Club Arnage - 2001 Le Mans 24 hours

Jocks Jottings...

Opening Shots June 14th.
By Jock Simpson

Has it really been a whole year since we were last here, surely not?

Last we were muttering darkly about the amazing influx of American Teams, apparently at the expense of everybody else (for the particularly chauvinist amongst us we probably mean to the exclusion of anything with a Union Jack on it!).

This year the ACO has turned the tables big time. All the same we still have a brace of Cadillacs, two Panoz, three Chryslers in Class One. In Class Two is mostly made up of American metal in the shape of Vipers and Corvettes. Classifying the Saleens is a little harder; lets call them 'Anglo-American'!

A lonely Corvette is taking on the might of Porsche in LM GT.

Anyway, this year we can watch a largish smattering of UK teams (really!) and even a decent helping of UK drivers. OK so we apologise in advance that we are a tiny bit biased, but hey... why not?

The really big news is that Bentley are back at Le Mans, they are stunning beasts called EXP Speed 8's and better still they are the first official contenders from Bentley for 71 years. Despite the return of the 'Flying B' one or two minor problems lurk in the back of the mind such as the fact that Audi or is it VW now own Bentley, the engine might owe a bit to Audi, it looks a bit like a Toyota and so on..... We are constantly being reminded that the EXP Speed 8 is not simply last year's Audi with a roof on. (Apparently a sunshine roof and air con are optional!) but we do have some top GB drivers.

The Bentley driver line up is really rather impressive, in Car #7 Martin Brundle (GB) and Guy Smith (GB) are accompanied by Frenchman Stephane Ortelli and in #8 Andy Wallace (GB) is joined by American Butch Leitzinger and Belgian Eric Van de Poele. No signs of weakness or lack of budget here.

All this effort seems worth it since The ACO have got really rather carried away with the Bentley cars, they appear on posters, programmes, media information, in fact they are everywhere!

Don't mistake this for a simple PR exercise either, the cars are rapid and remarkably reliable. The drivers are all quick and that fellow Richard Lloyd has 'done a bit' in the past. The only worry seems to be about tyres, but all the Prototypes worry about rear punctures. Beating Audi would be an astonishing achievement; even giving them a really good run for their money will make for a thrilling race. What they have captured is the spirit of Bentley and we wish them well.

Another newcomer, albeit not potential overall winners, is the MG-Lola EX257. This runs in the 'lightweight' LM-P 675 category. Its pedigree certainly looks good, Lola chassis, a Rover engine and Martin Brundle (GB), Julian Bailey (GB), Kevin McGarrity (IRL) in #33 and Warren Hughes (GB), Anthony Reid (GB) and Johnny Kane (GB) in #34. Their secret weapon is the ever green Hugh Chamberlain who occasional reminds us that he has been here a few times before and is gradually getting the hang of this racing business, he may well even let us see his legs for yet another year. The whole set up is, not surprisingly, very cheerful and professional. However with a slim (ish!) budget, not much testing and a three year plan, 2001 may not be particularly auspicious for them, but it ties in with a major thrust for MG into sportier road cars. If they get to the end it will be a huge achievement. Remember they will be running an entire season of GPs in just 24 hours.

Ray Rowan is better known for his exploits running F3 teams in the UK. So Le Mans is a bit of a challenge. The #35 Pilbeam MP84 is fitted with a 3.4 litre Nissan engine and driven by Martin Connelly (GB) Warren Carway (IRE) and Francois Migault. Maybe an outside chance of a Class podium visit.

Adding to the heady mix of UK based teams are Ascari. Getting an entry to Le Mans was a huge achievement for Klaas Zwart (OK so he is Dutch but he lives in the UK and the cars are built here!). The A410 is much improved after not making the cut last year. Armed with a Judd V10 they are quick, setting 10th quickest time on the official test day earlier this year. It was a tough task to get into the race, a glimpse of the chequered flag would be a heck of an achievement.

One other UK team that has worked extremely hard to get to Le Mans are PK Sport.
Who, you may ask are PK Sport? This is team that you will need to keep an eye on. They have steadily worked their up through the sport from way back in 1987 when Mike Pickup won his Class in the UK Pirelli Porsche Championship. He is a racer himself and has raced and prepared cars in the Far East, UK and USA. PK Sport were racing at Daytona in 1999 and 2000. They have run Porsche GT2's and GT3-RS in the Privilege Insurance British GT Championship and so on ... the list is endless. It would be unwise to ignore them. Their driver line up of David Warnock (British GT Champion in 1999 and Daytona racer). Mike Youles, Class winner in a Spice C2 in 1990 here at Le Mans and Stephen Day, who may be new to Le Mans but has had the odd scrap at Daytona and Spa with the likes of Derek Bell. This is a tough little team and they could go well.
The list of drivers with GB beside their name is rather more extensive this year, a glance at the 'Definitive Entry List' (which has Anthony Reid down as Japanese!) tells us that nineteen Brits are here as opposed to last year when we seem to recall there were less than ten! Quite a turn around.

The atmosphere is traditionally 'Le Mans', to add still more flavour there is a 61 car entry for the Le Mans Legend Race. So the whole place is awash with delicious machinery old and new.

The weather on Wednesday was sunny and warm, today (Thursday) it is looking a bit murky... as one of our team put it " It will shorts in the morning followed by outbreaks of scattered trousers later in the day" (now you see the sort of people we are dealing with!)

All is set for the two sessions this evening and while some time are still going for position others are setting up the cars in race trim and plan to scrub in tyres, brakes and all the myriad of minutia that must all hold together for a mere 24 hours!