Club Arnage

Just checking.....

1 - 1  ;)

Nothing more than a draw... they still sound better, though.

No idea -  but who won GT 2? !!!!!!

Wohoo!  Looks like we could be in store for a Petit Le Mans tie-breaker (come on Dave Richards, bring 'em over, you know you want to).  Roll on Road Atlanta.
Fax

A fantastic achievement Jon, Alex Job/BAM effort was stellar. I told you all that Mike Rockenfeller is a star in the making! Am I right or am I right? First saw him driving for Flying Lizard at Daytona 3 years ago and it was obvious he was destined for success in this sport. He'll be in a works Porsche next - don't forget, you saw it here first.
The little yellow roundel on the cars wing end-plate made all the difference!

I'm not going to gloat for a couple of reasons 1) I got it wrong at Sebring 2) Prodrive delivered a very creditable performance as a worthy adversary to GM/Pratt & Miller.
Being forced to get this years fix by TV, I saw some very insightful interviews during the race, with key spokesmen from both teams.
At around 10.00pm Saturday, Doug Feehan (GM) was asked if he was worried, in that the DBR9 had the measure of the Corvette on the straights and at the time was opening out the lead it had on the C6.
He smiled and replied, "No, I'm not worried. We work to a strict plan. Everything, apart from two punctures, is going exactly to plan". When pressed on this, he said, "Come back tomorrow at 3.30pm and we'll have this conversation again".
Dave Richards said he was worried that the Corvettes had been "sand-bagging" (not running as hard in qualifying as they were capable of. Why they would do this, I'm not sure, but as it turned out, he may have been right.
On Sunday afternoon, as Prodrive's valliant campaign was starting to come un-glued, Feehan said, "We are running a pace that will enable us to maintain our track position. If they (Prodrive) up the pace, we will take the appropriate action". He was then asked what he thought went wrong with the Prodrive effort. He shrugged and said, "They didn't stick to their plan and they assumed that they were stretching us". His final comment was equally insightful. "You don't win this race - moreover, you lose it. Today, Prodrive lost it."
From a personal perspective, the Corvette team were just frighteningly efficient. Their pit work was awesome (and Prodrive made a few errors in the pits) and the way the C6R drives out of the corners is just mind-melting.
I hope that Prodrive has the funding to keep this thing going - and I would have been pleased if they had pulled it off at the weekend (domination isn't good for the sport). I can only imagine what the support for Astom Martin was like in the tribunes - and I guess a few of you have newly acquired green baseball caps.
As Fax says - a winner takes all showdown at Road Atlanta would be incredible - not all that likely, but incredible......  

Just goes to show, its all about having the experience to hold your nerve and keep to the strategy with an alternate one as plan B.
The Corvettes and their support team were metronomically consistent which paid off in the end.
The Astons were awsome, and I reckon, looked better through the corners than the vetts. I think the early stop go penalties took their toll at the later stages - but thats the way it goes.
Looking forward to some great battles to come - come on you Astons!!

You were there and I wasn't, so I'll defer to you, but on the TV the DBR9 looked a little skittish, whereas the in-car footage of the C6 had it fair launching out of Mulsanne, Indianapolis and Arnage - and the noise it makes (in the car) is phenominal.

Stop go's only affected one car, of course and were unfair in my view. I don't think Turner was cheating - he just over-cooked it at the 2nd chicane a couple of times (got 59 totally airbourne the 2nd time). Had that been a French entry, I don't think the ACO would have batted an eyelid. So they were wronged there, withot question. What cost them was the time taken to repair the splitter on 59 after the 2nd 'flight', the fuel vapor-lock on 58 (cruel, being so late in the race, but they were falling off Corvette pace by then) and a bad pit mistake on Sunday pm when 59 left the box with a very obvious water leak that some of the team spotted, but the board-man didn't. It had to re-pit next lap and smoked the motor in the process.
They'll bounce back, as long as they have the funding.  

...we were all getting drunk at the shampoo bar. Sorry to throw that in but I just had to. ;)

Seriously, I just catched up with DSC to find out what actually happened. I'm astonished at how much I missed despite RLM.

Congratulations to BAM btw, it seems to have been an all US fight in GT2 at the end. I didn't see the final 4 hours because I had to leave early.

Rocky is a star but Marc is not too shabby either.  Rocky did get the fastest lap but was only  300ths of a second quicker than Marc.  I also think that they both do pretty well making time up for Leo. Also check out the rear wings and bonnet of the car for our logo which was put on for free by the guys again.  The BAM car was not the only car to have little yellow roundels quite a few were twatted on the grid at the start of the race.

" the DBR9 looked a little skittish, whereas the in-car footage of the C6 had it fair launching out of Mulsanne, Indianapolis and Arnage - and the noise it makes (in the car) is phenominal."

Absolutly agree that the vetts noise was incredible when blasting out of the corners, watched them at Mulsane and Arnage corners and out of the Porsche curves, the Astons were on the power earlier and just looked better composed - different animals.
Re penalties and pit stops, unfortunate but thats the way it is and of course where the experience and strategegy pays off.
Great racing to come as the cars are both refined and the Aston team get it together more.

You were there and I wasn't, so I'll defer to you, but on the TV the DBR9 looked a little skittish, whereas the in-car footage of the C6 had it fair launching out of Mulsanne, Indianapolis and Arnage - and the noise it makes (in the car) is phenominal.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The only way i can describe it is the difference between driving a V8 and an inline 4....

The vettes look wallowy and heavy in arnage, indy, and on the exit to the Porsche Curves (thanks to the bloke with the scaffolding) and appeared unable to put the power down as early as the Astons....

The Astons looked stable, and ready to accelerate a good 1/2 second before the vettes.....

We did have a long conversation about how an engine designed 20 years ago in essence, could compete with an engine designed a year or so again.....

All credit to the Corvette/P&M team, they drove a solid race, but theyre cars are never going to be as pretty as the ProDrive Astons.  I think its undeniable that the Astons would have won had they had as much of an uneventful and lucky race as the vettes (thinking back the penalised car was some 1.5 mins down on the lead having served 3 mins and a stop go penalties in the early stages) but there are two messages from the weekend.

Firstly - experience is everything - lucky or not, the experience of the corvette team to deal with situations and strategies won them the race this weekend.

Secondly - to finish first, first you have to finish....23 hours means you haven't finished.......

unlucky on the Prodrive team who I know came with a lot of expectation, and a real determination to win - well done to Corvette, but don't expect to be holding on to that trophy next year - as experience grows, the luck gap shortens........

Brad

P.S. Well done to the Brits on the start finish straight.....never heard the british national anthem louder than the french before!! Get In!

Some sense and some nonesense there, I'll venture Brad. It's clear who's camp you're in and all power to you, but to state that The Corvette win was ostensibly down to spawny luck is taking your bias a little far, I feel.

It is a shame that there will be all too few more opportunities for these two teams to compete with each other this year and you are right (as Feehan said) "We are defending the hill" - but I don't think the yellow juggernaut is just going to sit there and wait to be consumed by Prodrive. Compare GM's performance upgrade between Pre-Qual and the race weekend. Sebring was a good wake-up call, that maybe made them realise that they had some competition again.
The scary aspect of this last race was that it's accepted that the DBR9's were being run to their maximum potential. Many are now speculating that the 'Vette's weren't on the limit of their performance and demonstrated it on Sunday afternoon.    

Just a quick thought.  Both the Vette's and Aston's are for all intents & purposes brand new cars, both fielded by battle hardened, crack outfits.  Its going to be down to who can can the most out of the development of these new cars and make the fewest mistakes.
Blaming a loss on "bad luck" is just pissing & moaning. You make your own luck, at Sebring the Vette's had tangles with backmarkers and a bad batch of brake rotors, at LM the Aston's were let down by driving mistakes and pit screw-ups.  Luck has little to do with any of those.
Fax  

As far as I am aware, it has always been in the Aston's diary to do the Petit. Should be one hell of a showdown!!  Just hoping I can work it to be there for it!

With regard to the race, the Aston's certainly had the pace over the Corvettes, in the same way that the 'Vette's had it over the Aston's at Sebring. In both races it came down to the fact that these are endurance races. You can lead for the whole race until the last couple of hours and still lose. That's part of what makes it so interesting. I believe at one stage there was 45 seconds between the four cars. Now that's what I call racing!!! The fact that all four categories had rea;l races taking place as well made this, for me, one of the best races I've experienced!

Am I disappointed that the Astons didn't win.....of course, but at the end of the day, you have to hand it to the Yellow machines that they have proven again that their reliability and experience has won the day and they should be congratulated for it!

I have to agree (he said, pulling a face like a bulldog licking piss off a thistle).

I too am hoping to be there for the Petit.

Hi Mark
Where is this info coming from? I've searched www.astonmartinracing.com and www.americanlemans.com and come up with nowt. Or is this straight from the horses mouth?

Regarding getting here for the Petit, the offer still stands - if you guys can get to either O'town or Atlanta, we'll take care of the rest of it.

Question - why do you appear in so many other folks pix?

"Question - why do you appear in so many other folks pix?"

Answer - cos it's hard to appear in your own...?  :)

Correct answer !!!  ;D

Yes, I asked for that one I suppose. Touche, Smokester.

Let me re-phrase - JPC seems omnipotent, in that his gnarly boat appears in just about everybodies piss-up pix - talk about putting oneself about a bit.

good opinions.........this made good reading.

Come on Matt, you weren't there. Live with it and be prepared for next year. The DfH pictures are phantastic and the reason why I'm just on one picture at the shampoo bar is probably because I enyojed the barby at the TVR Car Club guys too long.   ;D

Forgive me hgb, I don't fully understand what you're driving at here.
please explain.

Well, you know me Matt!!  I was just trying to be sociable!!  So I took it upon myself to wander around as many (local) other pitches as I could and enjoy a drink with them. Also, a hell of a lot of people came to our cocktails night on Thursday(about 100 I'm told) where some of the pictires may have been taken.

And then there was my stage appearance of course!!  ;)

Shame you couldn't make it this year, but looking forward to seeing you next year...............if not sooner!!!!  ;)

BTW, I think HGB was being sarcastic about you being jealous about not being there!