Jocks jottings ...
Saturday June 17th 2000-06-17
By: Jock Simpson
- It is still very hot indeed, the thermometer is lurking around 28C and it could go higher.
- In the true traditions of top-notch journalism we decided that nothing much would be happening during the 'warm up' this morning .... Wrong! We arrived in the Media Centre to see on television that the #4 Motorola-DAMS Cadillac was swinging from the hook of a recovery vehicle shrouded in a black cover! Apparently it spun, at speed, just as it arrived on the start finish line and hit the tyre wall, hard and backwards; the rear right corner was wrecked rather heavily. (The front is none to smart either!) The rear suspension looks a mess. Kristian Kolby was at the wheel and is no doubt hugely embarrassed by the whole thing.
- The Japanese Pop Star Masahiko Kondo also went off, this time at Arnage. He hit the tyre wall but drove back to the pits.
- Just watched the 'traditional' start of the Ferrari Race ... our younger readers won't know that in the 'old days' the drivers lined up opposite their cars and as the flag dropped they heroically ran across the track, leapt into the cars and drove off! No seat belts or any of that nonsense! Today was similar and staged mainly for the public ... some thirty millionaires, a few slightly portly ones, ambled or ran to their cars and set off, some after a push, others after their pit crews had helped with the belts .. grand stuff! Then they stopped out in the country, got re-organised and then came back for a modern rolling start.
- The nice PR lady from Reynard has just been mobbed in the Media Centre ... they have come up with the best 'Goodie' in years. It is a T-shirt, nothing special about that you may say, but this one is a little different. On the front there is picture of the steering wheel, amongst the buttons is one marked 'Start', press it and you hear a splendid Reynard engine revving noises and then they drive off into the distance, brilliant ... what ever next!
- We interviewed Mario Andretti. It was intriguing to hear him being extremely emphatic about looking after the car, sacrifice some speed and treat the car gently. He was specific about taking care of Panoz gearbox. An Achilles heel maybe? He was also very concerned about the thirty-seven newcomers to Le Mans and their driving standards in the dark. He is been here seven times since his first drive in 1966 at the wheel of the Ford GT40 MkII. He started racing Stock Cars in America in 1958. Will this be last visit? Who knows .. 'I wouldn't rule out coming back'. 'My glass is always half full, not half empty!' In a previous interview he said 'Victory at Le Mans is something that has so far eluded me but I ma confident that Don Panoz will provide me with the right package to achieve that goal'. In return Don Panoz said' I am flattered he has decided to join the Panoz Team' The nearest Mario has got to winning Le Mans was in 1995 when he came second in the Courage-Porsche LC36.
- If you are really keen, and after you have explored Club-Arnage.com you might like to drop in and have a look at the Panoz website. They are using a laptop and mobile phone in the pits and will be updating the site's news pages in 'real time'. They can be found on panozmotorsports.com.
- Guy Smith has a nice tale to tell. His final run in the Reynard (French for fox) was curtailed when 'I saw a pair of bright eyes of a rabbit, very briefly, next minute 'bang' I'd hit it, all I could smell was rabbit cooking. I think I hit a bird last night and a rabbit tonight'. So 'The fox caught the rabbit'!
- The Audi Newspaper tells us that The Japanese Team Dragon Panoz flew an artist over to Europe from Japan last Thursday to measure the car.. then he flew back home .. produced the artwork and then flew back to apply his handiwork to the car. We reckon that is 40,000 kms round trip.
- Michelin arrived at Le Mans with twelve trucks and 4,500 tyres.
- Sachs tell us that modern telemetry data allows them to know that during the Le Mans 24 Hour race a car will do around 20,000 gear shifts. Can't argue with that!