Audi Presents Petit Le Mans - 06/10/2001   The Race Part 7   Seventh Hour © Janos Wimpffen The tight race continues to be in GTS. Borcheller is now within 38 seconds of Pilgrim’s progress in the Corvette. The inter-BMW battle is bit spread out with J. Müller well ahead of Boris Said’s semi-works M3 GTR. The GT contest has lost another interesting runner with Cort Wagner losing a wheel on the Callaway. We have yet another caution period and this again artificially bunches inter-Audi battle at the top. The Gulf Audi is now well down thanks to its well out-of-sync stops, or more correctly, stopping under green rather than during the frequent yellows. A team that has benefited from the pattern of cautions is the AJR team. The no. 23 car had earlier stopped under green, but only taken on tires, and not fuel. Now under yellow they have taken on fuel. That little bit of time-saving strategy has placed them ahead of the no. 30 car and thus first among Porsches. The Orbit Porsche (no. 34) that stopped earlier had a half shaft failure. The Sebah 996 has been delayed by a puncture. The no. 75 Porsche takes to the grass after a slight tap from the Panoz. Discounting the two long-delayed LMP 900s (no. 7 Cadillac and no. 50 Panoz) there are only four competitive cars left in the top class; the Audis no. 2, no. 38, and no. 18, plus the no. 8 Cadillac. Barring misfortune, the no. 57 Reynard remains unassailable. As noted, GTS remains the race of the day. Third in that class, but six laps down after the door drama is Kumpen in the Ameriviper. By sheer perseverance, the Park Place Saleen is fifth in class. Hey, the drivers had a chance to relax that first hour—no sooner is that written than Ron Johnson goes backward through Turn 10. There appears to be no damage apart from flat-spotted tires. Pirro spreads the gap a little thanks to some intervening traffic. Wallace is now some 16 seconds down. Lemarie remains a lap aback. Here is a rundown and commentary on class positions LMP 900 2, Joest Audi, metronomic, so what else is new? 38, Champion Audi, could this finally be the day? Beating the better fuel economy direct injection Joest cars at their own game in endurance racing? 18, Gulf Audi, mostly touches of bad luck, or as one of those parables, bad luck happens to those who don’t plan well. 8, Cadillac, A surprisingly reliable and gentlemanly ride. 7, Cadillac, a tad above walking wounded. 50, Panoz, disappointing show by a favorite. GTS 4, Corvette, The B Team comes through. 26, Konrad Saleen, This is what Le Mans could have been like without the rain. 45, Americanviper Dodge, Hezemans and Kumpen, carbon brakes, Michelins (rather than Dunlops), a better front end, and a professional crew have all helped. 05, Park Place Saleen, What should have been a DNS, could still be a DNF, but will likely be a valiant finish. 44, Americanviper Viper, long delay for a differential. LMP 675 57, Barbour Reynard; Plan B is paying off. 21, Archangel Lola, good show for being maybe 'over their heads'. GT 43, Schnitzer BMW, The old BMW train is a bit unhitched. 6, PTG BMW, Unexciting until now, for now Boris Said begins the chase. 42, Schnitzer BMW, Steering has been a bit deranged since its scuffle with Willingham. 23, Job Porsche, Good recovery from some delays. 30, Petersen Porsche, Good show by a good mix of drivers; never can decide if this a semi-works car, a semi-private car, a works-blessed car, a pleasant agreement car, well you get the idea. 22, Job Porsche, a bit of the poor cousin of the leading Porsches. 52, Seikel Porsche, pretty much a standard result for these busy stalwarts. 69, Kyser Porsche, ditto. 32, Orbit Porsche, better than ditto. 29, Sebah Porsche, less than ditto. 75, Gunnar Porsche, endless array of problems. Big Drama just into the 8th hour. First the no. 26 Konrad Saleen slows dramatically. It appears that there is a gear linkage problem. It is stuck in third and Borcheller has gone back out, some six laps down to the Corvette—the fine GTS battle seemingly over. Then Andy Wallace does a fantastic job as the left rear wheel loosens but stays on. Correction: it did come off. Ed's mistake. He keeps the Audi from any contact and brings it back for a seemingly routine wheel change! This drops him to third place. Lemarie is now in second place, two laps behind Pirro. A little earlier Doc Lowman in the no. 32 Porsche came to a dead stop in the middle of the course and produced a number of barbecue quality flame-outs through the exhaust. He finally got the GT3RS going again and calmly cruised along past the pits as if nothing happened. It is now well into dusk and lights are on. It is cool, windy, and partly clear. Hour Seven Standings 1 #2 291 laps LMP 900, 1 Joest Audi 2 #38 -50.5 sec LMP 900, 2 Champion Audi 3 #18 290 LMP 900, 3 Gulf Audi 4 #8 286 LMP 900, 4 Cadillac 5 #4 270 GTS, 1 Corvette 6 #57 269 LMP 675, 1 Barbour Reynard-Judd 7 #7 268 LMP 900, 5 Cadillac 8 #26 267 GTS, 2 Konrad Saleen 9 #43 267 GT, 1 Schnitzer BMW 10 #6 267, -15 sec GT, 2 PTG BMW 11 #42 264 GT, 3 Schnitzer BMW 12 #23 264, -56 sec GT, 4 Job Porsche 13 #30 263 GT, 5 Petersen Porsche 14 #22 263, -30 sec GT, 6 Job Porsche 15 #45 261 GTS, 3 American Viper 16 #50 257 LMP 900, 6 Panoz 17 #21 256 LMP 675, 2 Archangel Lola-Nissan 18 #52 254 GT, 7 Seikel Porsche 19 #69 248 GT, 8 Kyser Porsche 20 #32 243 GT, 9 Orbit Porsche 21 #29 242 GT, 10 Sebah Porsche 22 #05 229 GTS, 4 Park Place Saleen 23 #12 221, NR GT Callaway 24 #11 209, NR LMP 675 KnightHawk Lola-Nissan 25 #34 183, NR GT Orbit Porsche 26 #75 173 GT Gunnar Porsche 27 #25 152, NR GTS Konrad Saleen 28 #15 137, NR GT Barbour Porsche 29 #10 136, NR GT PTG BMW 30 #44 133, running GTS American Viper 31 #5 122, running, sort of LMP 675 Barbour Reynard-Judd 32 #31 108, NR LMP 675 Bucknum Pilbeam-Nissan 33 #88 103, NR GTS Prodrive Ferrari 34 #16 94, NR LMP 900 Dyson Riley & Scott-Lincoln 35 #39 60, NR LMP 675 ROC Reynard-VW 36 #19 35, NR GTS Brookspeed Viper 37 #1 26, NR LMP 900 Joest Audi 38 #33 26, NR GT MSB Ferrari 39 #51 23, NR LMP 900 Panoz 40 #3 2, NR GTS Corvette 41 #37 0, Gary Horrocks wins the prize on guessing the first DNF—but it was about 10 feet past being a DNS. What an argument that would have been. LMP 900, Intersport Lola-Judd Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport