – we’ll run our own strategy and see where it takes us.” Finally GT2 where the #78 AF Corse Ferrari headed the order, a 4:03.024 heading the #77 Felbermayr Proton Porsche (Horst Felbermayr having a brief spin during the session) and the #82 Risi Ferrari. As a footnote the Dutch and French Prime Ministers will be here today, perhaps a discussion about the football yesterday will be on the agenda – perhaps not eh! Martin Little / GG |