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00:00:00it's 2 a.m. local time in france as we welcome you to speed live continuing coverage of the
00:00:0874th running of the michelin 24 hours of leman hello everyone i'm bob barsher along with david
00:00:14hobbs calvin fish and chris neville are down in the pit lane however we are suffering some
00:00:18technical difficulties which has no doubt occurred to you there is some bad weather in the area we
00:00:24hope to take care of those difficulties and get back to all the action of this great race
00:00:28in just a short moment so we'll take a break hopefully get those difficulties resolved
00:00:34and be able to bring you pictures and sounds from the circuit de la star of the michelin 24 hours of
00:00:39leman so stay right there welcome back live to speeds continuing coverage of the 74th running of the
00:00:52michelin 24 hours of leman i'm bob bars with david hobbs calvin fish and chris neville are down in the pit
00:00:58lane we understand we have some pictures back they may not be the bad quality where you are but
00:01:03we're working on it we apologize and please bear with us we're looking at the number 16 pescarolo judd
00:01:10making its way back on track after a pit stop flying down the hill from the dump up bridge toward
00:01:17church rouge and then on to lehunetier the mulsanne spread well let's go down to the pit lane here with
00:01:24dindo capello dindo obviously some damage to the race car what happened on the racetrack
00:01:31between mulsanne and indianapolis i overtook a gps car i think an aston martin not not the pro drive the
00:01:41other rostom martin i think but i'm not sure it was a dark car black car and the apex on indy the
00:01:47the fifth corner indy i get heat on the rear left and really i didn't expect that and
00:01:57i feel immediately it was a big hit because i really get on my rear field and i was very lucky
00:02:04not to spin there to get to keep the car on the on the track but then i felt that they are nice
00:02:10corners and something was wrong and i had to go slowly back to the pit and then we had to to
00:02:18change the rear wishboard seems like you guys having to push very hard with the problem earlier
00:02:23with having to change the injectors i guess you're on catch-up mode and really give everything you
00:02:28had tonight yeah because now you know i was doing every lap 34 but i promise you i was always in
00:02:35quite heavy traffic and you know we could i could get or take even a better pace but and then i didn't
00:02:43take risk because i've seen there there are few few dangerous guys on the track and i didn't want to
00:02:50take any risk and it's really a shame what happened because for sure he didn't see me but i was behind
00:02:57even since 300 meters flashing and i don't know had to change the left corner on the car the
00:03:03mechanics the team confident the car will be in good shape behind the wheel but for sure the car must
00:03:09be in good shape it should be in good shape as you said before since we changed the injector we could
00:03:16really be very high good and fast pace but you know now we were catching up the position too and another
00:03:23program happened sorry for the problem there's a long way to go yet sorry there's a long way to go
00:03:29yet we are still thinking positive thank you welcome to endurance racing here's looking our class leaders
00:03:44welcome back live to law we continue to struggle a little bit with technical difficulties but we hope
00:03:50to get them ironed out sooner or later and bring you great pictures once again to go with the sounds
00:03:55of the 74th michelin 24 hours of lamal i'm bob varsher with david hobbs down at the pit lane chris neville
00:04:02and calvin fisher on patrol we expect to see the fourth place audi pitted by seven times lamal winner tom
00:04:11christensen shortly right now his teammate marco verner leads sebastian loeb is in second and a pescarilla judd
00:04:17jan lamers third in a dome judd then christensen and then the first of the gt1 cars stefan orteli followed
00:04:26by jan magnuson corvette chasing aston martin and then the lmp2 class leader andy wallace and alola mg
00:04:35then a privateer aston martin third place car in gt1 and then a privateer corvette
00:04:46another model the c5r instead of the current c6r the older car being fielded by former french world
00:04:55cup skiing downhill champion luke alfin the great driver lineup and another of the aston martins in
00:05:03the hands of andrea piccini then another lmp2 car miguel amirala lola
00:05:09and our gt2 leader pierre eric in a porsche 911 gtrsr has moved up onto the leaderboard into 16th place
00:05:23so the gt2 cars are coming there's the number seven pits
00:05:28earlier the man on that brake board was holding it up over the garage when tom christensen first
00:05:39put the car garage while the sun was going down for repairs the sun was in his eye
00:05:43they stood there holding that board to give him some shade
00:05:47there's the miracle motorsports courage 65 lmp2 car
00:05:52a fairly standard fuel stop rules on pit stops are very very strict here at the mall we talked
00:06:04about it before fueling can take place at the beginning or the end of the pit stop but while
00:06:11fuel is going in no mechanic can touch the car so we see the mechanics often standing right there
00:06:16with their air guns at the ready waiting to slap it onto the wheel hub the moment the fuel hoses come
00:06:23out look at that pit board list
00:06:28and make sure the driver gets all those things done that getting the belts you got to be a bit
00:06:32careful the belts because in the old days we'd always take the belts off coming on pit lane and
00:06:38in preparation for the pit stop to make a quick exit because the pit stops were much quicker then with
00:06:43everything going on at once now you absolutely cannot undo your belt tell you stopped there's
00:06:49some more of the pit lane rules engines must be shut off you must use the fuel supplied by the organizer
00:06:55just two air guns or torque wrenches in the pits only four mechanics and a couple of other very very
00:07:05specifically designated personnel can touch the car and ultimately you cannot change chassis gearbox and
00:07:14so on now we're getting word that the safety car is being dispatched i'm not sure why we haven't seen
00:07:19anybody in a dangerous position well that might be a good time for the number seven car to make a stop
00:07:29but anyway absolutely now the number 62 the third race car in gt1 if i'm not mistaken is in for a pit stop
00:07:43let's go to chris neville that's right bob antonio garcia bringing this aston martin to pit lane the
00:07:49team struggled a bit early on in the heat of the day they said they had some tire issues which has dropped
00:07:53them back four to five laps but they said things have stabilized now the car has been very quick
00:07:59however they're just trying to run laps see what they could do and try and catch up
00:08:03gonna have to keep an eye on this car as things heat up later today and see if those tire issues come
00:08:07back but otherwise this team very happy cal the number seven car tom christensen is in pit lane
00:08:15right now he must be reporting some kind of problem the jacks are at the ready they have these very high
00:08:22density flashlights that went underneath the front of the car and they are looking at something there
00:08:25something that's not quite right so they're going to wheel tom back into the garage take a further look
00:08:30they don't want to put him in any danger certainly they want to be as safe as possible so right now
00:08:35the seven car must have some issue from that earlier hit that dindo capello had they're currently
00:08:41four eight laps down so as we keep saying there's a long way to go in this one you think that tom christensen
00:08:47maybe his luck or just the great job that he's been doing here at lamar may have caught up with him
00:08:53finally but these guys will not give up they know that every second they can save here in the pits
00:08:58tonight may come back to reap rewards tomorrow afternoon at five o'clock and we've got the eighth
00:09:05car also in the audi pits marco verna will climb out he's looking around as though he expects his
00:09:10replacement driver to be there has he caught the team off guard
00:09:14the next driver comes leaping out of the garage when the car stops oh wow verner's waving him over
00:09:28holding the belts
00:09:34i believe it's emmanuelle pierro who is doing the car yeah yeah there's the italian zipping up his suit
00:09:39putting his gloves on he was not ready oh my this is not like audi calvin well here talk i've never
00:09:50seen this happen before with this team now well he's been in the pit box for quite some time so i'm not
00:09:55sure verna just made a unscheduled pit stop here i mean a couple of laps early but pierro was definitely
00:10:01caught on the up here and these cockpits are a little bit tight anyway and there'd been some concern if the
00:10:06drivers did watch the driver change at all but that would delay the pit stop but right now they're
00:10:11just trying to take the tear offs off the headlamps the mechanics are sort of like getting a little
00:10:15bit testy you gotta stay cool here this car is leading but no major drama there they just lost a
00:10:23little bit of time but now he's been held at the end of pit lane and now back underway so probably
00:10:29last about five maybe ten seconds there with that slight faux pas and having pierro already for
00:10:34verna coming into the pit lane keep in mind that is the race leading car now i'm not quite sure he put
00:10:41his left wheel over that white line going out of the pit i'm not quite sure how draconian they are on
00:10:48this uh lamars they are in formula one you put your left wheel on the line on the wheel on the line going
00:10:53out of the pits in formula one you've got to make a stop there's our lmp2 class leader early in the race
00:10:58jan lamars and the dome team were brought through for a stop and go penalty for what lamars thought
00:11:04was that very infraction getting his left side wheels up on that white exit line and unfortunately
00:11:09for pierro that was on the tv for everybody to see let's go to chris neville bob andy wallace brought
00:11:18the rml lowly to pit lane mike newton jumping behind the wheel the team really taking their time here they
00:11:22realize they've had some problems they've had some problems with this car however everything looks
00:11:29good now they didn't have to do anything more with the brakes so the team not looking uh like
00:11:34too worried at this point in time cal well the seven cars in the garage chris and they're working
00:11:39on the floor of the car this carbon fiber piece has been torn badly right down the middle there
00:11:45so dindal got hit and he said that he had the off going into indianapolis tom christensen has obviously
00:11:50told the team that the car is not working correctly we need to get this thing fixed if we hope to even
00:11:54see the checkered flag tomorrow afternoon so they've also got the setup piece that goes on on the front
00:12:00end here you see this sort of metal piece that's bolted onto the front bulkhead that indicates to me
00:12:05that they're also going to check the setup the alignment on this car once they've changed their
00:12:09bodywork pieces on there and dindo's been put back in i'm not sure what thomas said i did my single
00:12:15stint dindo can now go out and do a triple and make up for his uh little indiscretion earlier in
00:12:19the evening but these guys are good buddies they've won a lot of races together including two more so
00:12:25uh it's just one of those races where haven't just gone their way this far well calvin don't forget
00:12:29also early on in the race dindo put it off the road at the chicane right before the start finish line
00:12:35here when he was lapping one of the lmp2 cars and went over the curb there big time jumped up in the
00:12:42floor may be suffering from that little elf as well well what you saw coming out from under the
00:12:47car was not kevlar or carbon fiber but plain old natural wood much like the formula one cars who
00:12:54have what our colleague steve matchit calls a legality plank underneath sometimes the best and
00:13:00cheapest fungible product to use comes from mother nature we'll be back
00:13:05yeah jam
00:13:13lamar has been especially kind to tom christensen winning in 1997 in a porsche powered car with
00:13:18michaeli alberetto and stefan johansen and then in 2000 the great run with audi partnered with frank
00:13:25vila and emmanuelle pirro for three consecutive threes then ronaldo capello and guy smith for one
00:13:32seiji ara of japan and ronaldo capello for another and most recently jj leto and marco werner last year
00:13:43and it was last year tom told me this week that probably meant the most to him not so much because
00:13:49it was his record-breaking seventh and sixth in a row but because that car had been hampered somewhat with
00:13:55extra weight the great audi r8 the gas-powered car extra weight air restrictors and so on
00:14:03they had to come from behind to get the win but together they did it he said that's why last year
00:14:08might be his sweetest yet let's go to calvin fish with the man tom has been a tough day for you
00:14:15yeah um well sure everything uh it seems to uh obviously there has been problems but uh the car
00:14:25is uh still fast but apparently from the crash capello had with the car i just woke up because i had to
00:14:31jump in the car early the car was fast but um i just kept getting more and more vibration and it looks
00:14:38like there was been another problem from the accident that the front just got worse and worse
00:14:46in a lot of resonance and a lot of movement at high speed and they seemed on the floor was uh was loose
00:14:54the car seemed to be so strong at the beginning alan took off and had a right nice healthy lead after
00:14:59his stint and then dindo got in and everything looked like it was routine for you guys at this
00:15:04state of the game tom you've been in this race so many times i don't think you've come from this far
00:15:08back i mean what is your approach here just flat out for you boys the right way yeah okay cautiously
00:15:15flat out because we certainly can't afford any more problems but the car is sort of running very fast
00:15:23and very good between the problems and uh from that point of view it's uh it's just approach the next
00:15:29corner and uh go as uh as fast as we can without let's say risking too much obviously in the traffic
00:15:35we we can take some chances and uh and see if we can get it up on the podium because the car is absolutely
00:15:41we are we are really fast we are flying so in that sense it's um it's sad if we uh if if can't uh join
00:15:48the other car on the podium all right tom thanks for your time tonight thanks chris cal down here with
00:15:54andy wallace andy we heard that there were some problems with the 25 car have those been resolved
00:15:58yeah well quite early in the race we picked up a vibration under brake we weren't really sure what
00:16:03it was and uh finally it got so bad the whole car was shaking so we brought the car in and uh
00:16:08had a look i think it was a nut on the wishbone or a joint on the wishbone came loose so the wishbone
00:16:13was actually vibrating that's why it was coming through the the brake pedal in the series so
00:16:16we fixed that we lost a couple of laps but uh now it's running fine now you've won this race
00:16:21you've also won the 24 hours of daytona how do these two races compare well they're pretty different
00:16:26um first of all you've got the five o'clock start here versus be a ten or an 11 o'clock start in
00:16:32daytona um the night here is really really short but it's also very very dark the night in daytona is
00:16:40not dark anymore and out there out the back sometimes you can't see it from me it's very very dark
00:16:48i think the biggest difference of all is the speed is so high here versus daytona and everything that
00:16:54happens happens in a split second it happens very very quickly you catch a slow car or you
00:16:58you misread your situation and you're in trouble very very quickly daytona you got all time to
00:17:02think with the five o'clock start this year is that going to make the race more difficult
00:17:07well you know we had to get here for the warm-up at nine and the team scheduled the meeting at eight
00:17:11so we had to wake up really early i hate waking up early anyhow you have to wait all the way through
00:17:15till five o'clock and it's going to be a long race and you see it's not even halfway over yet and
00:17:20so many people have had trouble already even with the problems they've got a three-lap lead
00:17:24right now in lmp2 and they are the defending champions with rml here's a look at the drivers
00:17:30who have won overall at lamont daytona and the 12 hours of sebring some great names up there
00:17:37maro baldy laid out hobert a.j foyd hurley haywood america's most successful endurance racer
00:17:44conservative germany andy wallace jackie oliver and marco verger we'll be back
00:18:00before me so beautiful so clear
00:18:11reach out
00:18:18cause i'm so tired of all this year
00:18:21long way to go in the michelin 24 hours of le mans the 74th edition live here on speed
00:18:32sunday night at nine check out a special edition of wind tunnel with dave to spain as dave goes on
00:18:37the road to spend the entire hour covering the dean of american motorsports journalist chris
00:18:43not only will you hear from chris about the past present and future of motorsports you'll also get
00:18:49the thoughts on chris from mario andretti tony stewart dick bergera donald davidson jackie
00:18:54stewart and many more so check it out at nine p.m sunday night eastern only here on speed wind tunnel
00:19:00to dave to spain there goes the number seven audi now in the hands of ronaldo capello tom christensen has
00:19:09climbed out another long stay in the garage making it more and more difficult for that team
00:19:18to avoid tom christensen back to the top step of the podium once again but we have a long way to go
00:19:25not quite halfway here at le mans we want to welcome a special guest now down in the peterson
00:19:31white lightning garage he is tim mayor the chief operating officer of the american le mans series
00:19:37and imsa tim welcome thank you bob now what exactly is your role here this weekend are you observing are
00:19:43you participating tell us what you're doing here well i wish i could claim just to be a tourist down
00:19:48here but uh we we have a lot of beings in this one acre here in the paddock there's uh a thousand of the
00:19:56who's who of motor racing so it's an excellent opportunity for us to talk to the board members
00:20:02of the various manufacturers who participate in the american le mans series and you know all the various
00:20:06people but over the last three hours i've gotten actually to to go out and play tourists uh it's
00:20:12an unbelievable time to go out to the corners and go see the people there's 300 000 people out here and
00:20:19they're camped out they're partying it's just it's just an amazing atmosphere it certainly is and uh we
00:20:26certainly hope the weather holds up so that these folks don't have to put up with any more than they
00:20:30already have now let's talk a little bit about the american le mans series you'll be using the rules
00:20:35once again uh from le mans from the aco there have been a number of rules and i've been asked
00:20:40this a lot via email from fans at home we're hearing about drivers not spinning their wheels in
00:20:45the pit lane and and some other rules regarding these cars how much of that will be transferred
00:20:50to the alms in the days and weeks and months to come well the the aco the automobile club of the west
00:20:56which uh sanctions race um they they understand that america is a different market we have some
00:21:02other requirements i mean just for instance there's a pit wall in the in the pits of most american circuits
00:21:09so i mean that changes uh everything the wheat in the pits so they they recognize that they understand
00:21:15that they give us the latitude to uh run the races we the way we need to run them the basic technical
00:21:21specifications are exactly the same uh we're allowed to tinker with something on the cars but not many
00:21:28and really why why would we want to do that that these cars are just the the best looking sexiest
00:21:33looking cars on the planet and uh you know you've been telling the story all evening about these
00:21:39audis and the porsches and all these different cars i i think there's nothing in the world now there
00:21:45have been a lot of exciting announcements we know that the audi r10s will be coming to america to race in
00:21:50the alms we know that the pro drive aston martins are coming acura has announced the program in the
00:21:57very near future for alms and i'm sure you'd agree this is all exciting news for the series well the
00:22:04good news is uh we've got all this manufacturer content they're uh they're coming these are exciting
00:22:10cars these are really the the most technologically sophisticated cars in the world we are the only series
00:22:16uh really in the in the world along with the le mans series here in europe that has nothing spec about
00:22:23it there are no spec tires no spec engines no spec cars uh body work and in the in the series everything's
00:22:30different when you come to watch one of these races you know you you get the opportunity to see these
00:22:35manufacturers showing their their absolute best ways and uh i i think that this is uh with acura coming on
00:22:42board and as you say aston martin committing you're seeing the the world's best brands uh come to
00:22:49the united states to to compete in the america polomon series and you know lime rock is coming up in just
00:22:54a couple of weeks and uh it's going to be a great great race well of course with the porsche winning
00:22:59that race at mid ohio just a couple of weeks today coming first and second which was an lmp2 car
00:23:04effectively which is where acura will be you should see some real superb fireworks next year when acura
00:23:11come in because you know that anything honda do in the racing world they don't do half-heartedly
00:23:15absolutely well you know roger penske is uh famous for mixing things up he comes in in the lmp2 category
00:23:24theoretically these cars are supposed to be slower but he managed to uh he managed to make that engine do
00:23:30something that uh it really shouldn't be able to do and uh they won at mid ohio convincingly i should
00:23:36say so uh lime rock which is as they say in a couple of weeks is a tight course favors these lighter lmp2
00:23:44cars so uh they have a pretty good good opportunity there and and honda as you say honda performance
00:23:50development which is the acura program robert clark and his team there are responsible for the cars
00:23:57at indianapolis and uh there's nothing that they do uh halfway they are 100 people all the time and
00:24:06as you've seen this evening in this race uh 99.9 isn't good enough it's got to be 100 and that's what
00:24:14these guys present to us every week tim you know as well as we do that racing is the sport that marches
00:24:22on its wallet these cars can be very expensive at the moment we're looking at the uh the inaugural
00:24:28lone star grand prix in houston texas very difficult racetrack the audi r8s merged triumphant as we watch
00:24:37them win a question that i wanted to get to is these cars are difficult to maintain very difficult to
00:24:43race very expensive to run how is that going to be reflected in plan for the alms in the future how often
00:24:50can you race how large expect your fields can be well i think the important thing is not how many
00:24:57cars we have but what quality of cars we have and i think uh the public is just fascinated by the
00:25:02technology and the drivers that say see the quality of these teams and you don't need uh hundreds and
00:25:10hundreds of cars in a field you know here at le mans they started 50 cars so we generally speaking
00:25:15start in the 26 27 28 number our races are a little bit shorter than uh le mans our longest race is 12
00:25:22hours the 12 hours of sebring uh and so you know yes it's an expensive process but it's well worth it
00:25:30uh and manufacturers see the return on investment it's very difficult to find a place as a manufacturer
00:25:36if you're audi i mean they're just three points down from me here and uh if you're audi it's a it's a hard
00:25:41thing to find a place to demonstrate the kind of technology that you put on the race car uh on
00:25:47your street car rather and and to show it in a place that that's unequaled i mean here performance
00:25:54endurance uh technology is what it's all about they're showing uh as they did at sebring where they
00:26:01won and where they won at houston as you say they showed that they have unparalleled technology and
00:26:08injection technology and saving fuel here they're going uh one and two laps longer than anybody else
00:26:14in the field with their fuel injection uh uh diesel cars so you know these manufacturers look at that
00:26:20they say you know this is a place we can demonstrate that we can really show the differences in the
00:26:26technology i mean just a small example the audi team in the united states uh dave mirage and the
00:26:32champion audi team there if they need a tire pressure sensor they can now go get it at the
00:26:38dealership down the road because they developed it in parallel with the race team and now that's
00:26:43available all over the world so uh you know this is a really technology driven series uh it's expensive
00:26:51but worth it for the manufacturers this is tim mayor coo of the american le mans series and imsa tim
00:26:57we want to thank you for taking the time to chat with us we look forward to seeing these great cars
00:27:01back in the united states very soon enjoy them all well thank you bob okay that is tim mayor we're
00:27:07going to take another break the race continues we're open all night here at le mans 20 hours of live
00:27:13coverage your way on speed lee diffie will be with you and mice when we return
00:27:18tomorrow on speed the definitive re-race nascar show returns to set the grid and latch up the
00:27:35window net get fired up for race day with nascar race built by the home depot tomorrow at 11 30 eastern
00:27:41only on speed there's a look down into the press room and there are a lot of press on hand here at
00:27:48the 74 running of the michelin 24 hours of le mans out alone is hosting some 350 members of the press
00:27:56i'm bob barsha with david hobbs yes i know i promised lee diffie but just be patient fans he'll be coming
00:28:02your way very soon let's get down in the pit lane now where cal fish is standing by with a member of
00:28:12a driver lineup that has had quite an up and down le mans thus far calvin well i have an up and down
00:28:18sort of day but nick jansen your first experience of what does it be like for you to take your first
00:28:23laps on this fabled racetrack well you know it's a fantastic place to be at i mean the crowds are
00:28:29fantastic here and you know the racetrack is definitely something you know exceptional from
00:28:32you know anything i've been at before i've been racing all over the world but this is definitely
00:28:36something different and i'm so happy to be here and you know unfortunately we had some you know
00:28:41mishaps there shock a little early so we are like five six laps down right now but we work on it and i
00:28:46the car is good and i'm going to go back in it for a double stint and you know try to to work into
00:28:50the mornings here so it's uh it's good it's fun you've had a lot of success running porsches in the
00:28:55pass with podium which is certainly a sebring a long distance race when you come here this isn't
00:29:00what you're driving week in week out right now nick you're on the db car over in the grand am series
00:29:05how much of an adjustment for you is it to jump back in a gt2 car well it's not that much of an
00:29:11adjustment because as you said i've been driving with this white light before uh it's more like
00:29:16you know to get used to the track than anything else and you have to kind of you know try to sneak
00:29:21up on it and that's what i've been doing the last you know the first couple of stints here so
00:29:24i just kind of you know a cruising mood and you know hopefully you know we're going to be able
00:29:27to make it home in the top three at least all right mate great to see you here this year
00:29:34good luck to nick johnson and his teammates tracy crone and york burgmeister the rest of the way
00:29:42scanning timing and scoring to check on where they are running 23rd overall one two three four five
00:29:53sixth in gt2 as we speak once again gt2 providing tremendous mechanical diversity first place in
00:30:01class right now is a porsche 911 gt rsr second in class that audi v8 powered spiker from the netherlands
00:30:14third place in class third place in class is a ferrari 430 gt
00:30:22which was leading earlier on so there's been some shifting around here amongst the top three in that
00:30:28gt2 class the ferrari the scottish car driven by tim mollen spike has been driven by hazelman who's
00:30:36toyin hazelman's son toyin hazelman used to be a top driver here at le mans and of course did a lot of
00:30:42the german touring car championship and world touring car championship as well as racing here
00:30:48many times this is emmanuel piero recall he was late getting into this car his teammate marco verno
00:30:54brought the audi in and stood there with the belts waiting for this is your stint he certainly hasn't
00:31:01done 15 laps no this is this has got to be unscheduled they immediately put the car up on
00:31:06the dollies and whisk it back into the garage where more than the four mechanics who are restricted in
00:31:12the work area in the pit lane can get to work on off comes the engine cover and this is not good for
00:31:18the race leaders with a four lap lead over the second place pescarolo judd currently in the hands of
00:31:25sebastian globe the world rally champion bureau stays in the car
00:31:35boy are they doing that one as well oh they're looking front and rear as though perhaps they're not
00:31:41sure exactly what they're looking for calvin fish what can you tell us well the initial report
00:31:48is having some kind of shifting issues oh that's why they're going under the back side of the car
00:31:52that's all i can tell you this far as you can tell they've got this very unique scissor jack built
00:31:57to the floor system here in their garage area the garage floor is built up about three and a half
00:32:02inches they just pull the car in it's like scissor jack comes up and they get up on the stands
00:32:06immediately so everything has been thought out everything has been thought out we don't know
00:32:11what sort of problem
00:32:16can't afford to lose too many laps here the pescarolo car seems to be running pretty strong here tonight
00:32:22so uh a few laps will go by the wayside in a hurry you saw the pescarolo mechanics in their green and
00:32:28blue uniforms watching the monitors suddenly put up there for the top off right isn't they looking
00:32:34up 10 to 4 in a moment what have we here calvin's right about that scissors left in the floor these
00:32:40audi folks just seem to think of everything they came here with that completely changeable rear end
00:32:46your son guy was calling it when they brought that car into the garage they thought it would take them
00:32:49about seven minutes to change the whole rear round of the car they did it in about 345 hardly left the
00:32:55last that's right that was a subsequently banned technology but they just come up with something
00:33:02new all gone on they were going to have trouble with the transmission they thought they were going to
00:33:06have some of the transmission so just to be on the safe side instead of just fixing the transmission
00:33:11they just changed the whole rear end suspension gearbox transmission the whole thing uh it was pretty
00:33:18slick and as you said it took about three and a half to do the whole thing i'm wondering why they're
00:33:23still paying such close attention to the front end of the car if it's a shifter issue
00:33:36once again this diesel produces in the left-hand corner there with the
00:33:41the bold-headed gent needs the uh brains behind the whole audi racing program and a guy who's not
00:33:48afraid to roll up his sleeves and dive in there with a wrench because the car's actually run by
00:33:53reinhold joe's that might have been standing in the background
00:34:01reinhold joe's what seven victories here at lamar as a
00:34:06never one of those drives himself here of course the law
00:34:11but spit it out that he'd be better off running cars than uh racing them
00:34:16as the old saying goes if you want to win the indianapolis 500 give a call to roger penske
00:34:20if you want to win lamar the number you need is that of reinhold joe's of germany
00:34:25calvin fish can add well it's difficult to sell from the front end of the garage obviously we're not
00:34:36allowed to to the back side but i thought i saw a complete gear cluster being handed to a mechanic
00:34:42there at the back of the gearbox area so as we've said before that lightning rear end change is not
00:34:47allowable anymore to the mall rules you have to change the part the gearbox casing has just like the
00:34:53monocoque has to be used the same feature at the whole event but they can't go inside and change
00:34:58the internal so that looks like that's what happened it looked like they were certainly ready for
00:35:04the whole audi preparation is just meticulous they try and think of everything that can happen during
00:35:09a 24-hour race they certainly have the experience and it shows every time we show up in fact calvin we
00:35:15do see that gear cluster lying on the floor of the garage at the back of the car it's a five-speed made
00:35:21by extract believe the internals are as opposed to six-speed which is more common up and down the
00:35:26pit lane of the lmp one car well when you've got eight well when you've got eight hundred pounds
00:35:31feet of torque uh and you only rev to 5500 you don't really need more actually you could probably get
00:35:37away with about two speeds on this but it's a miracle actually the transmissions and gearboxes in these
00:35:42cars i mean i'm not surprised they're having a problem because the torque is just so enormous out of these
00:35:47you can't imagine a racing gearbox splits up with it and with one four gears in the cluster you can
00:35:53also make those that are still there a lot stronger yeah in fact audi despite making the gears stronger
00:36:00say that this gearbox is actually lighter than the one on the r8 i find that hard to believe you're right
00:36:10hero busily talking to the engineers yeah the guys down the number 17 guys down there looking pretty
00:36:16happy at the moment at the moment they're clicking away they're clicking away three laps is now the gap
00:36:24so audi has lost one lost one looks like emmanuel epiro is racing with glasses to help his eyesight
00:36:36i knew he wore them but i didn't think he ever wore them in the race car
00:36:39the last time i drove a porsche at 956 here in 1989 um i realized that things were changing because
00:36:51i didn't wear glasses and uh going down the straight at 220 mile an hour was fine but i couldn't read the
00:36:57instruments too well suddenly realized i needed to do a bob wallack and put on some uh some uh
00:37:03uh you know bivogels or some sort of pulling the oil in already so that was a quick change that's a lot of oil too
00:37:16well that's a quick change for an internal amazing yeah
00:37:21well as calvin was saying they look for every possible eventuality and i'm sure the gearbox was designed
00:37:27for quick internals changes thumbs up from the driver we'll keep an eye on sebastian loeb in the pescarolo
00:37:36see if he can pull within a couple of laps of this race leading audi before emmanuel epiro can get back on track
00:37:45and the cap is now down to two but the 17 is in the pits chris nevels there
00:37:51bob this team really came to life just a few minutes ago we saw it on the monitors the team started
00:37:56standing up trying to figure out what was going on with the eight car this is the win they needed
00:38:00to kind of lift their sails and get them back in this race they're still saying this car is running
00:38:05flawlessly loeb staying in for his third stint uh we're gonna have to see are they gonna put some
00:38:10new michelins on the car or is he gonna triple stint these tires it looks like he's gonna triple
00:38:17stint the tires his times have been falling off a little bit in the latter part of his stint but the
00:38:22team deciding we're gonna keep you out there the temperatures have really cooled so this team
00:38:26starting to get back into this race sebastian loeb as i mentioned earlier not the fastest man
00:38:32on that team although he may well be the greatest driver in the world as a two-time defending world rally
00:38:38champion maybe they'd be happier with a guy slightly faster in the car as they scramble to try to catch
00:38:46this man and that car many different disciplines of course running to racing he does actually does
00:38:52remarkably well absolutely to drive as fast as he does in this car he is amazing
00:39:02interesting to note the way the two leading teams in lmp1 have suffered the same fortunes
00:39:08it's basically one car running well until the eight ran into this gearbox problem while the sister
00:39:15car has suffered it's been the same at each end of the pit lane for both audi and pescarolo where the
00:39:20number 16 car has suffered
00:39:27now apart from their scissor jack in the floor they have this very trick little dolly that brings the car
00:39:32out from the garage back onto pit lane which i believe was also another audi innovation rather
00:39:38than trying to you know do a three or a five point turn to get the car back in the garage just pick it
00:39:43up turn it on a dime and shove it in there one final check time to roll her out oh calvin well what they
00:39:56were doing there they got manuel epiro to fire the engine up and have the wheels spin inside the
00:40:01garage make sure everything was lined up and coordinated correctly in the drivelines what a remarkable job the
00:40:06way that thing comes apart goes back together and i just got a wink from ed turner he's the engineer
00:40:12they believe everything is okay now on the eight machine
00:40:16so within the space of two laps they got that gearbox fixed
00:40:21the hope is ahead on the road so emmanuelle ferro is going to want to get up to speed as quickly as
00:40:28possible to maintain his lead
00:40:32four classes 50 cars and 200 000 plus friends there are few places on earth where motorsport is
00:40:53celebrated as passionately as it is in this otherwise quiet corner of western france
00:40:57but make no mistake it's a grind and it's just beginning twice the length of the 12 hours of sebring
00:41:04the le mans 24 isn't even half complete we're in the endurance racing abyss too far to turn around
00:41:10and a long way still to go oh yes indeed it's one time
00:41:14ah yes fun time and tens of thousands of fans are still awake enjoying every minute of it just
00:41:38after 4 a.m local time we are still one hour short of the halfway point of the 74th running of the
00:41:45michelin 24 hours of le mans live here on speed hi everybody i'm bob marsha with david hops calvin fish
00:41:53and chris neville are down in the pit lane here's a look at our class leaders emmanuelle perro is at
00:41:59the wheel of the number eight audi but after a brief pit stop to replace the gearbox internals
00:42:05his once formidable four-lap lead is now down to about a lap and a half over the second place car
00:42:11of world rally champion sebastian lobe with that pescarolo judd behind them jan lammers the vastly
00:42:19experienced le mans veteran in his judd powered dome chassis from japan is in third place two laps behind
00:42:28low here's your gt and gt2 class leaders the chevrolet corvette versus pro drive aston martin battle and gt1
00:42:39has been a good one and diversity is the down et2 where we have limited production spikers battling with
00:42:48mass production porsches and ferraris whose production number is probably falling between the middle
00:42:54and that car is third in the gt1 class with nelson pique jr garcia and david brabham driving is uh
00:43:01done remarkably well at one stage it was languishing way down in about 20th spot at the beginning of
00:43:05the race didn't get off to a very good start at all but it certainly picked up the pace now and looking
00:43:10pretty strong the aston martin of course and the corvette on the same lap 11 hours into this race that
00:43:18gives you some idea of just how evenly matched the aston martin and the corvette are second corvette out of
00:43:24the picture just a little bit after johnny o'connell kissed the guard rail early on this afternoon and
00:43:31they're down there six laps still interesting that nelson pique jr follows his father one of the world
00:43:42champions who has raced at lemar and of course a familiar figure to keen speed channel or speed
00:43:51viewers as he's a leading contender in the gp2 championship this year
00:43:58speaking of world champions who've driven here i was flipping through the media guy i didn't realize
00:44:02that michael schumacher actually raced at lemar on four occasions i thought he was just here once or twice
00:44:12he was a very young lad too mm-hmm the mercedes junior program
00:44:20pit action continues seven cars have retired officially out of the 50 that started this year's lemar
00:44:31this car has been in and out of the garage all day
00:44:42quite different engine sound that's the radical judd
00:44:47driven by stuart mosley martin short who's really the power behind it
00:44:51and how and halo barbosa from portugal
00:44:58now they've they've gone the three and a half liter route they're an lmp2 car but they've
00:45:04chosen to run a three and a half liter v8 as opposed to most of them they're running that little four
00:45:08four-cylinder turbocharged two liter by my unofficial count of the 50 cars that started this race they
00:45:14represented 27 different engine and chassis combinations there's nelson piquet jr as david
00:45:22mentioned running in the gp2 series this year hoping to become a formula one driver
00:45:25he was a last-minute addition to this team as he makes his debut at le mans
00:45:35that's not a driver that woman next to him
00:45:37she may drive how do you know close personal friend of yours or something there's the creation
00:45:49literally and that device has also been in and out of the garage and the gravel traps
00:45:55now what are we seeing this looks like gravel on the oh a ballard killer yes oh my goodness punishable
00:46:03by all sorts of torture oh the humanity comes to go with looks like jan lamers at the wheel is it
00:46:11well he has been doing yeoman servants in this car keep in mind a single driver cannot drive more
00:46:16than 14 hours in this race i think jan lamers meter has been ticking for much of the day he's put a lot
00:46:24of time in there's alex yung climbing in now this is a great example of sports car racing japanese chassis
00:46:32british engine driven by a dutchman a malaysian and an american swede and a swede right steve johnson
00:46:41stefan johansen a former winner of this race
00:46:44alex yung making his debut three drivers all with formula one experience
00:46:56alex young's formula one career was not terribly stellar because he was driving minardi so it's a
00:47:01bit hard to tell but uh in his stint his first stint this afternoon he was absolutely terrific
00:47:07pulled it up from tenth to sixth checking the battle for the lead comparative lap times on the last lap
00:47:15emmanuelle pirro leading the way by about three seconds
00:47:20over the pescarolo currently in the hands of sebastian loeb
00:47:23but look how everybody's times have dropped um 341 344 for loeb 358 for lamers because that was an in-lap
00:47:34probably right both glamorous 339 339 for the audi of capello down in fourth spot but i mean they're
00:47:42fastest that was at 331 so they're well off the pace temperatures are down and i think the track is
00:47:49really getting compromised now with gravel rolled up rubber and all sorts of clack on the track oh we
00:47:55got a right rear tire down didn't catch the number of the car well that could be more that gravel you
00:48:01know that gravel on the track is very sharp we've seen a lot of it on the tremendous amount of it on
00:48:07the track at the moment that's the number 12 you know a few moments ago we had a safety car period
00:48:13and i'm wondering why they didn't go out with the track sweepers and try to blow some of that stuff
00:48:18off we never found out why we had a safety car period although several stranded cars were being
00:48:24towed in but i'm surprised they didn't just send the sweepers out to do a little quick housekeeping
00:48:31well i think they're going to have to emulate some of the formula one tracks and have more
00:48:36paved runoff area because the gravel really does just get swept onto the track and in a 12-hour race
00:48:42obviously it's much worse than it is in the formula one car a formula one race this is a courage
00:48:47mugen competition uh combination in fact mugen has been acquired by another firm i think those
00:48:53engines are referred to as mt3s
00:48:59now there you see he's checking the bodywork because when that tire comes apart it can do some severe
00:49:03damage it depends where the tire went down and obviously it's the luck of the draw where they go down
00:49:09it's a four and a half liter v8
00:49:15once again the mechanics have to wait until any refueling is done before they can touch the car
00:49:25quick look around for any damage difficult for drivers to bring in cars stricken by punctures
00:49:31particularly early in the lap when they're
00:49:33and a half miles boy i mean we saw a couple of cars today where they got flat tires as they went
00:49:39down through the tunnel up curve they got like seven miles to go uh-oh up on the dollies they're
00:49:46going to pull it into the garage they must have seen something they did not like we'll give you a look
00:49:52at the top ten as we head for a break and we'll be back with more live coverage of the world's greatest
00:49:58sports car endurance classic stay with us
00:50:08not only is the 24 hour the big race on the program but there were two other races
00:50:13yesterday and this is the first now david hobbs this is even before your time this is before my time
00:50:18these are pre-war cars that's pre-world war ii as you can see there that is the uh it's gareth burnett
00:50:26and look at this finish six tenths of a second there was nothing in it then race two featured an
00:50:32old friend of yours sir sterling moss as you can see he looks exactly the same he looks a little bit
00:50:38worried there here's the alpha mayor number 22 going around unfortunately he actually ended up second
00:50:44that's the tete ruse just going off the straight but gary pearson was to win the race in the c-type
00:50:54and we're back to live pictures here at circuit de la south hello everyone lee diffey along with
00:50:58david hobbs and calvin fish chris neville as we continue the nighttime run but sunrise not too far
00:51:07away and here is the second place car in gt1 it is the defending class champion car of oliver gavin
00:51:16olivia berrida and jan magnuson
00:51:21and a spin here to the binnie motorsport p2 prototype and while that recovers let's get it
00:51:29straight down to pit lane jan lamers is standing by with chris
00:51:31thanks lee down here with the 1988 winner jan lamers jan how's everything right now with the dome
00:51:38uh pretty good touch wood touch wood but uh you know we're not halfway yet and i think we uh
00:51:45we definitely have the most difficult time to come because tomorrow it's going to be warmer or later
00:51:51on and i think it's still going to take a lot of soul i hope that we're not going to be one of them but
00:51:57a lot of cars are still going to have a lot of trouble
00:51:59do you have enough speed to compete with the pescarolo and the audi right now are you guys
00:52:03just doing laps we're just doing our own thing because uh we're not in a position to compete we
00:52:08just run our own pace whatever we think is uh is safe to last us the race that's what we'll do
00:52:15i think right now in the night we can probably do 40s maybe high 39s or even a 38 but it's pointless
00:52:21in trying to do that because i don't think that's going to give us the the win or not just staying
00:52:26around and staying out of trouble that that could give us a podium position we're only about halfway
00:52:31through with this race what kind of condition is the track in right now sorry i didn't get in what
00:52:36kind of condition is the track in oh the track is a lot of grip you'll see some awesome times when
00:52:42when the light comes because there's a lot of rubber on the track but also that takes a lot out of the
00:52:47cars there's a lot of grip you can do wonderful times but also it all has to go through the drivetrain
00:52:54and through the engine so uh believe me they're still going tomorrow and like i say i pray we're
00:53:00not one of them what about debris the guys in the booth have been saying they're seeing a lot of rubber
00:53:04a lot of rocks out there yeah because there's a lot of grip obviously it takes a lot of rubber out of
00:53:08the tires and that rubber has to go somewhere and that's all on the outside so if you have it offline
00:53:14or on the pace car if you run slowly you pick up a lot of debris on your tires
00:53:18and after the pace car therefore you see a lot of spins and then yeah people going in the gravel
00:53:25because the brakes are cold and everything so it's pretty tricky well he went back in 1988 with
00:53:31andy wallace and dumphries right now this team looking very strong and here is some footage of
00:53:38that win that's hard to believe david that's almost 20 years ago it's hard to believe it's 20 years ago
00:53:44and here's two of the drivers andy wallace being one of them and of course yan lat who's still driving
00:53:49in the race today these were mighty cars weren't they oh they were just great very very fast down
00:53:55this long long straight no chicanes in those days and it was that close these guys all drafting each
00:54:01other around that very fast kink up and over the hump down to the mulsanne corner big dip down there
00:54:11when you talk about legendary cars here at le mans this one certainly features and two of the three
00:54:17drivers in this car back in 1988 are in this very race here today and yan lambers and his dome jut
00:54:24doing very well at the moment and you know what it's not out of the question for him to experience
00:54:30that again look how young andy wallace looks andy wallace and look at yan lambers there too
00:54:3750 just very recently and of course johnny dumphries the third driver in that victorious
00:54:44line-up and there's tom walkenshaw standing with his men as well from one mighty team to another the
00:54:52audi yost boys ready for a regular pit stop and this is the luke alfant corvette and that's a pit entry
00:55:01i can't imagine this it seems to be fine now
00:55:17chris never wasn't too far away from that chris what did you make of that well he stopped at one of the
00:55:23officials down here uh where they had sprutineering set up earlier in the week but he didn't even
00:55:30really have a conversation with the official because the official didn't go over to his window so i i
00:55:35wonder if there was some type of stop and go penalty or something that was assessed but it was very
00:55:40strange down here at the pit in entry and that is luke alfant in that corvette right now
00:55:45in the c5r and it does look like it was a stop and go penalty doesn't it because he's
00:55:50driven straight through the pits and carried on yeah luke of course there was a national hero here
00:55:58very big man physically former world downhill skiing champion
00:56:05and he has a very talented jerome pollican in that car who we've seen win class at the rolex 24 at
00:56:13daytona and feature very prominently in sports car racing around the world and they are in with a very
00:56:18good shot at the moment in the top 10 and well placed in class their fourth in gt1 here is the
00:56:24009 this is the class leading car stefan orteli a former overall winner with porsche and alan mcnish back
00:56:31in 1998 and the aston squad know that pressure is on oliver gavin and the corvette is not too far behind
00:56:40they've been on the same lap for hours now so these two cars incredibly the aston martin the 009 aston martin
00:56:49only took the lead off the 64 car because the 64 car had some trouble putting on the right front
00:56:55wheel and these guys did a quicker pit stop got in front and they've been there ever since but all
00:56:59that was like three or four hours ago and they've been on the same lap ever since very very very evenly
00:57:05matched on time hearing reports that car eight the race leading car of emmanuelle piro may have a
00:57:16puncture i tell you i'm not surprised i think we're going to see a lot of punctures because this gravel
00:57:24is really pretty hideous on this track it really is and of course the puncture here can be just a
00:57:30function but of course it could also lead to disastrous consequences of the tire completely let go
00:57:38now top three car second placed in gt2 the scuderia cost ferrari 430 in as well as the asemco celine
00:57:49it's been somewhat of a problematic race how about this wouldn't just just be your luck
00:57:54during the night where it's an empty pit lane yeah you're having to come in right next door
00:58:00cal's on the spot well it's going to be christian finipaldi jumping in taking over from johnny
00:58:08mole and johnny has that another one of those guys who likes to roll up his sleeves when he's driving
00:58:13i'm sure it cools you down i ain't sure what sort of protection you're going to get from the fire suit
00:58:16when it's up around your elbows this team really just trying to hang in there they realize there's a
00:58:22long way to go hasn't been a smooth run for many of these gt1 cars here tonight they had to change a
00:58:27right front upright a couple of hours ago but uh so far the car seems to be running well it's really
00:58:32a great performance by this team they've always thought this saline car has a lot of potential
00:58:37christian finipaldi behind the wheel and he's going to hopefully get out of here before we expect the
00:58:41leader in piero is reporting in the lead audi that he does have a flat tire they're going to try and get
00:58:47that car in here without suffering any damage but they got all the jacks the little dollies ready
00:58:52in case they need to get that car into the garage and do some further repairs christian finipaldi is
00:58:57out meanwhile the audi is out to pit lane and the audi squad have gone absolutely bananas down here
00:59:03trying to get those other two crews to clear the way so peril can bring this car in without any issues
00:59:08i spoke to dr ulrich a few moments ago about the gearbox issue it was fifth gear the dog ring had got damaged
00:59:16and i said it's remarkable how quickly your guys can go to work and get that thing changed he said
00:59:21we spent two days right before we come here to practice those type of things and the gear cluster
00:59:26is certainly one of them so they're going to the rear tires first two guns can only be used all of these
00:59:32teams have a different way of skinning the cat here and trying to get the wheels changed as quickly as
00:59:36possible the audi team probably does it in about 12 seconds so we believe it was the rear tire i do not see
00:59:42anybody work damage and then welly back underway and that has assisted pescarolo sebastian lobe somewhat
00:59:49to just get a little bit closer to that lead audi so they had a bit of luck there that tire went flat
00:59:56about two-thirds of the way around the track and so it wasn't much of a time and much of a
01:00:02way for him to come in on vastly reduced speed what you don't want is to have a flat tire right about
01:00:08here which two or three cars have had today and you can see why you can see the gravel on the track
01:00:14lots of it just watching and waiting for sebastian lobe to come across the line and cycle
01:00:20it was a lap and a half the difference that has certainly come down we'll keep you up to date when we
01:00:25come back
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