Petit Le Mans – Afternoon Notes
Round Two To Peugeot

America agrees with Mark Howson.  Our late dinner saw him order a tall one, upon which the waitress (who must be blind) asked him for identification.  Not that it did much good – she’d never seen photo ID out of Great Britain before… 

In the first session of the day, it was Jörg Bergmeister who was bored, as he was not in the car.  During one of the many reds of the session, he was sitting there listening to Wolf, who was stuck in the car.  An unoccupied Jörg is a very dangerous thing to witness.  A casual “so why was he faster” to Wolf in the car was not received well, with Wolf responding with a “you’re #1 gesture” back at Jörg.  That brought forth a smile of success from Jörg…  I’m sure Wolf is still plotting. 

For the Lizards, things are still in somewhat of a settling in, getting the car up to spec.  Both Wolf and Jörg said the car was pretty good, but still not where they wanted it to be.  As far as the race, the common thread among the two was very much a cautious approach, at least towards the championship.  “It’s a long race”, was the common thought among the two, with concern about traffic being chief.

For Tony Dowe, who was calling the shots for the GT2 points chasing Tafel Ferrari, the race is simple for him.  “We’ve got nothing to lose.  We’ll be going for the win and see what happens.  The closing speeds from the prototypes are significant here and anything can happen.”

In contrast to the first session, the afternoon practice was green throughout and it turned out to be a fascinating 60 minutes. Sadly, the Patron Highcroft Acura was not to take part after its morning shunt; “It’s not very well at all!” was David Brabham’s response to DSC’s query as to the health of the #9 ARX-01B. “We might get back out for qualifying tomorrow,” continued the Australian. The words ‘new tub’ were heard elsewhere in the paddock.

The first ten minutes saw the fastest time being swapped between the two Audis and the Peugeot, before Scott Dixon put in the first properly fast lap – 1:09.926 – to go top. Clearly, this wasn’t going to stand for long; and Danny Watts had the glory of heading the times for a few seconds on 1:08.678, in the #50 Ginetta Zytek, before Lucas Luhr lowered the bar to 1:07.773.

At the top of the second timing screen was Pierre Kaffer in the #99 JMB Racing Ferrari, proving that its morning pace was no fluke. Soon after, Ben Aucott almost dropped the 430 at the exit of Turn 12 - sending a huge plume of red dust into the air in front of the media centre – but managed to hang onto the slide in impressive style.
In P2, Romain Dumas was down to 1:08.105 after 20 minutes – at this point, ahead of Stephane Sarrazin in the Peugeot – but had to stop for a steering rack change before being able to lower it further. Lower it he did, though, posting a session-fastest 1:07.800 early in the second half.

Dean Stirling was getting used to the #888 Creation Aim CA07; the young Canadian getting his times down to 1:11.805 before handing over to Liz Halliday. The Intersport cars both had engine changes, limiting their track time in the afternoon session.  First out was the #37, which Clint commented was running quite well.  “That’s our good motor.  We’ve always had good runs with this one,” said an always upbeat Jon Field.   “I’m not sure if I can lead here, but I’ll sure give it a shot.” The #30 only managed an installation lap before time ran out.

Allan McNish was continuing to improve his times, taking the Audi to within a whisper of 1:07, but Sarrazin dipped below that particular standard shortly before the final 15 minutes – 1:06.952 - the Frenchman setting his time in the midst of a two minute spell that saw several cars improve their times.

Franck Montagny was doing a sterling job improving the times of the #26 Andretti Green Racing Acura, ending the session on a fifth-best 1:07.876, less than a tenth off the pace of Dumas.

But the real interest lay in GT2, which saw some very notable performances. Jaime Melo and Mika Salo set the standard in the afternoon, as the Risi Ferrari finally settled on a 1:19.252; but it was a Belgian who was grabbing everyone’s attention towards the end of the session. Marc Goossens had been steadily moving up the times in the LG Corvette, up to fourth with a few minutes remaining – which was noteworthy in itself – but then setting a second-fastest 1:20.141 shortly before the end.

Darren Turner finished in seventh in GT2, but just eight-tenths off second place after a very encouraging hour for the Drayson Barwell Aston. The #45 Porsche, meanwhile, was on top in this latest round of the Lizard v Tafel battle, Jörg Bergmeister setting a third-fastest 1:20.157.

The #73 Tafel Ferrari saw limited track time due to a broken header. Also needing repairs was the Autocon Lola, which was having a hole in the tub patched at Elan.

It’s been a long, lonely season for Corvette Racing.  For Ron Fellows, there hasn’t been much seat time during the limited season schedule, but did set the fast time in class early.  It was eventually bettered by teammate Jan Magnussen.  Ron, after his session was not totally satisfied with the session, indicating that it “could be better.”  For Oliver Gavin, “it’s been a horrendous year, but winning Detroit sort of exorcized the demons for the car #4.  Right now, we’re looking forward just getting on with the race.”

Published reports indicate that Penske driver, Helio Castroneves has been indicted, as well as his sister, business manager and attorney, on multiple charges of tax evasion.  He is due to be appearing in court on Friday.

With the night practice not expected to produce too many dramas, the afternoon session would perhaps indicate how qualifying would go. Peugeot haven’t been pushing things so far, so the question remains as to what the qualifying time could be – would a 1:05-something come to fruition?

GH & MH