Le Mans 2002

Pete's Ponderings Tuesday 11th June

Peter Radcliffe

At long last the wait is over and the 2002 24 hours of Le Mans race is almost upon us. The year started with stories of who was entering and who not, thoughts of what would impress the ACO to secure a winning ticket in the ACO lottery in the form of an entry to the test weekend and then hopefully the race. Some teams raced at Daytona and Sebring others competed in the FIA Sportscar series and some programmes never reached fruition. The final list included some surprising omissions and unexpected entries. From the original cast a couple withdrew and the current list plus reserves appeared at the test weekend. For British fans there is Bentley as the sole LM GTP entry and Ascari in the LMP900 class. In 675 there is MG with two works cars and an American entered private car. GTS has the Prodrive built Ferrari 550 Maranello and a Saleen from RML. GT sees the return after fourty years of Morgan and PK Sport with a Porsche GT3.

Le Mans is reputed to be the biggest event on the British sporting calendar with more British spectators at Le Mans than any other event. This year there are more British entries than we have for several years. The numbers are expected to be even higher than usual, particularly as most of the British cars can be expected to show well in the race. For this treat we should be grateful to the city of Le Mans. Sadly many spectators miss what is perhaps the best part of the event by turning up later in the week. The build up to the race incudes the traditional technical inspection in the Place Des Jacobins on Monday and Tuesday. Throughout Le Mans city visitors will find the great race celebrated with bronze plaques of drivers feet and hands in the pavement and other tributes. Even the World Cup fever has not taken over in the City's streets!

The prevailing memory from 2001 was the rain and leaving Cornwall in rain and wind on Sunday morning brings these thoughts to mind. Sunshine in Roscoff quickly changes to heavy rain, spray from other vehicles gives a small insight into the conditions endured by the drivers last year but at last Arnage welcomes with a beer and a good French meal.

Monday dawns overcast with a forecast of mixed weather, we join the queues for accreditation alongside spectators collecting tickets. Already the campsites are beginning to fill up, every other car is a GB every year the event seems to start one day earlier. Lunch under the Cathedral in the city center is followed by the start of Scrutineering, which will continue on Tuesday. Scrutineering takes place in the city center in the Place de Jacobins. The cars arrive, some in the team transporters others on low loaders more suitable to the busy often narrow streets and in the square are unloaded. Here the crowds gather around the cars, small children have their photographs taken in front of a Cadillac or Courage and then the cars begin to go through the process of being measured, weighed and checked. This takes them round two sides of a square from the outside of which the public have great viewing facilities including a temporary grandstand. The third side is an area where all the team photographs that appear the Le Mans annual are taken. Whilst the cars are checked the drivers complete their registration in the center of the square but most will linger with the crowds, talk and sign autographs. There is a small stage and drivers and personalities are interviewed and there are several stands selling everything from T-shirts to photographs.

The weather stays mainly fine, Cadillac for whom the test weekend apparently proved so disappointing are the first to go through, at the test the cars were porpoising on the bumps and ripples created by the heavy lorries that daily pound the public roads, They also seemed to lack speed but the team so far are tightlipped about post test changes. Two hours into Wednesday practice we should begin to see if problems have been resolved and this three-year programme is at last producing results. Corvette follow, this will be the grand finale for the old cars. Two new cars raced at Sears point but it was considered better to use these tried and tested cars for Le Mans. Ron fellows explained that the new cars have altered geometry and about 50-kilo weight loss mainly from the engine and its ancillaries. The Le Mans cars have improved levels of down force since last year and whilst the speed of the Ferrari is a concern they are hopeful that experience and development will bring a second victory in the GTS class

Ascari follow General motors the car looking very striking in its new livery. This race sees the culmination of an eighteen month development programme since Ian Dawson took charge of the project most of 2001 was spent bringing reliability to the car and bringing together a team who could turn potential into results. There is also a road car project and a new factory as well as other motorsport projects. This year has seen a steady improvement in the competitiveness with at Sebring a new front end and this race sees revisions to the back of the car completed with a visually lower tail, head rest and air intakes. This final phase of the development has been made possible by the new gearbox. This is a "state of the art" box with transverse gears as opposed to the much-modified older longitudinal box. The other gains are a substantial weight loss at the rear of about 70 kilo, which has allowed the optimal placement of ballast. The new box is also much quicker and easier to change.

The two WR follow the Ascari, this year one with Peugeot power and the second Autoexe entry has the Mazda rotary engine which should keep people awake through the night! This is the twenty fourth le Mans for Yojiro Terada, his first also the first Japanese car the Sygma Mazda in 1974.

This year sees the return of Yves Courage and his works team with a Judd powered C60 but the marque is also represented by Pescarolo whose two C60 Chassis carry the distinctive new Andre de Cortanze designed bodywork. It will be interesting to see which of these very different looking cars prove the most effective in the race.

Next were the two Dome Judd's of which Jan Lammer's chequered black and white car will surely be involved in the battle for pole. This car features a lowered tail section and now bodywork mounted rear wing amongst developments from the Dome factory wind tunnel. The Kondo car is last years John Nielsen car.

This year we have two extra pit garages and entries courtesy of Michel Vaillante who is perhaps France's most famous racing driver. For many years he has competed in most forms of motorsport usually against the Leader team. For those confused readers reaching for the record books, relax as his exploits have been largely paper comic strip adventures. In 1997 one of the Courage entries carried the Vaillante name and this year will see the return of the movie industry for a Luc Besson film. The driver names on the cars do not reflect those driving the DAMS run Lola (Vaillante) and Panoz LMP (Leader) which completed Mondays list.

Mixed weather prevails again today and yesterdays teams are now back at the track preparing for first practice tomorrow evening. The atmosphere is still very relaxed and spectators have free and unrestricted access to most areas of the paddock. Many of the drivers can be found around the hospitality areas or in the pit garage and most are more than happy to stop and chat. One notable empty garage is that of the Pescarolo team but it is not significant as their base is on the Tecnoparc. Rumours of mass suicide after France's early exit from the World Cup this morning are completely unfounded.

At Prodrive final preparations are being carried out. They are quietly confident that they will secure the class pole but also that many of the team are Le Mans virgins, a few of the team have been here once before with Lotus and Alain Menu has not yet driven at Le Mans. Test weekend times were very encouraging and the inference was that they could have been perhaps as much as four seconds faster if pushed and on qualifiers. Since the test weekend they have tested at Rockingham and then at Elvington airfield and the race engine and gearbox have been tested in the car. They have tried to identify potential problems and worked on how to carry out repairs most effectively and spare parts have been matched and checked for fit.

At Morgan like Prodrive this is very much a learning curve but in the case of Morgan even steeper. The goals have been clear; to first get here, second run in the race and if they finish that would be a considerable achievement. Contrary to some stories there is only one chassis, initially there was a problem with the gearbox location, which at first appeared that a second chassis would need to be built but this problem has been resolved. Since the test weekend they have raced in the British GP championship and had three days testing at Miramax. Ideally for Morgan this year would have been for testing but the fourtieth anniversary and the desire of the team principal prevailed. The opinion at both Morgan and Prodrive is that the stresses of one hours racing is worth far more than several hours testing. The three drivers have all worked together and have similar set up requirements and aspirations and they feel that the team aspects outweigh the possible advantages of a driver with Le Mans experience particularly in this first learning year where expectation is realistically limited.

The most unusual car here is the Spyker, Its bare aluminium body stands out immediately, construction is time consuming and expensive but does not incur a weight handicap. The race chassis is the second and since the test weekend over 200 changes many small have been included in the new car, A Carbon floor pan has been one of several weight reduction measures and the car is now about 13 kilo over the weight limit. They are however carrying an extra 70-kilo of ballast and have a 15% restrictor penalty as sufficient road cars have not yet been built. The engine has a new twin induction system and revised management and a further improved performance is expected in practice.

Tomorrow the action will begin and a sense of urgency will become more apparent, the waiting is nearly over, the B.S stops at 19.00 hrs tomorrow

Copyright© 2002 Club Arnage


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