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00:00:00the michelin 24 hours of le mans is brought to you by porsche porsche there is no substitute
00:00:11and by valvoline test on the track trusted on the road
00:00:19hi everybody great to be with you there's a look at the audi pit great creamer joining
00:00:23david and dorsey up here in the booth and a good look there at the number 25 rml lola
00:00:29by the time you came to a very strong run andy willas taking off the road yes old andy who's uh
00:00:37once again having a very busy season over in the u.s and great to see him get an opportunity with a
00:00:42top front car here and apparently this car just made a stop down in pit lane and chris neville you've
00:00:48got some information on that for us that's right greg andy wallace had just brought the 25 machine
00:00:53to pit lane currently leading p2 these are our defending champions from last year now word is
00:00:58that they are having some boost pressure problems with the car this was just a routine stop they
00:01:02did pull some data from the car that they're going to take a look at however the team is leading there
00:01:07already are other problems within the p2 category we've seen the intersport team have some issues
00:01:12here so already some attrition in this category andy wallace may have a couple issues in the 25.
00:01:18that's very interesting because the problem as i understand it with the intersport car was
00:01:23possible wastegate is what they're saying was they made a fix on the wastegate and that solved it which
00:01:28could be again boost related and darcy you've talked earlier about the stresses that that
00:01:32little engine has to go through and it's boosted immensely yeah they get through 24 hours liz halliday
00:01:38was reporting to us that uh that it was into an over boost situation what happens of course it's
00:01:44it's regulated the wastegate regulates how much pressure that the turbocharger can make when it
00:01:49goes into over boost it goes into a fail-safe mode and that's why it was shutting it down like
00:01:54that so they've got that fixed and that's good happy birthday greg thank you darcy yes absolutely
00:01:59talk about over boost um back in the late 70s i was driving that bmw four-cylinder turbocharged uh 320
00:02:07turbocharged and the wastegate stuck at your racetrack at braiden and it went like hell down the
00:02:14straight but only once then the pistons were all laying around gave a thousand horsepower about 15 seconds
00:02:21yeah it was great well that car in upships as i recall when you were driving it didn't go straight
00:02:25a whole lot in a straight line because when that turbo lag when it finally came up on the boost
00:02:30it was all over the place and lots of flames came out of the side it was really good fun to watch it's
00:02:33an interesting stat and i don't know they'll be honest the specific numbers but in that eight yard
00:02:38that little two liter turbo with the four cylinders they're saying that with the boost they're running the
00:02:44the horsepower per cylinder was pretty much right on that of a formula one v10 engine per cylinder i
00:02:51mean just immense power that little thing was making it probably is there is old andy wallace good head
00:02:57on shot comes into the indianapolis left-hand turn a slight bank the old guard rail used to be right up
00:03:05to the edge of the road there down to our knowledge always a big crowd down here the village is just to
00:03:09your left but that's a new car normal every day that's normally crossroads when all that guard rail
00:03:14and that fence at the back is taken down that's just an ordinary country crossroad that it's a new
00:03:18team for andy but it's not really a new car it's i mean the same kind of car that rock the dyson team
00:03:23back in the united states runs and andy's driven for for many years can't think of many people you'd
00:03:28rather have behind the wheel of your car in an endurance race than andy wallace well andy wallace ticked me
00:03:32off enormously because i was here in 1988 i think i was working for another tv network and on the way home in the
00:03:37airplane of course sitting in front of me was the winner andy wallace who had just driven in his
00:03:42first uh le mans 24-hour race which he won and when i said boy you know that was great what's it feel
00:03:49like and i think said well that's what you're supposed to do isn't it yeah that's how it's supposed to work
00:03:53you're supposed to be doing that but got a pit stop here and this is the inner sport lola and it looks
00:03:59as though we are getting the drivers change clint field getting in that's duncan dayton who was hopping
00:04:04out of the car and of course uh duncan dayton's high croft racing team after le mans is going to
00:04:08be back with i believe the rest of the season running a very similar car to this as well at uh the
00:04:15remainder of the american le mans series but clint field now behind the wheel duncan dayton a very
00:04:19very successful uh historic racer drives a lot of historic cars including a lot of formula one cars
00:04:24some of which are not that old and he has now won more formula one races at monte carlo than
00:04:29ayat and senna did that's a fun stat good driver old duncan dayton i've watched him run the uh 78
00:04:36lotus that mario andretti took to the world championship at the uh at road america and i mean
00:04:41the guy hustles those cars incredibly well as you said he drives benetons and ferraris and uh actually
00:04:48at uh road atlanta during the walter middy historics a few years ago he's driving the the i
00:04:53believe was the uh reynard that jack villeneuve won the kart championship with and won indy that year and
00:04:58he broke the outright track record at road atlanta pre chicane so just amazing here are some of the
00:05:04american drivers as a matter of fact talking about that that are here and as you can see there's a
00:05:09lot of them yeah obviously led by duncan dayton in the 33 car with clint young clint field in there
00:05:14only 22 years old liz halliday also driving that car john macaluso andy lally a very accomplished
00:05:20driver johnny o'connell in the corvette chris mcallister bill binney terry bortella another very very
00:05:26successful driver tracy cone his first time here van overbeck patrick long a porsche driver of course
00:05:31official factory driver gunner jeanette famous father as well tom milner another famous father
00:05:38gunner jeanette ought to upset you as well because i was looking at his dad he's something like 23 years
00:05:43old and this is his sixth le mans it's just unbelievable how young he got going now at this
00:05:48stage of the race certainly the audi's still having things uh going very well running one two but
00:05:53in the morning warm-up alan mcnicius hand went in the air and at first people thought maybe they
00:05:57were just bringing him in just to check things over but not the case he had a bit of a problem
00:06:02sent him back out and even more smoke and that is not diesel smoke either that's gearbox smoke then in
00:06:08the first hour of the race right here watch the number 20 pill beam come right across split the two
00:06:13outies and then just about seven minutes ago a huge moment here watch the lockup that is capello
00:06:18got away from him forced the other car right up over the curbing that was the uh vinnie motorsport
00:06:24zytek he was able to gather it up but david at that point you noted he lost a lot of time vis-a-vis
00:06:30his margin over verner well of course the thing about those escapades where you leap over the curb we've
00:06:34already saw what happened to the 007 aston martin went over the curb and punched a hole in the pan the oil
00:06:40pan i mean anything can happen when you start leaping over the curb sideways like that so
00:06:45while i said at the top of the show you need a bit of luck and you really do have to have a bit
00:06:50of luck that could have gone horribly wrong there and that was because he was forcing the pace past
00:06:54the lap car quite frankly the audi drivers don't need to be forcing no pace now 13 second lead went
00:07:03down to a three second lead but i see now that he's forcing the pace again because he's back up to
00:07:07almost five second lead they are throwing down some awfully quick times early meanwhile we understand big
00:07:12developments down in the panos pit andrew yes indeed some very despondent faces down here the 77 car
00:07:19gunnar janet currently at the wheel has stopped out on the circuit uh the team is still trying to assess
00:07:25what the problem is but this looks uh pretty desperate from the uh boys from brazelton so uh
00:07:30i'll bring you some more news when i found out thanks andrew and that's uh very bad news indeed
00:07:36of course starting the season so well with the big win at sebring and have struggled a little bit
00:07:41since then but nonetheless we're looking for a good run here well it's down in 38 spot um already
00:07:48i think i could have been lifting along back there they might have gotten it stopped for a while
00:07:53at one of the marshall posts but uh maybe they've got it um lifting back toward the pit i'm not sure
00:07:58that was it though capello after that bit of a moment there's a little wiggle there as well and that's
00:08:05one of the things that they've been dealing with here the immense torque that these engines produce and
00:08:09the traction control although they may even have the technology for it it's just there again we've
00:08:15seen that before and earlier in the race we saw mcnish almost go off the track on one of the uh
00:08:19sections as well we're expecting him into the pits at this point wr-pergeot was wandering down the road
00:08:25in a particularly fast bit that's the run down from r9 to the porsche curve these cars are doing about
00:08:29200 miles an hour and uh cars and porsche should that wr-pergeot rather not that's one of our prototype
00:08:36cars should not be in the way it's off the racetrack and the corner workers from all over the world here
00:08:42doing a great job they're pulling him back to a safe area and covering themselves with the yellow flag
00:08:49i almost wonder is that the advan that's just i can't see the number it is it's the number 13
00:08:55advan car which had qualified fifth and everybody was anticipating that at that car that they run the
00:09:02four liter mugen which is the uh reliability a little bit suspect there certainly in terms of a 24
00:09:08hour race but they said if it held together the driver line up and the speed it was showing certainly
00:09:12had potential here is capello who pitted last on lap 29. saw a bit of gravel on that close-up shot
00:09:19there already getting onto the track there up at the top of the dunlop curb that's the sort of thing
00:09:24that can catch you out back in of course if you run over just a few bits of gravel on these tightly
00:09:29packed asphalt surfaces it can easily cut a tire down and by the way gentlemen before we see it what
00:09:34looks certainly to be an audi pit stop let's check in again with andrew on the situation with penos
00:09:38i've got uh don pain loss just joining me here don can you uh don's shaking his head he's very
00:09:45upset about this situation the car has stopped to be portion curves but it's an end for the wheel
00:09:51it's some fuel vapor problem obviously it's a very hot day so that seems to be the problem so a
00:09:57disappointment uh right here and i don't think this car is going to go any further their 10th year here
00:10:03at pain loss they gave don of course the cake uh on that thursday but i don't think he'll be having
00:10:08much to celebrate uh this weekend well thanks very much andrew obviously if there's going to be a fix
00:10:14out there gunner's got to do it 14 laps complete again and this is the 15th this is when the car
00:10:20stopped last time under green again two laps further than the pescarolo can go and at a faster pace
00:10:27that's a little bit bleak as we heard a manuel collar uh refer to it this is the ultra racing
00:10:33entry and we saw that's the guy my god what's he doing he's the guy that was wandering down the
00:10:40road in front of him howdy just a moment ago now he's spread all that gun jump well i saw just something
00:10:46happen really quick on on the feed just a moment before we got the report from andrew so i think uh
00:10:51that may have happened and maybe that's why he was going so slow but he went from airplane to
00:10:55submarine or tried to do in a couple of corners there and obviously he's done something to the
00:10:59car and they brought him in he's got a left rear damage on the rear suspension i saw when they
00:11:03dropped it take a look again at this this is just pure ugly as he turns in i think this is uh
00:11:11there's anything wrong with the car here i think he just goofs up gets it buried look at this goes
00:11:17across there up into the curb bang onto the other curb then buries the nose in the dirt whoa that could
00:11:23have been really bad right there the other side of the s-band it looked to me like he was turning
00:11:29in incredibly early i do not know what happened something he go wrong with the guy i think you
00:11:35turn in early when you get that feeling you're about to die you know like if the brakes aren't
00:11:39working i'm not sure whether frederick hushard is one of the 37 drivers who've never driven here before
00:11:45and judging by that it doesn't look like he's driven anywhere much before
00:11:49and that's a tough little car to take that kind of abuse very solid
00:11:57good look there at marco verner sitting in the second spot right now in the number eight
00:12:01audi r10 tpi fuel mileage is amazing on these cars stunning they're showing us you know 15 lap runs
00:12:10no one else has gone past 13. well you saw the body language but collard was being interviewed by
00:12:17andrew i mean talk about i mean look like he was going to the old tumbrils well the last few laps even
00:12:24these outis have been running low 34s low 35s and the two uh pescarolas have been running 39s and 41s so i mean
00:12:31they're just seconds faster at this stage and going much longer on fuel and now we see it is verner who
00:12:38is bringing the number eight down into pit lane for hit stop and we enter off in both of them we also
00:12:43have capello in as well but two laps of stint you're going to pick up a couple of pit stops i would
00:12:49certainly think so let's get down to brian till greg the audi's come down pit road it is the seven that
00:12:56makes it to his stop first capello in the car shaking his head no for some reason and made it
00:13:02some kind of emotion like there was a vibration in the car we'll have to take a look at that they
00:13:07will replace the little windscreen that kicks the air up over the driver's head on capello's car
00:13:12meanwhile verner comes in right behind him looks like routine stops on both of these cars it'll be
00:13:17a full load of fuel i see no tires being even laid out for the seven nor for the eight it looks like
00:13:24they'll double send him should be routine stops capello should be back underway he's won this thing
00:13:28twice will it be third time of term interesting that they didn't have to do tires on that seven
00:13:35car after that big moment he had sliding across the grass and the curbs and maybe that was the
00:13:39vibration but maybe that's probably what he was saying don't change the tires i would say is what he
00:13:43was saying uh because they probably felt just fine to him i'm sure the michelin guys have to have a
00:13:48loved it so verner follows him out and the two out he's once again back on track and it appears as
00:13:56we take a look at our scoring monitor that they once again did not even give up the lead we hop on
00:14:01board with the corvette and we'll be right back for the 24 hours of la vat
00:14:12and welcome back everybody
00:14:42to the 74th running of the michelin 24 hours of le mans as you can see by the welcome back it is an
00:14:48event a happening uh for many a party and certainly probably the greatest race in the world certainly
00:14:54the greatest sports car race in the world and we've been watching some of the developments here
00:14:58and we're watching it appeared the number seven of capello had a bit of a moment and made another run
00:15:04down pit lane brian greg the seven just came back in dindo capello behind the wheel the only thing they
00:15:11adjusted was that small inch to inch and a half inch windscreen in front of him there was a big rubber
00:15:16mark on the cowling right in front of it like almost a ball of rubber had come up off the track
00:15:21and hit it but as small as that is it is a very very important piece of the car and dorsey i'm sure
00:15:26can shed some light on that yeah actually he's sitting so low in the carbine that even though it's only an
00:15:31inch and a half tall that rubber mark obscured his vision he couldn't see through the windscreen
00:15:36so they had to come in and take care of that as received it looks like one of the spikers is uh
00:15:40getting pushed into the behind the barrier down there and the number 16 courage in the hands of
00:15:45eric comas is down in the pits as well getting a pit uh some service and that car comes in from third
00:15:52overall at this point looks like he is going to stay on board no driver change
00:16:01and they have tires there but i don't see them making any serious moves to bring them out
00:16:06get 90 liters of fuel put in
00:16:13well a very very smooth quick stop obviously as we go on board with the corvette speaking
00:16:19of on board the corvette we are going to be chatting with a driver who recently was on board and is now
00:16:24getting a well-deserved break and he is down in the pits on one of our pit cameras and that is ollie
00:16:30gavin and ollie first of all congratulations on an absolutely great run in the early going here and
00:16:35the first thing i want to ask you at this stage is we're looking at the pace the best laps versus in
00:16:40the the consistent laps and you guys seem to even in the early going here have the measure of the aston
00:16:45martins it must you must be very happy yeah we are it's uh going to plan i mean it's uh it was a
00:16:50fraught start it was uh for some reason the p car that was uh just in front of me right at the start
00:16:56had a problem and uh darren who was right in front of me in the aston got got held up and so i then
00:17:03went to the left followed pedro sat behind pedro for about six laps and i was surprised with our
00:17:09straight line speed compared to them because they have always been very strong here so uh you know it
00:17:14was uh it was nice to see we we had a good measured sort of first six or seven laps and then
00:17:20came in for a stop the boys did a great job got us out in front and i think we ended up with about
00:17:25a 20 second lead by the end of that uh that stint so very pleased with the way that the pace is going
00:17:31and also that the car seems to be running um it's hot it's uh that the conditions were were quite
00:17:39strange at times out there in that first hour and a half or so it seemed that there was a lot of fluid
00:17:43going down a lot of people dragging stuff back onto the track so it was uh it was tricky at times
00:17:50but uh handed the car over to olivia olivia's kept the good work up and uh the c6 is running
00:17:55fantastically by the way i just want to remind everybody the video you're seeing to screen right
00:18:00of ollie you're on board with max pappas in the 63 car and i want to do also it seems like this good
00:18:06start to the race started two weeks ago because by all accounts everything that i've heard from you and
00:18:10johnny and everybody that was the best free test you guys had ever had and you came out of there you
00:18:15said with a great race setup great tire setup been so much good things happening there that hadn't
00:18:20really evolved before well yeah it was a very very good test for us it was the best we'd ever had
00:18:25and uh we were hoping that we could be able to carry that on into into the race week but
00:18:29unfortunately it rained about 10 minutes before the start of practice on the wednesday that washed out
00:18:35that whole whole test practice session and so then by the time we got through to the thursday
00:18:41the track had completely changed so the setup that we had from the test was completely wrong so we had
00:18:46to sort of go back again start again and find our way but as always all the engineers all the boys in
00:18:53the team have done a fantastic job and now we've got a pretty good race car the track is has come to
00:18:58us a little bit we feel but we still got a little bit of work to do some minor little things we've got to
00:19:03adjust us to get the things absolutely right but we feel that we're in a good position it's going to
00:19:09be flat out racing for the next uh 21 hours or so i think that the aston's going to be right there as
00:19:14long as both cars are reliable i can't see that there's going to be any let up in the pace i think
00:19:18it's going to be full-on oh yeah the corvette team came into this weekend uh everybody has made
00:19:24comment they asked some guys have made comment how completely relaxed it seems in your camp
00:19:29well in some ways it has been very relaxed but in other ways it's been quite um uh tense at times
00:19:39it's been uh you know sometimes it's there's been something on little thick here and there has has
00:19:44been a little bit of a niggle but uh no generally everybody feels very under control and everybody
00:19:49seems to be you know quite relaxed and in control of things you know it's it's been a good couple of
00:19:56weeks for us holly quick last question for you here you mentioned the rain on wednesday there is
00:20:01now a forecast that includes some possible rain here as we get into the late morning early afternoon
00:20:07through the finish tomorrow a lot of reports that this track was just diabolical with some of the
00:20:11paving that's been done in the west what do you look uh you know what's your sense of that should it
00:20:16happen you just got to deal with it when it comes i mean you can't really do much with the car setup
00:20:22you've got to set the car up for the dry so you can't really have a special sort of thing that you
00:20:26do because it's just going to take too long to try and adjust them for the wet uh when it when it comes
00:20:31you just got to try and deal with it put the wet tires on maybe change the sway bar maybe put a little
00:20:37bit of gurney on maybe put a little bit more rear wing on you've got to deal with the traction control
00:20:42you can adjust that in the car brake balance all those sort of things but you just have to deal with
00:20:46the pavement and the conditions as they happen uh and that's part of the deal with the 24-hour race
00:20:51you've just got to deal with it and multi-class racing and sports car racing and spray and visibility
00:20:56and all of that it will be awfully interesting if it happens thanks so much for taking some time
00:21:00you've earned a bit of a rest go grab one and hydrate my friend oh yeah thank you all right folks
00:21:05that's ollie galvin we really appreciate him stopping by here's a stat that i think uh really says
00:21:10everything about the success of corvette racing at le mans over the past number of years you notice only one
00:21:16one year there where they didn't go one two yeah they've had an incredible year you know we said
00:21:20they look pretty relaxed down there there's a big team there's a lot of them here there's a big group
00:21:24and they are really on top of things all the time but obviously one thing that also will affect them
00:21:28if it does rain later on in the race is the old windscreen by then it'll be getting a bit pitted and
00:21:32a bit messed up they might have to change that to uh before they go out in the rain because it'll be a
00:21:37terrible mess absolutely we'll have to keep track of that and we are going to step away real quick the
00:21:42number 64 corvette currently 17 seconds ahead of the aston mark
00:21:53wednesday night on speed
00:21:57titles are all on the line in ultimate head-to-head quarter-mile match-ups the rules
00:22:02are simple lose the race you lose your ride wednesday night nine eastern eight pacific only on speed
00:22:08welcome back everybody good look here at the number 12 one of the courage mugen cars from courage
00:22:17competition is down in the pits and we are seeing the number 73 corvette make or 63 corvette sorry about
00:22:24that make a run down into the pits and you can see on the back corner left rear corner some damage there
00:22:29and one of the aston martins following it in there's that damage and obviously one would have to suspect that
00:22:34came as a result of that spin that o'connell had in the contact but it looks like it may be getting
00:22:39worse well it certainly has come unglued big time it did hit the guard rail it was a fairly good thump
00:22:44but it looked pretty unscathed at the time but obviously it has come back to haunt them and max
00:22:49pappas is doing some really good sterling work that pulled the car back up about 30 places so he was
00:22:54going really really well but this is going to pull him back a bit they're going well looking at the back of
00:23:00the car they've taped it up a lot guys but you can only tape so much at the speeds that they're going
00:23:05down these long straightaways they will take this opportunity to do tires fuel and a driver change
00:23:10you look at that damage right there they take these large pieces of duct tape put them together and then
00:23:16try to tape them in a big band-aid type patch but band-aids don't work at close to 200 miles an hour
00:23:21that's exactly what i was going to say brian it's at 200 miles per hour uh the band-aid does not work
00:23:27they're going to have to get some rivets and some uh some aluminum or something to give that some
00:23:32reinforced strength that they're going to go with the band-aid
00:23:38of course it'd be a lot easier to do this uh you know to do a big repair if we've got a caution
00:23:48yeah those are some massive pieces of uh very very sticky vinyl now that they're going to try and do it
00:23:54with but this is exactly the kind of thing that bites you at le mans one problem builds to another
00:23:59problem and then builds to another problem but you can imagine the amount of pressure that's on that
00:24:03200 miles per hour is uh faster than single engine aircraft can fly so and of course in that wheel arch
00:24:11area at the back there tremendously disturbed air as well sucking up the ground and um and it gives you no
00:24:17leeway at all for touching any other i should say most single that's that new exit which i must say oh
00:24:23the ferrari is having a moment there not 100 convinced it's a very good exit
00:24:29and there's the number 17 pescarolo in the hands of the legend the god here in france sebastian lobe so
00:24:37you can expect to be seeing a lot of him and deservedly so but we also want to welcome somebody to the booth
00:24:42and it is the president and ceo of the american le mans series scott atherton and uh great to see
00:24:46you here making the trip to the other side of the pond as it were and uh once again you've got to be
00:24:50pretty pleased with how teams that are contesting the american le mans series are doing right here
00:24:54well they did great in qualifying it's uh it's early hours yet but so far so good
00:24:59this is the namesake series obviously the what gave the american le mans series uh its its birth and
00:25:04its voice and its its uh existence and it has grown and done so much good stuff and i mean it's gonna be
00:25:10tough to beat last year with the results that american le mans series teams put up yeah it was
00:25:15when you think of the the four classes and the three podiums available in each class i think we took home
00:25:19eight or nine out of 12. so uh not a bad year including the first overall last year that'd be a tough year
00:25:25to beat this you you mentioned it's early on right now in this race but so far being here just through
00:25:31the event at this stage what are you taking away from it at this point what uh what have you learned
00:25:35what have you seen or what surprised you even well you look at the reinvestment that the aco has made
00:25:41in the facility here and that's the first thing that strikes you you know the the event seems to grow
00:25:46in stock size and stature every year the perfect weather they've got here this year has got to
00:25:51bring a record crowd i just came walking through the village and it's standing room only everywhere you
00:25:56look so i wish we could transplant every america le mans series fan here just once because they would
00:26:02they'd come away changed forever i would agree with that this is a truly remarkable experience and
00:26:08the fact that don penos and the american le mans series are trying to bring that to the states and
00:26:13it has had a lot of success really i think is spectacular we're looking at the
00:26:19essex entry that is down and this is going to undergo a long stop what are you hearing from any of
00:26:23the teams uh here that maybe aren't running in the american le mans series right now that are
00:26:28interested we've certainly heard lots of rumors what have you heard that may be concrete yeah i
00:26:33this this is the time of year where there's a lot of uh a lot of inquiries being made and we have
00:26:38european teams that would like to come and run petit le mans and potentially do both petite and the
00:26:42finale at laguna we're always working to that end and i'm frankly i'm looking forward to getting back to
00:26:49the states and getting back into the america le mans series you know next up for us is lime rock hang on
00:26:53one second let's get down to brian till who's with the number 64 compuervet pit stop
00:26:57greg this is your leader in the gt1 class livier beretta just got out jan magnuson got in remember
00:27:04this team has won this event the last two years they'd love to make it three in a row for the 64
00:27:10car magnuson just magic behind the wheel of almost anything he drives a routine stop four new michelin
00:27:15tires they'll take driver change in fuel nothing awry here body work looks in good condition not a mark on
00:27:21the car guys we watch these guys practice this pit stop and uh the huge amount of fans that are here
00:27:27gave huge amounts of uh cheering and carrying on they love watching these guys do those pit stops
00:27:32well they do do a lot of practicing and of course that's what you need for this to win these races
00:27:36because they are so competitive now there is just no quarter given you can't give up you can't slow
00:27:41down at all and that 63 incident with the guardrail is obviously going to come back and haunt them big
00:27:46times this race progresses scott getting back to what we were chatting about obviously at the very
00:27:52next race at lime rock for the american lemas series it will still be the r8 but after that we're
00:27:57expecting both of the r10 tdi's that's exactly right so you know anybody wanting to see history being
00:28:03made what will literally be the last running of the r8 and what an incredible career it's had
00:28:07and then beginning at salt lake city we'll have the two diesel outis um coming into the series at lime
00:28:14rock will be a second ferrari 430 under giuseppe ricci i think you'll also see potentially one of the
00:28:22two lexus gt2 entries i think for sure we'll have both of them with us at salt lake potentially one
00:28:29with us at lime rock so some new content coming into the season literally at the midway point and
00:28:36a lot happening for 2007. a lot as you pointed out and one of those things we're hearing about is a
00:28:42tremendous development with acura yeah it uh got to be careful what you wish for here you know when
00:28:48you're audi and porsche as far as the competition goes but uh expecting the minimum of four cars
00:28:54that'll debut with sebring in 2007 i think they've selected both courage and lola chassis to begin with
00:29:01and uh hopefully team announcements to be made in the near future well that's one of the big stories
00:29:05there's a lot of teams interested in it sweetie whittle it down to and there are some pretty solid teams
00:29:10that we understand are are in the running we've also and i'm again it's rumors but we've heard
00:29:15creation is looking at maybe trying to put together a multi-car program for next year based on funding
00:29:19i mean that's always the story exactly but one thing that is fact is the american le mans series
00:29:23in terms of a full season championship is a lot of people want to be there no question about it yeah
00:29:29it's uh we we are very closely working with the aco right now to make sure that the 2007 schedule
00:29:36gives all the european teams an opportunity to compete at least at sebring and at petite and to
00:29:41be able to send their freight across the uh the ocean in a container rather than in an airplane that's
00:29:46a big factor for the teams that would like to come and run in the series and we have to talk we talked
00:29:51about porsche being worried about accurate and what you know wonder what you wish for it's gonna be
00:29:55tough to for anybody to top what porsche did at mid ohio i mean they that penske porsche program what a race
00:30:01yeah after a couple of tough outings you know with uh sebring and houston behind them i think they
00:30:07they showed the true colors here and uh what a incredible combination penske and porsche is
00:30:12together i don't know that we want to see an lmp2 winning overall on a regular basis but that was
00:30:18quite a stellar performance and of course if you've got the acura coming in next year with even a couple
00:30:22of teams and you've got lexus there and of course you've got porsche now and audi with the with the diesel
00:30:29what about peugeot did they like to come across with the diesel eventually you know i that's a good
00:30:33question the the fact that they currently at least don't sell road cars in north america is a bit of
00:30:38a factor but uh a month or so ago i was told by the general manager at sebring that they'd had
00:30:43inquiries from peugeot looking for hotel rooms and asking about track testing and i i wouldn't count them
00:30:49out for sebring but right now very much unconfirmed we should say also that although it's very similar it's
00:30:54not a mirror image american lamont series has some different rules about them uh governing the united
00:31:01states faction of this uh yeah it's in the early years it literally was a mirror image and the
00:31:07reality is the rules and regulations that apply to a single 24-hour event don't always translate
00:31:13perfectly over into a 10 race series across eight months on the calendar and across north america so
00:31:19thankfully over time our relationship and i think the trust that the aco has put in both
00:31:24the america lamont series and imsa our sanctioning body now gives us a certain amount of autonomy to
00:31:29be able to still maintain the respect of that lamont connection but also put some rules in place that
00:31:36make sense for a 10 race series and most of these rules uh are really rules to the car itself you know
00:31:42adaptation of different things that uh you know you could run the car over the united states and you
00:31:46can run it over here as we see one of the spikers in trouble the 85. well we've been watching that
00:31:52car had been limping around and stopping and starting and stopping but on the other side of the coin we
00:31:57just saw if you were watching the graphic there the 86 the team car is leading in the lm gt2 category
00:32:03right now which is just a remarkable development for this program and they sell these cars in the united
00:32:08states david well they've made it back i thought uh we'd probably seen the last of that he was stuck down
00:32:13on the straight he was in one of the chicanes on the main straight that's uh what four miles from
00:32:18here but they've got it back it must be like an electrical problem of some sort or something because
00:32:22they got it pop started they saw the the marshals there lending a hand now it's running on its own
00:32:28because the spiker has the audi a8 v8 engine in there the the engine you'll find in the audi a8
00:32:35obviously tuned up a bit but uh still all a good reliable motor for these guys to use
00:32:40it's going to go in the garage you see them putting the little casters under it
00:32:44which always means they're taking it back and out of the harm's way to do some major work
00:32:53watching here now again on the world feed the number 76 that was the car that qualified on pole
00:32:58that had the little development with the chassis and they were allowed to run but start at the back
00:33:03and they're fighting their way back into things as well as a matter of fact up to second in the
00:33:07category right now but scott one of the things we were chatting a little bit about the development
00:33:12with peugeot well of course they made a big announcement here and uh what we want to do
00:33:16is take you back to that as andrew marriott talked to uh the president of peugeot one of the top
00:33:20gentlemen there about the unveiling and the future of this potentially really strong program
00:33:29we thought that winning with a diesel engine allemand was a very great great challenge for us
00:33:36you took this decision i believe before audi made their announcement you were both thinking in the
00:33:41same direction yes but uh what is important for us when we we we enter a new challenge is to to to to
00:33:48win but to win against competitors great ones and i think that audi is a great competitor because they
00:33:56won le mans several times we have to be clear we don't think that we will be able to win in 2007
00:34:02it's 2008 that is the year for us to win le mans with diesel engine
00:34:11so that was the announcement and the interesting thing is is the question is going to be that they
00:34:16kind of skirted from what i understand to be honest is what's the car going to look like a lot of engine
00:34:21and there are rumors it may be a coupe and we're hearing rumors that aco may decide the future of
00:34:26le mans might be coupe and wondering what that might translate to for the american le mans series
00:34:31yeah they uh the aco held their annual press conference yesterday and and they did show a
00:34:35uh a graphic or an illustration of what would potentially be a 2010 lmp1 and uh and that
00:34:43illustration was a closed top car or coupe as you say and uh right now i think it's a a discussion
00:34:49that's taking place they're inquiring with a lot of manufacturers they inquired with us this week for
00:34:54our feedback um you know right now it's a choice and uh the rules the way they're written seem to
00:35:00favor the open top version but uh you know i personally i love the look of a closed top prototype
00:35:06and uh we'd love to see them run and uh have to see what manufacturers do in embracing the new plans
00:35:12for uh you know what's important now is stability through 2009 with new rules to come in in 2010.
00:35:19but the thing about an open car is that you do get a
00:35:21even with the modern cars where the car comes well up the side and the safety is such that the driver's
00:35:26in a much more of a cocoon than he ever used to be there's just something about those open cars to
00:35:30watch them you know you never quite i mean look at this now i mean you have no idea who's really in
00:35:35that car right i mean swoopy obviously the old IMSA gtp prototype show back 10 15 years were terrific
00:35:44yeah when they were running the coupes at IMSA they didn't seem to have a real problem with uh
00:35:48crowd uh caring about the identification factor they just love the look of those cars so
00:35:53that's the deal all right scott we want to say thanks very much appreciate you stopping by and
00:35:57as always giving us the information we hope the rest of your weekend is uh just fun go out and enjoy
00:36:02some great car racing and have a good time thanks greg we're looking forward to getting back to the
00:36:06states and back to the american series that's right two weeks after this race folks it's the american
00:36:10le mans at lime rock so and there is the pescarolo sport pit area and they are sitting watching and
00:36:17hoping but it is the audis right now that are in control here at the 74th michelin 24 hours of le mans
00:36:28welcome back to le mans everybody and if you're just joining us here's what happened in the first hour
00:36:33at the start the two audis with what 1200 newton pounds of torque who launched into the lead the
00:36:38pescarolos could do nothing about it shortly thereafter number 69 and that is babini in the
00:36:44aston martin a huge shunt over at the exit of the porsche curves and it was probably caused as the 007
00:36:50aston came across some curbs ripped off the oil pan and dumped a bunch of oil meanwhile the audis
00:36:56also a very close moment is the pill beam spun right in front of the second place car in the second
00:37:02hour things went awry for the number 63 corvette ride and enjoy this moment although they didn't
00:37:08go away from him they weren't sure why the left rear corner damaged and we've seen more problems with
00:37:19that the fit number 50 ferrari 550 marinello you see the right rear tire has gone down
00:37:25comprehensively and then in the third hour another close call for the audi this time
00:37:29dindel capella who put it on pole tried to get down underneath the viddy car wasn't confident
00:37:34apparently and then he came into the pits and he was obviously upset about something
00:37:39went back out however and then one of the more spectacular moments of the race is the velter
00:37:44racing fujo went airborne and then turned into a shovel and then spun boy it sure did didn't it
00:37:51it was all and he had just balked one of the leading out is terribly badly on the lap before
00:37:56so i suspect the driver in that car is somewhat inexperienced the valvoline reset you can take a
00:38:01look at the stats there and we also have a driver change in the number seven second place car
00:38:06capello stepping out and tom christensen who i think quickly is just becoming known as tk is
00:38:13getting behind the wheel what a remarkable story he sees and you see on his helmet right there
00:38:17that's his autograph tom k and a smiley face now here's the deal this is only 10 laps
00:38:24after the last time they stopped we know they can run 15.
00:38:27so that's a little bit premature i didn't hear wheelspin then did i don't say it oh my gosh
00:38:36three minute penalty if you spin your tires how do you not chirp a diesel with that much torque i just
00:38:41don't understand yeah i wonder if this is related at all to the problems that uh brian till was talking
00:38:48about with that little windscreen that wraps around it dislodged it apparently mounts down into the
00:38:53electronic dash area and that's been having some problems and maybe they needed to come in and
00:38:58get christensen in the car and make that change well what brian was telling us is that that wind
00:39:03screen you know it got hit by a piece of rubber now that windscreen it takes and deflects the air up
00:39:08and above the driver's helmet and head area well that being said it's separated there and it's causing
00:39:14huge buffeting and it's starting to tear away at the dashboard itself to fix it brian thinks they'd have
00:39:20to take the complete dash out which is not i can tell you not an easy thing to do well it's all
00:39:24electronics yeah it could be half an hour's job now plus i think you've got to take the center body
00:39:30work up to get at it but with only 10 laps on that fuel run there's something going on there
00:39:40something is staring saw that graphic the aquavella graphic the gt2 leaders and the 76 car which
00:39:46had qualified on pole and then went to the back because of the work on the car and started last
00:39:51is back in the lead of the gt2 ranks at this stage and as we watch marco verner working his way around
00:39:57oh and a little bit loose there we understand brian tillman oh wait a minute brian we have a fairly big
00:40:03shunt out on the track don't know what body work off the car is that the radical i can't really say that
00:40:09it is it's there's no body left on the front and we got fire an explosion no he's trying to drive it
00:40:15i don't think he realizes how badly it's damaged obviously oh it's one of the belmondo cars oh the
00:40:21right rear tire exploded that's a tire failure catastrophic tire failure right rear what a wild
00:40:29ride this one is and that is down by and it is on fire on fire because they've had no rain here except
00:40:35wednesday night for weeks boy that was a bad one that was going down from mulsanne towards indianapolis
00:40:41i believe that's yan clare one of the drivers in the belmondo entry that's a mega chrome ford
00:40:47well badged ford i should say nothing that driver could do that was that that was a right rear
00:40:51explosion you saw the body work get ripped off and then once that's gone you're just you're just a
00:40:56passenger david that's exactly where they we saw the dumb brick car fly off just uh in 1999 just about
00:41:02three or four hundred yards he's just about to go into the start of the indianapolis complex but that
00:41:06was an incredibly comprehensive um departure from the race well and the first car through all that
00:41:12mess was christiansen just saw him duck through the turn and there were marshals all over the
00:41:17track trying to pick debris up i wonder if this may bring out the safety car these cars are made of
00:41:22carbon fiber and of course kevlar and when they they're very very strong but they don't have much
00:41:28flexed to them and when they break they break into shards and that's what can be dangerous
00:41:33shards of that stuff lying all over the track it really needs cleaning up a bit before they
00:41:37they should have a safety car i would imagine yeah where it is anyway they're bound to have a safety
00:41:41well no well how no matter how well a tire is made it could get cut down by as you said those
00:41:45shards so we'll see what happens here meanwhile let's quickly get back down to brian till who has
00:41:49caught up with max pappas max pappas just got out of the 63 car and oddly enough max when you got out
00:41:55you're alone here in the garage absolutely i want to say hi to my family at home tatty all my dogs
00:42:01and marco he's coming in four weeks i miss you very much guys you know we have uh you know on the
00:42:07racing side you know we had definitely a steep beginning of the race unfortunately johnny you
00:42:11know lost the car and we don't really know why and we had to use a repair the car is not really as
00:42:16good as we wanted to be the corvette is running a little bit you know with the steering wheel tilt to
00:42:20the left in the braking zone the car is pulling right and left a little bit you know it's definitely
00:42:25tough but uh you know we still have many hours to go and the crew guys here are fantastic dan binks
00:42:30is number one he's gonna fix my car so i'm gonna go really fast at the end of the race talk about
00:42:35fixing the cars check this out you know an old stock car trick is to take this duct tape tape pieces
00:42:40together and make a big patch that's what we thought they were doing but indeed this is what they're
00:42:44putting on the car and actually one of the guys ross jeffrey on the 64 car invented this stuff
00:42:49and what it is is a piece of laminate which several millimeters thick sticky is crazy guys and it holds the
00:42:55car back together all right brian we're going to jump in here christensen the number seven the car
00:42:59going into the garage now we saw he was the first car one he stopped short only 10 laps two he came
00:43:05through that that accident scene and then they were they were there's you see the marks on the nose there
00:43:10where that rubber hit it i'm sure that he's counting on there being a safety car now well they've got
00:43:15the engine cover off so this is not addressing the situation where the rubber hit this is a different
00:43:20problem altogether they're working at the back of the car now this is the car that in this in the
00:43:25morning warm-up had all the problems with the gearbox had to change they thought it was half shaft it
00:43:29turned out to be gearbox a lot of smoke and they went for the change now christensen stays on board
00:43:36this is where you want the high resolution camera on the roof that can go right over the heads of all
00:43:41those people now remember at the beginning of the show i said that audi said they were going to run
00:43:45a really hard pace because they didn't think they'd make it through this race without having to fix
00:43:49some of these problems i think that's what they are doing i think they're doing the dashboard see
00:43:53the guy the guy's attacking the dashboard but i'm amazed there is no safety car i am too i am too and
00:43:59i can't believe it and it would make sense wouldn't it dorsey that they'd have to get the rear body
00:44:02work off because some of the electronic management would probably be back there for the dash well i don't
00:44:07know what they're doing with no safety car because that car that's out there on the circuit is not
00:44:11going to go anywhere that's one of the worst places on the track it's at the fastest part of the track down
00:44:15the bottom of the hill there braking for the corner quite dangerous right there all that
00:44:19debris on the racetrack let's see we can check in with brian tiller who's now made his way down
00:44:24to the audi pit brian well greg i'm too short for this i can't see all over all these guys but what
00:44:30i can see is there is a new dash laying on the left side of the seven cars so they will be making that
00:44:35dash repair and although you speculate there will be some wiring in the back that they'd have to change
00:44:39i don't think that that's correct it should just be plug and play so what it should be is the dash
00:44:45should just unplug and plug another one in now obviously they're going to be some mounting bolts these guys
00:44:49working feverishly in the back of that diesel engine of course i can't see it from where i am
00:44:54but they are definitely working on something in the back and i can't believe it would be connected
00:44:57to the dash now i don't think so either brian i think there's two separate problems there um that
00:45:03you're going to have to deal with and i'm sure that the dash situation is something that you wouldn't even
00:45:07contemplate having go wrong a piece of rubber come up and hit that well and i also think that i'm
00:45:12i'm absolutely convinced that uh tom christensen came in then because he was dead sure there'd be a
00:45:17safety car yeah i'm sure of that too if i was in the car i would certainly say having gone through
00:45:21that crash site that there's going to be a full course and he was the first one first on the scene
00:45:25you're going to be saying oh my god you know this could take half an out of clear up just another one
00:45:31of those interesting things about endurance racing and uh now you know don't mount a windscreen onto an
00:45:36electronic dash unit i mean who would think you know exactly that that would happen we saw the dome
00:45:42there just a brief picture of the dome with stephanie johansen at the wheel this is the other courage
00:45:49obviously having a good look around that yeah the belmondo entry this is the team card of the one
00:45:53that had the huge tire because we're assuming the tire the suspension didn't collapse yeah that's true
00:45:59indeed well let's go back and take a look at uh that incident here it is right rear look at the
00:46:07right rear there goes the tire huge explosion blows the bodywork off shrapnel and this is where the
00:46:13crash just starts there's trouble here because we start bouncing off the guardrail almost goes upside down
00:46:20there is so much junk and clag and bits and pieces on the truck i can't believe there's no safety
00:46:26okay well we're all a little bit dumbfounded by that we'll step away for a moment and we'll be
00:46:31back to sort everything out
00:46:40wednesday on speed unique whips tricks out your tv tune in as will castro and his crew handle the
00:46:45rides of today's hottest celebrities because whether you're east coast or west a car is just a car until
00:46:51it's unique unique whips wednesday night at 10 eastern 9 pacific on speed
00:46:58welcome back to the michelin 24 hours of le mans the circuit de la sarthe here in le mans france
00:47:03great to have everybody with us a good look there at the number 16 pescarolo sport judd powered sports
00:47:10car in the hands of eric comas right now running second overall behind the number eight audi of marco verner
00:47:17the audi r10 tdi sebastian loeb and the team pescarolo entry sits third and of course the big development
00:47:23recently has been the audi of christensen going into the garage for some work there they're still
00:47:29working on the front of the car but more work unfolding at the back dorsey yeah you see the
00:47:34mechanic back there ratcheting away this little dashboard thing is inconvenience that's not the
00:47:38problem problem's back here in the back and it's something major okay brian what are you hearing down
00:47:42there well the telemetry guys were showing them that they had some fuel pressure issues the engine
00:47:48wasn't stumbling it was running fine but they wanted to get it taken care of you know telemetry is a great
00:47:53thing but what it means is they're going to have to change a lot of components in the back of that
00:47:56engine it looked like they were definitely changing the diesel injectors in the back or probably some
00:48:01other fuel related electronics as well i saw the fuel the fuel rail if you will or the the uh fuel lines
00:48:07that go to the individual injectors laying up on the fender work so certainly i think you're right
00:48:12brian they're probably putting fuel injector uh injectors in there and replacing those lines
00:48:18and we know the one thing they're not changing is the plugs look at all the debris at this crash site
00:48:23and they haven't gone to no that's not the crash site that's on the main stripe that's those pieces of
00:48:27rubber then that was hitting on the outing from before and gentlemen i don't i don't want to be a
00:48:32naysayer here but i think we have just seen a huge development certainly in terms of tom christensen
00:48:37extending his streak of consecutive wins and adding to his overall win tally here because this has
00:48:43just gone from being a a job up front to a job of ketchup and that is not always well done he's
00:48:49dropping like a stone he's exactly three laps down already and still in the garage well he will be
00:48:54here's the crash site i must say it looks pretty clean i'm not quite sure where the wrecked car is
00:49:00they must have hoiked it over the guardrail with the crane or something they're just out of sight down to
00:49:05the indianapolis corner well there are a lot of marshals out picking stuff up but one i wouldn't
00:49:10have wanted to have been one of them with cars coming streaming through that section of track
00:49:14and how well could they have cleaned it without proper time and the like but i guess the officials
00:49:18have deemed it to be okay but at this stage continue to watching the action here of the pescarolos
00:49:28and watching comas loeb of course behind him and let's check in with chris neville
00:49:37well greg we should be seeing the pescarolos coming to pit lane here in the next two laps both the 16 and
00:49:41the 17 car both running very well teams are saying the cars are running fine it's just we can't keep
00:49:47pace with the audis there's nothing we can do at this point in time other than let the clock turn so
00:49:51these teams just saying guys keep it on the racetrack take it really easy we still have a lot of racing in
00:49:56in front of us and audi right now is having problems well you know we were all speculating a
00:50:01little bit about what would happen in terms of outright speed when we got here but maybe some
00:50:05of us forgot the lap that mcnish turned in qualifying at sebring it kind of had a lot of heads wagging and
00:50:11we're seeing that kind of pace now but we have another very special guest here in the booth but
00:50:14mr hobbs i'm going to let you introduce this gentleman and have a chat with him because
00:50:18you've spent some time with well we're going to welcome with us richard atwood the first man oh there
00:50:23goes the aston martino 007 having a very traumatic day that's down one of the chicanes on the straight
00:50:30of course in our day richard they didn't have those silly chicanes no we we didn't have that problem
00:50:35there so it was just a straight that was mulsanne wasn't it yeah it's one of the chicanes
00:50:42so yeah they weren't there then but that's a long time ago richard of course won the first race ever
00:50:48here for porsche overall as we watch the 007 have a lurid slide off the road
00:50:55the driver at the moment is enger thomas enger who put that car on pole in the gt2
00:51:03but it's got off to a horrible start going over the curb earlier on cracking the oil pan
00:51:07sump to you and me chap and uh losing all the oil yeah that actually happened coming into the pit lane
00:51:16he had got a call from the from the crew chief pit right now and he was right there and he cut in there
00:51:20and and uh hold the oil pan so luckily he was right in his garage yeah i think he pulled uh an oil pipe
00:51:27off actually it wasn't the engine sump it was no line i think so it was relatively easy to to repair but
00:51:33uh if it had been the hole at the bottom of the engine it would have been more difficult i think
00:51:37now richard you won this race as we saw there in 1970 the first guy to win overall in a porsche
00:51:42and of course since then they've gone on to win another another 15 of them 16 wins overall
00:51:47tracks changed a lot since those days what do you think of the new dunlop curve and down to
00:51:52tetroux tetroux has been realigned i i actually haven't um i haven't been around the new track as well
00:51:58the track as it is now i only came last year for the first time after 25 years so i'm not really
00:52:03up to speed with them all um but but of course uh all the chicanes have been put in to address the
00:52:08speed which is always a problem here but they seem to still reach the same terminal speed anyway so
00:52:16it's just that you're not doing it all the time i guess the one place they haven't changed much is from
00:52:21mulsanne down to that right-handed before indianapolis where you go with those two brows yeah great
00:52:27callers great callers aren't they yeah great callers but a bit on the dodgy side though well you know
00:52:35they're quick that they could be dodgy so if you have a problem there then it's going to be a big one
00:52:41so uh you know that's what they've tried to do over the years is um contain the speed well as a matter of
00:52:47fact a little bit earlier this weekend david you went out to that very spot on the track and
00:52:52did a little bit of looking it over and a bit of a nostalgic sense and taking a look at
00:52:56at some of the changes that have and have not occurred in that section of track
00:53:04since the first race here
00:53:0912 major revisions but the one part of the seats have gone slightly unscathed is this the everyday
00:53:14road from mulsanne about a mile and a half up there to arnais about a mile down there nothing
00:53:19has been done to this road hardly at all and it is now the fastest part of this circuit the lmp1 car
00:53:24is doing about 215 miles an hour and as they go over that little hump just the other side of this apex
00:53:31that is where in 1999 peter dunbrecht took that huge flight into the trees on my right he emerged
00:53:38absolutely unscathed about the only major thing that's happened here this guard rail which was
00:53:49added in 1970 has gone from where i'm standing to there so i guess they've got a bit of run-up now
00:53:56there's the apex i was standing on about a quarter of a mile up the road as you can see pretty narrow
00:53:59not a lot of run-off area but as we arrive here this right-handed no-name corner before indianapolis
00:54:04they have reprofiled this corner the guard rail used to be right where i'm standing now it's not
00:54:09as sharp as it was they got tons of run-off area for the cars because they arrive here around about
00:54:13220 miles an hour before they break and turn left into indianapolis a real signature corner here
00:54:19at indianapolis because it is a bank left-hander hence the name
00:54:25and right where i was standing is where that uh courage came unglued just a few laps ago
00:54:31and our first and third in class are now in by the way gentlemen that is marco verner bringing
00:54:36the audi in and there will be a driver's change
00:54:47looks like emanueli piero will be getting behind the wheel also coming in was eric comas bringing
00:54:53the car in as well so that's the significance right there and you can see
00:54:57verner helping getting everything bucketed up there he goes he's plugging in a number
00:55:01of things and let's get down to brian till well it looks like a routine stop greg but it is not
00:55:07there's something going on with the eight as well well the team manager has another steering wheel
00:55:13in his hand he's standing back in the garage holding this steering wheel there's some speculation
00:55:17there's been some arguing actually going on amongst his team as to what it is they're going to do i
00:55:21don't know if it's a paddle shift problem or some type of electronic readout on this dash but all is
00:55:27not well he'll take it back on track but there are some problems with the number eight audi well
00:55:32that steering wheel controls absolutely everything you shift with it it tells you when to shift it
00:55:37tells you everything that's going on in the car you talk to your mechanics in back to the pit lane
00:55:42with the steering wheel buttons without that steering wheel you're in dire strait the modern
00:55:46steering wheel on these cars from these cars to formula one is the most intricate and amazing piece
00:55:50of kit you could ever come across cost somewhere in the reach of fifty thousand bucks each so you
00:55:56don't want to go losing your steering wheel which while formula one if you have a any sort of retirement
00:56:00you're supposed to put the steering wheel back on the car so lots of developments happening at the very
00:56:05front end of things there is your leader in the gt one division and now we are on board with the team
00:56:11car number 63 ron fellows and here is a look at our top five overall we'll be right back
00:56:28welcome back everybody and great to have you with us here and we have a very interesting development
00:56:33unfolding right here you are watching the 009 aston martin as it is coming after the 64 corvette the
00:56:39battle for position and also the number seven audi tom christensen behind the wheel making its way
00:56:44out of the pits now he has been in that pit stall over 20 minutes brian placed extensive parts on the
00:56:52back of that tdi that b10 diesel is back underway and it's funny they started up in the garage a
00:56:58moment ago and you could not hear it it's so quiet so basically they've got a system that they plug into
00:57:04the exhaust that exhausts all the gases out of the back of the garage standing out in front we couldn't
00:57:10even hear it running all right thanks very much well obviously tom christensen has an awful lot of
00:57:18work to do as does the entirety of the driving quartet in that team so that's going to be uh something
00:57:25we'll be following here as of course we watch that battle on and off as the battle for gt1 starting to
00:57:30build but also we've been doing a fair amount of chatting about things nostalgic and also about
00:57:36the drivers of a former era and with one here in the booth we thought we'd maybe take a moment and
00:57:41step back and look at another great piece of track
00:57:48lamar perhaps the two most evocative words one can utter in the world of international racing
00:57:54it is certainly a place of great history but also one of those exceptional venues where life can
00:57:59evolve into legend for many those legends revolve around the amazing cars that have become inexorably
00:58:05linked to this greatest of races but even those legends would have never been born without the
00:58:10remarkable souls that brought those machines to life and to me there are no more compelling stories
00:58:15in motorsport than those of the drivers let's peel off who have achieved to some the unthinkable
00:58:20to many the incredible and to most the truly heroic a classic example would be one of the greatest
00:58:27eras in terms of machinery to have a race at this legendary circuit that of the fearsome porsche 917
00:58:32and ferrari 512 but those cars would have been simply sculpture with promise were it not for
00:58:37incredibly talented and immensely brave drivers willing to get behind the wheel and drive them at
00:58:42240 plus miles an hour down the malzahn through the kink over the hump or to me even more spectacular
00:58:48continue straight on where now the porsche curves bend to the right over this bridge at 200 miles an hour
00:58:55unsettling the car then setting up while the car is not quite right through a series of very swoopy
00:59:00curves through incredibly tight narrow public country lane eventually continuing on and exiting where
00:59:07that white wall is a legendary part of the track forever memorialized in steve mcqueen's great movie
00:59:12le mans and only a year after that considered so diabolical it was eliminated as part of the track
00:59:17the now legendary maison blanche
00:59:22and once again just behind that ferris wheel if you went the the straight here arrived at this point
00:59:29from maison blanche which is about three quarters of a mile down just about where that little um
00:59:34white house is to the left of the ferris wheel and that was maison blanche in the old days and one of the
00:59:39guys that went through there was you richard in one of those 917s yeah i did it was um coming up from
00:59:45arnaje which is a slow corner that starts about a mile and a half before um you just approached that
00:59:51at flat out speed so probably doing around 200 and a bit i would think um maybe down uh a gear and um
00:59:59it was taken at about 160 miles an hour and it was very very high banking there was no escape there
01:00:06and if you went off you just bounced off the bank and back into the middle of the track again
01:00:11and i did have an incident there with uh back in the early 60s it was but um
01:00:16carlo abate was in a ferrari and he lost the whole thing in front of me and i was trying to decide which
01:00:22side to go past it because he was going he was actually slowing quicker than i was and i had to
01:00:27decide which way to go unfortunately i chose the right side well right where greg was standing there
01:00:35right where that that ditch was there too the ditch and then just a sort of barbed wire fence to keep
01:00:39the animals off the track well it was um pretty hostile territory and uh in in the film um
01:00:46le mans with the steve macoon thing uh david piper did actually go off uh just before meson bros i
01:00:52think and uh there was a bit of a guard rail there but it was mounted into soggy mud it just folded down
01:00:59and uh the barrier might as well not have been there yeah those barriers were not the best things in those
01:01:04days which of course the first year of the barriers was when poor old joe bonnie was killed on the
01:01:09approach where i did my little piece there a few minutes ago uh in fact right here he was killed when
01:01:14he went over the guard rail into the trees because the guard rail then laid it down on him and uh
01:01:18launched him like a model car well my first ever visit to le mans was when we went and drove the
01:01:24track and then the porsche curves took off and i realized where we were going and that little tunnel
01:01:29of trees and road and to think about you guys going in there at 200 miles an hour it just uh
01:01:34that really made the hair stand up and just a sense that i'd never had of what an amazing place
01:01:40this was and what amazing cars those were and what amazing drivers you were to be willing to do that
01:01:46so thank you so much richard really appreciate you coming up here it's okay it's been a real treat
01:01:51pleasure pleasure to be on the old channel all right well i hope you get to go out and enjoy a lot
01:01:54more good racing here and okay we certainly should have more to come the sun starting to set here at
01:02:00the circuit de la sarth don't go anywhere
01:02:09speed's coverage of the michelin 24 hours of le mans is presented by michelin a better way forward
01:02:16by the all-new 2007 lexus es350 the car that asks is it possible to engineer desire
01:02:22and by progressive direct call 1-800-progressive or visit progressive.com for a free quote
01:02:32and we want to show you a little bit of a race recap what's unfolded at the start the two
01:02:36audis from the front row leapt into the lead the pescarolo judge could do nothing with them
01:02:40and simply followed them into the first turn then two cars with expectations had big moments early
01:02:46first the 007 aston martin broke an oil pump or an oil pan or an oil fitting and also had an off just
01:02:53recently then two problems one for the corvette watch this johnny o'cala gets it wrong a little
01:02:59damage to the left rear corner spent a little bit of time in the pits then for the audis close call
01:03:04here watch this is the number 20 pill beam splits them as it spins and then dindo capello on a charge
01:03:10after he'd taken over from valen mcnish trying to get underneath the bitty motorsports car locks it
01:03:15up it gets crossed up manages to save it then two spectacular moments the belter racing peugeot
01:03:21climbing bounding flying grinding over the curbs comes to a rest and then the most spectacular
01:03:27moment thus far the number 37 belmondo racing p2 entry tire explodes into the guardrail debris body
01:03:37work everywhere even a bit of a fire however everybody was okay the car is of course a bit
01:03:43of another story so that's a look at some of the moments coming in here now we want to show you
01:03:49the class leaders top three in each of our classes in the two prototype divisions in p1 it is the number
01:03:55eight audi audi out front right now in the hands of emmanuelle piro then it is the two pescarolo judds
01:04:02sitting second and third in the p2 division it is the number 25 rml ray malik limited entry leading
01:04:09over the radical very impressive run here thus far and also the number 39 which is the chamberlain
01:04:16entry which has had some problems and it is great to see them up in the top three we go to the gt
01:04:21divisions it's the 64 compuware corvette out front but prior to a pit stop recently by the 009 it was
01:04:28getting very close and then the number 72 corvette c5 in the hands of polican guselard and luc alfan who
01:04:36is a legend here in terms of downhill skiing in france sitting in third and in gt2 it's been a back
01:04:41and forth battle currently it's the number 83 porsche from cycle motorsport that leads it the 86 and this
01:04:47is a great story is the spiker that sits in the second spot and we've seen a lot of cars working through
01:04:54there at certain points we've also seen the car that qualified on pole up there as well let's check
01:04:59in with brian till greg emmanuel imperio behind the wheel of the eight car all is well there i checked
01:05:05in with ralph yutner he said it's just shift lights on the steering wheel they can do without them right
01:05:10now the seven back underway but many laps down so it almost looks like it's last year in reverse pescarolo
01:05:16seems to be running fine audi seems to have the problems chris
01:05:22brian while we were away both pescarolos were in first it was the 17 car and everything was fine
01:05:28with that car very quick pit stop sebastian and the car prior to that it was the 16 car eric
01:05:34comas bringing that machine to pit lane now the only thing i noticed on that one is they did replace the
01:05:39windscreen that windscreen was torn up by debris on the racetrack something that we've seen collecting
01:05:44as this race is going on lots of rubber debris out on the racetrack it was a quick stop for the 16 car
01:05:49not as lengthy as the audi
01:05:55all right gentlemen thank you very much and it has been an interesting and eventful start to
01:06:00a 24-hour endurance race there's no question of that it certainly has and everybody's been selling
01:06:05some cracking times the best lap from the audi of number eight is a 332 the best lap that christensen's
01:06:12cars down to 333 the pescarolos are both done at 335 and 336 so they're not that far off their
01:06:19qualifying so these guys are nailing it right from the drop of the flag and we have seen quite a few
01:06:24instance the two aston martin's is pretty uh hair raising and of course johnny o'connell most unlike
01:06:29him just go driving off the road like that of course you predicted some of that paste well yeah i tell you
01:06:33what's catching my eye that i don't like seeing is there's this huge amount of rubber that's out on this
01:06:38racetrack and we're starting to hear now of damage caused by these balls of rubber that uh that are
01:06:43flying up they can hit the driver and the helmet they can hit all sorts of things i think before
01:06:48this night's over that rubber is going to be a big problem and keep in mind we are very early into this
01:06:54night and then of course a lot of coverage to come at 8 p.m eastern time we will be back with more live
01:07:00coverage of the 74th running of the 24 michelin 24 hours of lamont and it will be right to the very
01:07:08finish but coming up next some more great racing action live nascar craftsman truck series action
01:07:13from michigan so we'll take you to there you're going to enjoy that but as we said there's going
01:07:18to be some great racing to unfold yet here at lamont and when we come back at 8 p.m eastern we will take
01:07:24you live right to the finish of this absolutely stellar event and plus bring you an extra half hour of
01:07:29coverage and bring you up to date on what unfolded interviews with winners and champions in the
01:07:34light so make sure you stay tuned for some nascar action from michigan and come back at eight o'clock
01:07:40for the rest of this legendary event we'll see you then tonight on speed the greatest automotive
01:07:52endurance race race in the world is back 24 hours of lamont big slip right there unbelievable hello
01:08:00grueling intense unmerciful catch all the action this weekend from start to finish
01:08:07as speed brings you live coverage from the 74th running of this prestigious event
01:08:1124 hours of lamont continues tonight only
01:08:22have a great deal to see you then yes
01:08:27and so
01:08:29and so
01:08:30you
01:08:31that's
01:08:32and so
01:08:33you
01:08:33you
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