The 24 Hours - 17/06/2001   Race Report Part 3   Julian Bailey is dragging the #33 MG back up the order again (after brakes attention), now up to 8th and closing on the #17 Courage. The #79 Noel del Bello Racing Porsche has a spin deep into the gravel at the exit of the Dunlop chicane. Rain around the circuit now becomes a deluge. A full blown thunderstorm drenches most of the circuit. Safety Cars are out. The Gulf Audi has stopped on the Mulsanne in sunshine! Aiello pits but sideswipes the pit equipment of the #3 and #4 Audis. A very slow stop. The SCs are out to bring the race under control whilst everybody heads for the pits for wets. The #62 Saleen has hit trouble, moving very slowly down Mulsanne. Kevin McGarrity has hit something with the #33 MG, which drops back down the order. After 3 hours, we have: LMP900 Tom Kristensen #1 Joest R8 LMGTP Guy Smith #7 Bentley (2nd overall) LMP675 Kevin McGarrirty MG-Lola EX257 (11th overall) GTS Johnny O'Connell #63 Corvette (17th overall) GT Philippe Haezebrouck #77 Freisinger Porsche (23rd overall) Despite the drenching of the track - or perhaps because of it - the positions are largely unchanged since the previous listing. The cars are all behind the SCs, although one group are still trying to catch up with their SC. It's R8, Speed 8, R8, Speed 8, R8 at the front, then Chrysler, Courage, Chrysler, Chrysler, #10 Dome, Cadillac, Cadillac. The Chryslers and Cadillacs are just getting on with it, solidly in the top 12. Then it's three 675s (Barbour, ROC, MG), then the first of the Ascaris (#21). The other Ascari had contact with Clerico in the Courage (the one involved in the carnage after Arnage early on), causing that change of nose, with the wrong number. Three hours 5 minutes and the race goes green again. Conditions are abysmal. Both Panoz pull into the pits, and are pushed into their garages just as the race goes green once more. The #14 Chrysler spins at the Dunlop Chicane (again) in the hands of Ni Amorin (again). Guy Smith is driving very carefully in terrible conditions, so carefully that he is overtaken by a 911 GT3R on the Mulsanne! The #7 Bentley is quickly down to third, demoted by Rinaldo Capello in #2 R8, who is lapping half a minute quicker than Smith. First drama for Cadillac as Max Angelelli appears in the pits on three wheels - no right front. The spinning Amorim therefore gains a place. Angelelli's car is backed into the garage. Casper Elgaard is actually the fastest man on the track, lapping in 4:31, a couple of seconds quicker than Kristensen, who still leads. Nielsen said that Goodyear wets were very good.....McGarrity is also lapping quicker than the leader - the MG #33 is 15th. Harri Toivonen has a big spin exiting the first Mulsanne Chicane in the delayed #20 Ascari. This race changes very quickly. The rain comes down in stair rods after three hours 25 minutes, and the SCs are back out again. Just before they do, the #33 MG gains two places at the expense of Angelelli and Matsuda (a gravelly spin). Mike Youles: "Pretty happy about leading. It was a nightmare for the team managers, but we had to start on slicks even though we knew there was rain coming. There were five cars across the track after Arnage. The guys have done a brilliant job so far." The #6 Cadillac returns after losing approx. 10 minutes looking into that wheel loss. Just as Smith lost a place to Capello, so van de Poele lost out to the best Chrysler, the #15 of Franck Montagny. He is in the queue right behind Johnny Herbert. No news on the Johansson car which stopped on Mulsanne - and now Casper Elgaard stops on Mulsanne with the Den Bla Avis Dome. It gets moving again though. The Johansson team don't know what has happened to their R8, but it is definitely out of the race - as the SCs pull off at hours 45 minutes. The #63 class-leading Corvette pits as the race goes green, with light rain falling. Scott Pruett goes out to sample the Corvette in the rain. Rinaldo Capello is effectively the time it takes for the SC to pass behind the leader, Tom Kristensen - just over two minutes. Both Capello and Kristensen have got clear track ahead of them. Kristensen sets a 4:44 on his first flying lap. Capello sets a 4:30. van de Poele's first flying lap is a 5:15, Smith in #7 sets a 5:37 - over a minute slower than the silver R8s. The Bentley looks to be steaming up nicely inside, a real handful in these conditions. van de Poele pits, but this Bentley is already behind Montagny and Boullion in the best-placed Chrysler and Courage respectively. Long stop for vdP. John Wickam, Bentley TM, explains that "visibility is an issue. It's not misting, but clearing the screen is a problem. Both radios have stopped working - I think we have water in them. Eric's last stop was a surprsie; it didn't look very professional." #14 Chrysler has another spin, this one at Indianapolis (Ni Amorim). Ben Collins is in Ascari #20, and he, Marc Goossens in the best placed Cadillac and Boullion in the sixth placed Courage are all lapping faster than the two silver R8s. Montagny joins the Chrysler spinners with a backwards off at the Dunlop Chicane, so Boullion may get ahead of the Chrysler and take fourth - because the two Bentleys have dropped to sixth and seventh. Rain, rain and more rain. GTS is Corvette, Corvette and RML Saleen, just after four hours into the race. Terry Borcheller is four laps back in the surviving Konrad Saleen, as the Toni Seiler car didn't cover another lap after that pile up very early on. It looks like RML will have to uphold Saleen honours, at least for now. The GTS race was ripped apart by the accident damage to one Saleen, the fancied Larbre Viper and the almost as well fancied FFSA Viper. The ROC Reynard is leading the 675 class, by a minute or so from the #33 MG. Warren Hughes has a big spin in the other MG, this one is well down in 43rd place. More and more spinners - RML Saleen, #71 Racing Engineering Porsche. It is horrendous out there. GT is led by #83 Seikel, from #77 Freisinger, '74 Luc Alphand, the Callaway, #75 Perspective, #80 Larbre and #76 PK. Only a lap or so covers this group - and the whole of the GT class is still going. Conditions remain revolting..... Official website of the Le Mans 24 Hours Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport