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Le Mans 2010

Le Mans 2011

Le Mans 2012 + Le Mans Classic

WEC Silverstone 2013

WEC Spa 2013

Le Mans 2013

Sadly That Was Le Mans 2013

Your scribe had planned to craft a witty, cheerful summary of this year's race but that will not be the case.

The sport lost a key player here at Le Mans and he left a huge gap in so many of our lives. Simply take a look at Facebook and see the masses of tributes to Allan Simonsen. He was Danish and this 34 year old racing driver had a huge following in Denmark along with a sizeable fan base in UK. GT drivers don't always attract this type of admiration. Tributes poured in from people who had worked with him and raced against him and without exception they all talked of one of the world's 'good guys'. No doubt it will take months to establish what went actually wrong and what caused the accident but the decision that Aston Martin Racing made to carry on with the race may seem a strange and insensitive one,  but his family, who were here at Le Mans, were absolutely adamant that they should carry on and David Richards went along with their wishes. This sad event cast a massive shadow over this year's race and Allan won't be forgotten, maybe the only glimmer of hope was that lost his life doing something he truly loved .. racing motor cars.The podium was a very emotional affair.

RIP Allan..

This cloud hung over an event that was cloudy, cold, wet and frankly pretty miserable. Allan's untimely death made it infinitely worse. Those of you who were down here will leave with memories of rain, storms and flooded campsites. Le Mans needs to be warm sunny and awash with BBQ's and beer, in 2013 it was just awash. The Race was a curious affair as well, it all began with overtones of last year.. Audi .v. Toyota.. plucky private teams trying to keep in the same league... a big grid of LM P2s very closely matched... In GT it would be a battle between  Aston Martin, Ferrari and the newly revitalised factory Porsche Team.. Corvette were, as usual, heroically upbeat but on this occasion heroically off the pace.. The Vipers looked sexy and probably wouldn't feature anywhere!

What could possibly go wrong? As it turned out practically everything. There must be something wrong with the Armco here because almost every incident resulted in serious , time consuming damage.. rebuilding, re-welded and so on. As a result the safety car was deployed an astounding 11 times and the race cars spent more than 5 crushingly boring hours,  ploughing around behind them. Would the safety cars run out of petrol.. would they qualify as finishers? It does not make for heart stopping excitement. We are sure that it caused the teams no end of tactical conundrums. We had rain of various varieties from cloud bursts to misty drizzle with the odd glimpse of the sun. Car after car went into the gravel.

But it did make for lively final hour or so.

The expected Audi domination was spoilt by those cheeky Japanese Toyotas who hadn't read the script. They would never win outright but they gave Audi a serious run for their money as far as podium places were concerned. They didn't have the outright pace of the Audis but they were more economical and the weather seemed to suit the Toyotas. Anyway it was No. 8  who squeezed onto the podium and knocked one of the Audis off their perch... it was a brilliant effort with the other Toyota coming 4th despite a big accident that looked irreparable but again nobody told Toyota and brought it back out looking a good as new and upto 4th. Unusually Audi did hit bother which meant the game stayed alive. You will need to read other race reports to catch up with that but there was wheel to wheel racing all the way,

Aston Martin arrived with big hopes of victory in both 'Pro' and 'Am'... sadly these plans were knocked sideways emotionally and tactically so I do doubt if we saw the best of Aston Martin Racing this year, it must have been very hard indeed. Porsche on the other hand were preparing for battle next year and what better way than to run a pair of 'Factory' cars and get their act together. Initially people thought the threat to Aston would come from the reliable, nimble and economic Ferraris. That never happened... any more than the possibly tongue in cheek optimism of Corvette. For Porsche this was surely a dress rehearsal  for their return to LMP1 next year and a very good dress rehearsal it was too... the team functioned well and they got what they wanted.. a 1st & 2nd in LMGT Pro. Not bad for their return to the big time. I suspect Ferrari will be concerned for GT since Porsche have a new engine in the sidelines to bring on as soon as they have sold enough road cars to get it homogolated. Corvette were keeping their hand in with an 'old' car that was going slower than last year for some inexplicable reason.  The C7 can't arrive soon enough for them! Viper will be back and they certainly used to know how to win.. you don't forget that!

It was a rather 'grey' sort of race that was only enlivened in the last hour or so when everything kicked off. Everything came together in a recipe that could only have 'Le Mans 24hrs' written on the box! All the ingredients that make 'Endurance Racing' such a drug for us all came came  together at once. In no particular order... the weather having being a bit unfriendly became hostile and dangerous! Weather radar was predicting different things and the timing was  crucial. Wets...slicks..wait and see... despite persistent rain go for slicks because by the time the safety car session it would be dry .. a gamble? Hell yes !! With so many safety car sessions where was everybody on fuel? Go for it and run out .. or tread gently and finish?

This was a year that many team managers will have relished and many will have had a nervous breakdown. There was probably no middle ground! The best scrap was in LM GT Pro between Aston and Porsche.. what precisely went on is a bit hard to grasp but in the modern idiom they 'lost it'.. bad tyre choices and bad planning versus Porsche cool. Porsche cool won. Aston must have been devastated it was the end of terrible 24hrs for them, and to complete the misery, the #76 IMSA Performance Matmut won the LM GT Am class.

That is it for the moment .. thanks for reading these blogs.. tell your friends because we would like to revitalise the actual motor sport part of  Club Arnage .. but Le Grand Fromage can look after all that.

Here is the link to the official  ACO statement regarding Allan's accident.

 Pictures by Dave Davies www.davedaviesracing.com  

The Final Questions Answered - 3rd qualifying session.

Once again it all started slowly.. this seems to be trend this year. Unless the track dried out ...all the way round.. there was no hope of changing anything. Times were miles off the ones set in the first session. The track was still wet in places and drying in others. Really all you might achieve was to stuff the car into the barriers and give your hard pressed mechanics a long tiring night.

In the background things were moving a pace as far as the crippled Krohn car was concerned .(howzat that for alliteration!)  The original car wasn't exactly scrap but its career as a race car was clearly over. But there were a few bits , like an ash tray, that were  useful. So a new shell was rushed down from Sebastian Loeb Racing and we believe it was then vinyl wrapped in that lurid green. So they spent all day rebuilding the car using the best bits of both. Incredibly they made it.. and with only 35 mins left of qualifying they had to get Mediani sorted out with his five laps in the dark and they made it.The circuit had been like a skating rink all night and all the teams remain a wee bit in the dark regarding dry settings.

Once again we had an extraordinary number of race stoppages.. once again the red flag came out twice and messed up qualifying once again. Nobody can tell us at the moment whether there have ever been more stoppages in the same year ever before. But the excitement did break into a gentle stroll right at the end when the Audis decided to have one of their personal late night brawls at the very last moment. In the end the pole remained with Duval but Treluyer and Gene swapped places.

Rarely can the weather ever have screwed up the Le Mans qualifying likenthis before .. lets hope it is more predictable for the race.

   Pictures courtesy of "Dottore" ( kristof.vermeulen@gmail.com Raceshots.be )   

Wood warping thrills.

It isn't rocket science and even your scribe can grasp that wasting time, money, tyres and fuel to manage a lap that is about twenty seconds a lap slower is a tiny bit pointless. The problem lay with weather and quite a lot of it. There was a corking deluge just as the session started and from then on it was wet, drying, damp, wet etc all through the session. Mainly it was only the brave,ambitious or desperate who went out to play.  The #8 Toyota went out to see if they had cured whatever the gremiln was that had sidelined the car yesterday. We were not quite sure what Davidson's brief was.. maybe to see they could break the car again but he got stuck despite the track conditions. He didn't break it and things settled down into a rather boring session. There was no chance of going anywhere near as quickly as yesterday so the mostly the wise stayed safely at home in the dry simply putting in the odd sighting lap.

The initial heroes were the #32 Lotus that had not been out yesterday due to alleged 'financial' problems that resulted in the bailiffs 'borrowing' a few bits from the car! Anyway they sent the lads out to plough round in the dodgy conditions to see if they could remember where the track went!

There was really very little to talk about so we won't bore you.. however like all the other sessions this year it ground to a halt with a red flag when Matt Downs stuffed his #40 Boutsen Ginion Racing Oreca 3 Nissan into the barriers at some speed between Mulsanne and Indianapolis... roughly where the Mercedes went flying in 1999 and he did untold damage to the Armco and the debris was everywhere. We are wondering if this red flag in every session has happened before..

Anyway a rather dreary pointless session stopped ..

   Pictures courtesy of "Dottore" ( kristof.vermeulen@gmail.com Raceshots.be )   

L'orange est arrivée !

Photo : Ian Wagstaff

You may recall an earlier blog when we talked about the famous 'Orange' that Archie was taking with him in the car this year for good luck  (link here).

We were inadvertently a little off beam with the truth and the 'Orange ' wasn't actually at Testing. That has now changed and a member of the family has travelled south with what might become one of the oldest, fastest oranges in the world!! This is Archie with the 'Orange' here at Le Mans.

Ist Qualifying

Due to loss  of my mobile I was rushing around trying (and failing) to find it so I will leave you in the capable hands of 'Le Grand Fromage' to tell you ( and me !) what happened in tonight's first qualifying session... there was a happy ending though as the errant device resurfaced at 00:50 just as all hope of finding it had been abandoned.

With the threat of thunderstorms later, teams were keen to set fast times early in the session. Less than half an hour into the two hours of qualifying, the No.2 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro driven by Loic Duval set a blistering time of  3:22.349.

One of the Toyotas, the No.8 was stranded out on the circuit near Arnage and had to be recovered. At 23:04 Pierre Thiriet in the Oreca 03-Nissan No.46 had a big accident at the second chicane on the Mulsanne straight. Half an hour later, the barrier was still not repaired, and the race director Eduardo Freitas declared that the session would not be restarted.

In LM P2 it was the Russian entered G-Drive Oreca Nissan No.26 that finished with the fastest time, followed by the No.43 Morand racing Morgan Judd. Aston Martin set the top times in both LM GTE classes No.99 in Pro and No.95 in Am.

There will be more qualifying tomorrow from 19:00 to 21:00 and from 22:00 to midnight.

   Pictures courtesy of "Dottore" ( kristof.vermeulen@gmail.com Raceshots.be )   

Let Battle Commence!

Well not exactly.. this is a free practice session not a qualifying session. But at least teams are getting into their stride. The track condition is not good , nowhere as good as Testing. Maybe the torrential rain washed the rack down and left not much grip. Pole today is currently held by the #2 Audi with #1 second and #3 is third.

Fastest time testing was a 3.22.583 secs and today the fastest time is 3:25.415 sec. But this doesn't prove much, the proper job starts later this evening.

This session was brought to an abrupt halt when Tracy Krohn had serious difference of opinion with the tyre wall at The Dunlop Chicane. He walked away but went to the medical centre for a quick precautionary   check over. This is looking like a costly couple of weeks for Krohn since he dinged the car fairly firmly during testing as well. The damage to the tyre wall and Armco was such that the session was topped and qualifying will start again at 22:00hrs and go on into the dark.. Roll on 22:00hrs and then the action will begin in earnest.. the sky is looking very murky so it may be that some teams will go for a 'banker' time earlier.

Wednesday's Waffling

If you have arrived at Le Mans will already know the weather is far from balmy.. but we have a secret weapon called Lennart and he knows all there is to know about weather. So we asked him what the forecast might be and the gist of it is today is looking depressingly wet because we have a nasty blob of 'weather' floating about but it might clear by midnight. So predictions are that the track probably won't be totally dry. Thursday looks like it might start dry then rain again from 18:00hrs. Then Friday will be damp with scattered showers. So take a brolly on the pit lane walkabout.  The good news seems to be that Saturday will be dry towards the end of the day and Sunday much the same. Us lower grade forecasters reckon that  seaweed, pine cones and our creaking joints all predict rain, sunny periods, showers and cloud!

Looking at the entry list it is interesting, well, fairly interesting.. that there are 22 LMP2 cars out of a grid of 56 cars. That is a pretty high proportion. Then look again and you will notice that of these 22 cars 15 of them have Nissan engines. So we had a chat with a guru who knows about these things and the tale goes like this..  There is a major Championship in Japan called Super GT. It has the sort of status that DTM has over here in Europe. From 2007 Nissan supplied their VK45 V8 engine to the front runners. This was a production based engine that appeared in all sorts of top of the range saloons and more recognisably in the Nissan GT-R.

The two Zyteks of Greaves Motorsport are
powered by Nissan.

Then in 2010 the regulations changed and the 3.5 litre engine was replaced by a 3.4 litre one. This left Nissan with a shelf full of the 'old' 4.5 litre engines. So Nismo, the competition branch of Nissan, built an engine alongside Zytek. The idea was later taken up by Oreca and a very effective LMP2 machine emerged in 2011. The rest they say is history!

So we know who Nismo are.. they are the very successful worldwide motorsport side of  Nissan. Next we wondered who DENSO were. DENSO as you recall is plastered all over the Toyotas. They seem to be one of those colossal multi-national companies that we have never heard of!  To quote their website..  DENSO operates in 35 countries and regions.Approximately 130,000 employees are active in all aspects of the automotive business -- sales, product development and design and manufacturing -- working in cooperation with regional car manufacturers and suppliers to provide the most suitable solutions to regional requirements. Global consolidated sales totalled US$38.1 billion for fiscal year ended March 31, 2013.

   Pictures courtesy of "Dottore" ( kristof.vermeulen@gmail.com Raceshots.be )   

Pictures from driver autograph session

   Pictures courtesy of "Dottore" ( kristof.vermeulen@gmail.com Raceshots.be )   

Tuesday .. neither here nor there ..

Tuesday is a slightly strange day.. 'tis neither one thing nor  t'other!! The Teams are hard at it building, preparing, polishing etc.. the drivers are 'on parade' , all suited and booted facing their public signing autographs and telling us how fantastic their car is .. and how brilliant their team/tyres/sponsors are and so on. One feels the might have been happier relaxing back in their hotels or chateaux. The campsites are slowly filling up and the rain has calmed down a bit.

Carrying on with our Dempsey theme,  the queue to get his autograph now snakes back along the pit lane stretching past other teams who might appear to be a little peeved!

The build up continues with the sponsors 'Houses'... (as regulars will know they are not simply hospitality units they are way beyond that) are springing up at an astounding pace. The big teams do seem to have 'big' budgets and big houses... "Who lives in a house like this..?" ( Who remembers Loyd Grossman!)

The most important thing today (other than getting Dempsey's autograph!) is the recreation of the Pontlieue Hairpin.

Where might you ask is that and why is it important? In 1923 when the 24hrs of Le Mans was created, the circuit was the same one as had been used two years earlier for the Grand Prix. The 17 kms circuit ( about the same length as the awesome Nordschleife!)  actually went through the town. Spectators loved it , particularly the hairpin at 'Pontlieue'. It was a great spot to watch as  the cars slammed on what little brakes they had and then scrabbled around the hairpin before heading off down what was to become the Mulsanne Straight.

Anyway to celebrate this The ACO and the Town of Le Mans have joined forces to recreate that famous hairpin. The original cafe is still standing and great trouble has been taken to get things absolutely right. Cars from the period will be using a mini-course. Add in music, dancing, beer and costumes and it looks like it will be a great spectacle.

We have been delighted by your brilliant response to the 'What is Unique About Le Mans'  question.. you can see them as they flood in at this thread over on the forum.

Pesage Day Two

We have to admit that Day Two of Pesage bore a striking similarity to Day One.. now there's a surprise. The only differences seem to be that since it was a Monday morning we got tangled up in the rush hour traffic. Yes Le Mans does seem to have a rush surprisingly enough and there are far fewer people milling around.

The armada of AF Corse Ferraris

There is a bonus than the cafes are less crowded. So if next year if you fancy a bit of 'Pesaging' maybe Monday is less hectic but Sunday is more 'buzzy'. As far as we can tell nobody actually fails scrutineering at this point. If there are any minor aberrations then the teams have Tuesday and most of Wednesday to sort things out before the serious starts.

This is your scribes second visit to Pesage and either I am missing some aspect of the whole thing or I am simply getting a bit blasé!

The team are beavering away with our 'day job' and it has been pretty well solid. Take a look at the main ACO website and pause to intake breath and admire the stunningly crafted English .. or maybe set off to the pub !!

   Pictures courtesy of "Dottore" ( kristof.vermeulen@gmail.com Raceshots.be )   

The Patrick Dempsey Effect

There is a truly astounding amount of hype here at Le Mans this year and most of it surrounds this guy called Patrick Dempsey.

Quite why he has such a colossal following in France might be something to do with the fact he is ridiculously good looking ( which is as good as any reason for your scribe to dislike him !) or maybe his appearance on terrestrial, prime time French TV in a programme called 'Greys Anatomy' has something to do with it. This is a massively popular medical drama and our Mr Dempsey plays the part of a neurosurgeon  called Dr Derek Shepherd or 'McDreamy'  to his friends (surprised a certain burger franchise hasn't caught on to that) .That says a lot!

We have somehow missed seeing the programme in France and do wonder what he sounds like. Apparently some equally rugged hulk dubs his voice on later. Anyway like it or lump it the French are totally hooked.

Dempsey is a star of film and TV and was nominated at The 2007 MTV Movie Awards for 'The Best Kiss'. He also went on for another nomination at The 2011 Golden Raspberry Awards in the race to be ' The Worst Supporting Actor'.

But we will forgive him because he is a pretty serious car nut and not all a bad 'pilot'.. plus, rather irritatingly, he is by all accounts a very nice guy. He also does all sorts of charity work under the banner of The Patrick Dempsey Centre for Cancer Hope and Healing.

Interesting to note that there seem to have been surprisingly few internationally famous film/TV actors that  have competed here at Le Mans. Most famous would of course be Paul Newman. Steve McQueen got close in 1970 but his insurance company said no.( I bet those bloody Meerkats would taken him on)  One thing they all do have in common is that they either had or have a serious 'petrol head' infection

In 2009 he drove a Ferrari F430 GTC and came home a very creditable 30th overall and 9th in Class.  This time Dempsey will be driving a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. On Sunday 9th of June, he returned to the thirteen km circuit for the test day, which began in the rain and finished on a dry track. “I could feel my experience from 2009, but it was a little challenging at first in the rain to relearn the track, but it was also really important to have that opportunity in the wet,” Dempsey said. “The last time here I didn't really have any time on a wet track.”

For his return to La Sarthe,he has set up his own racing team called Dempsey Del Piero-Proton. and he is joined in this venture by the former famous Italian footballer Alessandro Del Piero who captained Juventus,  Italy and even won the World Cup. They can also count on the experience of Proton Competition, who are among the leading specialists in preparing  racing the 911. Patrick Dempsey and Joe Foster will also benefit from the presence of the Porsche factory driver Patrick Long. The latter has raced Porsches in the United States under the banner of Flying Lizard Motorsports, and at Testing he set the third fastest time in LM GTE Am.

OK... so he is good looking, not a bad actor, races with his own team, he is quite quick, his mate is a famous footballer, he has numerous life style advertising contracts under his belt ... dammit .. maybe we should root for him after all! Doesn't stop him seeming to take over Le Mans 2013 though ! 

The Tangled Web That is LM P2

Regular bloggers will recall that we promised to make an effort as far as LMP2 is concerned. I now begin to think it may be a silly idea... read on !

Some things are relatively straight foward.

For a start LM P2 cars have basically fairly similar characteristics to the bigger, quicker LM P1 cars like carbon-fiber monocoque type of chassis but they have to meet some very strict cost controls.

The cost of the chassis is capped at a mere €362,000 and the cost of the engine is also capped at €78,750.

The engines need to come from a major manufacturer so currently engines come from Nissan, Honda and Judd... Judd? Remember that Judd base their engines on a BMW block.

Finally, every driver lineup must include at least one driver of amateur or gentleman standing.

Now it starts getting a bit like a rather pricey computer game! Select one of several chassis, Oreca, Morgan, Honda,Lola, Lotus or Zytec and then select one of the three engine suppliers and you have a choice of around eighteen different chassis/engine combinations. The trouble still is they all still look the same!

That was the easy bit.. a cursory glance at the entry list will now tell you that we have evocative names like Lotus, Morgan and Alpine out there and if you look very carefully you will  find the  #41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Nissan that appears in Caterham colours. 

Now it gets interesting.. The LMP2 Lotus is actually built for Lotus by a German company called Kodewa. Lotus are currently owned by Proton who are, of course, Malaysian. 

Morgan is a bit of a mystery since we can't really see what a manufacturer of classic English sportscars based in the beautiful Malvern Hills is doing sticking their badges on an OAK racing Nissan powered prototype. It is complex and expensive way to get passes to Le Mans!The link? As far as we can tell the only link seems to be that OAK team boss Jacques Nicolet is a great Morgan fan and owns one of the new three wheeler cars. We suspect, but without detailed research, that are very few Morgan factory sourced parts on the race cars! They do have a track record here at Le Mans having been here six times in the past with their own cars 

The arrival of an Alpine badged car at Le Mans is not as surprising since they were here in one form or another throughout the mid sixties and seventies. This time the badge appears on the #36 'Alpine' Oreca 03 Nissan. They are here for a rather more commercial reason and that is their relationship with Caterham with whom they are planning on building a' joint venture' road car. 

The Caterham deal with #41 car is a bit harder to fathom since it was struck only a week or so before Le Mans. It equally taxing to try and remember who owns what in the wonderful world of Caterham, F1etc. However we did notice on the way to Le Mans that the Caterham factory is boarded up !

So that is all clear now?!

'Pesage' Day One

It has to be said that the administrative process that the French call 'pesage' (literally translated it means 'weighing') is not the most exciting or spectacular event of the week. However it does give the locals a chance to see the cars of the 24 hours up close.

The arrival of the OAK Racing 'Art Car' (left and below) was a highlight of the day.

The design was created 'life size' in metal and then photographed and applied to the car.

Left, The #33 LEVEL 5 MOTORSPORTS HPD ARX 03B - HONDA LM P2

Scott TUCKER (USA)

Marino FRANCHITTI (GBR)

RYAN BRISCOE (AUS)

The Viper makes a welcome return to La Sarthe (right) with a 2 car entry.

#53 Ryan DALZIEL (SCO)

Dominik FARNBACHER (DEU)

Marc GOOSSENS (BEL)

#93 Jonathan BOMARITO (USA)

Tom KENDALL (USA)

Kuno WITTMER (CAN)

In the #77 PORSCHE 911 GT3 RSR LM GTE Am, Joe Foster (left) accompanies Greys Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey whose return to Le Mans has launched a media feeding frenzy... but more of that later. 

Right and below; #7 TOYOTA RACING TOYOTA TS 030 - HYBRID LM P1

Alexander WURZ (AUT)

Nicolas LAPIERRE (FRA)

Kazuki NAKAJIMA (JPN)

Right #8 TOYOTA RACING TOYOTA TS 030 - HYBRID LM P1
Anthony DAVIDSON (GBR)

Sébastien BUEMI (CHE)

Stéphane SARRAZIN (FRA)

   Pictures courtesy of "Dottore" ( kristof.vermeulen@gmail.com Raceshots.be )   

A word of warning (as if you needed one!)

Forgot to mention that we had a brief encounter of the beer variety last night. We thought it might warrant a mention just in case you have not met it before. It is called Affligen Blond. We ordered three 'grand pressions' and the nice lady said no and gave us three 'normal' glasses. This was unusual since our specialist subject is beer.

Having got bladdered and also home in one piece we thought it might be wise to check out this innocent looking rocket fuel on the interweb. It seems it is actually a bit of a star performer because it has one won numerous awards and has been highly praised at various international tasting sessions, Affligem is Belgium’s so called Abbey beer. It is now brewed in the Flemish village, of Opwijk but started life in The Benedictine Abbey of Affligen, so we are back with those dangerous monks who brought us all those other weapons grade beers! This top-fermenting Belgian Blond beer checks in at 6.8%, with a big brother weighing in at a modest 9%. It is still brewed according to the original recipe. 

Well balanced, with a sweetish, refreshing fruity flavour and a hoppy, dry finish, it’s a robust 6.8% by volume – yet we can assure you it is still remarkably easy to drink!We have to take their word that it matches perfectly with hard cheeses or white meats and fish. We went and had a pizza. 

Pesage ... Sunday

Your Eagles have landed.. we are back from the UK and this time settled in the middle of Le Mans in the Place de la République. We are hidden away in a dark secluded room in the Chambre de Commerce..a wee bit remote from the action but also well away from cars, people and noise ! Very exclusive!

Now, what is this 'Pesage' all about? Well, the precise translation is 'weighing'.. this is just one part of the process, the rest is all about 'Administrative Checks' and 'Scrutineering'. It goes on for two days and is a major 'Do' as far as the town is concerned and the public turn up in their droves. This might be due to the fact it is free, not a familiar concept as far as Le Mans is concerned! It is all very impressive and one of the few opportunities the public get to be within touching distance of the cars. There are however plenty of other opportunities to spend your hard earned euros...

The teams have no choice but to turn up, they have to attend pesage and 'pass' or they won't be allowed to race! The cars arrive on their transporters and there is no end of excitement parking up the trucks and unloading the cars.. it is all part of the drama. The first step is check the driver's race licences, which probably have not changed much from testing. More important are the safety checks on things like helmets and race suits. While this is going on the Technical fellows from The ACO set about checking the various dimensions of the cars, the lights, extinguishers, seat belts, extinguishers and so on. Again not much will have changed since Testing. Oh yes and they weigh the cars .. remember 'Pesage'.. weighing.. this is where we came in ! 

This all takes about an hour , followed by interviews and a 'team photo'  of the car and whole team, mechanics included. The cynics amongst  you may be thinking 'why not rebuild the car between pesage and qualifying' (after all pesage is on Sunday and Monday and qualifying Wednesday) .. a good point well made! To get over this little quirk cars are pulled into scrutineering during and after qualifying. 

Guide now ready to download

OK, so you want to download our Club Arnage Guide to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Great, but please take a moment of your time to read our call for donations before starting to download:

Although the guide is free, those who gave their time and skills to put it together would be grateful and would really feel rewarded if you could spare a few Pounds / Euros for charity as way of thanks. Back in winter, while we were all waiting for the sun to reappear and June to finally arrive the CA members agreed to support the following charities as beneficiaries:

• Association of International Cancer Research, for further details please see www.aicr.org.uk
• Motorsport Safety Fund, for further details please see www.motorsportsafetyfund.com

Payment can be made by Paypal or bank transfer to the Club Arnage Charity Fund from where the funds will be divided equally to each of the 2 charities listed above..

• Bank transfer:Account name: Club Arnage, Bank: Natwest Bank, Sort Code: 60-03-27, A/c Number: 78121477, IBAN: GB31 NWBK 6003 2778 1214 77, BIC: NWBK GB 2L
• Paypal: Please go to www.paypal.co.uk and donate to cafund@hotmail.co.uk - Please note: You need a paypal-account to do so. Please ensure your payment via Paypal is marked as a Charitable Donation which will not attract any fees.

Thank you very much in advance from all of us.

Club Arnage

Now click this link to proceed to the actual download page...

Test Day Part Deux ( That's French !)

The afternoon started rather quietly mainly because conditions were still difficult. We have now lost track of how many cars have spun in the Dunlop Curves, it must be into double figures! So far the only significant incident was when the #57 Krohn Racing Ferrari 458 Italia went off at Mulsanne in rather a big way. The Guv'nor , Tracy Krohn, was at the wheel and thankfully he walked away from the car.The lurid green Ferrari however didn't and was hoisted onto a low loader and taken back to the pits.

Things then went a bit quiet, even a wee bit boring for a while until the Toyota's began to snap at the heels of Audi and for a while even one of the Rebellion cars, driven by Jani, topped the times ! Anyway as expected Audi finished their coffee and began to concentrate on the matter in hand but still the Toyota's were bang on the pace . The weather was blurring the issue a bit, it wasn't wet and wasn't dry and times kept on chopping and changing but with Toyota still bang on the pace. With about an hour to go Audi began to look like they were getting back into 'steam roller' mode when both Lotterer and Kristensen took over the top spots. Even so Davidson, Buemi and Sarrazin were doing well, and keeping in touch.

Then we had a Red Flag while the marshals swept up the various body parts of the #33 Lotus which had fallen off in a big way attacking the scenery and scattering debris all the way through the Porsche Curves.. Kraihamer, who was at the helm at the time, emerged undamaged.

The last 45 minutes in LM P1 calmed down a bit since there wasn't anything much to prove. But as is often the case there are normally a few last minute fireworks and today was no exception! Right at the last minute ( literally!!) Duval , driving the #2 Audi was fastest, beating last year's pole by 1.2 secs! It was almost as if Audi had decided to enjoy themselves and they went on to take the first three places on the time sheets. This might have depressed Toyota!

So, Toyota seem to have the pace... almost..  and they have a fuel advantage over the Audi's so anything other than yet another Audi success looks mighty unlikely. If Toyota do win then there might be hats to be eaten!

LMP2

As you may recall your scribes do find LMP2 'difficult'... anyway it is even more confusing now with the arrival of names that us old f*rts we know better for 'road' cars... Morgan.. Lotus..Alpine and even an Oreca 03 Judd painted in Caterham colours!

It is certainly a class that gives us great racing but it is always swamped by the big bangers in LMP1 and the high profile manufacturer supported HT's.

As expected the outcome was close #24 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan led the pack followed by the #39 DKR Engineering Lola Judd and then third was #37 the Signatech Alpine. The vast majority of the engines came from Nissan with a smattering of Judd and Honda. By the main event we plan to get a handle on LMP2

LM GTE Pro

We have been talking about the amazing resurgence of Aston Martin and still it goes on with Aston Martin Racing taking the first two places ahead of the #92 Porsche AG Manthey Team  Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. The car is newer and under development so may well be a threat for the main race.It was great to see not only the Corvettes back and better still that pair of monstrous Vipers. As a fan of GT's we can't wait for the 24 hours of Le Mans.

LM GTE Am

The #95 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 took on the 'Pros' and beat for of them! Next up was the #95 Aston and then 3rd was the Proton Porsche. Things really do look very good for Aston at the moment. Curiously the Ferrari 458 Italia's are well off the pace. But it will be good to see how the #50 Larbre Competition Corvette gets on. The Vipers are virtually brand new for Europe and will almost certainly be quicker in a fortnights time.

We will be back for the Main Event .. looking forward to it immensly !!

   Pictures courtesy of "Dottore" ( kristof.vermeulen@gmail.com Raceshots.be )   

Test Day - Half Way

09:00hrs and we are all set to go... we are producing the words for the ACO English Live text on www.24h-lemans.com. We may be bright eyed and bushy tailed but the weather isn't! After the hot sticky sunny weather upto today it is now all change and it is distinctly damp. This will irritate the teams since they badly want a dry track at some point.. it is all very well having a wet track but it is pretty unlikely that the entire 24hrs of the race will be wet. The weather forecast suggests that things might improve this afternoon. The air temperature is currently 20.4C.. the track is 24.4C and humidity is 49% not entirely sure how useful this is but at least you know.
Technical scrutineering seems to have gone without any dramas and we have all 56 cars ready to go. The session started at 09;00hrs and several cars are already out on track feeling their way around.
We were not unduly surprised when the news broke that the infamous Green GT 'Hydrogen bomb' car didn't make it to testing and it won't be seen this year. The spare slot ( along with 'Garage 56' as it is known!) on the grid has been filled by the #75 Prospeed Competition Porsche 911 GT RSR. This is a Belgian outfit, who know Le Mans well and the drivers are Emmanuel Collard, François Perodo and Sébastien Crubilé. Perodo-Crublé and they have already raced in the first two rounds, Silverstone (GB) and Imola (I), of the European Le Mans Series. 
The 'innovative' stuff will re-emerge next year when Nissan are threatening to bring out their all electric machine. Rumour has it that they will change batteries during the pit stops. There is also a hybrid Aston Martin under development. which raced at The Nurburgring 24hrs. ( but didn't finish). The morning session really didn't prove much, apart from the fact the circuit never dried out and it was very slippery, greasy and cold. Any number of cars spun, tested the gravel traps and brought out lots of yellow flags. The only really newsworthy incident was when the #2 Audi went off rather inexplicably after Terte Rouge. The interview was hard to understand but it seems that Duval put a couple of wheels on the kerbs and lost concentration. This was after 17 laps. The car was recovered and we are told it will be out again this afternoon.
If you would like to see the times they can be found on theACO Live feed

Wet start to the Test Day

Gloomy sky and drizzle greeted the competitors this morning. In the first thirty minutes of the morning session that started at 9am local time, the #3 Audi (Gene) posted the fastest time 3.49.334 but many cars are just doing out-and-in laps at present.

We are promised a break in the clouds later this afternoon, but for now it looks like a chance to hone wet settings, and maybe qualify your new drivers. Rookies are obliged to do at least ten laps.

The #46 Thirlet by TDS Racing driven by Pierre Thirlet currently sits in 3rd place in LM P2 with a time of 4.09.205 behind Signatech Alpine and Pecom.

Follow the action live on;
The official ACO live feed

The Future is Orange.. so is the past!

Here we go again!! Your slightly 'over relaxed' geriatric media team are already safely ensconced in a semi-deserted media centre here at Le Mans. It is Saturday and we are beavering away translating stuff for the ACO. Just at the moment our toys are broken and the technical team seem to have drifted off to lunch.. so here we are!!

Aston Martin traffic jam in the pitlane.

Phillipa Neilsen, who works for Dunlop and looks after Archie Hamilton, told us a brilliant anecdote about the late great Duncan Hamilton, who you may recall won Le Mans in 1953 in his C-Type Jaguar. It seems that for reason, lost in the mists of time and a haze of alcohol, Duncan took an orange with him in the car. Maybe in case he got hungry or thirsty.. or both! Anyway the orange was not consumed and it has remained in the family ever since. So, as a tribute to Duncan's victory sixty years ago, Archie is taking that original orange with him as a good luck charm! There is some doubt whether it will offer Archie much in the way of sustenance but hopefully it will bring the team lots of luck.

No doubt our toys will be mended soon and we will continue to fire the occasional Jox Jottings when time permits. Have a safe journey to La Sarthe..