Audi Presents Petit Le Mans - 06/10/2001   The Race Part 1   © Janos Wimpffen Pre-Race Big thrash in the Park Place pits as the sub-frame is being re-welded. Jeroen Bleekemolen will not drive in the no. 45 Viper. He is off in Europe on Renault Clio racing duties. Derek Higgins is out and Sam Hancock is in with the no. 15 Barbour Porsche. Mike Fitzgerald has replaced team owner Michael Petersen in the no. 30 Porsche. The Bucknum Pilbeam (carrying a TMS sticker) is doing work on the front right corner. The Riley & Scott has a power steering fluid leak. Scooter Gabel (spelling correct here, wrong on the car, TMS sticker spelled correctly) also starts from the pits, missed marshalling time. Start The fourth Petit Le Mans starts under dry, overcast, and slightly threatening skies. Jon Field’s ever aggressive race ends a few meters past the start line when he collides with his rowmate and goes backwards into the outside wall. Extensive damage to rear end plus a very slight fire while the temperature in Field’s neck is quite high. A quick full-course caution is needed to remove the car, following by the true start of the race. Kristensen jumps into a substantial lead immediately while Johansson gets black-flagged for passing a couple of cars before the green. A second full-course caution comes a few minutes later when Gunnar Jeannette deranges the front end of the Porsche and is stranded at Turn 7. This will delay Johansson’s call at the penalty box. At 30 Minutes Gunnar staggers back to the pits. It looks repairable. Kristensen retains his lead on the restart while Johansson makes his pit call and drops well back. Brabham makes a dramatic pass coming out of Turn 12 of Pirro for second place. Borcheller has passed Pilgrim for the GTS lead. JJ Lehto and Dirk Müller are in a strong 1-2 in GT. Mowlem doing well, leading the Porsche 'sub-class'. Jordi Gene is chasing Didier de Radigues for LMP 675, but gets caught between a mix of slow traffic and faster 900s. Ron Fellows has had a small electrical fire inside the Corvette and has stopped on course. Bingham (05) team expects to get out in another half-hour---bad break. Klaus Graf coasts into the pits — very slowly — engine misfire. One of the Cadillacs has a lurid spin on the wet grass. 30 minute rundown 1 50 2 38 51 [later dropped down] 7 8 5 16 39 18 57 25 11 4 88 45 42 43 6 21 10 26 23 30 22 44 12 52 69 33 31 32 29 15 19 34 75 [behind wall] 3 37 Didier de Radigues makes an early stop and the Brookspeed Viper spins at Turn 7. Graf comes pack into the pits a lap later. Big news as Fellows has been disqualified for assistance out on the circuit. Big news at 45 minutes as Tom Kristensen crashes the no. 1 Audi, a tire appears to have gone down. Full-course yellow again as Brabham leads over Pirro. Normal pit stops are due. The no. 5 Reynard has an engine problem and Gene leads LMP 675. The erstwhile leading Panoz has a long stop and loses the spot to Pirro, but oddly enough Gene stays out while all the 900s make pit calls and thus assumes the overall lead for a lap. Confusion in the Konrad pits as Borcheller steps out for Slater but is ordered back in. The no. 4 Corvette takes over the GTS lead. The Prodrive Ferrari has made two successive stops. It looks like a gearbox problem (plus splitter). Kox was also held in the pits for 20 seconds for having too many people over the wall. The other Ferrari, the MSB 360 stopped out on the course. The Goossens Cadillac (no. 7) has a small fuel fire. The car was sent out without refueling and will come back again. The 05 car finally starts. Given all the attrition, they may yet do well. The green flag falls at almost exactly the one-hour mark. The Archangel and Huertgen Lolas were first in the queue but Pirro rapidly cuts past. Herbert is balked but gets back on pace. Ellis once more spins the white Brookspeed Viper and nearly collects the recovering Ferrari 550 while he re-enters the track. To 90 Minutes The Prodrive 550 returns to the pits once more. Gary Horrocks delivers a piece of the crashed Audi to the press room. The no. 45 Viper comes in with a left rear puncture and some body damage. Thanks to the DQ of no. 3, Borcheller will soon clinch the GTS title. Herbert gets ahead of Brabham while Pirro is slightly ahead. Great dice for second as Brabham gets around the Champion car and heads after the Audi. Brabham is chasing Pirro quite nicely and comes up on the always errant Brookspeed Viper. Ellis doesn’t look in his mirror and there is heavy contact. The Viper heads into the wall and the driver climbs out. The Panoz has extensive suspension and body damage and crawls back to pit row. Yellow flags again around the course. The Australian driver heads to the paddock and nearly collides with the no. 3 Corvette, which despite being disqualified, has gone back to pit row. Big Detroit vs. Atlanta argument. The Audi crash was not from tire failure. The engineers are working on it. Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport