The Afternoon Session

The day continued cold but the rain held off despite some dark clouds. The first hour ended with the few improvements in times other than the MG works cars which were now both down to the 3.40 region and lapping with much improved regularity. All three MG had had broken "Cricket bats" stays bracing the engine according to Steve Knight and they had also had some problems with the rear Avon tyres this team uses.

The excitement started in the sixth hour when Julien Bailey jumped to 5th in the times with a stunning 3.53.645 lap and the other MG was up to ninth about three seconds behind. We were at last seeing the potential of a real 675. The ~12 Panoz had also moved up the list and was now seventh in front of the Lammers Dome and the Bentley.

The real surprise happened in the seventh hour when Stephane Sarrazin displaced not just one Audi but all three from the top of the time sheets. Bentley too improved to displace the #27 MG but the MG works cars were still sixth and eighth.

The Dallara remained at the head of the times for exactly an hour before Johnny Herbert in Audi #2 improved the top time by just one tenth of a second. Twenty minutes later Dindo Capello improved by a further two seconds with the fastest time of the day 3.30.296.

The session ended with Sarazin's time from earlier good enough to retain second in front of the other two works Audi. Mark Blundell however was not yet finished and the #27 MG ended the session fifth, Wallace sixth and Lammers up to seventh.

The Best Courage was the works car in 10th, best Cadillac was a lowly 16th behind the Ascari which did not improve on its morning time.

MG ended the day with the top 3 times in 675, last years class winning ROC Reynard four seconds behind the private Knighthawk MG.

Another non improver from morning times was the Prodrive Ferrari 550 but it was still three seconds clear of the Labre Viper and four ahead of the Best Corvette. The Racers group Porsche GT3 was top of GT times Followed By the PK Sport and the #70 JMB Ferrari, The Spyker was sixth in class with the Morgan at the Bottom of the time sheet but this car is not the car that they will have for race week.

For live timing and scoring go to the ACO official site:
http://www.lemans.org

For our Club Arnage photo entry list go to:
http://www.club-arnage.com/lm02/entry_index.html