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Audi Presents Petit Le Mans

06/10/2001

Day Two

Into The Night

© Janos Wimpffen

The two-hour evening practice was stopped just short of the halfway mark when JJ Lehto had a big off on the fastest part of the circuit with the no. 42 BMW, being cut off by the no. 19 Viper. The Finn is fine, but the Finn’s fancy may be finished. We’ll soon evaluate matters.

Until then, Andy Wallace had been fastest in the Champion Audi, with the two Joest cars creeping ever quicker after a start featuring several stops to deal with what looked like electrical considerations. Another making progress is the Dyson Riley & Scott. Ron Fellows has placed the no. 3 Corvette back into the lead, one of the few times that the Chevy has topped the charts all weekend. The big surprise thus far in the night has been the fine progress of Jeroen Bleekemolen in the no. 45 Viper. It is third in GT, ahead of the Saleens, and only behind the Corvettes. The problems in the official BMW camp have left Hans Stuck quickest in GT with the no. 6 PTG entry.

Misc. team notes:

After his brake check this morning, Klaus Graf has a sore shoulder and neck, but the resilient German isn’t complaining. The Panoz team has the benefit of being located at this very track and they are repairing the car back at their shops. It may still make it out in time this evening. The same is not true with their sister car. A chassis fault has been found and Magnussen / Brabham will miss the session after having posted quickest time this afternoon.

The Spencer Lola-Mazda is not here because the ACO has deigned that they will no longer approve new cars trackside but at an appropriate pre-event opportunity.

The no. 22 Porsche is missing night practice because of a precautionary engine swap.

The ROC team is proudly wearing Volkswagen France emblems again. At Le Mans they used the engine builder Lehman as the official motor name. That was mostly to prevent a complete overdose of Audi-Bentley-Volkswagen corporate group identification.

Shane Lewis is feeling much better. Rods in his leg and ample therapy have quite literally put him back on his feet. The Callaway similarly has legs again after struggling in the morning with a very jumpy set of shocks. The current iteration of the car has a vastly different transaxle setup than at Le Mans. Lewis freely admits that their Le Mans pole spot was somewhat of a fluke given that the 2001 GT entry was not on a par with that of the previous year. Their realistic assessment of Petit Le Mans is a shot at the top non-BMW spot.

Night Practice, 2nd hour

Klaus Graf is on a tear, making up for the lost first hour. The no. 51 Panoz is up to sixth fastest. Ahead of him are the Johansson Audi (Lemarie aboard), Angelelli in the still surprisingly quick Cadillac, Kristensen and Pirro’s works Audi, and Wallace still quickest of all. A gap of 1.3 seconds covers the top 6 LMP 900s—great!

The ROC Reynard-Volkswagen continues to show promise with Jordi Gene now second quickest in LMP 675. Only Bruno Lambert is faster with the Reynard-Judd. The top three in LMP 675 are spread by 1.2 seconds—not bad.

The GTS order is 3 (Corvette), 26 (Saleen), 4 (Corvette), 45 (Viper), and 88 (Ferrari). The gap down to the 550 Maranello is a mere 1.7 seconds—excellent!

Oddly enough, the usually very competitive GT class has been the most pedestrian of the night. Bill Auberlen’s BMW is the quickest, a good half second ahead of the no. 43 car of Dirk Müller. Then comes the crashed M3 of JJ Lehto. Quickest of the Porsches is that of Sascha Maassen (no. 23).

Big drama came towards the end of the session. First the Dyson Riley & Scott-Lincoln moved into the top 4 (not sure if it’s Mr. Leitzinger or Weaver). Then Emmanuele Pirro usurped the top spot overall by some 0.015 seconds from Wallace. GTS also ran down well with Oliver Gavin taking second spot in the class.

Very few cars were running near the end. If past years are a guide, the 10 hour or 1000 mile race will likely not run this late into the darkness. Therefore, many teams have opted to an early bedtime.

The no. 47 Broadfoot car has withdrawn after suffering a tad too much damage in an excursion this afternoon.

This is definitely a not-for-tiddlers event. There are several drivers here who may be able to feature in lesser sports car series, but not ALMS.

Joe Ellis is having a talking to from the officials. He was responsible for JJ Lehto's off and also had a run-in with Frank Biela. The Field Lola also has been the subject of questionable antics with several lurid spins.

It's a late nighter in the BMW camp. The no. 42 car is being stripped bare after which a decision will be made about reconstruction. They expect to miss morning practice. The PTG cars are having their differentials and gearboxes changed--fairly routine work for the front-motor cars.