Club Arnage - 2001 Le Mans 24 hours

Jocks Jottings...

June 15th.
By Jock Simpson

Year after year at Le mans you can, if you are very lucky or very busy, gradually begin to get the hang of sleep deprivation, computer glitches, 'The French Way' of doing things, lack of food, unrelenting noise, the smell of barbecues, the mad 'campsite drivers' in their normally aspirated diesel hatchbacks haring about at racing speed on bald tyres. It is even possible (so they tell me) to try and stop dreaming about the unfeasibly beautiful women and even stop envying the Rolex bedecked rich guys who drive the cars, but you simply cannot avoid that intangible buzz that is '24 Heures du Le Mans'.

The writer wasn't here in 1923 but we can safely assume the atmosphere may have been a bit special then as well, Lagache and Leonard won in their Chenard & Walcker, but they didn't get the fastest lap that year, that was 107.328 kph (66.69 mph) not bad for those days and it went to F.C Clement in his Bentley.

In the archives there are splendid shots of drivers pausing for a refreshing drink on the Mulsanne Straight during the race, but nowadays drivers are well-cocooned, well fed and watered in astonishing multi-storey, air-conditioned structures about the size of a medium sized housing estate. They sleep in sheer luxury in double glazed, air-conditioned motor homes and have dieticians, masseurs and managers.
Mind you they are asked to rumble round a bit more rapidly to earn their keep, last year Alan McNish claimed the fastest lap when he took his Audi R8 around the current circuit at a modest 225.332 kph (140 .015mph), we say 'modest' because in 1971 Jackie Oliver pedalled his Porsche 917 around the 'un-chicaned', slightly shorter track at a remarkable average of 244.387 kph (151.855 mph!)
It is probably just as well they have slowed things up a bit because the fastest car to ever trip the speed trap between Mulsanne and Indianapolis was in 1988 and it was the WM Peugeot, it was doing a nerve tingling 405 kph… yes .. 251 mph! That kind of speed I imagine concentrates the mind and no doubt specific parts of Mr Ferte anatomy 'puckered up' fractionally at the time.
Real Le Mans fever raged during 1990 with Jaguar, but this year with the substantial influx of UK teams and drivers the ACO reckon that the crowds should exceed the 200,000 they saw last year.

History will always be a major player here at Le Mans so a bonus this year has been the 'Le Mans Legend Race'. This is for 'Genuine Le Mans cars of a bygone era'. In other words it brings together many of the actual cars that raced here between 1949 and 1964 and what a delicious array of exotica it is. It is a veritable 'Who is Who and What is What' of historic motor sport. There are 61 entries and all the big (and small!) names are here.… Aston Martin, Fraser Nash, Jowett, Oscar, Kleft Bristol (whatever that was!), Talbot Lago, Ferrari, Jaguar (of course! .. XK, C & DType ), Cooper, Lotus, AC, HWM Jaguar, Maserati, Austin Healey, Porsche, MG, Lola, Sunbeam Alpine, MGB, TVR, Iso and Marcos.
The driver line isn't be sniffed at either Sir Stirling Moss (Jaguar C Type), David Piper (Ferrari 250 LM), Valentine Lindsay (Jaguar D Type), Tony Moy (Lola MK1), Alan Minshaw (Maserati Tipo 61), Peter Hardman (Aston Martin DBR 1/2) Barrie 'Whizzo' Williams (Tojeiro Jaguar) and Frank Syntner (Jaguar E Type Lightweight). Make absolutely no mistake, the race on Saturday is not, repeat not a demonstration run, these guys mean serious business and they will be racing with a capital 'R', in what are in many cases priceless, irreplaceable cars. What a responsibility these guys have!
Believe me it is all tasty, very, very tasty and the scrutineering took place as it always used to in the Square in the town of Le Mans.

As today (Thursday) draws to a close a pattern maybe emerging … Audi 1,2,3 in Class One. Surely they can't lose?
Bentley, in Class Two, lying 7th & 9th split by a Class One Cadillac (who ever would have thought such a thing, Bentley and Cadillac in the same sentence!) surely they can't win.
MG (a genuine 'All Brit' effort!) Lead Class 3 with a good chance of a podium place.
In Class 4 the #60 Saleen leads the #63 Corvette and #58 Viper, hard call this one … but the Vipers are pretty well bombproof so one may win the Class. (this looks like a good scrap building up there)
In Class 5 the Callaway Corvette has taken the fight to Porsche and beaten the #80 Porsche 911GT3 RS. Surely one Corvette can't fend off that plethora of Porsches?

Now here is a thought .. What about the MG leading at the end of the first hour before it pits! To put this in perspective the MG clocked a 3:40.243 so could be running at what might well be not far off the overall race pace for Audis! In 1999 BMW won, but the Toyota GT One's best lap was a 3:35.032 secs. So it could just happen, unless the Audi's rumoured improved fuel consumption will let it run longer than last year.

End.