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00:00Friday at Le Mans it means well more than one thing it means a day off for everyone
00:10as far as the on-track activities but it means the parade on Friday afternoon it's a fabulous
00:15atmosphere starts off at the cathedral makes its way into the town square and you can see
00:20how heavily attended it is it's a chance for the fans the locals the visitors to get close
00:26to the unique Le Mans trophy the drivers grab some photographs and autographs it really
00:32is a fabulous time leading up to Saturday and race day welcome back everyone speed channels
00:39live and exclusive coverage continues here at circuit de la South Lee Diffie Dorsey Schrader
00:44Andrew Marriott and Brian Till with you as the Lavera Ferrari is in for servicing once again
00:50let's talk GT cars and take a look at something interesting on this recent stop from the spiker
00:58squadron doors Johnny King getting a drink tube but he's going to have some trouble with it
01:03you see him right there snatching the thing off Johnny's in there trying to get a drink
01:07and he's going to find out that he can't uh they won't hook up for him he's going to try to throw
01:11that tube back out but it's going to land on the door sill that being said when they go to close the
01:16door it's not going to see there he throws it out they go for assistance it doesn't close and he's
01:23driving around with the door that's open now we'll keep a close eye on that Andrew Marriott is standing
01:28by with our GT2 leader I certainly am Lee do you know there's an amazing thing about this very
01:34weekend there's not one but there's two 24-hour races going on there's another one at the Nürburgring
01:40there's over 300 cars in that and one man who thought he would be taking part in that race
01:45because this is a late entry is Dominic Farmbacher Dominic having a great run here but you so easily
01:51could have been in the Nürburgring 24 hours yeah I've heard of the 24 hours of Nürburgring that they
01:57take place at the same time many of the Porsche drivers which are normally driving here in the
02:0424 hours of Le Mans are starting there so it's difficult to to to um take take to view both
02:16at the same time well you're in the right place Dominic because you're leading this class you've
02:21already had your victory of course last year at Daytona you're doing a fantastic job is the car
02:26working well the cars working well our tires are working well um the only um thing we have to be
02:34worried is about the Ferrari and this bike behind us um the team did a great job and your co-driver
02:42of course Pierre Arretta has driven with you to the success at Daytona as well Pierre doing a good
02:46job yeah Pierre and Lars a player I won with him the 24 hours of Daytona last year I know two years
02:52ago and um this year we try to win Le Mans well the very best of luck Farmbacher racing they thought
03:00they might be in Germany but now they're doing a 24-hour race here in France instead
03:05well they were we should be lucky when they race with 300 cars oh no that'd be crazy wouldn't it
03:11that'd be insane so run what you brung 24-hour as the Zaytech is back in and back out and
03:18Farnbacher is a very established name here in Europe and it's certainly making its way
03:22in the United States and Dominic is only 21 years old and could be a two-time 24-hour winner as far as
03:30the Rolex 24 and here at Le Mans Nelson Piquet Jr. is out of the team Modena Aston Martin and David Brabham
03:39is in and we believe there are some pretty exciting things coming for David next year
03:48he can't elaborate but he thinks he may have some good news coming for 2007 as far as his sports car
03:55racing program and now this car if you did an order of a list as far as the Aston Martins the quality of
04:04the Aston Martins in the field this car has been around for a while it needed some much much needed
04:09attention to get it ready for this race but for them to be in a podium position at the moment I think
04:15they would be thrilled two of the three drivers are rookies in Nelson Piquet Jr. and Antonio Garcia
04:21Brabs is the only one with any experience but so far so good and that car is being run by the Irish
04:29team Ireland A1 Grand Prix team and that car has been following somebody who's been leaking a whole
04:35lot of oil as you saw that week it's about impossible to see into so for the driver you know he's not
04:41seeing out any better and you have to say Nelson Piquet Jr. who has done a little bit of sports car
04:47racing in fact he's raced in Aston in his native country of Brazil but of course well known to us as an
04:56open wheeler driver and more to the point in GP2 at the moment where he is one of the front runners
05:01Andrew
05:02I'm a Nelson here Nelson just got out of the car what was that section like
05:10it was good we did a double step now and we had a bit of softer compound so in the end it was a bit tricky it was a bit
05:19sliding and it was okay I'm enjoying it it's my first Le Mans
05:26but you've driven an Aston before in Brazil and was successful with that
05:30yeah but I think we were in a more relaxed pace we're not racing racing against out of real cars so it's a bit
05:37different than racing here now one of the last professional races your father did
05:40was here have you talked to him at all about this race no not really
05:44just asked him if he thought it was interesting for me
05:50interested for me to do it and he said yes sure but nothing much
05:53how difficult is it Nelson to change your mindset because you know we see you last week
05:59racing in the GP2 car and Greece Grand Prix and all of a sudden you've got to change your mind
06:03and there you were not feeling well you had very bad hate fever
06:07is that hate fever gone
06:08well it's not really difficult to get to change your mind it's just difficult to get used to this car
06:15I mean if I knew this car well before before well before before this race I'm sure I would be
06:22right on the pace but it's because I never drove the car really in the limits and this circuit is so
06:27different that it just kills the driver if he's never been here
06:31Nelson in the closed season you came very close to getting a Formula One drive
06:37is that still very much your aim to move into Formula One next year
06:40I'm trying my best that this year we're doing well we're second in the championship
06:44the last two races weren't too good but I'm sure we can
06:46we can recuperate to the top and just the question of
06:52getting things right because we had a bit a lot of luck I did
06:55little mistakes that I lost a race but I'm sure we can we can win this championship and
07:02hopefully you get a contract in the Formula One next year
07:05thanks very much he's going to try and beat Lewis Hamilton of course
07:07now one very interesting person down in this garage is Kerry Adams
07:11Kerry Adams was the man who masterminded JJ Leto's victory in the Moore here in the McLarens
07:18almost 10 years ago and Kerry's down working in this garage thanks Andrew great to hear from Nelson and
07:24what a future he has his father a three-time world champion 207 Grand Prix 28 Grand Prix
07:32victories and he is a very focused young man we wish him well in GP2 we wish him well with
07:40these Formula One aspirations but most of all right now here at Le Mans because he
07:45could very well be on the GT1 podium 20 years of age he has it all ahead of him
07:53Nelson Piquet Genia and great to see the names Piquet and Brabham in the one car
08:01legendary names in world motorsport more when we come back
08:05speed coverage of the Michelin 24 hours of Le Mans is brought to you by Porsche Porsche there is no
08:18substitute and by Valvoline test on the track trusted on the road
08:24here it is the miracle motorsports entry Andy Lally steps from the car Ian James waiting to step in
08:34and John Macaluso this has been a very successful run Mike Gouet in the background there on the left
08:39running this team for John Macaluso and these boys had a very fixed game plan before this race started
08:46and that was we're not going to get caught up in the lead pace we're just going to keep chipping away and
08:51that's exactly what they've done in their Courage with AER power and these Kumo tires that have been
08:57specially designed around what they did last year here at their Le Mans debut it's been a 12-month development
09:04process and Mike Gouet said to me before the race we may even triple stint these tires the development
09:13has come on that strong and that far from their base in South Korea Kumo have done a lot of work
09:19developing this tire specifically around this car and this team so what a great working relationship
09:25and so far these guys are going brilliantly they are 12th overall and second in the LMP2 class look at all
09:34of the rubber that mechanic just pulled out from behind that wheel those are the big chunks of rubber we
09:39talked about that are all over the racetrack we've got a fit on the front here where the red line oil is
09:43that's disconnected you see where the uh you see where the bolts are they're supposed to hold that on that end
09:48plate falling off that could come down the front tire I'm surprised they didn't fix that
09:54not too worried about it a little carbon shard that's dragging on the road there
09:59so Ian James now behind the wheel the phoenix based driver out for his next stint now those bits
10:06of rubber and you see the mechanics going to do it for us those bits of rubber are very very sticky
10:11and they get together behind the wheel where the mechanic got them out and they actually be like a
10:16snowball they keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger until they get to be so heavy that when
10:21you get on the brakes they come chucking out of the out of the rear well opening and I've almost
10:25turned the car over by that getting under the chassis this is one of our American teams still in this race
10:33and still doing very well speaking of Mike Gui here he is yeah Mike Gui who's got a little river just about
10:39five miles away from here named after him uh Mike you had this game plan to uh play a long game and it
10:48seemed to be working well for you yes we knew we hadn't quite got the speed for the lolers but uh we
10:54decided to be a player very conservative approach and so far it's working but of course there's still 11
11:00hours to go which uh anything can happen we have a slight problem with the fuel at the moment uh
11:07we're having to shorten or having to stop early because we've got a pickup problem but other than
11:11that uh things are going along as planned what about we reached into the tires are you able to reach
11:17in the tires are absolutely excellent uh we actually intend triple stinting them a little bit later
11:23on where's perfect we just saw as the car went out a little bit of winglet hanging down Mike but
11:29do you not see it that that's a call off eventually not worried about it okay there's Mike Gui
11:35he's got a river named after him it's just about four miles down the road from here one of the things
11:40one of the great things about sports car racing and experienced sports car team managers they never
11:46get too excited or too flustered about things and always keep an eye on reality even though they're
11:51doing well and they're running second in class he says yeah but there's still a long way to go
11:56and i said in one of my reports earlier that this team came here very relaxed with that game plan we're
12:02not going to get all mental about who's the fastest out here we're just going to run our own pace and
12:07we're going to try to get this car to the finish and if it gets to the finish we're going to win this
12:11race speaking of winning that's what Ron Fellows has done here at Le Mans he knows all about it
12:16the 63 Corvette we just got a quick shot of it that currently sits 11th overall and fifth in class
12:26LMP2 class leading car for RML the Lola AER Tommy Erdos behind the wheel this is sixth overall
12:38Dorsey I'm just blown away by the outright speed of the class leading Aston Martin
12:45and Ollie Gavin's Corvette they are fourth and fifth overall at the moment now a GT1 car which was the
12:52Gavin Magnus and Beretta car finished fifth overall last year but at just over the halfway mark to be up
12:57in the top four and five that is outstanding it is outstanding at the halfway mark we're used to
13:02seeing this toward the end of the race that those cars are pretty reliable and get up there but to be
13:06that strong this early and of course the two of those having a huge battle amongst themselves right now
13:12Erdos serviced and sent
13:19and this car unlike in years gone by with it and other cars it looks bulletproof at the moment
13:28and the Luc Alfond Corvette still running strong in eighth and it is fourth in class
13:34now if you're just tuning in welcome it's six in the morning here local time in Le Mans
13:46you're live with speeds coverage of the Michelin 24 hours of Le Mans
13:5111 hours to go in this fabulous event Lee Diffie Dorsey Schrader with you Andrew Marriott and
13:58Brian Till on pit road and Greg creamer will be joining us shortly and what is just another beautiful morning here in France
14:12we've been spoiled by the weather all but one night which was the first night the cars went on track
14:17wouldn't you know it but that just added some extra excitement for the drivers
14:22as far as race conditions go sometimes here at Le Mans we get a little sprinkle during the evening
14:27that has not occurred tonight and now we see daylight everyone gets their second win and we get to go
14:33again and go hard for the second half of this race they talk about the weather pattern coming in
14:39somewhere around noon but looking at the flags across the way there there's not much wind right now I
14:43don't see much of a cloud in the sky anywhere this is the Barrazi epsilon
14:48prototype it's been quite a troublesome race for these guys look how clean that car is and I'll
14:54tell you why that is every time they stop a guy comes on the front of that car and waxes the nose of
15:00that car it keeps on that black rubber stone it's probably the cleanest looking car in the whole race
15:05and Juan Barrazi Michael Verges they currently lead the LMP2 class in the Le Mans endurance series
15:11these guys have had a good 2006 season in the LMS
15:20but not so the case here at Le Mans well you're used to seeing those front ends all rock chipped up and
15:26full of oil and all kind of debris bugs whatever you want to say but these guys just keep cleaning
15:31away at it up front if you've just joined us the awesome diesel r10 Audi for Yost racing has a two
15:41lap lead over the pescarolo sport of Eric Ellery and then Dindo Capello in the second r10 is third
15:49about some nine laps down on the race leading car then Pedro Lamy and Ollie Gavin that is the top five
15:56drive Tommy Erdos leads the LMP2 class and the cycle Porsche is the GT2 class leading car
16:09plenty more when we come back on the other side of this break here at Le Mans
16:12Greg Kramer joins the team
16:25sunrise at the 74th running of the Michelin 24 hours of Le Mans magical moment at a magical track the
16:33circuit de la sarthe there is perhaps no more evocative moment during this race is after a run
16:39through a relatively short northern France evening in the summer the sun coming back up daylight
16:45breaking the drivers wiping the sleep from their eyes the crews starting to sit up a bit as well
16:52everybody ready for now the final 11 hours of this absolutely mystical and magical event absolutely
17:00just a phenomenal moment here now if you're just joining us i want to bring you up to speed or if
17:04you've stepped away for a little bit and here's what's unfolded in the first 13 hours of this
17:10tremendous event at the start it was the two Audis from the front row putting all that great torque to
17:16use the pescarola judge just not enough and the Audis led away the Corvette number 63 Johnny O'Connell
17:23just got away from him you were hoping was he gonna miss no just tagged the wall a bit of damage to the left
17:30rear then Dindo Capello trying to avoid thinking that Vinny car was going to close the door got it
17:35crossed up but did manage to save it and then two spectacular moments first this was Francois Hachard
17:43the number 30 welter racing Peugeot airborne then turned into a shovel was able to get it stopped on
17:49track but the most spectacular moment the 37 Courage Ford in the hands of Yann Clare the right rear tire
17:56explodes and the body work comes off the front it turns hard into the barrier the body work off the
18:03front of the car as well and then a bit of a fire then later in the race the sun setting here and in
18:10LMP1 problems for the number 16 pescarola judge spent an hour in pit lane the number 17 had an off course
18:18excursion the number 8 Audi was able to overcome some gearbox woes and now remains in the lead in GT1
18:27the 64 Corvette long pit stop gave the lead to the Aston Martin Aston Martin able to move out front and
18:36they have been battling back and forth through the night on the same lap the number 90 crone racing
18:42peterson white lightning car problems stuck in the gravel and that has promoted the number 83 cycle
18:48machine up into the lead in the LM GT2 category and in the P2 category number 25 six overall right now
18:57had a very early apparently minor problem with the boost Darcy and since that time that car has been
19:03absolutely running like clockwork sits six overall comfortably leading in the P2 category Thomas Erdos
19:09driving that car as we speak and uh you're right the LMP2 class is usually pretty frail they're fragile
19:16little cars because of how likely they've been built but not this time these guys put on a good battle
19:21and uh it's far from over take a look at our valvoline race reset the Audis are running first and third the
19:27number 17 pescarola judge sits second Corvette second and sixth in the GT1 battle nine cars out of the race
19:34there are a couple that let's say are very iffy tenuous at best right now and we'll certainly update you as
19:40that unfolds what happens one of them sort of a sad story the dome that had been running so strongly
19:47and then Alex Jung on board bit of a problem and has uh still been making its way limping slowly back
19:53to the pits we understand it is still stranded on course there is a look at the magical Rolex
19:58clock here at Le Mans telling us that we are now under 11 hours to go but it is a very long 11 hours
20:04remaining well Alex Jung uh went off in a big way and somehow managed to break both of the uh steering
20:10arms on the front of the car so although he did get out of the gravel trap he could only go to the next
20:15corner station before he found out that hey this thing don't steer which is a big problem yes pretty
20:21serious problem they're fairly convinced that car is done but it has not officially been as they say
20:26here abandoned yet here's the number 20 pill beam that this is the car that gave a bit of a scare to the
20:31Audi's in the early going when it's spun right in between the two cars
20:38working on that car right now
20:42looks like the aston martin guy is getting ready for a uh a scheduled pit stop
20:48citizen will be getting in and this is a great battle i mean the first place in gt lmp gt1
20:55is uh is running for fourth and fifth overall and it's early in the race for those guys to be that
21:02high up yeah they've really put together and i mean it's been a lockstep battle you take a look at
21:08the fastest times turned by those two cars three tenths of a second apart for their best times in the
21:14race thus far 351.5 for the aston martin 351.8 for the uh corvettes but that oh boy and i'll tell you
21:23pedro lami just turned that time thank you kenny that was hadn't noticed that one that was on the
21:28last lap so pedro lami has just gotten the hammer down right now the last lap by beretta in the 64 of
21:35357. so that gives you an idea of the pace right now we're looking here at the number 39 that's the
21:42chamberlain synergy entry one of the lola bo540s that's also a er part been a real up and down up
21:50and here we go number 17 eric ellery in the second place pescarolo is in andrew yes indeed this is one
21:58of about 29 pit stops they're going to make like this the fuel is going in there is a new set of these
22:04new taller michelin's developed for the audi as we said waiting for it and eric hellery is staying
22:11a wheel just uh talking to anybody here eric of course will be doing all the testing on the new
22:18peugeot diesel car which is announced this very weekend they showed the engine and off goes that's
22:25a very nice smooth stop and as i said earlier to uh henry pescarolo it's so tantalizingly close and this is
22:33very much a david and goliath battle heaven knows what the difference is between the budgets of
22:39these two teams out in pescarolo and i suggest that probably out is about to take the mind
22:44that of the pescarolo
22:48andrew you were talking about the davids here's one of the goliaths that has just made a quick stop
22:53and it is back out christensen now behind the wheel and has picked it up and here's a look at our class
23:00leading lm gt1 category car pedro lammy threw down a very fast lap one lap ago and now we know why he
23:09brought it in wanted to build the margin up just a little bit and he is in and it appears that we may
23:15have a driver change in that car as well and dorsey looks like tires yeah they're going to do everything
23:20they need to right now this is where you can run really fast greg the sun is up now that you you
23:25got your visibility back but it's still very very cool racetrack's got a lot of heat in it these new
23:30tires are going to be real grippy uh watch the lap times they're going to really start going down
23:37pro drive executes to perfection and it is back on track and we will step away for just a moment here
23:45we'll update you as everything sorts through the timing and scoring stay tuned
23:56back at the 74th running of the michelin 24 hour of leman you know the corvette's always strong here
24:01ollie you guys running second right now giving chase to that green machine out in front but you guys always
24:06seem to have a handle on it you've won three of these things how's the car right now the car right
24:11now is not too bad we've just said the fastest lap of the race for us just a few laps ago we did have
24:17a bit of an incident earlier on when i got knocked off at the first turn by a p-car went skating across
24:22the graveler about 140 did a bit of a dukes of hazard back onto the track um but that did hurt the car
24:29for a while and then through sort of like the second half of the night we were struggling with some tires
24:35and tire pressures and heat and some other bits and pieces and uh so we've finally got that sorted
24:41out now i think and we're back on track but we seem to have lost that last couple of mile an hour on the
24:46straight which is a bit of a shame we're not sure whether that's down to well we think it's down to
24:50the hit so we just have to get on and uh make do without that but uh no the corvette i mean these
24:57boys do build them strong that's it's been through that gravel trap and flying back on the on the road and
25:02it's it's still going strong so the c6r is fantastic just after the halfway point you've
25:08seen a lot of cut down tires there looks to be a lot of debris out on the racetrack a lot of marbles
25:13both from the gravel traps and from tires what's the condition it does seem to be a bit treacherous
25:18out there i think there's a few people uh half asleep out there i mean i take it you've had some sleep
25:23haven't you brian i have had a little sleep i didn't know they had the dukes of hazard in england
25:29oh yeah they they have daisy's quite something all right well they've been watching american
25:34television while that's happening let's get down to andrew marriott yeah thanks very much brian i'm
25:39with a man who raced here nine times but now his car is leading lmp2 ray ballon ray is going very well
25:47indeed at the moment all fingers crossed well yeah we we've uh we've been doing that for some time um the
25:53car is running fine now uh we had a bunch of problems manifest themselves around two o'clock
26:00in the morning uh including a bad vibration uh wastegate that needed changing and the gear pot so
26:07uh we lost about 20 minutes uh in the pits at that time so uh the lead gt1 cars got ahead of us at that
26:15time and that's where they are now but uh right now it's going fine ray you've got two professional
26:19drivers in the car and then the man mike newton is now your partner in rml but for a gentleman driver
26:25he's damn fast mike's doing a great job it's uh credit to him see his lap time so consistent so
26:32near the pace so he's he's uh being a very important and uh effective part of the team now as well as
26:40doing this you're also running in the world touring car championship and actually you're running
26:44an american make chevrolet and you just had your first victory the other day yeah we did at brown's
26:50hatch uh at the uh the home track uh alan menu did a great job for us and uh yeah that was uh a bit
26:58of a contrast to this that was uh very short races uh in comparison in comparison to uh driving around for
27:0524 hours but um yeah ray great to talk to you and uh the best of luck let's keep all those fingers
27:11cross thanks very much that's ray malik a true gentleman without doubt and also has put together
27:19a very solid team and boy you are right andrew newton has been just absolutely brilliant here
27:24thus far in the race and now turning it over to a driver the quality of irdos things look well
27:29indeed as we watch the synergy uh the chamberlain synergy number 39 bit of an up and down event for
27:35them as well crashes and qualifying and in the pre-test good run early in the event and then
27:40struggling a little bit and it continues down in the pits and you can see that front panel is off
27:45and they're working deep down in there dorsey working in the driver foot box area where the uh
27:50the brake pedal i would assume is what he's working on you see uh he might be it might be a brake bias
27:56or a brake balance situation but he's down there where the driver's feet are and of course the driver
28:01can't pull his feet back because uh they don't work that way so that's uh it's a hard place to work
28:08and of course gt car is in as well here is the number 73 making a stop that is uh one of that's the
28:15ice pole racing team entry so working uh there there's a look at the corvette garage and as we heard in that
28:21great interview that brian did with ollie gavin sometimes as planned and uh when you have a dukes
28:30of hazard moment as he put it well you have to be able to react to those things and a little bit
28:35earlier chris neville visited with the coochie for the 63 car danny binks to find out how they plan for
28:41those unexpected moments the 24 hours of le mans an endurance race no it's a sprint race and these
28:49teams don't prepare for if things go wrong they prepare for when things go wrong dan binks is the
28:54crew chief on the 63 car dan what has corvette done over the past couple years to spend less time in the
28:59garage well we practice all the changes in the shop and also here at le mans here's a good example uh the
29:05transmission uh in sebring what took seven minutes to get it out roughly 15 minutes to rebuild it the whole
29:11side comes off and uh all new gears put it back in the rules are you have to use this case and then roughly seven
29:17minutes back in um all here we have an example the rear upright uh all the toes been set all the
29:22cameras been set and we can put that on in about seven minutes um also another example is the nose
29:27they like to run into stuff and you know gravel traps and all that messes the nose up we can change
29:31this in four minutes and that used to be a 15 minute change uh just every piece that you can put on
29:37has been done first year corvette came to le mans they spent an hour and a half in the garage last
29:42year it was just minutes and that's exactly what i was talking about earlier in the show when i talk
29:48about preparation for what might happen and andrew marion is with another corvette driver andrew
29:55with another corvette driver with a man who's a huge hero here in france twice the downhill world
30:02skiing champion this year he won the dakar rally for mitsubishi and now he's running a corvette and
30:08running with a possible podium luke alfon as i said a real hero here in france and a lot of people
30:14supporting you yeah it's great we have you know never 72 that's the department of the la salle region
30:19from le mans we had a good support from the crowd here uh everything said now it's going great we had
30:27some little trouble on the last relay you know i had to stop and go so i had to start twice in the
30:31pit so it was hard to get the rhythm again and we had a small contact with the od but nothing too
30:38serious uh so things are running pretty good for the moment you know we passed the night it's finally
30:43sunday but it's going to be a long long sunday because it's still a long way to go what about the
30:49air conditioning is that working okay look i'm pretty all new it's working great i can say it's working
30:55great we have like 27 28 degrees in the car till now everybody everything is working so great
31:02and it's good you know they had triple relay for a gt car in the night was really cool for the other
31:08drivers and uh now if it's a warm sunday it's going to be good help you know till the end
31:15luke when you started motor racing after you'd finished your brilliant skiing career it was
31:19just a little bit of a hobby but it's turned into something really big and and you're the winner
31:23of the dakar rally this year and of course in europe that's absolutely huge yeah it's incredible
31:29you know it was just for the pleasure and for the love of speed you know when i i started car racing
31:35i had the opportunity because i know i wanted to do something into my dose of adrenaline every weekend
31:43but finally it's working great yeah winning the dakar this year was more than a dream more than
31:48expected now i'm racing with mitsubishi for and here it's also a hobby but then every time we come
31:55we try to do our best and uh we have a really good team this year and a good car and we we hope we can
32:01be on the podium and how are the boys next door in corvette racing treating you more better and better i
32:09i mean they have a they had a look at the beginning and then you know just because we are a full private
32:15team and it's uh but we have good support no technical support everything when we need something some
32:21small parts because the c5 c6 are different now but we have a good health because they know the car
32:26they feel the car so everything is every time it's very very convenient with them and you know we are
32:33climbing in their confidence so try to be maybe we can have a c6 for next year maybe it
32:39can luke obviously with the adrenaline flowing thanks very much well he talks about his ability
32:45for a potential podium absolutely he's only five laps back right now the class leading aston martin
32:51doing very well three-time world cup downhill champion as a matter of fact the 2006 olympic gold
32:57medalist antoine deniraz who came out of nowhere really to win that gold medal lists him as a role
33:04model and it's interesting luke lists him as a mentor he's sort of uh or as a protege he's sort of
33:10a mentor for him and there is vanina x who's having a bit of a visit with the legendary luke alfon
33:15and you heard him talking about adrenaline there's a reason that team is called luke alfon adventures
33:21and happy father's day everybody it's past midnight eastern time we're into sunday and that's father's day
33:27hello
33:31hello sunshine
33:37coming to my life
33:44hello sunshine
33:49coming to my
33:50hello sunshine indeed and it has in fact washed the circuit de la sarthe with an absolutely
34:04beautiful glorious french morning we've heard possibilities of rain no sign of it right now
34:10that's for sure clear skies just gorgeous here and great to have all of you with us on this
34:15father's day for this 74th running of the michelin 24 hours of le mans live right here on speed look
34:22there at the number seven audi running third overall right now problem is about nine laps back
34:27of their teammates who are leading this tom christensen behind the wheel and of course lots
34:32of speculation for christensen can he get a record seventh overall can he get a record eight uh or
34:38seventh in a row a record eighth overall not looking too good right now but dorsey we still
34:43have the better part of 11 hours to go so things happen here long way to go and this is when the
34:49campers wake up and see how truly ugly things got last night there's a lot of campers here i mean
34:55half the field is uh covered with tents and so forth and i i drove through there this morning about a
35:01couple hours ago and it didn't look too good no no no i mean at three o'clock at night here this place
35:08is absolutely alive at four o'clock as you said everybody has finally said enough and they do make
35:14a party of it and they head out and they head away but you take a look here obviously the crews who are
35:20on duty and on call all night still trying to steal just a little bit of some time right now so
35:26this is the audi pit and obviously they have had some adventures here as things have gone on at this
35:32stage and uh looking at our host feed right now you can see they're giving us some updates on various
35:37categories and you can see it's audi pescarolo audi up front overall and in gt1 that aston martin
35:44corvette battle is stellar and the number 62 aston martin which is a bit of a surprise considering it
35:50really hasn't been on the pace that much has been very very reliable just clicking off the laps
35:55and running very strongly at this stage good look there at stefan sarrazan
36:00there's mr christensen making his way out of the pits
36:06world feed giving us some interesting moments clearing a little little crick of the neck right
36:16there when you're lulled over the number 16 pescarolo again coming this is coming from our world feed just
36:22some moments and there is the number two essex racing zytek engineering entry of nielsen elgard and
36:30anderson been in the pits for a little while they had made their way back onto the first page of
36:35three on the scoring monitor after dropping off 16th overall at this stage and had a little bit of a
36:41longish stop but are back out now and they're just trying to just stay with it work their way back up
36:47into the order such a long way to go this race again started much later than we've ever had one
36:53start before is not to step on the world feeds
36:56well as we watch this car we want to go back a little bit obviously the diesel audis the r10 tdi's
37:05they felt the need for speed and it started right here on speed at sebring this year and it was
37:12interesting because the number two had a tremendous qualifying run but ended up starting from pit lane
37:18because of a problem in the morning warm-up and there you see mcnish heading out a unbelievable
37:23qualifying lap but a little bit later on the number one in the hands of frank vila had a spin sort of
37:29surprised everybody at that point then it headed to the tent behind the pit wall really retired on lap
37:36117 with an overheated engine the number two however just continued running only a couple of unscheduled
37:42stops were to change the fuel filter and to tighten a couple of loose wheel nuts of course you saw them
37:46cover up the lens there on the number one didn't want to give away anything and late in the race it was
37:51christiansen gets in and was able to pull off a win another remarkable achievement by christiansen and uh he
37:59ends up with a win by four laps there just phenomenal stuff and there's a look at the rolex clock and some of the
38:06great shots right here the intersport lowland pit lane some crew members still trying to grab what
38:11they can for naps and we're going to step away for just a moment but please do come back
38:22wednesday night on speed don't miss pinks pride passion and titles are all on the line in ultimate
38:27head-to-head quarter mile matchups the rules are simple lose the race you lose your ride that's wednesday
38:33night nine eastern eight pacific on speed
38:40welcome back to le mans and the aco the automobile club de l'west that's the organ is organizing body
38:47here and we've been talking about sticky gumball cool night tires garcy that's pickup they picked up
38:53everything it could you know all the rocks from there
38:59boy i'll tell you that tire had everything on it and this is the ferrari that is currently running
39:05rather strongly and was everybody expected this car to be uh really a runaway car in a sense here in
39:11the gt2 category but as always those porsches showing very strongly but this car right now top three in
39:16the class and uh in for a quick stop and they've this car is a little bit different car than we've
39:23seen in the past certainly in the american le mans series and running even in the european series
39:27including le mans the new 430 and let's go down to brian till who's there
39:33greg the car running very strong andrew carcaldi will stand behind the wheel for the third time
39:38they can see a triple potential happens to take fuel and michelin tires they do have a problem
39:42they've got a severe vibration in the brake pedal they think that perhaps one of the brake pads
39:48is lodged at somewhat of an angle and every time they go to the brake pedal the pedal pulsates very
39:53aggressively underneath the driver's foot doesn't seem like much but what it does is it eventually
39:58causes that leg to cramp so they've had some issues for the drivers kirkaldi will stay in for his third
40:03sit as i said and every time one of those guys is getting out of the car very very sore well they
40:09obviously that is setting them back i mean keep in mind in the test day kirkaldi was two seconds
40:14faster than anybody else in the class and that second fast car was in the hands of last year's winner mark
40:20lieb so this car the ferrari obviously a lot of potential just struggling a little bit right now this
40:25is the number 93 team tyson advan porsche running in the gt2 category has made a stop in the midst of
40:33making a stop at this stage and an awful lot of attention right now doris you're seeing being
40:37spent on cleaning windshields and obviously with the sun coming up if it's not clean and you've got
40:41a lot of that oil and and junk on there that glare can be absolutely uh really blinding and there's
40:47little bits of rubber all around the racetrack we keep talking about they get thrown up from the car
40:51in front of you and then they live little skid marks on your windshield little rubber skid marks and
40:56if you get enough of those you just can't see a thing
40:58and here's a look at the saline and this car earlier in the evening in this race was up into
41:08the top three in class it has slipped a little bit and right now it is christian fittipaldi behind the
41:13wheel who is bringing that car in they had whoa right across the nose but obviously christian was ready
41:21for it and he makes the stop i loved his comment a bit earlier when he said he's kicking himself now
41:27that after all of the time he's raced and all of the successes he's had in formula 3000 formula
41:32one certainly champ cars that he couldn't believe that he had not come to le mans now that he's here
41:39acos putting a lot of emphasis on safety particularly uh not spinning the tires leaving the pit lane
41:44i'm going to wonder what about that porsche right there if that's not going to get a penalty for
41:48being a bit aggressive on the pit lane something that they've warned the drivers they don't want to see
41:57it's really hard not to spin the tires when you leave pit lane particularly if they don't change
42:03the tire to a sticker because they uh it wants to it wants to stall the car because there's so much
42:09grip in the old tires that are warm you know without spinning them up and getting out of there it's really
42:14hard not to stall well and also it would seem to me if you're you know if you're not going to spin the
42:19tire sometimes to do that you have to really ride the clutch and in a long race like this with all the
42:25number of pit stops i mean that's that's got to be something of great concern in terms of the
42:29clutch and getting through the race it's not so bad on a big engine like the corvette or like the
42:32celine it's much harder on on a smaller turbocharged engine where you got to really rev the thing and
42:38spool it up to get away from uh from the standing start this is a look at the number uh 50 larvora
42:45competition ferrari 550 marinello absolutely gorgeous car gabriel gardel patrick bornhauser and jean-luc
42:52blanchemin behind the wheel another quick stop car back out
42:59at this stage of the race unless obviously you're dealing with some sort of problem
43:04you're just focusing on getting the stops done and just turning the laps doing whatever you can
43:09because there's so much time left at this stage even though you may be a few laps back
43:14and not necessarily right at the sharp end of your class one problem by anybody up in front of you and
43:19you can head on by it this is a car that has certainly had an awful lot of success here lemont
43:24winning the class in 2003 i think i just saw the lister storm being pushed back into the garage yeah it
43:30did that 50 car unfortunately early in this uh early in the race had a punctured tire and had to run
43:36all the way around this long eight mile circuit uh with a rear tire that was deflated and it did a lot of
43:42damage to the rear bodywork look at the spiker pits and uh these guys have really come good they a couple of
43:52years ago they started a little development program last year they started running the v8 that is the
43:58engine that comes in the audi a8 and it has really in a way turned the program around it's made it a much more
44:04reliable car at this stage and they are working very strongly right now and have been up in fact
44:11leading in this category and we mentioned just a moment ago that christian fittipaldi brought the
44:15saline in he's there with brian till that's right greg fresh out of the car he's very tired right now
44:22still talking to the crew guys trying to give him some information on that saline so that they can
44:26improve it christian you said when you got here i don't know why i waited so long to do this how was it
44:31especially at night let's not even talk about driving in the sunrise it's absolutely unbelievable
44:41it's a great it's um it's i don't know it's i don't have words to to describe what lemma is it's
44:54it's a very lonely race it's completely different to for example uh the 24 hour that we do in the
45:00beginning of the year uh with the prototypes there's so many cars you're passing five six
45:04cars per lap here it's a very lonely race but but the the track is absolutely unbelievable it's my
45:11first of many that i'm gonna do well a lot of emotion in the voice of christian fittipaldi after
45:16he got out of the car very tired as well left leg cramping up but you can see the excitement and the
45:21emotion on his face this cramping is something that we talk about all the time you know you're in that car
45:26and you're just sitting there and you're taking all those bumps and your legs are sticking out
45:29and and then it gets cool and you've been sweating and so forth leg cramps are a real problem because
45:35once they start happening it's hard to get them to stop and he was tired he was cramping and yet he
45:39says it's the first of what will be many i will be back and we're going to show you the top 15 overall
45:46here at leman as as you can see we have just about 10 hours and 13 minutes remaining we certainly hope you
45:53will stay with us as we're going to be with you all the way to the end live right here on speed
46:02welcome back to namai you're looking at the lone remaining panos that is existing in the race at
46:07this time it is the team lnt entry and i believe andrew marriott is there yes indeed i am there and uh
46:16richard dean has just climbed out of the car the uh 77 panels of course there's an early retirement
46:22here with fuel feed problems but the british owned car is still uh going well lawrence toblinson owns
46:29this team and also owns the uh little janetta car company that they have their own race series he has
46:34just climbed the carbon richard's with me yeah richard long stint there you're working hard yes uh it's a
46:43a little bit cooler at least that makes it easier but it's still um still hard and yeah it was a long
46:49stint two and a two hours 25 minutes something like that so the car's going quite well you had some
46:58issues early on what were the problems earlier on uh we had a bent track rod rear track run uh while i was
47:05was in the car richard's just uh taking a pause while the uh thundering elan engine roars out yeah
47:14sorry richard about that we had a broken track rod which pitched me into a spin but um well while they
47:22changed the tracker they took the opportunity to uh change discs and brakes and they turned it around
47:28quite well we we lost um a couple of laps with having to get the car in slowly after the spin i wasn't
47:34sure how much damage there was with it turned out just the track rod and it feels quite good again
47:39so hopefully climb up through the field now yeah well hopefully a few people have some problems
47:45in front of us you know i don't think we've got the pace to match uh uh the the porsches at the
47:50moment but hopefully they keep pushing themselves that hard that they break or end up in the gravel
47:56richard dean a second generation racer his dad tony won a can-am race must have been about 35 years ago now
48:02well and richard dean himself a pretty accomplished driver a former uh british gt champ and as i
48:07understand owns his own teams now in formula ford and formula reno as a team owner and that car
48:13doesn't have a long way to go by my reckoning if i'm reading the scoring monitors right in class
48:18it's 22nd overall but more importantly it's fourth in the class right now so just one spot off the podium
48:24i think the chamberlain lola was slow right there we were taking a look at the 33
48:28uh getting passed by the penos which is something that uh isn't normal here's a look at the number 22
48:36the roll center racing it's the radical judd of which there has been an awful lot of talk keep in
48:41mind folks that we are expecting at the petit lemas of the american lemas series in i believe that's going
48:49to be in late september that we are going to have a radical this uh same car essentially running in
48:55the hands of vanderstor racing took a look there at the exhaust system and the funny color of it it's
49:00uh it's actually a coating it's a plasma sprayed ceramic coating which puts in a thermal barrier
49:06against heat now this car uses a lot it's zirka tech coatings and what it was done originally was
49:12developed for nuclear reactors to contain the heat and nuclear reactor well in the case of the radical
49:18they use the same process sprayed on to protect the engine bay the carbon fiber and so forth
49:24around the headers from delaminating that carbon fiber because of the heat of the engine and so
49:29forth it also keeps heat out of the gearbox area from the headers and out of the engine from the
49:34headers so pretty high-tech stuff going on over radical well it's a very trick kit and of course we've
49:39seen the radical running a different radicals in scca club racing they have their own pro series
49:44in the united states and certainly over here in europe but this is the first time we've got an
49:49entry into the big leagues if you will and in testing it has been very quick and it has certainly
49:54had uh some very strong runs in terms of speed in the lamar series uh over here in europe we also
50:00speaking of speed have had some great runs from the spiker we've talked about that currently second
50:05in class and brian till i understand johnny kane just got out and he's with you that's correct greg now
50:11when a lot of people would have picked favorites for gt2 they probably wouldn't have picked one of
50:15the spikers but johnny kane you guys have been blistering fast i'll ask you the same thing that
50:19i asked hans ren the team manager you must be ecstatic yeah i mean obviously there's quite a long
50:24way to go yet but we've been up near the front from the start of the race and uh yeah the car seems to
50:30be running really well we're taking care of it not using all the revs and things like that so yeah i'm
50:35pretty impressed now they talk about the weather that might be potentially coming in afternoon the
50:41last several hours of the race and obviously being from the from england you're used to running in
50:45the rain how's this car in the rain yeah the car is actually very good in the wet uh the first
50:50qualifying session on wednesday we were third and fifth we dropped down a little bit in the dry um
50:55because we lack a little bit of ultimate pace but uh i have no no dramas with the wet you know if it
51:01wants to rain it's going to rain and you just have to cope with it and i think we'll go pretty well
51:06well he's used to running in the rain and they always say guys the rain the great equalizer
51:11maybe that's just what they need to take the victory here at le mans
51:16well there's the number 53 lamborghini the jloc which happens to be the japanese lamborghini
51:22owners club and it's just a group of lamborghini enthusiasts over in japan who put together a
51:26sponsorship and are running that car so making a quick stop at the pits
51:31and right there is the number eight audi and this is the one in the hand certainly of the
51:38of frank bela but we also have a great piece for you that we're going to show you
51:44alan mcnish who has been described by reinhold yost and by and by dr orridge as a gentleman who is
51:50like an uncoiled spring is going to take a calm moment when we come back to le mans and give us a
51:56tour of the remarkable new audi r10 tdi so stay tuned
52:06welcome back to the 74th running of the michelin 24 hours of le mans at the glorious circuit de la
52:12sarthe in le mans france i'm greg kramer joined by dorsey schrader in the booth great to have all
52:18of you with us brian till and andrew marriott work in pit lane and doing a marvelous job as always
52:23and we should just about right now be ticking midnight in the midwest back in the states great
52:29to have all of you with us here's our valvoline race reset and uh the right now it is the number
52:34eight audi continuing to lead 220 laps complete the 17 pescarolo judge you can see two laps down
52:41so well within striking distance should any problems crop up third overall is the number seven audi a few
52:47laps back seven behind the pescarolo and a remarkable fourth overall right now is the class leading lm gt1
52:54category the 009 aston martin currently in the hands of stefan sarrazan for all of you fathers who have
53:01the cooler next to you and the pillows and blankets in the recliner in the midwest great to have you with
53:06us on this father's day well we talked a little bit as we went to the break about alan mcnish who of
53:12course has been a fellow commentator here and we had him give us a tour of this remarkable new audi r8
53:18tdi take a look or r10 tdi take a look hello my name's alan mcnish and this is my new car the audi r10 tdi
53:30the car's very different we've talked about the diesel a little bit already but with the new regulations
53:35they've got a different splitter system it has to be raised here that means the car is a little bit
53:39smoother to drive in the high speed corners but also as you can see it's very much like a formula
53:45one car leading up from the nose it goes into something that i have to say is such technical
53:50little details but those small details mean that we're able to achieve the first and second grid
53:55positions for this race we come back the airflow is very sweet and smooth all the way around we've got
54:02slightly smaller little cockpit area than we had before but that's principally for safety reasons and so
54:08there's a lot of head support round about the driver the r8 was already superbly safe but the
54:12r10 tdi is even one step ahead the engine itself is covered up that's a secret but it's a big v12 with
54:205.5 liter twin turbos that produces about 650 horsepower and over 1100 newton meters of torque in your
54:29language that's about 830 feet of torque that is immense i can tell you when we're pulling out of the
54:36tetra rouge corner onto the mulsanne the kick in the back we get unbelievable on the other side of
54:41it we also get fantastic fuel mileage probably around here two laps more or 10 percent better
54:47fuel economy than we did with the r8 and with fsi injection we had there that's superb but because
54:53this engine is a v12 and a little bit longer the chassis the wheelbase has to be longer as well
54:59and to counteract some of the effects of that michelin our tire supplier have built a slightly larger front
55:04tires that means that we get the overall compromise between the power the torque the chassis balance
55:10the tire grip the new aerodynamics but best of all the best fuel economy on the grid
55:19and right now that car is uh the audi is leading the pescarolos which to some people's mind was a
55:25little bit of a surprise but nobody really knew it's a pit stop here for the 16 entry who has had some
55:30certain without doubt speed but has fallen off the pace just a little bit due to some problems
55:36running 14th overall right now talked about the r8 and of course a tremendous rate of achievement and
55:42pedigree that that car established not a lot of drivers have had the the uh the chance the honor if
55:47you will to even drive the r8 and only one american and you're it and that had to be amazing but what
55:53about this new car well the new car you can bet is better than the than the r8 was and the r8 was the
55:58best sports car ever built so go figure i mean the amazing thing is not only does it have the speed
56:04but also that fuel mileage two laps around here some 16 miles further than all the cars it's running
56:12against and it's able to do that at a faster pace yet it's going to be a very hard car to beat and i
56:18think it's just amazing that they had to because of the extra weight and length of the car and the
56:22weight of the engine michelin had to come up with a wider tire and it's just really a partnership
56:27package watching here speaking of michelin's a new set going on the number 64 copyware corvette in
56:32this immense battle for the gt1 lead fourth and fifth overall the 009 and this car the 64. and the
56:41fans here love that pit stop they just gathered around these corvette boys to see that orchestrated
56:46pit stop like that and they cheer them every time they do it really neat deal i mean they they practice
56:52practice practice practice doing these pit stops and it's it is a piece of work it's very entertaining
56:56to watch yeah and even during the uh the friday when they just fire the car up in the pit walk
57:01everybody just would crowd around it that is a popular car and we understand brian till you've got
57:06an update on the car that's running third in gt2 i think they were running third in gt2 they may
57:13still be there but not for long andrew kirkaldi brought the car in on that last stop and they changed the
57:18left rear several of the locator pins on the hub broke off and fell on the ground so they were
57:24concerned that they only had a couple of those locator pins left those pins make sure that the
57:28wheel aligns with the hub properly so they were going to bring him in change it make sure that
57:32everything was okay but once they got him in they could not get the wheel nut off similar to what we
57:38saw in the ferrari 430 at sebring right now they have him back in the garage they're actually spraying
57:43that left rear hub assembly with the fire extinguisher trying to chill it down enough
57:48so that they can get the wheel nut off but at this point in time to no avail
57:58that fire extinguisher trick is pretty neat they're trying to shrink the hub and uh and help loosen that
58:05wheel unfortunately it didn't work and uh those pins that brian are talking about when we show you
58:11those wheels from the back side you see all the holes drilled around the inside well each of those
58:16are not every one of them but they go onto little locking pins and then that's model lug nut that
58:21one nut that tightens down that just supplies the thrust to it but the drive is off those pins for
58:27those to be laying on the ground is not good might require a replacement and again just further evidence
58:33that this type of racing is not just speed it is about those little things that can come apart at
58:39you when you're just pounding around on them we're getting a replay here on the world feed this is
58:42the number 20 pill beam we've seen it in a few of our highlight packages as it had its moment right
58:47between the two outies and this is the pit exit and i wonder if they're going to show us a uh blend
58:53line violation certainly look like those left tires went over it so i'm guessing that's what that problem
58:58is and here is a look here's the gun this is that same car we're talking about and they're still
59:05fighting with it dorsey there's the mono lug just one big lug right there it's a center post and it
59:10pushes it back up onto these little drive pins but that one's locked solidly in place
59:16so for all its speed and up back to third in class this car is struggling and falling back down the
59:22order we'll be back
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