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Audi Presents Petit Le Mans

06/10/2001

Odds And

Ends

Jeff Bucknum, Team Bucknum – Pilbeam LMP675

“We were hit from behind by a Porsche. I haven’t seen the replay so I don’t know who it was. It doesn’t really matter anyway. Brian Willman was coming out of the back straightaway and as he was coming up the hill there was a slower car in front of him so he slowed up and the Porsche behind him....well, it was kind of a chain reaction.

"That would not have been so bad but the car spun him around and backed him into the wall. The wall is what really bent the car. It is all repairable but it actually got a little bit into the chassis itself so we didn’t want to take a chance on fixing it and sending him back out. We are going to stress test it when we get back home.

"We are running the Grand Am finale to get some more seat time so it will be ready by then.

"It was disappointing because we had a game plan, which was basically to just do a certain reliable lap time. The guys were running like clockwork. We went from last place, because we got out of the pits late on the parade lap, so they made us start from the back of the pack, and moved to second in class at the three hour mark. And that is when we were hit.

"Everything was going perfect, perfect."

Marc Duez – Prodrive Ferrari 550

“We had a vibration from the diffuser and it caused an oil leak so we stopped to protect the engine. We showed that we have a competitive car and when you have a new car it is normal to have problems like this.”

Brian Cunningham – PTG BMW

“The driveshaft failed and it spun the car in the tunnel and it sheared the oil line. Oil was spewed all over the exhaust and the gearbox and it just ignited. When I went to use the fire extinguisher, the pin was tie-wrapped. It wasn’t that I couldn’t find the pin or pull the pin out, it was tie wrapped. The flames were so big in the car – they were coming up through the gear tunnel - I couldn’t find the inboard fire bottle so I ran out to find someone with an extinguisher. I didn’t bring my Swiss army knife so I had to wait for him to get the tie off.

“The fire was going to end our night anyway. Even if I did get it off it would not have made a difference."

Tom Weickardt – AVR

“The cars are running really well. We got them pretty well hooked up and with a little luck in the beginning we would be pretty well off. The 45 car blew a tire in turn one and the tire took the door off and that cost us pretty much a chance for first place.

“We had a lightweight differential in the 44 car and that cost us two hours. That put us out of the running obviously but we are back and the car is running well and I’m real happy with the effort the team is putting in. This is by far our best event. Hell, last year, I didn’t even know where Georgia was!”