By: Jock Simpson
It has been a fascinating and very hectic Le Mans to date. Would you believe 14 lead changes so far and 16 cars have retired.
#10 Audi back in trouble. It has stopped at the end of Mulsanne and doesn't look to be going any further at the moment.
08:23 hrs #62 Roock Porsche is in for a driver change and now has Claudia Hurtgen at the wheel.
#15 BMW running in second place spins and escapes, just misses the gravel trap ... very near thing ... he got onto some loose gravel and we think that is what caused the spin. It lost about 20 seconds
#17 BMW has a routine pit stop.
#3 Toyota Routine stop
#53 Routine pit stop
Bscher and Soper are running fifth in their BMW, no problems apart from getting tired. Update on GTS at 08:33 ... now you have a guess ... yup ... #51, #52, #53 as usual! The leading Viper is now in the top ten. The #81 Porsche 996 GT3 is next up, 14th overall, fourth in GTS and leading LMGT. #7 Audi, in for refuel and out Perry McCarthy is out in the woods with a broken car and it is getting a bit tricky because they have lost radio contact, so they are sending a mechanic out to 'help' ... actually all he will do is tell Perry to give it a bl**dy good kicking since it is now virtually impossible to do any more damage to the poor old thing. If they can frighten it into gear it will be able to stagger home for repairs. #26 Konrad Lola Ford and Jan Lammers have stopped at the first Chicane and the driver is crawling around its back end, seems terminal. The #11 Panoz is now in 17th spot as a result of this. #7 Audi has overshot its pit and is off again for another try! It turns out this wasn't a cock up, it was a stop/go penalty connected to an earlier pit stop, maybe they had a problem starting the car. The car must be started under its own steam on the pit apron. #8 Audi in and out.
#52 and #53 Oreca Vipers are closing up a bit and are now 8.3 secs apart.
As the day warms up the times are now very stable with no sudden quick ones popping out of the woodwork.
The media centre shakes as the #11 Panoz comes in. Bit of excitement with a small barbecue as brakes and grass start burning happily, not actually a drama but they are off again with fuel and tyres. The grass presumably accumulated when the car went off.
#64 Konrad Porsche routine pitstop
#12 Panoz into pits routine stop Brabham handed over to Leitzinger
#57 Chamberlain Viper in the pits bonnet off and back into its pit garage
#17 BMW pits for a routine stop
At 09:00 hrs :-
17,15,3,8,18,12,21,7,13,
51,52,53,14,81,56,50,11,
55,26,63,54,80,84,64,10,
62,19,57,65
#7 Audi into the pit garage, they clearly have a serious problem since this is the second visit in short space of time. Another gearbox change. How many have they got and how quickly can they rebuild them?
#13 Courage Nissan pits back out.
#50 CICA Oreca Viper is in its garage for a routine disc and pad change.
#3 Toyota routine pit stop just a fuel fill up. A set of discs can be changed in four minutes by this lot ... they have shipped some of their Rally Team mechanics from the Acropolis Rally.
#15 BMW Dalmas into the car, routine stop.
#7 Audi is now back out with a fresh new gear box to try and break.
#11 Panoz is creeping up the leader board fairly slowly and it is now 15th.
Apparently we were misled about the #7 gear box, it seems that it was clutch. It also seems that the gear shift mechanism has been changed from a paddle change back to the gear lever.
This is not as serious as it sounds since they planned to run both systems, however it is very tricky keeping your foot off the pedal all the time .. hence the worn out clutch.
Car #80 in the pits
Nice television pictures of the #64 Konrad Porsche incurring the wrath of the leading #17 BMW, much waving of fists and emotion from Jorg Muller!
#14 Courage pit stop straight into garage for a 3,000 kms service!
#11 Panoz is the only car improving its times at present so they haven't given up and are still pushing.
Excluding the Porsche 993 GTS the Vipers are cleaning up as expected, the first seven places are all Vipers (#51,#52, #53, #56, #50, #55).
#63 is the first Porsche and it is lying eighth. #81 in and out routine stop. The Porsche 996 GT3 is winning the Porsche battle mainly due to the fuel efficiency of the normally aspirated engine. The 911 GT2 is far quicker but spends more time in the pits. #64 Konrad routine stop. #17 BMW routine pit stop, Jorg stays in the car, with a four lap lead quite why he feels the need to drive all over the kerbs while bouncing into pit lane is a mystery.
At 10:00 hrs:-
17,15,3,8,18,12,21,7,13,51, 53,52,14,81,56,11,50,55,63, 54,80,64,84,26,62,19,10,57,65