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Audi Presents Petit Le Mans

06/10/2001

The Race

Part 6

© Tom Kjos

The Petit Le Mans is now just a bit more than half completed. With nine full course caution periods this race may well run the full ten hours for the first time. At halfway the distance covered by the Biela / Pirro Audi Sport North America R8 was 515 miles. Less cautions would seem likely, but the pace will slow as it becomes darker.

The Joest Audi continues to lead twenty minutes into the second half of the race by a scant seven seconds over the Johansson / Lemarie Audi with Stefan Johansson currently in the car.

In third is the Champion Racing Audi of Herbert / Wallace, with Johnny Herbert driving. Also on the lead lap, they trail the Audi Sport R8 driven by Frank Biela by only 25 seconds. In the midst of a 10 hour or 1000 mile race that qualifies as a dead heat.

The Cadillac in the hands of Wayne Taylor continues to hold on to fourth in LMP900 and overall, but now is three laps back of the first three cars. Still not an impossible distance in this race.

Johnny Herbert seems to be, momentarily, closing the gap on Stefan Johansson, taking off a second on the last lap. In fact, that is somewhat less important than the fact that Frank Biela is then pulling away from both of them, the gap now being 14 and 28 seconds, respectively.

JJ Lehto is back in the #42 BMW GTR at 5:23, replacing Karl Wendlinger. Lehto still trails the leading GTR, #43 that includes his usual partner and rival for the driver championship, by nearly two laps. Between them is the #6 PTG GTR of Bill Auberlen.

Yellow flag at 5:32 for the #34 Orbit Racing Porsche stopped on course with a drive line failure. The Johansson Audi gets into the pits before they close, but Biela gets around before Johansson can get out, so puts the Gulf Audi down a lap. Johansson has gotten out early in the yellow, and the Joest Audi now leaves the pits near the end of the yellow, remains in the lead, but has given up the lap gained earlier in the pits. On the first full race lap, the lead is shown as 55 seconds over Johansson, who has a clear track ahead. Champion Racing's Audi did not pit, and has pulled within seventeen seconds of the leading Joest car, into second place.

Andy Pilgrim continues to lead Terry Borcheller's Saleen S7R by just over a minute, like the big prototypes a margin that could easily disappear in pit strategies, or may be false even now when we don't know how many stops each might require. Third place in GTS continues to be the Viper GTS-R of American Viperacing currently driven by Anthony Kumpen. Even though they have had their share of troubles, including a lost door (for which Brookspeed was kind enough to loan them a replacement), they are just seven laps back of the class-leading Corvette.

Jörg Müller now has a three-lap cushion over JJ Lehto in their race for the season GT championship, with Boris Said between them (and on the same lap as Müller). Much can happen to reverse that order, including a trip into the Jörg Müller Commemorative Sand Trap at turn ten.

In LMP675 Barbour Racing's #57 Reynard Judd, now driven by John Graham is well in control with thirteen laps in hand over the Ben Devlin-driven #21 Archangel Motorsport small prototype.

It is now near six pm, the sun is breaking through the overcast for one of the few times today, and we have races in all but one class. Even there, in LMP675, we could easily have a different winner than the current leader. There is no way to tell who might come out on top in any of the other three classes. Four hours (approximately) to go.