Experience the full broadcast of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2011 — one of the most dramatic and unforgettable races in endurance history. Audi and Peugeot engaged in a brutal 24-hour showdown filled with courage, heartbreak, and breathtaking moments. Massive crashes, mechanical struggles, and fierce on-track battles tested the limits of man and machine. Relive the triumph, the emotion, and the relentless spirit that defined this legendary edition on the Circuit de la Sarthe.
#LeMans2011 #24HoursOfLeMans #FullRace #EnduranceRacing #Motorsport #AudiVsPeugeot #LegendaryRace #HistoricRace #EpicRacing #SpeedAndEndurance
#LeMans2011 #24HoursOfLeMans #FullRace #EnduranceRacing #Motorsport #AudiVsPeugeot #LegendaryRace #HistoricRace #EpicRacing #SpeedAndEndurance
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SportsTranscript
00:00:00is brought to you by just for men hair color live forward
00:00:06going on at circuit de la salle on and off the track there is so much to do however a rock concert
00:00:12is the farthest thing from the minds of the corvette guys the 73 with olivia beretta behind
00:00:17the wheel is now fighting with your bergmeister jamie mellow mark goosens they're all the cars
00:00:23and drivers in between he and the sister corvette of ollie gavin who leads the gt pro class
00:00:30and the aco the organizers of le mans each and every year do a very good job in providing so
00:00:36much more for the fans the hundreds of thousands of fans who come to this event each year one of the
00:00:42cool things about being at this race i mean all night long you're going to be up but there's all
00:00:46night long everybody else is up and you've got rock concerts going on you got ferris wheels you've got
00:00:51all kind of things to do and some of them can't be shown on tv right the other thing it's interesting
00:00:56is it's 10 30 at night there yeah and look how light it is that's the one thing that's a lot
00:01:01different than than running the rolex 24 is the fact i mean you don't really have to deal with that
00:01:06much darkness and now with some of these cars and these headlights it really changes the game from the
00:01:11way it used to be when days gone by i mean you could see some of those headlights were so bad
00:01:15that i used to drive with that i mean you couldn't see 20 feet in front of you on board with beretta now
00:01:26i'll come right back at you then it's a good fight this gt pro class has been riveting today
00:01:33the exchanges of lead the misfortune for some the bmw team have been clobbered back they're trying to
00:01:40fight back the porsche teams uh whether it be flying lizard whether it be the felbermeyer proton
00:01:45team the pro speed team they never had the outright speed at the beginning of the weekend
00:01:49but as we've seen so many years here at le mans it's not always the outright speed that will get
00:01:54you the win and look at that look at the lights there that's what the drivers having to deal with
00:01:58in their rear view mirror really discerning what car is where 35 spins and that is where that is yeah
00:02:09one of four oak racing prototypes here this weekend first time we've seen four prototype entries from
00:02:15a single entrant in 15 years at lamar so quite the feat wow wow this is not good it's not good
00:02:22that's not good at all man he was right on the line backing up and with the headlights the wrong way
00:02:28you go right into a blind area luckily like you were saying you know it's pretty light out at 10 30 still
00:02:34that's a replay of what we saw yeah that's where that came from and you don't need to drive on the track
00:02:48and that was one of the gtm front runners fighting there with olivier beretta marco siocchi
00:02:54in the 61 af korsa ferrari gt pro gtm and two divisions within the gt class this year at the 24 hours
00:03:04of le mans and it's the way that it runs in the ilmc as well and that format change has been universally
00:03:12applauded yeah it really has and uh you know it's the global championship now seven rounds this year
00:03:18we'll see all of these cars come back over for petit le mans later in the season and then they'll
00:03:23finish off their season in china at zoo high in november and remember this is a double points
00:03:29race here this weekend so it's not only winning le mans you have a chance of scoring double points
00:03:34here in the quest for the championship i swear you can feel the heat from those lights burning in the
00:03:39back of your neck when somebody's behind you like that so bright you dare not look back
00:03:44those audi lights look like they're pretty fantastic one thing they said that the heat
00:03:51from the led lights they then had to insulate the nose of the audi behind those lit lights because
00:03:58actually affecting the tire temperature the heat build up from those so we were in the audi garage
00:04:02when we had a look around the r18 with ralph juttner and uh just wandering around and wondering what
00:04:07was what and uh just a lot going on there a lot of technology used but uh everything has a consequence
00:04:13there's a box there's a little black box that sits in the headlight assembly it's about the size of a
00:04:17modem uh for your internet uh system you know it has little rabbit ears for the wireless that's that
00:04:23little black box is what runs all of those led lights and then that shielding that calvin was talking
00:04:28about is there to um to protect the tire sensors the that are sit back behind that again that's how much
00:04:35heat those led lights generate so audi as always as peugeot has learned you have to think about
00:04:41everything to go the distance here at lasaf the stage of the game i think everyone up front is
00:04:51just really just getting into that the rhythm it's really like a basketball game you just want to get
00:04:55to that fourth quarter get through the night be safe don't take any chances in traffic we've seen
00:05:00the consequences of that of course already earlier in this race remember team orec and matmut they're
00:05:06running two prototypes here as they did last year one in each class one in p1 one in p2 and their p2
00:05:14car has been dominant today david halliday brings the oreca matmut in it is nissan power and of course
00:05:23the oreca chassis the oreca 03 chassis and for huke de shonak while his p1 car may not be in with a shout of
00:05:30winning overall his p2 car certainly is looking good to justin yeah we're looking at the back of
00:05:40the eureka which is running on michelins and uh just want to give you a little bit of an update on
00:05:44the michelin situation had a wonderful conversation just now with one of the engineers and last uh year
00:05:50audi actually did 31 stops and only changed tire 10 times this year they have actually been given
00:06:00permission with slightly shorter lap runs as we know 11 laps on average they allowed given the green
00:06:08light by mission to run up to five stints kelvin but of course that runs too close to the driver time
00:06:13limit so as the temperatures go down uh i was asking are these new front tires the wider front tires a
00:06:19little bit more tricky to get up to temperature he said yes to get up but once they're there remember
00:06:24wider tire better dissipation spread of the load so they actually work really really well and if you
00:06:30stick stack a set of the new tires up against the old ones it actually combines to about half a tire's
00:06:36width extra in height on a stack so you get a lot more rubber on the road and as i know scott knows
00:06:41for sure more rubber on the road you can go around corners a bit quicker so michelin can you imagine
00:06:46that five stints behind the wheel yeah and like you said just training they've been training actually
00:06:50be all over europe for big training sessions so they're very fit right now five sessions though
00:06:55what do you think scott you could do it absolutely i've been carrying the load for a while i'm never
00:07:03afraid we need to leave lemont momentarily squeeze in a quick break and you see darkness really coming
00:07:10into full effect around circuit de la salle cinema
00:07:24we welcome you back to the beginning of the nighttime hours here at circuit de la salle for
00:07:29the 24 hours of le mans and our stomachs are literally in our mouths along with the audi crew
00:07:36there are some very very frightening scenes here and it involves audi again alan mcnish walked away
00:07:43from his crash earlier i'm not quite sure if we can report on the same thing here involving car number
00:07:49one and the 27 year old german mike rockenfeller it has been a horrendous crash out on track just as we
00:07:58went to that last commercial break and this is all we have to show you
00:08:07we once again are taking world feed so we cannot control
00:08:12and again it was contact with a gt car yeah thomas leuch in the middle there with the goggles on his
00:08:19head ralph juttner the technical director everybody is in disbelief trying to determine which area the
00:08:25racetrack is lee it's either the run down to indianapolis or out of arnage on the way to the
00:08:30porsche curves booth here's the racetrack of a similar kink in them and rocky at that point that
00:08:35was not a risky move i mean the you assume that the gt car is going to stay on the outside there they
00:08:42don't need to apex on those curves at that point
00:08:44and from the limited onboard shots and vision that we had the car was aggressively spun and rocky
00:08:55went in backwards into that guard rail the armco that from shots that we were looking at during
00:09:00that commercial break has been moved well and truly back from its original position
00:09:05and we've got some shots coming up for you to try and put this sequence together again the video is
00:09:18limited but we're doing the best we can with what we've been fed from the world feed
00:09:26but again these are very frightening times that was at almost maximum speed you can see the skid
00:09:33marks off to the left there here's that video that i was alluding to earlier this is from a cctv
00:09:43it appears the back end of the car or at least the gearbox and engine
00:09:48look to the left of the screen there that's what i was talking about earlier down below see the skid
00:09:53marks there leading as he got clipped by that gt car as he was passing it on the right side that's
00:10:00that's just the engine gearbox i think and i'm not sure if the main monocoque is on the other side of
00:10:05the armco or not
00:10:10these are just horrific pictures
00:10:15just makes you sick it just makes you
00:10:19romaine dumar there with the jacket on this is the defending race winners this trio of dumar
00:10:27bernard and rockenfeller and you can see their concern for their friend and co-worker again the shot
00:10:33from mike rockenfeller flashing his headlights alerting this gt car that he is coming
00:10:38and that tells it all his teammate there that we just saw the shot of ramon dumar was highly critical
00:10:54in a message earlier today about several drivers several cars out on track we're now hearing that
00:11:01the crash is on the run from the mulsanne corner down towards indianapolis there's a little kink in
00:11:07the road at these speeds nothing is easy but it's an area of the racetrack where a gt car should be
00:11:13able to run essentially the outside lane there and allow the faster prototypes to just go by
00:11:20sometimes when a guy's out maybe on his initial lap he's really disoriented with the racetrack trying
00:11:26to get up to speed there's been a lot of talk about the the gte amateur division we hate to place blanks
00:11:32we're not even sure which gt car was involved in this incident but you'd have to say that one lays
00:11:37at the fault of the gt car closing the door at these high speeds
00:11:43it's pretty god that rocky's all right it's horrific crash this is a driver who we have known for
00:11:51many years here in the us in both grand am and the american le mans series he to this point was having
00:11:58the year of his career within the last 12 months a little bit more he'd won the rolex 24 at daytona
00:12:05for action express racing he'd been promoted within audi for the dtm he got the most modern car
00:12:13he has won a race in dtm this year he comes to le mans as the defending le mans 24-hour winner
00:12:20one thing about this if he did go over this is where the closed cockpit should
00:12:31be a help you know we hate to just guess on what's happened here but do you see the charred mess
00:12:39and hang on the side of the road he's on the stretcher yeah he's on the other side of the guard
00:12:46rail you see him on the stretcher they just lift him over the guard rail but the car what's left
00:12:49of it was i don't know where the car's at yeah the front part's missing
00:12:59what a day this camp has had first alan mcnish now mike rockenfeller
00:13:05perhaps people hearing the news of a crash maybe romaine dumas telling family and friends that he is
00:13:17okay he was not in the car it was his friend and teammate mike rockenfeller boy there's just not
00:13:23enough of that thing left to even know what it is yeah i can't say only hope is that perhaps the
00:13:29driver's compartment was on the other side of the guard rail separated protected him
00:13:43there's the possibility that mike rockenfeller may have got over the guard rail
00:14:03by himself but we just don't know these are unconfirmed reports right now we just have to wait and see and
00:14:11keep our fingers crossed this was under his own power under his own steam so
00:14:18this is just scary scary stuff he's such a good friend of all of us here
00:14:25first caution today for alan mcnish where fencing required extensive repair we were under caution
00:14:34for an hour and 14 and i think this will be of a similar nature no question
00:14:42look as calvin mentioned these are unconfirmed reports coming from the track that rockenfeller
00:14:47was able to get out of the wrecked car himself climb over the armco barrier to a safer point
00:14:53by himself if these unconfirmed reports are true that is encouraging news we saw rocky on the stretcher
00:14:59with the paramedics heading towards the ambulance and we will update you as soon as we know anything
00:15:05i think the reason the pitch is aware i think they must have hit it with some fire extinguisher or
00:15:09something that looks very charred and sort of like different appearances really hard to distinguish
00:15:14which part of the car is which from these aerial views that we saw a moment ago
00:15:18there is the third member of the number one car the defending race winners that was timo bernard
00:15:29there's romaine dumas guys who we've come to know so very well here in the us real heroes in
00:15:36endurance sports car racing and this is a day that they will not want to remember for obvious reasons
00:15:41the cleanup continues at le mans for those of you just turning on a very frightening and sobering
00:15:53moment involving 27 year old german audi factory driver mike rockenfeller it was contact
00:16:00with the 71 af corsica the car that nascar driver michael waltrip is in michael was not driving that car
00:16:09he's american co-driver and business partner rob kaufman was behind the wheel in just what was an
00:16:14awkward incident and mulsanne on the way to indianapolis is a very very high speed section of this racetrack
00:16:24and it was an awkward moment that sent mike rockenfeller the defending
00:16:28winner of this race into a spin backwards into the armco barrier and there was just an explosion in very
00:16:35similar style to the alan mcnishan incident where the car just disintegrated this is a new angle from
00:16:42the world feed oh no just turns him gets into his left rear and just turns him straight across that is a
00:16:53massive massive impact there the onboard from rockenfeller's number one audi
00:16:58that's probably 180 miles an hour there they reach about 200 on the approach to indianapolis
00:17:10dr wolfgang ulrich talking to driver romaine dumas reinhold yost in the background
00:17:15this is the ambulance carrying mike rockenfeller there seems to be more and more unconfirmed reports
00:17:21coming in from the circuit that rocky indeed under his own power got out of the car and over the arm
00:17:27comb barrier to safety if these are true once these are confirmed that's very very encouraging
00:17:42okay well these are going from unconfirmed to confirm the aco
00:17:47has now confirmed rockenfeller did step from the car himself boys that is a relief
00:17:53the aco is the automobile club de l'ouest the organization that is in charge of le mans that
00:18:00runs this wonderful event so they're corner marshals and corner workers have obviously radioed in
00:18:07to give headquarters this information justin
00:18:10yeah lee i uh unfortunately for the second time today uh i've had to come to the base of the medical
00:18:21center and the ambulance just came by with six motorbikes flashing their lights they did not stop
00:18:26at the medical center they left and carried straight on out the circuit to obviously a far better equipped
00:18:32to major hospital again can i confirm that all i saw was with my eyes uh and also uh from prior
00:18:38experience unfortunately i know what the back of an ambulance looks like when it's busy and thankfully
00:18:43they were all sitting down in the back and it looked quite relaxed you can't really see in but you
00:18:47know what i mean it looked pretty calm so i hope that means he's just being taken straight to
00:18:52somewhere where you can get the best care but obviously the reports are positive at the moment but
00:18:56it looks like he's left left the uh left the venue dr wolfgang ulrich the head of audi motorsport the
00:19:03bald gentleman with his back to us talking to the eight-time le mans winner tom christensen
00:19:08ralph juttner reinhold jost thomas leutch all of the significant members from the audi team there
00:19:15you can understand their concern it has happened to two of their three cars here today i think we saw a
00:19:21lot of concern in that garage but it seemed like they had news that we didn't immediately have in
00:19:26terms of the consequences of the accident and they knew before we certainly did that rocky was able
00:19:33to get out of the car under his own steam which is a heck of a lot better than luck report that justin
00:19:40just gave us certainly gives us great hope but we take hate to take anything for granted at this stage
00:19:46this has been just a horrific day for audi two massive shunts and that is not a site that you
00:19:58often see remember the rule is garage closed it's day over that's not something you normally see here
00:20:04at le mans when audi sport is involved it's just it's just scary sickening and scary and it's kind of
00:20:18ironic that just uh within the last hour lee you've been talking about olivier penny you know napanas not
00:20:24wanted to uh come to this race feeling it was too dangerous and then he just saw the emotion of the event
00:20:30we talked about nicholas pross father elaine the multiple world champion saying that he just didn't
00:20:35want to come here and race with the various categories on the track at the same time and
00:20:40some of the drivers with the amateur status and uh this just really highlights how dangerous this game
00:20:46can be at times and you know with with 56 cars of with drivers of varying degrees of experience and
00:20:56ability on the track in general in general year on year we have a very good run but today has been
00:21:04very alarming of course we've got people all over the place at circuit de la south greg creamer is one
00:21:11of those on pit lane greg tell us what you've seen what you've observed what you're hearing
00:21:18well at this point i mean as soon as it happened i came right down to the audi pit they immediately
00:21:22stationed some rather large security guards that are keeping anybody from even getting close to
00:21:28access into the audi garage obviously we're watching what's unfolding the one thing i can say is that
00:21:34from the time i got down here over the next few minutes there was you know it started with tremendous
00:21:40concern on the faces of everybody roman dumas all of the team absolutely looking horrified and then
00:21:46slowly it started to look more relaxed and there was even the occasional smile there was a pat on the
00:21:51shoulder for roman and i'm i would i would guess that that was as the news came in that they were
00:21:56hearing that rocky did get out of the car in his own so it has definitely become less tense and less
00:22:02fraught down here however that said we are not able to get access to anybody at this stage they've got
00:22:08everything shut down believe me i'm in the middle of a huge scrum at this point uh right on the front
00:22:13line but we are stopped and until you know dr ulrich or somebody in authority on the team decides to walk
00:22:19over and say something at this point we're really just kind of stuck but as i said the general
00:22:24atmosphere in here has gone from extreme concern to a lot more relaxed and even a few pats on the back
00:22:30so i think that in and of itself perhaps speaks volumes i can guarantee you one of the things you're
00:22:36thinking right now is do we keep the third car going or not i mean do we you know is there something
00:22:41is there some issue here or or you know they're just having that discussion just you know just to
00:22:45double check and make absolutely sure that everything is taking place is by far just
00:22:52an accident not something that that potentially could have erupted from a from a car i think you
00:22:57haven't seen now the footage of that though scott i think both incidents were really just what you
00:23:02said accidents there was no failure nothing that went amiss with the race car so racing incidents we
00:23:09hate to uh just be generic with that term but essentially that's what's happened here yeah
00:23:15just so you know i just got eye eye contact with ulrich and i kind of gave him the mic indication and
00:23:20he shook his head no as uh greg there talking to our production staff and you heard it for yourself
00:23:28dr ulrich not in the mood to speak uh with us nor anybody else at the moment i think again and i think
00:23:35greg was totally accurate there in terms of the emotion in that pit box that they weren't distraught
00:23:41that they were concerned but if they'd thought that rocky had been seriously injured i think
00:23:46we would have seen a lot more emotion at that point in time
00:23:53we'll just keep him in our thoughts and prayers right now and yeah i look forward to hearing
00:23:58forget that that he's in good shape forget his ability as a race car driver he's such an awesome
00:24:03kid and uh we all love him to death so regrouping here at leman obviously still under a full course
00:24:12caution we will sneak away to a break and come back with more speed's coverage of the 24 hours of
00:24:25leman is brought to you by chevrolet and america's premier sports car corvette
00:24:34back at leman still under full course caution for the second time in this race at 10 minutes past 11
00:24:41leman time
00:24:45and much discussion up and down the pit lane as to this most recent jarring crash jarring everybody up
00:24:54and down pit lane and bringing back the harsh reality of the sport we love so much and this event that
00:25:01we love so much mike rockenfeller in the number one audi suffering a very very heavy and frightening and
00:25:09high-speed crash on the way down towards the indianapolis turn
00:25:13greg creamer is standing by at the audi pit and has an update for us greg go for it
00:25:25well basically it's an update of not much to update but i did want to inform everybody that
00:25:30eva maria who is the crack pr person for this team she did come over to both us and to eurosport tv
00:25:37and we both asked about when you know is there an update to give and she said we're waiting for one
00:25:42ourselves she said all we know at this point is that rocky is on his way uh by meta you know to
00:25:48medical to get uh thoroughly checked out we don't know anything more than that at this point and she
00:25:53said as soon as that becomes obvious and we get some sort of word we will make somebody available to
00:25:59be able to talk to you guys and give you an update so we're just sort of at this point in a bit of
00:26:03limbo uh i did want to just add something here to the to the fact that when i first got down here
00:26:09there were some you know some guys that were teared up and looked very very scared and just a couple of
00:26:13minutes ago i actually saw some people high-fiving each other so just from what i'm seeing here again
00:26:19as i said a little bit earlier i think there's an immense amount of tension that has been released
00:26:24and there's a tremendous amount of relief down here at this point obviously still concerned
00:26:29because you don't know at this point we talked about it before with the adrenaline and getting
00:26:33out of the car but at that point you don't know but at this point it certainly uh looks like it's
00:26:39better than perhaps those first images were offered to us thanks greg and understandably so none of the
00:26:46audi hierarchy want to make public comment until it's based on fact and they'll be waiting on a report
00:26:54from the paramedics about the condition of mike rockenfeller scott you're still driving you're still
00:27:00vying for championships you yourself had a crash at new jersey motorsports park that split your ganasi
00:27:06daytona prototype in half just a couple of years ago what effect does this have on you well it's more
00:27:12from the standpoint that your good friends are out there doing it i mean we love doing what we do
00:27:17we hate any time to see this kind of circumstance and when you know and when bennett tracks and know how
00:27:23big and and horrific these crashes are the first thought is to go out to your friend to your driver
00:27:30to your counterpart even though we race fiercely together we always are concerned with each other's
00:27:38safety first absolutely with safety first and and i just hope and pray that all these stories that
00:27:46we're hearing are true that he got out under his own power that he was able to get on the other side of
00:27:50the guardrail that he's on his way to the to the hospital and that that everything checks out okay
00:27:59and there is the medical facility and audi staff on hand just waiting for some kind of word any word
00:28:06that's what dumar and bernard are waiting on that's what audi sport boss dr wolfgang ulrich and reinhold
00:28:13yost are waiting on for those of you just joining us before we went to that last commercial break we
00:28:19mentioned about what a trying day what a testing day it has been for audi sport this is the reason
00:28:24why earlier today at the end of the first hour this is what happened to two-time le mans winner alan
00:28:30mcnish contact with a ferrari and ironically it was one of the luxury ferraris it was a different team to
00:28:42the one i should say i thought it was the same team it was a different team to the one that rocky struck
00:28:45and there alan is able to remove himself from the car this is the most recent incident
00:28:56and again a ferrari a gt ferrari the gap was closed and the result the same
00:29:14at that point that gt car has to stay to the left of that center lane center line there is no need for
00:29:21that car with the amount of speed it's carrying to go to the apex car there isn't it's plenty it's
00:29:27plenty wide there is no reason to apex you need to it's give and take and unfortunately the gt car was
00:29:33just taken more than than he should have been rocky was already committed and there was just no place nothing
00:29:41for him to do and it's not a corner it's more of a curve in a flat out section down to indianapolis
00:29:53it was a theme we have to say after speaking with many drivers at circuit de la south earlier this week
00:29:59it definitely was a theme that was more to the surface than ever before with the reduced horsepower
00:30:05in the prototype categories they were saying we're going to need to be a little more aggressive we're
00:30:10going to have to be more decisive about our moves on gt cars that's not exactly to the point that i'm
00:30:15talking about but they knew that things were going to be tight the prototype drivers knew that things
00:30:20were going to be tight in making moves on gt competitors i'm i'm kind of going back on what
00:30:26what calvin was saying i think unless you have truly talented drivers out there doing what they do
00:30:34in these kind of conditions at these speeds you need to be able to the governing body needs put in
00:30:40place a certain amount of standards for letting drivers come and do this and i know there were some
00:30:45current concerns from other drivers out there feeling that the differential between some of
00:30:50the drivers let's say the back of the pack or or some of the amateurs for sure and then the pro guys
00:30:56and i hate to say it but this this is an element of that and instead of knowing you need to stay
00:31:03clear there to the one side of the road you need to absolutely have enough room there you need to be in
00:31:08a situation to let these other guys go because the differential in speed is so great and there's just
00:31:14no place to go again these are the uh closed circuit camera shots down where the crash occurred
00:31:23and look at the work going on on the left hand side there that armco barrier was severely damaged
00:31:30and needs a great deal of repair all of the drivers that compete here this weekend have to get some
00:31:35mandatory laps in the nighttime sessions because that first session with the daylight running so late
00:31:41you have to go out there in the nighttime run as well and there's also some minimum qualifying times
00:31:45and reading from the regulations here you have to be within 125 of the average of the three best laps
00:31:52set by the three cars of different makes in your class and then 115 of the best time achieved by the
00:31:58fastest car in each of the four categories that's quite complicated but essentially there if you're that
00:32:03far off the pace they won't let you run but it's a pretty loose time i mean essentially in like the gt
00:32:09category you could be about 30 seconds off the pace which is a massive amount yeah you you can generate
00:32:15a couple fast laps but really to be heads up and just feeling like you're not choking the wheel and
00:32:21just focused on going forward to have a presence of what's around you and and who's coming up on you
00:32:26and how fast they're coming up that's a whole other element to this for jürgen pipik there who's the head of
00:32:31audi pr on a cell phone i'm sure he's down there trying to relay information as he's receiving it
00:32:37back to the team who have to stay in that garage remember they still have a car out there to try and
00:32:42execute for a win here this shows us a little more detail doesn't it what's going on there with the
00:32:58safety barrier wow meanwhile the stracker boys execute another stop and driver change
00:33:10and these are the defending race winners in the lmp2 class these guys really annoy me how skinny they
00:33:17are they're tiny they're not just about two percent you and i look like andre the giant next to them
00:33:24that's how short and tiny they are they look like horse jockeys very effective as far as race car
00:33:30drivers that's for sure i'm not sure anyone's called you andre the giant at your height but
00:33:34we digress as the striker boys continue their program there let's check in one more time with justin
00:33:52hey lee uh you know i was just down talking with i'm not going to tell you who it was at
00:33:56purge i don't think it's fair to name names but we were talking about um the feeling in their team
00:34:02uh at this moment and uh you know the person said you know these drivers these teams they are
00:34:09extraordinary competitors just kind of harking on what scott was saying a minute ago extraordinary
00:34:13competitors they're spending godly amounts of money and and performance to try and beat each other
00:34:19and yet you know we know at the end of the race they have this extraordinary tradition of partying
00:34:24together they go to the winners the loser goes to the winners hospitality and it's become a great
00:34:29tradition here between the french and the german uh outfits and uh as they said you know the trouble is
00:34:36they know how dangerous this sport is they had two 908s destroyed in in testing pre-season and you know
00:34:44literally on the edge of of being tragedies so uh you know they are they all i can tell you is their
00:34:50lead engineer at peugeot had tears running down his face when he thought uh that maybe the worst
00:34:56had happened so these are hardened men that that completely relate to each other it's very gladiatorial
00:35:01racing uh and you know you you want to take the fight to the opposition but you also know exactly
00:35:07what they're experiencing so you uh i think the peugeot team are in as subdued a mood i would say as the
00:35:13audi one right now to justin's point when you think about these some facts and figures that simon
00:35:20pagino and the the peugeot boys were telling us earlier this week peugeot think about the tens of
00:35:27millions of dollars man hours that have gone into both the r18 for audi and the 908 for peugeot
00:35:33peugeot completed 11 35-hour simulations 11 35-hour simulations you think they're not serious about
00:35:43winning this race and they have their massive hospitality suites and one of the points that
00:35:47justin made is on a sunday night whomever wins if it's audi is victorious peugeot go to their
00:35:53hospitality suite the mechanics the engineers all of the staff they trade shirts like football teams
00:35:59like soccer teams and they have really embraced each other they've really embraced this competitiveness
00:36:04they are the current era top dogs and competitors it's what makes this current era of le mans so
00:36:10fascinating and there is no doubt even though peugeot wants to win as desperately as audi there are
00:36:17shock waves gone through the peugeot camp after this very frightening accident involving mike rockenfeller
00:36:24that was obviously dramatically slowed down
00:36:30this is that head-on shot we saw a little earlier cal yeah there you see him just forcing rocky's right
00:36:35right side in there and i think he actually got into his left corner possibly to help turn him scott
00:36:41it absolutely they had contact he was already off onto the gravel on the inside and then looks like
00:36:48further contact with with his rear and turned him yeah hard left into the guardrail i think if it hit him
00:36:54if he'd still been on the pavement he would have got away with it or if he just put two wheels in the dirt
00:36:58he may have got away with it but two wheels in the dirt and then the touch
00:37:05you see dr edward saying how could he do that
00:37:15there are the overall standings as we go to the break andre laudera the sole
00:37:18remaining audi leads the way this is going to be a tough fight from here
00:37:24the 48th team oregon matt mood car still dominates p2 corvette is looking good in gt pro
00:37:33and in gtm it's been an interesting one as well and the 70 car malabra looking good
00:37:46it's one of the most popular shows on the network it is barrett-jackson orange county
00:37:52and a quick reminder that it's coming your way live on speed june 24th at 5 p.m eastern yes
00:37:59california becomes the home to the greatest collector car auction in the world it's barrett-jackson we all
00:38:04know it so well around the various locations each and every year but this time it is the oc's turn
00:38:10barrett-jackson orange county june 24th 5 p.m eastern here on speed it's very very popular
00:38:17and i know you've been looking for a mini cooper s but it hasn't come up yet you haven't been having
00:38:24you haven't had to open your wallet have you count i know it's a good thing there's not much in there
00:38:28there you go the countdown clock and things are running a little more slowly at the moment we know
00:38:37many of you turn on it at a variety of times this is a repair work major repair work going on to an
00:38:43armco barrier after the mike rockenfeller audi crash and as soon as we know something more about mike's
00:38:50medical condition about his health condition we will let you know uh as soon as we have something
00:38:56confirmed from the track either from the automobile club de la west the medical facility or audi itself
00:39:03we will let you know it's really tough as you said in the break lead to even take this in you know
00:39:11we've been in around sports cars for so long and we know so many of these drivers so well and it
00:39:16doesn't change if you know a guy you don't know a guy there you see marco verner in the background
00:39:22there with ava maria and roma dumar obviously everyone's still very concerned until we get
00:39:28confirmed reports on rocky's condition but it's just hard to watch this scott i mean to see alan have
00:39:34that mega crash and then uh to follow it up with rocky shunt here i mean we know there's a dangerous
00:39:40element to this sport always but to be reminded of it twice within the span of a few hours is uh
00:39:47uh it's tough to really handle it's really it's tough to handle it's tough you know it's a sobering
00:39:55reminder that you know driving race cars is a dangerous business and you know as much as we try
00:40:02and do what we can do to keep it as safe as we can from from designing and developing the race cars to
00:40:09the tracks themselves which have moved forward greatly over the years uh it still is a dangerous sport and
00:40:15unfortunately when we see things like this happen it's it's it's sobering and it's it's horrific and
00:40:21it's you know just with seeing these guys that are your friends that you you know compete hard against
00:40:28but at the same time um the your friends you you know your your level of competition raises you to that
00:40:34next level and that comes with a lot of respect and friendships and and it's not just you'll say
00:40:39pejota audi but it's everybody up and down the pit or have have those concerns for for the drivers and
00:40:46and uh it's most specifically rocky right now and you saw marco verner there in the jeans and his
00:40:52civilian clothes he did have an audi jacket on former lamont 24 hour winner marco verner's there because
00:40:58audi is a family these guys turned up in 1999 with their first iteration of the r8c they had two closed
00:41:06cockpit cars they had two open cockpit cars and people talk about the the glory days here at
00:41:12le mans the whether it be the uh the ford gt40 days whether they talk about the jaguar days whether
00:41:18they talk about the bentley boys in the bentley era well we're living through right now the audi era
00:41:24and we've seen challenges come and go but this really has been the audi era and they are a family
00:41:29and manueli pirro's not even driving manueli's here you see marco verner here i haven't seen him this
00:41:34week but i wouldn't be surprised that frankie bill is there as well the audi staff and the audi
00:41:39drivers it really is a family and that's why the facial expressions that just sent shockwaves through
00:41:46that camp and again we are still waiting on further information and further confirmation that mike
00:41:53rockenfella is okay but all of the initial reports did have a positive slant on them so it is
00:41:58somewhat encouraging we are receiving just little trickle feed pieces of information from the circuit
00:42:05that top of the hour so another half an hour until we go back to racing here's the first really good
00:42:12shot we've had of the one of the two flying lizard porsches this troy lee design which is absolutely
00:42:20amazing both cars one's blue one's orange but they are just fabulous the detailed work that has gone into
00:42:27this is just incredible and it's been done by a california-based company it's called iconography
00:42:34studios out of long beach california and everything other than the primary colors the blue and the
00:42:40purple the orange and the purple everything you see is a sticker there are literally hundreds of
00:42:45stickers on each car and the guy who did it by hand is james nacarado so james well done troy lee of
00:42:51course did the design but it's a real team effort it's beautiful like the 28 overall winners from
00:42:57porsche over the years are all on those cars with their national flags made to look like they're going
00:43:03at speed around lamar pretty cool stuff back to pit lane here's justin well lee you know we're very lucky
00:43:14obviously in the speed broadcast lineup because we pull on every kind of experience and i reckon our
00:43:20little uh mine of information here is obviously andrew marriott andrew the first time you walked down
00:43:26this pit lane it was the most dangerous place almost in the world to race other than indianapolis
00:43:32well unbelievable because there was no pit wall there justin you know back in 1966 cars came by us at
00:43:40200 miles an hour the big fords and we just walked down the boat you just walked down the pit road
00:43:44just writing notes oh and it was insane but you know as your dad said earlier in that interview we
00:43:49didn't know any better and uh obviously in 1955 was a huge accident uh down into the crowd i mean it could
00:43:57have been a massacre in the pits at any time but there never was but that accident is one of the biggest
00:44:02i've ever seen in my life for rock and fellow one absolutely unbelievable it just shows what technology
00:44:09has done for us and all this technology is coming through into road cars as well which is great news
00:44:15and when you look at what just happened twice today unfortunately and then fortunately a byproduct of
00:44:22accidents that are violent that that caught shake us to our roots is that we then extend the range of
00:44:28our safety so accidents therein result in a safer racing what do you think will potentially occur as a
00:44:36beneficial byproduct to what we saw today well obviously audi will learn something when they
00:44:42get these wrecks back to ingolstadt and they'll just look at how they all broke up and and so on
00:44:48which is uh they'll learn from that and that will translate into road car safety in the future
00:44:53and also i think le mans has something to learn and i think particularly the accident we saw with rocky
00:44:59you know he was taken off by a guy who's got so little experience you know that maybe there should
00:45:06be a stronger criteria for allowing people into these races because that guy's just basically been
00:45:11doing club racing and there's quite a lot of those guys and i think the last two or three years we've
00:45:15had several very near accidents like that we've gone away with it and this year we've got two that we
00:45:20haven't gone away with oh well said i mean it doesn't matter which decade it is it still shakes everyone in
00:45:26the pit lane so guys and we mentioned earlier in the broadcast we're very fortunate to have
00:45:31andrew married on our team once again to draw from all of his experience and when you see things like
00:45:36this and if you remember earlier in the broadcast think about what dindo capello said after alan mcnish
00:45:42crashed in the three and he said he said i'm not faking this this is not an audi advert he said i drive
00:45:48and he's he's he's one of the older drivers in the audi family he's got children back in italy his wife he
00:45:54said i drive for audi i drive an audi i race for audi because i know i'm safe in an audi there's a lot
00:46:00to be said about that and and i feel the same way and it goes even further from my standpoint because
00:46:07it's with ganassi so it's not only with the manufacturer but it's with the team because
00:46:11you have to be a hundred percent confident with the guys bolting your car together that they're doing
00:46:16it absolutely the correct way to have you know not a mechanical failure and then as we were hearing
00:46:22earlier when things like this happen we we've got to take a look to make sure as a governing body
00:46:28we're doing the right thing as far as regulating or legislating what and how and and who should be
00:46:35out there driving we need to leave circuit de la south just for a moment for a break on the other side
00:46:45of the break will be speeds krista boda with a speed center update we'll see you in a few minutes
00:47:01back at le mans we continue on through the night time hours and we remain under our second full caution
00:47:08uh full course caution of the race thus far with just a little over 15 hours to run in the 79th running
00:47:17of the 24 hours of le mans the talking topic right now is mike rockenfella's welfare the defending race
00:47:25winner the driver of the number one audi who suffered a massive crash at a very high speed section of the
00:47:31track while we're in that extended break and the speed center update speeds greg creamer caught up with
00:47:36dr wolfgang ulrich the boss of audi sport i'm sorry i know very tough time for you uh just first of all
00:47:44have you got any further information on rocky we could talk to him and now we will bring him to the
00:47:51hospital for a scan because before that you can't say anything he moved out himself out of the car we
00:47:58could talk to him and now they bring him to the hospital completely that's fantastic news we saw
00:48:06jean toe we saw some of the aco people here having a big discussion dr tyson came in um just uh basically
00:48:13showing respect or was there some other discussion going on they've been to rock and talk to him
00:48:18all right thank you dr ulrich and uh very sorry for the developments
00:48:23dr wolfgang ulrich just being very matter of fact there he's a big fan uh friend of speed channels he's
00:48:27been on wind tunnel with dave dismayne he gives us unprecedented access to his staff and his team
00:48:33and really opens the doors to us to give us all the possible information to assist us in our broadcast
00:48:39but as you can appreciate there just being very matter of fact with more on this situation because
00:48:45there's two sides to every story andrew marriott is on the gt side of it
00:48:49uh yeah i'm down here with michael walter it mike it does seem that uh rob kauffman was involved
00:48:58in that accident do you know anything more no we had to talk to rob uh just from a little bit of
00:49:03video we saw couldn't really tell for sure what happened the straightaway from mulsanne to indy is not
00:49:11straight it's got a couple of kinks in it and you really have to to watch what you're doing on that
00:49:17part of the straightaway to make sure you don't run off the road so i don't i couldn't tell what
00:49:22happened and the car's still running of course yeah i don't think the uh prototype made contact
00:49:28with with uh with rob um so that's you know that's good but in my hearts with uh with rockenfella and
00:49:36rocky all those guys uh that's a couple of those oddies that have gone up in pieces and that's a shame
00:49:42yeah we we understand he is talking he's talked to the audi people um you've been out there how did
00:49:48you like your first stint well the the car is really uh over steering bad and so just dealing with that
00:49:58and learning the track but um i have a a philosophy or it's my my approach to it i'm going to stay
00:50:05far over out you know out of those guys ways because i mean the crash you saw early in the event
00:50:12there was nothing the ferrari could have done he just got mowed over and so uh couldn't really tell
00:50:17with rob whether it was avoidable or not so i've just been really conservative because it's uh quite a
00:50:24quite a phenomenon when one of those things come by you it's it's uh unexplainable sure it doesn't look
00:50:30it sure it doesn't look nutty on tv but when you see headlights in your mirror you don't know if
00:50:38those are headlights of a gt car which is running the same speed as you are or if it's one of those
00:50:42missiles coming and it it happens really fast and you'll be back in the car in the middle of the night
00:50:49yes i think i'm next for a double which i'm happy about that um every lap is is fun and every lap i get
00:50:56a little bit faster i ran my fastest lap at the end of my last stint so um i'm i'm getting to the
00:51:02point now where i i can take for granted where the track goes finally and then i can just work on making
00:51:08my line faster really appreciate your time thank you thanks for having us on michael waltrip in one of
00:51:16the three af corsair entries in the 71 machine
00:51:23and of course his business partner and co-driver rob koffman behind the wheel in this accident with
00:51:30mike rockefeller actually he might be right i'm not sure if there was contact there scott looking at it
00:51:37again there rocky was in the dirt there there may not have been contact from the onboard like there was
00:51:43a bump but maybe it was just you take a look here the ferrari starts fading over one line and then
00:51:49two lines and then when you see it from the front he's clear over at least on the other side of that
00:51:54center line yeah maybe dropping the wheels is what turned him left so quickly i mean he was alongside
00:52:00the ferrari we naturally assumed that he got into the left rear corner there but looking at it again
00:52:05take another look at this in really slow-mo that head-on shot was quite telling when rocky started to
00:52:12turn left it looked to me like the ferrari may have been like a car length back and again you
00:52:18have to really review this several times before we get a true and clear perspective of it headlights
00:52:24kind of blind you a little bit there but rocky's off to the right and now there as he starts to turn
00:52:28look there's some good gap there between the two cars there is and you can see how far the ferrari is
00:52:34and sometimes yeah from a driver's standpoint you're trying to do whatever you can to avoid contact
00:52:40and you end up getting yourself in a worse situation and that's what what could happen
00:52:43because when he's coming up on this ferrari right here you see the ferrari already start fading to
00:52:48the right i mean you've looked at center line and he'll start working his way over that's right there
00:52:52rocky's already committed he's already committed and it looks like the ferrari was apexing there you
00:52:57don't need to apex right you don't and and so it he just ran out of room he's probably just trying to
00:53:03go you know what maybe i can get up and across there and there's curbing there and dirt so any of a number of
00:53:08those consequences came together at the wrong time and unfortunately a horrific crash the other
00:53:14thing that may not have assisted mike rockenfeller in that scenario is that this isn't our assessment
00:53:21it's from the audi drivers themselves they say that visibility on the right hand side
00:53:26of those r18s is particularly challenging remember uh thursday night qualifying tom christensen we don't
00:53:34see that guy make mistakes and he dropped those left side wheels on the entry to tetrouge maybe it's
00:53:39just hard to really you know we talked about feeling the race car scott and you know maybe rocky took a
00:53:45little bit more of the grass that he thought he was going to it's it looks to me i mean he was committed
00:53:54to that position the ferrari went for the ape for apexing that line sure absolutely and then and then rocky
00:53:59what he did is he was trying to get out of the way and not have contact and sometimes truthfully you
00:54:05look back on incidents i have and said you know what i should have just rammed right into that guy because
00:54:10the crash would have been a lot less horrific than than what it was
00:54:13and the hope racing the orica hybrid they're they're not saying we're going to give up they're not
00:54:25saying no they're going to continue to try and finish this race and that would be a first for a prototype
00:54:30hybrid when we come back on the other side of the break brian till is with you
00:54:33back at le mans under darkness and we're getting closer and closer we should say being optimistic
00:54:46to going back to racing we understand uh from the aco the automobile club de luis that it will be in the
00:54:52next 10 minutes or so that we will see the green flag displayed and we will go back to racing under this
00:54:59multi uh safety car situation let's bring you up to speed for those of you just turning on to speed's
00:55:0525 hour coverage benoit trellier in the number two audi took the front because he started from pole
00:55:11there was the usual scramble but nothing untoward and unfortunately a guy who has seen the top of
00:55:16the podium here at le mans darren turner did go no further he didn't eventually the car made its way
00:55:21back to the garage they've had alternator problems and massive engine dramas with that car since it debuted
00:55:26earlier in the season and a short day for the aston martin crew david richards the chairman of pro
00:55:32drive and aston martin said fans hang in there with us we know this was embarrassing don't lose faith
00:55:38the signatec nissan had some early tire problems this was the pole sitting car in p2 and early class
00:55:44leading car this was the first scary moment in the race alan mcnish contact with a gt car at close to
00:55:51200 miles an hour oh look at this an explosion of an audi r18 an explosion of carbon fiber and car
00:56:02pieces look at how high that tire went and nobody injured still hard to watch and this is the great
00:56:10news is that alan mcnish is out and we just saw a message from his wife that she is with him and he's
00:56:15in good shape so uh the race moves on and you see steve zakiya jan lammers caspar elgaard the driving trio
00:56:22in the hybrid prototype for hope racing they had some early troubles but we know they're still going
00:56:27this was the luxury racing story that was involved in the alan mcnish incident with dramas to that
00:56:33right rear perhaps that was caused in the collision uh we don't know also early dramas tire problems
00:56:39for the oak racing prototype as well we scoot forward to the fourth hour nick johnson gets a
00:56:45little bit wrong going down into indianapolis and uses scandinavian rally technique to uh keep it off
00:56:51the tire barrier there nice job nick he continues then last year's defending champions in gt the felber
00:56:56meyer porsche it too gets a puncher we wonder where all those rocks come from on the racetrack
00:57:02this was the asm quiffle car the portuguese entry with a display of smoke and speaking of smoke the bmws
00:57:12both the 55 and 56 were running extremely strong early on this is the 55 with early tire trouble
00:57:19after running at the front of the pack simon paginaux at arnaje he said he got distracted by
00:57:24the sun in his eyes and fortunately for him he didn't try to take the corner i've seen guys stuff
00:57:29it in the tires there when they get a little bit offline he takes the escape route no drama lost about
00:57:3410 seconds he continued on his way and the number 70 portia with some drama there there's been isolated
00:57:43incidents just like the 60 the golf amr middle east aston martin and this was on board with the number
00:57:50one audi romaine dumar behind the wheel who has been highly critical of the gt and class and drivers
00:57:58yeah he said uh essentially it was a joke the standard standard of some of the drivers out
00:58:03there here we see the 77 car again having problems the 60 car again another spin
00:58:11in the background this was the 51 af corsa ferrari at one stage a class leading car as well
00:58:18giancarlo fisichella jimmy bruni and tony villander it has got back up that was michael
00:58:24waltert nascar star running off early in his opening stint at indianapolis number eight car
00:58:29the peugeot gets all wrong heading heading into the four chicanes scoots through there and got
00:58:34away with one there i think no damage no foul dominic farnbacher and the handcuffed farnbacher ferrari
00:58:40with rear left trouble and of course some body work damage there as well and then the 62 machine
00:58:46went for a fly this was the crs racing car of pierre eric roger wills and sean lynn sean lynn was behind
00:58:52the wheel and after joey hand the american rookie was leading the class in gt pro they had a misfire
00:58:59they did lost valuable time in the garage there were a couple of laps down but they continue to
00:59:03work hard and this is mike rockenfella before his massive crash getting a little bit wrong on pit entry
00:59:11dramas for one it's the 64 one of the lotus jet alliance avoras and then this brings us to the most
00:59:20talked about point in the race mike rockenfella coming past rock rockman and another audi r18
00:59:28just disintegrates after massive contact with the wall at that kink on the way down to indianapolis
00:59:35corner the most spectacular crash however as we've told you if you've just joined the broadcast and
00:59:42you're alarmed by those uh images as well we were we've heard from audi sport and we know that mike
00:59:49rockenfella got himself out of the car he jumped over the armco barrier to safety all by himself he
00:59:56was taken to the medical center where he communicated with audi sports staff
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