Audi Presents Petit Le Mans - 06/10/2001   The Race Part 9   © Janos Wimpffen Ninth Hour Janos takes over the wheel, will take it to the flag. Hopefully, I won’t end up in Müller’s gravel trap. Keep the foot on the throttle, eyes ahead, knock those damn backmarking pseudo-journalists off the tarmac. The Konrad Saleen is all bottled up, having endured several penalties for improper or no fire extinguisher use during stops. The languishing no. 42 BMW has had damage to its spoiler. Goossens' good slog back to the front has faded when he takes to the grass and then returns slowly to the pits. There’s some work being done on the bodywork plus a flurry of other work on it. Now the Park Place Saleen is beginning a series of chronic pit stops. Herbert brings the Champion Audi in for probably its penultimate stop, still holding onto a distant second place. There’s some minor problem with one of the brake calipers - a fluid leak. At this stage the various podii look like this: Overall and LMP 900: 1) Biela / Pirro, Joest Audi 2) Johansson / Lemarie, Gulf Audi 3) Wallace / Herbert, Champion Audi LMP 675 1) Duno / Graham / Maxwell, Barbour Reynard-Judd 2) Devlin / Workman / Davis, Archangel Lola-Nissan 3) De Radigues / Lambert / Goddard, Barbour Reynard-Judd GTS 1) Pilgrim / Collins / Freon, Corvette 2) Konrad / Borcheller / Slater, Konrad Saleen 3) Hezemans / Kumpen, American Viperracing Dodge Viper GT 1) Said / Stuck / Auberlen, PTG BMW 2) D. Müller / J. Müller, Schnitzer BMW 3) JJ Lehto / Ekblom / Wendlinger, Schnitzer BMW We need to recognize this entry - below. Brabs and Mags hammering round to a top ten finish, after that early collision and long repair. Racers both. The GT leading PTG BMW makes its likely last stop (fuel only). While the no. 43 car is less than a lap down, the gap is about one minute and Auberlen is able to get back out again before losing the spot — but the gap is down to 6+ seconds. However, Dirk M. will need to stop soon. The estimated attendance is 58,000 and counting. Think about, FIA SCC and GARRA, someone has to pay the bills. With 20 laps left for the overall leader the definite final round of stops are upon us. Borcheller is in with the second in GTS Saleen. The stop goes well but the lights won’t come back on when he restarts. A tap on fuse box gets it going, but it also takes a bit of a bump start — officaldom to comment? At any rate, the Saleen is two laps behind the Corvette. Fifteen laps to go and Stefan Johansson comes in for fuel only. It’s a leisurely halt as he is three laps up on the other privateer Audi. The crew is doing a little photo-op cleaning. Meanwhile, Biela is still the fastest driver on the circuit. The race appears to be set, but remember 1999. Lap 383 and Frank Biela is in and out with a quick splash. It is as untroubled as any a Joestian halt. It looks like the race will have 25 finishers. Assuming that, here are some comparisons: 1998, 29 starters, 15 finishers, 52 % finished 1999, 49, 31, 63 % 2000, 39, 24, 62 % 2001, 49, 25, 61 % The final battle: In the one remaining dice for position, Lucas Luhr rests third in GT from JJ Lehto. So the BMW stranglehold on the class podium is broken. This comes with seven laps to go. It is a dominant performance as he begins to stretch the gap by about a second per lap. The no. 42 M3 GTR is perhaps the most beat up of the front runners so the change is not all that startling. In any case, Jörg Müller will clinch the GT drivers’ championship. Bruno Lambert will put the no. 5 Reynard onto the last spot of the LMP 675 podium. This was something of a given already but looks set to be morally the case as well. The no. 11 had had more laps but has been stationary for hours. According to ACO regulations a car must be running at the end to be classified. So the Lola is not eligible. But the Barbour was able to complete more laps in the closing moments. The end of the 2001 ALMS race is nigh, as is the end of the fourth Petit Le Mans, as is the brief existence of Professional Sports Car as an organization. The 24 Hours of Le Mans has been in existence since 1923, the 12 Hours of Sebring since 1952, the principal Daytona event stretched to 24 Hours in 1966. In a mere four editions this has become a true endurance classic. Although this did not have the lightning magic ending of the Corvette over Viper upset in 2000 or the last minute spin of 1999, or the dramatic flip of 1998, there were plenty of developments to remember over the past nine hours and seventeen minutes. Thank you, faithful workforce at Road Atlanta. Great stuff. Ed. Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport