West6MT

Its on tv tomorrow (well,...some of it). Who is going to watch?

Yumcha

I'd watch...but, got the Oil vs. Canes to catch...


And as for the other things I'm doing for the rest of the day: groceries and etc.

But, yeah...I'm missing one of my fave racing events.

h2o-pr00f

What channel is this going to be on? I know my dad will be paying attention, the owner of the company he works for is #25, Mike Newton. Id love to record some of this race for him on the DVR

Chief F1 Fan

Speed channel: 10:30 est to 3; 8pm till 11:30 a.m. tomorrow non stop! I'll watch a bunch on and off. This has always been one of my favorite races of the year.

Sdog2012

Watching it right now, glad i saw this thread! missed it last year

these audi R10 TDIs are very sweet!

West6MT

Im happy speed is showing so much of it. Its like 20 hours of coverage . I have been watching since the start,.........break for shower etc right now.

Its incredible the cars make it to the finish line,........driving for so long, so hard at those speeds. I am always amazed at what those teams pull off.

They were showing replays of 1999 when the Mercedes flew up in the air and went into the trees. That driver is driving this year again (forget his name,....starts with a D,...duckert or something like that???). He was joking about how the trees had grown back.

I cant believe how quiet those Audi R10's are,.......its nuts.

West6MT

Looked it up,.........it was Weber that had gone off during qualifying,........and during the race it was Peter Drumbreck that went into the trees in that spectacular crash. Duckert,.....drumbreck,........I was close lol.

sauceman

Watching it right now. They just changed the gearbox on the R10 #8 in less than 7 minutes. They had 4 laps at hand, and they just rolled out of garage with still 2 laps at hand and a brand spankin new gearbox.

Unbelievable.

Chief F1 Fan

and that is after the FIA said no more changing out the whole rear end w/ limited hook ups like they used to on the the last Audi. They could do it even quicker then.

sauceman

Yup, I remember that. That was really They had replaced the whole rear end in 3 minutes 30 seconds. Unreal.

This time around, after 3 minutes you could see a bunch of gears lying on the floor. BTW, the Speed guys were commenting that the gear box was obviously much stronger for the TDI, but still apparently lighter than the R8 gearbox.

West6MT

Well the race is over,.............and the R10's were 1st and 3rd. I dunno who won the other Prototype class. Aston martin was leading corvette in GT1 by about 4 laps until the clutch went 2.5hrs from the finish, allowing corvette to cruise to victory. A panoz team got the victory for GT2,...........fewest pitstops in the race, which is impressive.

The commentators were talking about the audi vs the pensecolo (or whatever that name is) in terms of the time difference for changing the gearbox (I think that is what it was,....might have been something else) ,......................pensecolo 1.5hrs,............audi 7 min. INSANE time difference to do the same thing,....whatever the heck the work was. I wonder why Audi could do it so much faster,...........how the car is set up I suppose,....and the commentators were talking about Audi's tremendous resources.

Dan Martin

Very impressive for Audi and Panoz. Great race!

West6MT

One interesting rule was how all of the cars had to have their lights on the entire race. The commentators all thought it was a stupid rule, and I tend to agree. They wouldnt let one of the R10's out of the pit lane at one point because one of its lights were out. They quickly replaced the front end cover which contains the light assemblies, but they lots like 3 minutes or so.

West6MT

I just realized sauceman commented on the 7 min gearbox change. So indeed, that is what the commentators were talking about with the big time difference to change one between the two teams.

sauceman

Just shows who's really professionnal and who's still wishing they were. Pescarolo Team year after year present themselves to Le Mans with high hopes. It seems his time around they were in contention, but they need to up their game in the preparation dept. This is exactly what has won Audi the race this year.

Dan Martin

I was also very impressed by the Radical entry. I know they were way back in the pack, but they will only get better with experience. I love their everyday track cars, and it only makes sense that they step up to LMP.

F-C

I watched 5 minutes at the start, 5 minutes at 10pm, and 5 minutes at 11am. I completely missed the finish. There is just no competition and drama at Le Mans anymore. Wake me up when Porsche (or any other manufacturer) returns to Le Mans with a LMP1 car.

West6MT

x1000000000000000000000 I want Porsche there again.

Peugeot is coming back next year . I dunno what class that is though.

F-C

Peugeot's coming back next year? As a full manufacturer team? That would be great. Just add a Penske Porsche LMP1 and we would be set for 2007.


Gorgeous Peugeot 905 Group C car.

Kighter

Yeah. Peugot LM P1 Diesel next year.

And you can be pretty sure someone will come with a Porsche.

The Radical was impressive in it's speed and incredibly unimpressive in it's reliability. But it was running at the end of the race (86 laps down). A factory effort from Radical and another year of development and that might be a winner.

The satellite troubles in prime time Saturday night pissed me off, but otherwise a great weekend. Being Father's Day I didn't even get any sighs from my wife when I told her I wanted to watch 20+ hours of racing.

Edward'TLS

That's the reality with unlimited budget factory teams vs limited budget private entries. Money does wonders in motorsport.

F-C

<-sooo happy coupes are replacing open tops in LMP1

West6MT

The back of it is interesting.

West6MT

Here is a short article from the SPEED website with them showing the new engine.

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/alms/26588/

Blitz

Sweet another victory for Corvette. Did they place 1st and 2nd? I didn't get to watch as much as I'd wanted. Those damn Astons are giving Corvette a run for the money. Seems like they'd be dominant if it weren't for the breaking.

West6MT

The Aston lost because its clutch gave out pretty much. It wasnt a 1, 2 finish for Corvette though. They were pretty equal on the track (corvette and aston), but reliabiliy won for Corvette. I am always torn between the two teams. I like Aston and want them to beat corvette, but at the same time I am a Ron Fellows fan, and enjoy his success. In any event, the cars are both really fast and competitive, which makes for good racing.