1967 Can Am at Riverside

The finale of the 1967 Can Am championship, held at Riverside International Raceway in Riverside, California.

1967 Can Am at Road America

From the archives, in case fans have not seen these cars.  Here is the great, Can Am championship, at Road America, in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, in 1967.  This race, was 200 miles long.  Only 50 laps, around the 4 mile layout.  So, not really an enduro.  But, still fantastic.  The video is the equivalent of a race report from yours truly for one of the modern races.  Check out the legendary drivers such as Denis Hulme, Bruce McLaren, Dan Gurney, George Follmer, Mark Donohue, John Surtees, Jim Hall, Mario Andretti, Brett Lunger, Skip Scott, Sam Posey, Peter Revson, and Chuck Parsons.  33 cars started the race.

Porsche testing

Porsche has begun testing it's all new 2017 911 GTE car for the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Porsche Testing 2017-Spec 911 GTE Car at Monza
http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/porsche-testing-2017-spec-911-gte-turbo-at-monza/

...and

VIDEO: 2017 Porsche 911 GTE Car Testing
http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/video-2017-porsche-911-gte-car-testing/

Dumas Wins Pikes Peak Hillclimb

After winning at Le Mans, Romain Dumas also claimed his second win overall in the legendary Pikes Peak Hill Climb, driving a Norma prototype limited spec race car, to the summit of the mountain.

http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/dumas-wins-pikes-peak-hill-climb/

IMSA: Chaves to suit up for Six Hours of the Glen

Gabby Chaves, will run in a three driver squad, for the DeltaWing team, at the upcoming third round of the North American Endurance Cup for the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship, the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen, this weekend.  He will join Katherine Legge, and Sean Rayhall to share the driving chores.

http://www.racer.com/imsa/item/131356-imsa-chaves-to-suit-up-for-six-hours-of-the-glen

Le Mans, 1982

A short film, on the first Le Mans win for the now legendary Porsche 956, in 1982.

http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/Le_Mans-1982-06-20.html

Pirelli World Challenge updates

Stay tuned, for updates, on the Pirelli World Challenge, in addition, to IMSA updates, as well.  There have been some races, as of late, yours truly, still needs to catch up with insofar as the stories and results.  Will do that, and have the latest updates from IMSA at Detroit and a couple of the Pirelli World Challenge events, in due time.

IMSA race updates

Yours truly, has been very busy as of late.  Have not been able to catch up on a couple of the past IMSA WeatherTech races that were run before Le Mans.  But, stay tuned, for those race reports.  I assure you, fans, they will be posted, soon.

42 Entries for 6H Watkins Glen

Still playing catch up, for the races in the WeatherTech Championship.  Have to find time to blog Laguna Seca and Detroit.  But, in the meantime, 42 cars are entered for the upcoming 6 Hours of Watkins Glen, the third round of the North American Endurance Cup, to be run, next Sunday.

http://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/42-entries-for-6h-watkins-glen/

Toyota Failure Explained

Finally, an explanation, on what failed on the #5 Toyota, denying the team, their first overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, last weekend.

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2016/06/23/toyota-failure-explained.html

Ferrari's Old Flat-12 Le Mans Prototype Is The Angriest Sounding Car Imaginable

The Ferrari 312PB is one of the greatest endurance sports cars ever built, and the last factory Ferrari sports car.  It was raced between 1971 and 1973.  Then, Ferrari went exclusively, to racing with it's factory efforts, in Formula 1.

http://blackflag.jalopnik.com/ferraris-old-flat-12-le-mans-prototype-is-the-angriest-1781984234?utm_campaign=socialflow_jalopnik_facebook&utm_source=jalopnik_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

2016 Le Mans Data Analysis

More about Le Mans.  But, let us shift gears, from human drama played out in the race, to the numbers side of things, and the overall study of the data of the race itself.  The analysis comes from nasportscar.com's Ben Wedge.

http://nasportscar.com/2016-le-mans-data-analysis/

Political Decisions at Le Mans Could Lead To Sports Car Explosion

After the controversy surrounding the finish of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the politics of sports car racing, on a global scale, could be turned on it's ear.  Rick Dole, writing for Automobile magazine, explains.

http://www.automobilemag.com/news/political-decisions-le-mans-lead-sports-car-explosion/?sm_id=social_aumomotortrendhub_MotorTrend_20160620_62965726&adbid=10153411139480904&adbpl=fb&adbpr=20553875903

24LM: Porsche Defines Sportsmanship With Simple Post Le Mans Tweet

Porsche delivers a Twitter message, to their rivals, from Toyota, that defines what the sport of auto racing is all about.  Check this out.

http://racechaseronline.com/2016/06/24lm-porsche-defines-sportsmanship-simple-post-le-mans-tweet/

Toyota reflects on heartbreak of losing Le Mans 24 Hours on final lap

Toyota, was so close... so close...  What a bitter defeat.

http://www.foxsports.com/motor/story/le-mans-24-hours-toyota-loss-reaction-061916

Protest And Counter Protest In Messy GTE Spat

In my humble opinion (and no, I don't opine on the races, too often), Ford won LM GTE Pro at Le Mans, fair and square.  But, there are still protests going on.  The Ford/Ferrari rivalry, that first took hold in the 1960s, is still here, 50 years later.

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2016/06/19/protest-and-counter-protest-in-messy-gte-spat.html

Toyota Win The 23 Hours, 59 Minutes of Le Mans

An unforgettable race, but, why did Toyota end up losing, after having the race, in the bag?  It's a two word answer.  Turbo failure.  Graham Goodwin of dailysportscar.com, explains.

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2016/06/19/toyota-win-the-23-hours-59-minutes-of-le-mans.html

Le Mans: Wrap Up

Let's wrap up our look at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with stories from after the checkers fell.

Signatech-Alpine Delivers LMP2 Victory
http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/signatech-alpine-deliver-lmp2-victory-at-24h-le-mans/

Ford Takes Historic GTE-Pro Win at Le Mans
http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/ford-takes-historic-gte-pro-win-at-le-mans/

Revisiting, the heartbreak of the race.  Joy for Porsche... utter disbelief, for Toyota.

Porsche Steals 24 Hours of Le Mans Victory as Toyota Fails at Finish
http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/porsche-steals-24h-le-mans-victory-as-toyota-fails/

***

Multiple Protests In Wake of GTE-Pro Finish at Le Mans
http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/multiple-protests-in-wake-of-gte-pro-finish-at-le-mans/

Again, Toyota, has to be absolutely gutted.  They had the race, in the bag.

Toyota Heartbroken After Last Lap Misfortune
http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/toyota-heartbroken-after-last-lap-misfortune/

GTE-Pro Race-Winning Ford GT Penalized Post-Race
http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/gte-pro-race-winning-ford-gt-penalized-post-race/

VIDEO: Le Mans Race Highlights

Race highlights video, from Le Mans.

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hours 23 & 24 (the finish)

We are within the final hour here at Le Mans.  With the battery technology, you don't want to use all the capacity of the Motor Generator Unit.  But, the car is still harvesting the energy.  The batteries can discharge too quickly, and they lose power, after a long period time, losing performance.  It's very similar to your electronic devices like iPhones and computers.  If the batteries get too hot, they'll wear down.  It is Lena Gade's final race at Audi, and Brad Kettler is healing from illness.  Kettler has been with Audi Sport Customer Racing at Le Mans for 18 years, and sadly, had to miss this year.  But, he'll be back.

Based on time, we might have 15 laps left in this race, before the checkers fall.  The #62 Ferrari just pitted and we have just 47 minutes remaining now.  Toyota has had a horse for this race. We're not done yet.  Toyota has guarded optimism that they'll win this thing.  The #49 Mike Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda, is off the road.  Laurens Vanthoor was drafted in from GT racing.  Vanthoor won the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring.  The track was covered in hail during a red flag, and Mercedes finished 1-2.  This was the race that was done on both sides of the Nordschleife.  You saw highlights from the Nurburgring, of course, fans.

Ford GT #66 ran fastest lap at 3:51.5 with Billy Johnson at the controls.  Dirk Mueller still leads LM GTE Pro.  You win 24 hour races by spending the least amount of time in pit lane, not by being the fastest driver.  These LMP1 Hybrids are 1,000 horsepower beasts between the internal combustion engine and the hybrid system.  Neel Jani is pitting the Porsche 919 for the final time.  Kazuki Nakajima has held Jani off and Jani has made no inroads on Toyota's lead.  Toyota will do a splash and dash near the end of this race.  Ford and Toyota have families who have been in this business.  Frederic Sausset will finish the race.

You have to be invited to compete at Le Mans.  You can't just sing an entry and someone stamps it and says, "you're in".  Toyota pits.  Splash and dash, done and dusted, as the car goes away on electric power.  Toyota, is on it's way, to a Le Mans win.  35 minutes to go.  Less than that now.  It's been a race for the record books, including a safety car start for the first time in history, as well as a recorc 60 car field.  David Heinemier Hansson just dropped a place in class.  Ganassi on one pit stop, could not kill the motor in the pits, like the rules state, but they were not penalized completely and should win LM GTE Pro.

Corvette did not have the race they wanted this year.  They'll rebound in the future.  Algarve Pro Racing makes their final pit stop.  Lena Gade, will move to Bentley, who may race in the U.S. in a few years.  Nicolas Lapierre will take the Alpine to the flag.  25 minutes remain now as we keep counting down.  The #82 Risi Competizione Ferrari has a mechanical black flag, or a meatball.  The leader lights are not working.  The #6 Toyota makes it's final pit stop.  We have just over 20 minutes to go.  Toyota will be the first Japanese brand to win Le Mans since 1991 when Mazda did it.  Anthony Davidson, has been with this team all along.  He broke his back in a savage wreck here at Le Mans in the 24 Hours, a few years ago.

Hughes de Chaunac will have winners in LMP1 and in LMP2 with the Alpine, as it is a re-branded Oreca.  French, Japanese, and American flags, will be waving.  With 17 minutes to go, there is supposed to be a penalty to serve on these leader lights.  That would be insane.  They have one side illuminated.  One side is not.  Stay with us, for the end, which is about 15 minutes away.  24 Hours has now become 12 minutes.  Toyota and Ford squeeze each other.  Oh dear!  Porsche #2 makes it's final stop.  Porsche will salvage some pride and finish second, trying to defend their overall victory of a year ago.

Stop/go penalty for the #82 Risi Ferrari.  Dirk Mueller will finally win Le Mans.  But, oh no!  There's a problem with the Toyota!  He's got power issues.  Bring it home, sunshine.  Bring it home!  Neel Jani is coming.  This is heartbreaking for Toyota, if he's lost power, and he has!  Oh dear! It's all over for Toyota!  Porsche, now will win their second straight Le Mans!  Unbelievable!  This is heartbreak for Toyota, and Porsche, will win, again, but it won't even begin to tell the story of this race!  This is baffling!

This is the last lap.  Porsche are sudden victors, for the 19th time, at Le Mans!  But, spare feeling for the Toyota team.  Marc Lieb, Neel Jani, and Romain Dumas, win Le Mans!  Alpine and Signatech win LMP2 with Gustavo Menezes, Stephane Richelmi, and Nico Lapierre.  Sebastien Bourdais, Joey Hand, and Dirk Mueller, win for Ford in LM GTE Pro.  Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell, and Jeff Segal win LM GTE Am.

Overall/LMP1: #2 Jani/Dumas/Lieb    Porsche 919 Hybrid

             LMP2: #36 Lapierre/Menezes/Richelmi  Alpine A450 Nissan

             LM GTE Pro: #68 Bourdais/Hand/Mueller   Ford GT
            
             LM GTE Am: #83 Sweedler/Bell/Segal        Ferrari 488 GTE

384 laps, 3,252 miles.  Holy cow!  You cannot predict it.  This race, chooses you.  For the second year in a row, it chooses, Porsche and their 919 Hybrid.  Toyota deserved to win.  Gut wrenching for Toyota, joyous for Porsche.  The next race, is in Germany at The Nurburgring, in July.  But, we'll have to digest this race for a good few weeks.  Unbelievable.  Now, it's time to say goodbye.  We'll see you next year.

It began in the rain, racing through the long afternoon racing through the setting sun.  Night, flying in the darkness.  Dawn, a battle between Audi, Porsche, and Toyota.  Intensity, pass after pass.  Ford dominating GT.  It'll be a race known for ferocity and the headlines of the winners.  Au revoir, everyone.
 

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 22

This race is not over by a long shot.  Time backwards from the end of the race.  Audi has had 13 overall wins.  Toyota, looks like they'll make history, becoming only the second Japanese brand to win Le Mans.  But... we'll see.  Romain Rusinov has gotten around Stephane Richelmi in LMP2.  There are lots of what ifs,  Toyota #6 is in pit lane.  Hughes de Chaunac from Oreca, helps Toyota, logistically.  Ford and Ferrari have both executed.  Three of the four Ford's have been bulletproof except for the #67 car which had transmission gremlins right from the start.  The Ford seems to have a slight edge again, over the Ferrari.  Tire compounds suit the two cars differently, depending on the weather, as has been explained throughout this race.

Scott Dixon is at the keyboard of the #69 Ford GT, and he is on debut at Le Mans, who is platinum rated.  He didn't have to do the test day before the race, due to that status.  It has been a memorable running of Le Mans, and we're not done yet.  Ford originally wanted to buy Ferrari.  Mr. Ferrari said, "no way!" and then Ford built their own car, the legendary GT40, which won four straight times at Le Mans between 1966 and 1969.  Should a Ford win happen, how will it be perceived?  We have had a two-tiered race, in GTE the whole race.  Ferrari and Ford are running heads up, and Chevrolet, Corvette, and Aston Martin, have been left in the dust.  Take the rule book as a racer, and bend it to your advantage, within the rules.

It's been a whale of a race today, ladies and gentlemen.  In some ways, for Toyota, when they made the commitment for this year, they were totally committed to building this new car, since the past couple cars of theirs, totally flopped.  Porsche have found the extra lap, but did so a bit late.  They might not need an extra stop, and can go on long runs.  They have to do that, but also, close the gap.  Go faster, but save fuel.  Huh?  Toyota has thrown tremendous resources at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, since the 1980s.  Stephane Sarrazin has been on the podium so many times.  Sarrazin, he will be on the podium, but not win.

Bob Wollek, won a class win here in 2000, but it didn't mean too much to him.  Bourdais and Dixon race with Chevrolet in IndyCar.  Race drivers don't race enough these days, because you've got nine or ten races, and there aren't enough test sessions.  Porsche #2 pits.  With the Ford GT program, drivers are contracted to Ganassi, and not to Ford, even though it's a Ford factory effort.  An hour and a half remains.  In 1994, Toyota was in the lead, with an hour and a half to go.  The car, driven by Mauro Martini, Jeff Krosnoff, and Eddie Irvine, had a shift linkage issue.  In 1999, all three cars had tire blowouts.

History might not repeat itself this time.  Neel Jani just did a thirteen lap stint on fuel.  In GTE Pro, the top seven cars are Ford, Ferrari, Aston Martin, and Corvette.  Toyota pits, for fuel only.  No one has to do anything to the car.  Fuel, or fuel and tires, and that's it.  #28 is off again. These boys and girl have had a fraught race.  The girl is Innes Tattinger, and her family, is in the champagne business.  Audi #8 pits with Lucas di Grassi at the wheel.  Scott Dixon almost goes off the road chasing the Ferrari.  The #68 car got caught out at the slow zone in Mulsanne while the Risi Ferrari is in the pit lane.  The slow zone is still active, and it's a long one.

Hughes de Chaunac is a great team manager.  He's a big part of the Toyota team.  Oreca is quite the enterprise.  The #1 Porsche 919 goes back to the garage.  Innes Tatinger has a flat tire on her car and she hasn't even reached Indianapolis yet.  Oh dear! The car is on fire.  Innes jumps to safety.  Limping on the rim maybe cut an oil line.  Innes Tatinger has to be in the marshal's faces, asking, "why didn't you throw that fire extinguisher on my race car sooner?!  You're burning my money!"  The slow zone is still in effect and teams pit to top off fuel.  Many teams will need only one more pit stop.

71 minutes to go.  All eyes on the clock.  Scuderia Corsa still leads LM GTE Am.  The SMP Racing BR01 has run well.  They had a fraught race at the Daytona 24 Hours back in January.  This has been the biggest contingent of American drivers, at Le Mans, in recent memory.  Are we witnessing a new chapter in Le Mans history?  Maybe.  The speed and the mechanical grip of these cars, is incredible.  These are wonderful days if you're a sports car racing fan.  Frederic Sausset, again, will finish his national race, and as mentioned, he is a driver, due to medical reasons, who is a quadruple amputee, and fulfilled his dream of racing at Le Mans.

Frederic Sausset, Jean Bernard Bouvet, and Christophe Tinseau, are going to finish this race.  Sausset wanted to get into the car.  Benoit Treluyer texted him and said, "you're one of us, Frederic.  You can do this."  The #48 Murphy Prototypes/Gas Monkey car has had episodes in this race.  Bean Keating, Marc Goossens, and Jeroen Bleekemolen.  Jochen Rindt tried breaking the car, and the team said that they were leading, and they finished.  This is a public road.  So, lots of people use it.

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 21

Trouble for nthe #98 Aston Martin V8 Vantage, with Matthias Lauda at the wheel.  Matthias Lauda, is the son of Formula 1 legend, Niki Lauda.  Car #28 pits.  This is the last year for the open cockpit cars at Le Mans, before going back to all closed cars, similar to the old Group C days in the 1980s.  Pippo Derani said something interesting.  "Le Mans chooses you."  Indianapolis, is the same way.  We had a totally unexpected winner at Indy.  Matthias Lauda, is trying Control Alt Delete, but might be afraid of the front loader, trying to retrieve the car.  These cars are so controlled by ECU's and onboard computer systems, you literally have to reboot the car, just like a computer.  Still two hours and 54 minutes left.

Viktor Shaitar runs third in LMP2.  He is one of the defending LMP2 champs here at Le Mans.  Enough is enough.  They nabbed Matthias Lauda.  Anthony Davidson may be in trouble, for going too fast through a slow zone.  Where was my countdown?  Stephane Sarrazin in the second Toyota, is in the garage,  More crew members can work on the car a lot faster than being in pit lane.  There was some substantial damage.  The team knows where the slow zone is, and Anthony Davidson had to ask.  He may have not been counted to the end of the slow zone, but that's ridiculous.  Conversely, flags are waving to say, slow down to 80 kilometers an hour.  Nothing is being looked at right now.

Sarrazin's sister Toyota is being repaired.  Oliver Jarvis and the Audi, lost telemetry, but now seems to be running at full song.  200 mile per hour tape is being applied to one of the body panels at the back of the car.  This will drop the #6 Toyota down the order.  For Anthony Davidson, he continues to lead.  It is clouding up a shade over Circuit de la Sarthe.  But the weather will be clear, to the end of the race.  The #6 Toyota is back out on track with a new nose and lots of bear bond tape.  As a driver, drive the car.  The engineers will tell you if there is a problem.

Stephane Sarrazin is now in the #6 Toyota.  The aerodynamic loading pulls the undertray to the ground, and the Bear Bond holds it on.  Two and a half hours to go, and that's a standard sprint race distance.  You don't hit a car with a sledgehammer before a sprint race.  Problems from earlier in the race, can sometimes come back to bite you.  But other times, the car still runs like a top.  Bear Bond is super, super, super, super sticky duct tape.  Ford continues to run well.  Stephane Sarrazin is three laps down to the race leader.  It sounds like Sarrazin is having issues with the balance of the car.  There's an aerodynamic imbalance, perhaps, due to having to put the Bear Bond on the car.

Drivers hydrate a lot, but have no issues about going to the bathroom, because it all goes out in perspiration.  Although, that isn't always the case, at least if you overhydrate, and you have to pee in the car.  Porsche #2 in the hands of Neel Jani, hits pit lane.  Porsche seems to be getting good fuel mileage based on their backtiming of the race on fuel calculations.  They won't need to make an extra pit stop.  Two hours and 18 minutes left, and cars are very, very close, up front.  Patrick Long has brought Porsche #88 up to second in LM GTE Am, but is now behind Porsche.  This could be the final race for the Ferrari 458 Italia, as thje 488 GTE is a better car.

Anthony Davidson is in the lane.  Kazuki Nakajima, takes over, and should take the car, to the checkers. The #62 car is in, and the team is doing a rear brake pad change.  Jeff Segal is at the controls in the #62.  Over two hours left in this race.  Again, Happy Father's Day, everyone.  Joey Hand brings the leading #68 Ford GT to pit lane.  Ford has been nearly flawless to this point.  Fuel and a driver change, as well as tires.  Dirk Mueller takes over the car.  Giancarlo Fisichella is second for Risi Competizione.  Mueller should be able to finish this race out. 

American drivers and teams have done well.  Scuderia Corsa is up on the next two cars in LM GTE Am.  David Heinemeier Hansson and Rui Aguas, follow.  Rebellion were thought to be bulletproof in the LMP1-L class.  But, that wasn't true here at Le Mans.  This race is not over yet.  Kazuki Nakajima still has the overall lead. 

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 20

We are under a slow zone for an incident with Mark Patterson and the #57 AAI Corvette.  Audi is in the garage, still, with an apparent ERS problem.  Toyota #5 in the lane, from the lead.  They are close to the Porsche.  They can do about five stints.  Porsche has the #1 car with Brendon Hartley still running, and Marc Lieb can run as well.  But, you have to run hard, and save fuel at the same time.  That's a hard thing to do.  For Porsche, the stints have to be extended.  Porsche has a clear view of what they need to do to try to catch Toyota.  Paul Dalla Lana has had bad luck for the second year in a row.  The GT cars cannot disappear to get the Prototype to pass.  When you are on the edge, it only takes a touch, and you could crash.

John Pew will have to serve a drive through penalty for causing the wreck with Tracy Krohn, going over the crown of the road.  That was a massive wreck.  Laurens Vanthoor is in the MSR Ligier Honda at the moment.  MSR had high hopes, but wisely knew how stiffly the competition is in LMP2.  They still made it to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  They didn't bring their WeatherTech championship car, to Le Mans.  Anthony Davidson, meanwhile, searches for his first Le Mans win.  Marc Lieb continues to try to hunt down Anthony Davidson.  Kamui Kobayashi, spins the #6 Toyota, and thankfully, saved it!  It was five laps after the previous pit stop.

A momentary lapse, can send a driver reeling, really quick.  Ditto for the pit crews making a mistake.  Toyota have been within an hour of winning this race, in the past.  1994, 1999, and 2014 come to mind.  There is definite damage to Kamui Kobayahi's #6 Toyota.  The aerodynamic loads on these cars, are tremendous, needing downforce.  The #44 Manor Racing LMP2 car, has another issue.  You just can't make mistakes.  Trying to limp the #44 back, to no avail.  The #44 car has wrecked again.  That's a big hit!  Matt Rao, is a young rookie.  Don't hurry a damaged car, back to pit lane, here at Le Mans.  The nose breaks, slides under the front tire, and the steering goes away.

A slow zone will be needed to pick up this mess, and hopefully, we don't need a safety car, because there will need to be three safety cars.  The Ford GT has had a great debut here at Le Mans.  Joey Hand is losing time to Toni Vilander.  Can he pick it up?  Maybe not.  We haven't seen the best reliability from the Ford's.  Ryan Briscoe is in the #69 Ford GT.  Both U.S. based Chip Ganassi Ford's run in the top three in LM GTE Pro.  #69 is in the lane.  Regular pit stop, now.  New tires for #67 and #69.  Townsend Bell still leads LM GTE Am, with Townsend Bell at the wheel of the #62 car.  Jeff Segal organizes everything and is a quick shoe in the car.

The #63 Corvette C-7-R is also in the pits.  An updated, older Corvette, cannot keep up with the Ford or the Ferrari.  Will there be a mid-engine Corvette in the future?  For Le Mans you throw everything on the table.  The Balance of Performance is a huge deal.  If they see any sandbagging, they can impose a five minute penalty in the last half hour of the race.  Ouch!  Can Kamui Kobayashi survive, with the loose undertray on his Toyota?  Issues for the #95 Aston Martin.  A cut down left rear tire.  Audi has also continued to have a difficult race.  Oh!  Toni Vilander has had a major spin!  He's stalled.  OK.  He's back underway.  Is the car OK?  Hit the curb, and spins around.  This is big news, for Ford.

Vilander made a mistake.  They were cruising.  But, you cannot make a mistake.  Plus,. the Ferrari team now has to pit.  It's hard not to push.  But, drivers have to push and go on the ragged edge, without making a mistake.  Risi Competizione just lost two minutes.  It moves Vilander back towards the sister #69 Ford GT of Ryan Briscoe.  More challenges for Audi.  They have had a horrid race this year.  Johnny O'Connell, has had a tough race, on his return to Le Mans.  Mark Patterson, his team mate, has had some difficulty.  O'Connell hasn't been here in five years.  The intensity is the same.  O'Connell and Patterson are sharing with young Brit Oliver Bryant. 

Kamui Kobayashi is in the lane, and the Toyota mechanics are working on the damage to the car after he flew off the road.  Toyota wants their plan to work.  Anthony Davidson asks, "what if we try this?"  The team say, "no, man.  Stick to our plan.  We're a team."  Fuel only for Anthony Davidson.  This sandbagging deal, proves that the FIA is getting the data, but, they act on it, and you have to be consistent.  The LMP2 leading Alpine #36, hits pit lane. 

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 19

Ryan Briscoe runs second in LM GTE Pro.  Toyota bailed out on development of their old car, last year.  They developed this new car, and look what's happening.  Marc Lieb is at the keyboard of the #2 Porsche.  Wouldn't it be amazing, if Sebastien Bourdais could win in class, in his home race?  Ford isn't going for the overall.  But, it would still be amazing, because, Sebastien, grew up, and has lived in Le Mans, his whole life.  The water pump went out on the #1 Porsche.  They had to repair it, but couldn't.  A few other LMP1 cars, have not had any other problems. 

A pit stop for Toyota #6 with fuel, tires, and a driver change, as Kamui Kobayashi, takes over from Mike Conway.  Porsche #2 pits as well.  Anthony Davidson will be the next driver into car #5.  So, each stint, is 12-13 laps, (101-110 miles).  Porsche #1 is in the pits again.  Clearwater Racing is running well in their division at the moment.  Ford remains very optimistic about their chances, trying to run down the Ferrari.  The displacement between the two Ford EcoBoost V6's, for the Prototype and the GT car, is slightly different.  But other than that, it's the same motor.

Joey Hand continues chasing Matteo Malucelli.  Joey Hand is now within striking distance.  A few years ago, Malucelli wrecked the car.  But, Malucelli has always been a quick driver.  He is far more mature than he once was.  Don't do anything stupid.  Run your pace.  Focus forward.  Don't fight hard, or you will throw the race away.  Tbe Ferrarj and the Ford accelerate similarly.  But the Ford can pull more speed on the straight.  On the straight, Hamd makes the pass on Malucelli, with speed.  Uncontested.  You can't do anything about it.  Meanwhile, back at the sharp end, Porsche is pushing. 

Four hours and 24 minutes to go.  Will Toyota be able to do one less pit stop compared to Porsche?  It will be the difference.  One mistake can cause disaster.  Smoke from the #31 ESM Ligier.  That could be a tire problem.  Billy Johnson is really putting consistency together in his Le Mans debut, running World Endurance Championship races with CGR Ford Europe as one of the cars, runs off the road.  One of the Audi's is running slower, and as we watch Kamui Kobayashi, he puts in very abrupt steering movements.  Scuderia Corsa leads LM GTE Am with Townsend Bell, Bill Sweedler, and Jeff Segal.

The Audi mechanics are going to the front of the car.  There's got to be something in the Energy Recovery System.  Competition drives the next idea, and development as well as innovation.  Toyota was nowhere last year, and look where they are now.  The battle for the overall lead is within 1.2 seconds.  No one has a distinct advantage, even as a better mousetrap is trying to be built.  Toyota, Audi, and Porsche, are all extremely different cars.  But, they are close together and it's a driver vs. driver race, as it should be.  Anthony Davidson takes the lead in Mulsanne corner, where he had a major wreck years ago.  Porsche is not giving up.  It's a Toyota vs. Porsche race at the moment.

Just over four hours left as Marc Lieb, pits.  Porsche looks like they'll need an extra pit stop before the end of this race. 

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 18

Drivers wake up, as the sun comes up.  We are awake.  We are alive.  Go for it.  Ricardo Gonzalez, Bruno Senna, and Filipe Albuquerque, had some mechanical issues, but the #43 RG Sport By Morand machine, is still running well.  Ricardo Gonzalez has won in class here at Le Mans.  Don't over drive the car.  There's still time in this race as the #82 Risi Competizione Ferrari, pits.  They can win if they make no mistakes, and keep the pace up.  Push the reset button, and the big pit stops have been made.  Stay clean.  The mechanics are fatigued.  It's easier to make a mistake when you are tired.  #36 is in pit lane.  That's the Alpine.  Gustavo Menezes gets into the car.  They had a problem with the air gun.  This is a big miscue.  You are tired and you don't react as quickly.  The other air gun, it was caught on the line for the original, hung from the pit gantry, and then, the car wouldn't restart.

25 years ago, Mazda scored the only Japanese win at Le Mans with Johnny Herbert, Volker Weidler, and Bertrand Gachot.  Toyota has been so dominant.  Can they make it to the finish?  Porsche and Audi have had unprecedented issues.  They were admittedly not where they wanted to be, with the two cars, instead of three.  They can't develop their cars the way they'd like to.  Toyota, has a very different feel.  Toyota had nothing last year.  They couldn't get anyplace.  But this year, it's a total 180.  They have been going really well.  Things are going so well, and they are keeping things to themselves.  These boys are here to win, and not to interact with the media.

It's like a pitcher in baseball.  Okiyo Toyota, named the team Gazoo Racing, to not let the brass at Toyota know they were going to race.  The #7 are back in the garage.  Audi and Porsche have hospitality suites etc.  Toyota isn't as inviting or as open with information.  They finished on the podium three times in the 1990s.  Japan, is a different culture, too, than in Europe.  Ford continues to run a good pace in GTE Pro.  The Audi is still being worked on.  All hands are on deck at Audi.  Manufacturers use mechanics as blockers to protect thnemselves from the media.  That's against the rules.

#6 is in the lane.  Clean stop.  No noise from the Toyota.  Totally silent, just like a bar of soap slipping out of your hands.  Jonny Kane in the #42 Strakka Racing car.  Kane was running for position with Viktor Shaitar in the #37 SMP Racing machine.  The top of the division is very close.  Lieb, Buemi, Conway, are the top three at the moment.  Lieb pits.  Dirk Mueller is eating time out of Matteo Malucelli's lead.  Problems for the #50 Larbre Competition Corvette C7 Z06 in the Porsche curves.  Screech!  Boom!  Five and a half hours remain now.  Some of these guys just barrel into the slow zones.  You have to maintain a two car length gap in a slow zone.

Conway releases the button to go, before Marc Lieb can. Lap times are skewed due to slow zones.  Ferrari seems to be doing better with tire wear, than the Ford does.  Ford is better in the warm, and Ferrari is better, in cooler conditions.  Make sure the car works in higher ambient and track temperatures.  A big thanks to the camera operators, bringing the fantastic pictures to the Le Mans broadcast, if any readers, happen to be watching at home.  Ferrari has the advantage in the corners.  Ford, has the advantage, on the straights.

Dave "Beaky" Sims, team mechanic for Risi Competizione.  He was the late, great Jim Clark's Formula 1 mechanic.  Ryan Briscoe is now third in the LM GTE Pro class, and the #66 is fifth in class.  The #63 Corvette C-7-R- is in the pits.  Motorsport is a very human sport, because humans, are of course, driving the cars. Mike Conway runs second to team mate Sebastien Buemi.  We have a shade over five hours to go.  The #1 Porsche pits.  The #1 has come to working with this race as nothing more than a test session.  Finish the race for points.

John Pew had a braking probelm, spun, and Tracy Krohn had no place to go.  Pew swerved to the right, the car hooked, and Pew, he hit the crown of the road, upsetting the car.  Krohn had no place to go.  That's a wallop!  Toyota, continues to lead. 

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 17

Seven hours remain at Le Mans.  Everyone and their brother, has gone off the road.  The you know what, has hit the fan, at certain times.  Oh. buddy!  What just happened there?  Does Edoardo Freitas have direct ability to speak with the drivers?  He might.  The Toyota's have been running like trains as of late.  Some of these boys are the walking wounded right now.  There's been a lot of argy bargy out there.  If your car is still out there, you've been lulled to sleep, by the engine noise.  It's taking it's toll on you.  Your trying to catch a nap.  You make it to sunrise, and then you realize, wait... seven hours to go?  Ugh!  You know what needs to happen.  So, you are rewinding from the end of the race.

The #82 Ferrari pits.  What will the next stint be like for Ferrari and Ford in GTE Pro.  The #68 needed a steering wheel change.  What issue was Sebastien Bourdais having with the old wheel?  Neel Jani continues to chase down the Toyota's.  Scaling down the manufacturer's efforts, have changed the strategies.  It depends on the year, and on racing luck.  Matteo Malucelli continues to run strongly, with the Ford's chasing them down.  Dirk Mueller and Richard Westbrook are the two top Ford's at the present time.  It is cool and overcast at Le Mans at the moment.  We watch Frederic Sausset.  He is an amazing individual.

The Porsche 919 seems a little nervous to Neel Jani.  The car is washing away in the turns a little bit, losing some grip.  Matteo Malucelli remains at the wheel of the #82 Risi Competizione Ferrari.  Drivers know exactly where they are at.  These 24 hour races come down to mere seconds by the end of the race.  The Ferrari is very much improved even over what it was at Daytona back in January, a race that was also covered, on this blog, of course.  Stephane Richelmi in the #36 Alpine continues to lead LMP2.  Mike Shank Racing, could still finish well in LMP2.  Sebastien Buemi was given a warning for exceeding track limits.

Toyota looks to be prepping for another pit stop.  The crews look as if they've flown in from mars, as the Ferris wheel is brightly lit.  Cars have dropped out.  Eight hours to go, now four, as you feel a magnetic force, an honor to cross the line, and plenty of glory, if you are the winner.  Drive through penalty for the #68 Ford GT, for having the engine running, during refueling.  That's elementary, and you cannot run the motor during pit stops.  Shut the engine off.  They'll have to pit and stop and hold for the penalty.  This is HUGE for Ford, losing time.

Wishing a Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there.  Matteo Malucelli leads in GTE Pro.  The #2 Porsche pits.  Marc Lieb takes over from Neel Jani.  G Drive pits their car.  Did Ford make a mistake?  Did they in fact leave the engine running, on a pit stop?  Is their chance for glory on their return to La Sarthe, over?  A massive effort goes into this race, and if you fall out, again, if you are the driver, who is paid to go fast, and a mistake is made, you are gutted.

The #62 Ferrari has pitted.  Can the Ford's turn the wick up?  The #68 car has served it's penalty.  There's plenty of time left.  Come in, take your medicine, and keep going.  It affects your strategy, but you can't let it affect you negatively.  Use what you have left in the locker.  Filipe Albuquerque runs for Audi, and is paid by Audi, for privateer teams such as Blancpain Endurance Series for example.  

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 16

20 years ago, no adjustments could be made to the car.  But, today, this is commonplace, even on production cars.  Some things change, but a lot never does.  Perseverance, manpower, passion, never changes.  We watch the Ford GT going through the 80 kilometer an hour slow zone.l  A pit crew is doing a rain dance, or playing a game of dancing bears.  Romain Dumas did a double stint and is now out of the car.  Neel Jani was supposed to take over from Marc Lieb.  But, Jani wasn't there.  Did he have to use the bathroom, or did he oversleep or something?  Hmmm.  Tommy Milner seems to be K even though he has had a big wreck here.  It was a big hit, and a quick stop.

Marc Miller had his big wreck running over oil, or water, after the factory Porsche 911 RSR split the radiator.  The car is loaded to the left, and if you jink to the right, there's no way.  Now, we have another big wreck as the #35 Alpine has also slammed the wall.  Car won't turn, and.... smash!  He got too deep and slammed the wall.  Never even got the car turned before hitting the barrier for Maxi DC Racing.  David Cheng and Ho Pin Tung, are two of the drivers.  Wow.  We've had two shunts with the wall, in the last few minutes.  It was Nelson Panciatici, who crashed the car.  He may have missed his braking point.

The sister Alpine #36 continues to circulate.  There are two or three big issues on the track.  We haven't heard from Edoardo Freitas on these incidents yet.  The Jota Racing Gibson has been in the lane with suspension issues, needing repairs.  The Rebellion cars are still having issues.  Nelson Panciatici wanted to drive the Alpine back to the pits.  However, he has had second thoughts, surely, judging from the damage to the suspension on the Alpine's front corner.  The #4 ByKolles CLM P1 01 has caught fire, again!  It did so in Wednesday night practice, and then, they started from pit lane.  A fraught, forgettable race for these blokes. 

The exhaust has set thje bodywork on fire.  This is a slow zone, but all the cars are booking it through there.  Hmmm.  I wonder why.  Off and on for the #98 Aston Martin.  Contact, with the #30 or #31 Paul Mitchell ESM car.  There's a local yellow, but no slow zone.  What on earth?  The slow zone, was up next, setting up for the line to get around the corner as the Toyota moves through Arnage.  The wheels have now come off the wagon.  We have two LMP2 cars buried in the kitty litter.  Ed Brown has his ESM car parked in another gravel trap at Tetre Rouge, and the #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing car, off the road as well.

The safety car is out.  The leading Toyota and the leading Ferrari didn't want to see this.  Jeff Segal will pit the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari, and Bill Sweedler will get in the car.  The #36 Alpine is now in the garage.  Seven and a half hours remain at Le Mans, in the 84th running.  The #7 Audi is in the garage, and again, #36 is also in the garage.  Ben Keating and the Gas Monkey Murphy Prototypes cars, spun, and continued.  He's making his Le Mans debut.  Maybe Alpine is just doing a brake change.

Corvette Racing started at Le Mans in 1960, with Briggs Cunningham, and drivers John Fitch and Bob Grossman.  One Corvette remains, car #63, with Jan Magnussen, at the wheel.  No triple crown for the #64 this year.  Pierre Thiriet got the car back for the TDS Racing squad.  His family owns a frozen food company that is available throughout France.  Stephane Sarrazin is bringing the lead Toyota into the pits.  Both Toyota's are in the lane.  Routine pit stops for both.  Toyota, is trying to win le Mans, after being second on a few occasions.  Mike Conway, and Sebastien Buemi are at the wheel of their respective cars.

The #46 car stalled.  The byzantine regulations at Le Mans, disqualify you if you reverse the car through pit lane, with the crew pushing you back.  There are three safety cars out there.  We see 262 laps have been completed (2,224 miles).  Toni Vilander leads LM GTE Pro, and Sebastien Bourdais is right behind him, in the Ford.  Rush hour traffic on the restart at Le Mans.  The Ferrari's pit a little sooner than the Ford's do.  The tire compounds need to be softer in the cooler weather.  When it gets warmer, switch to harder coimpounds.

Ooh.  Team orders?  One Toyota is pointed past the other.  The Porsche of Neel Jani, in the lead, is just under a minute ahead of Toyota Gazoo Racing.  Marcel Fassler runs fifth overall and fifth in LMP1 in the Audi.  Porsche #2 in the pit lane.  No tires.  Just fuel.  Toyota, is now 1-2. 

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 15

5AM.  It's the lowest point of the race.  The murky dawn.  How far away is the end of the race?  The checkered flag seems so far away.  You hear each sound.  Drivers come and go.  A new day full of hope is about to come.  If the cars continue in this fashion, well, we'll see where everyone might position themselves, for the finish.  The Toyota's are running one lap longer, 13 laps, on fuel runs.  The #2 Porsche stays out for another lap.  The top three all are on the same lap.  Romain Dumas will hit pit lane, and soon.  Just under nine hours to go.  We have to wait yet, to back time this race.  It is very hard to read the traffic patterns.

On the Mulsanne, up to 200 miles an hour, then, coast, stand on the brakes, and fly, again.  Sail through the last 10% of the straight.  Ferrari and Ford continue their battle in LM GTE Pro.  Giancarlo Fisichella has had a good stint, with the turbocharged Ferrari 488 GTE.  Ford has the straight line speed, and Ferrari, has the agility in the corners.  Fisichella took an old Ferrari F1 car from 2009, around Daytona International Speedway including the high banks!  Wow!  I wish I'd known he was going to be there!  Audi #8 pits.  The 2009 cars were V8 motors, in Formula 1.  Marc Lieb now leads this race, and the cycling of the pit stops determines who is where as skies continue to lighten. 

Porsche sets up for a pit stop.  Romain Dumas, will take over.  Rebellion looks to be headed for the house.  Well, actually, they are already out, with the #13 car.  Race leader is in the lane.  Lieb completes 241 laps (2,046 miles).  Ooh.  Dumas has some traffic ahead.  A GT Porsche, it appears.  Rebellion's race, is going from bad to worse.  Problems for the #12.  Rebellion will want to erase Le Mans 2016 from their memory bank.  There's a local yellow flag somewhere, as the cars negotaite a slow zone.  There is damage to the G Drive car.  That's Simon Dolan.  Dolan tipped Nicki Thiim's Aston Martin into a barrel roll at the previous race at Spa, back in May.

Romain Dumas continues chasing Stephane Sarrazin.  Marc Lieb got out of the driving game for a while, to study engineering.  But he is definitely back now as a Porsche factory driver.  Marc Lieb can understand engineering concepts and turn a quick lap, much like the late, great, Mark Donohue.  Sebastien Bourdais is laying down solid laps in the #68 Ford GT.  Whoops.  One of the Aston Martin's stopped briefly in Mulsanne.  Nicki Thiim is not too far behind Scott Dixon.  Thiim may have been in that Aston that stopped earlier.

Chris Amon who drove the winning GT40 in 1966, had a 100 mile an hour closing rate on the smaller cars, on the Mulsanne straight, hand shifting, no power steering, and two man driver teams!  Can you imagine?  No chicanes on the Mulsanne either.  Remember, this race, has double points on offer before the second half of the season begins in a month or so. More details coming, at the end of this race, a long way from now.  LMP2 has been tough.  It used to be they would be the last man standing. 

David Heinemier-Hanson is running with Abu Dhabi Proton Racing.  He is running his fifth Le Mans race and has done so, in Prototypes and GT cars.  He is driving with Patrick Long.  David Heinemeier-Hanson, is computer programmer, turned racing driver.  The sky grows lighter as we watch Scott Dixon running third in class behind team mate Sebastien Bourdais and the Ferrari 488 GTE in the hands of Toni Vilander of Finland.  Sebastien Bourdais was born and raised here in Le Mans.  Aston Martin has kept their head in the game even though we've focused on Ferrari and Ford.  Scuderia Corsa leads LM GTE Am with Jeff Segal, Townsend Bell, and Bill Sweedler.  The team just did a brake change.

We still have eight and a quarter hours remaining in this race.  Toyota, is in the lane, now, for service.  You cannot change tires while the car is being fueled.  Incredibly, the Corvette C-7-R- race car, produces less horsepower than the Z06 street car, due to the BoP regulations.  The Pro cars are R designated, and the Am cars, are C7 Z06's.  The #64 Corvette has had a big off!  He locks the brakes, and ker-runch!  Slams the tire wall, hard!  That is in the Ford Chicane.  When you wreck the car, you feel awful.  He's a full lap from the opits, too, running eighth in class.

This is what separates racing from any other sport.  You can throw a horrid pass in the Super Bowl and still score.  But, in racing, everything builds on everything else.  Toyota #6 pits.  So does the #2 Porsche.  Tommy Milner is OK, and the car is fabulously strong.  But, it's game over for Corvette in this race.  Corvette still has one bullet in the gun, with the #63 car.  Gavin said Corvette wasn't sandbagging.  Well, you cannot know, even if a driver admits to not doing it.  But, the BoP has favored Ford and Ferrari in this race. 

Audi #8 is in the lane.  The one Corvette, is now ahead of both GTLM Porsche's.  One blew a motor and the other is way down on pace.  The team is not running the full season.  We need a bagpiper strolling along to wake people up.  The slow zones are a great idea, to reduce the necessity of full course yellow flags. 

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hours 13 & 14

We are now, over halfway through this race.  Porsche has one bullet left, and they are now leading both Toyota's.  We've got a slow zone at the moment.  The #69 Ford GT is in the lane at the moment.  It is now moved into the garage.  Marino Franchitti is now in the #67 machine.  The wheels are going onto the car.  #68 is second in LM GTE Pro, and the #13 Rebellion is stopped on the circuit.  Townsend Bell has just pitted the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari.  Jeff Segal has taken over the car and is a lap up on Khaled al Qubaisi.  We have ten hours and fifteen minutes to go, at Le Mans.  Mark Patterson is in the #57 AAI Corvette currently, as there is a local yellow, and the #51 AF Corse Ferrari is having problems, tenth in LM GTE Pro. 

The #2 Porsche has spun!  Oh dear!  #31 for ESM is now in the lane.  Have both Rebellion's stopped?  Hmmm.  Good question.  No change in position in the GTE classes.  The #36 Alpine has pitted as well.  Rebellion is indeed in the garage.  The Porsche is now a minute behind the leading Toyota's in third spot.  The #7 Audi is going slow, and it looks like he almost hit the wall.  The Fox Sports TV coverage is back on now.  It is plenty dark at Le Mans and we are set to keep going.  Kamui Kobayashi and Anthony Davidson are driving the leading Toyota's.

Here are some highlights of what you missed.  In hour ten, in the dark, more problems for the #1 Porsche, creeping around on electric power.  Also, the #91 Porsche 911 RSR, the enbgine went ka-blammo.  Game over, and a safety car.  In hour fourteen, Mike Conway took the lead here at Le Mans.  The Risi Competizione Ferrari has found a sweet spot, and they are very competitive as we are racing in the darkness, towards the daylight.  Only three cars are out.  Very low attrition, to this point.

The #68 Ford GT in the hands of Joey Hand, takes the LM GTE Pro lead.  The sister car, was in the garage, but it was a brake change.  The Toyota team pits #5 and Kazuki Nakajima, get back into the car.  Benoit Treluyer, has run off the road and gotten back on.  We begin the final ten hours.  Stand by, for more action, here on Endurance... The Sports Car Racing Blog.  Moments ago, Nicolas Jonsson in the Krohn Racing Ligier, tangled with the #67 Ford GT, and the Ford, sailed through the gravel.

It is down to Risi Competizione, to try and catch Ford.  A couple of the other Ferrari's have hit trouble.  Corvette and Porsche have not been in the hunt.  Being out there with no other cars, makes you feel really lonely.  It's like being in space.  The skies over Le Mans are surely lightening, and daylight isn't too far away, as we are shrouded in darkness through most of the United States, at this moment.  You are receiving some bonus coverage, as yours truly was taking a nap, catching up on his sleep, while the Fox Sports broadcast was off air for other events.

A,J. Baime, author of "Go Like Hell", written about the Ford/Ferrari rivalry in the 1960s.  A lot of us expected Corvette to be there.  But, the Ford's are really going for it now.  Risi is the strong Ferrari.  When Ford ran in 1964 and '65, it was a disaster.  By 1966, they had their ducks in a row and won the race, 50 years ago.  Ford has thrown a fleet of cars at this, just like in the golden era.  Ferrari has three, and Corvette, has two.  Corvette has all the experience, and eight class wins.  Chevrolet had an experience edge, but they, and lots of us, have been stunned.

This is so exciting.  Racing is better than fiction, folks.  All the rich history behind this wonderful race.  But, I digress.  Chip Ganassi is the new Carroll Shelby.  This is wonderful, for the sport of sports car racing.  The Alpine is still running well as dawn comes.  Ford could still win this race.  Chip Ganassi has a one team mantra, while in the 1960s, was a rivalry between the Ford teams.  We've seen rivalries between Audi and Peugeot, Audi and Toyota, Audi and Porsche, Audi, Toyota, and Porsche.

Shelby beat Holman & Moody in the GT40 days.  Holman & Moody, is known as a NASCAR team.  Read the book "Go Like Hell" by A.J. Baime.  Carroll Shelby won Le Mans racing with Roy Salvadori, in an Aston Martin, back in 1959.  Corvette is making a pit stop.  Oliver Gavin, is in the car.  Again, the Audi's have had contrasting races.  #7 has had issues, and #8 is running better.  Seiji Ara, is the most recent Japanese driver, to win Le Mans, in an Audi, in 2004, with Tom Kristensen, and Rinaldo Cappello. 

The top three cars are on the same lap.  Toyota, Toyota, Porsche.  Marc Lieb is in the Porsche, as he overtook an LMP2 car, passing halfway through a chicane.  Stephane Sarrazin, he wants to win here, too.  He's an amazing talent.  We are readying for hour 15.  Stephane Sarrazin has also done rallying and U.S. based sports car racing.  Anthony Davidson has also run very, very well for Toyota.  Marc Lieb, is pushing, reading the traffic.  The two Toyota's are running so strongly, and the one Porsche has to push like there's no tomorrow.

It is still Toyota, leading this race.  Stephane Sarrazin has run a 3:23.  Toyota is back in pit lane.  The fuel per lap, and fuel flow rate, was reduced, to lean these cars out.  But, the cars are as fast as ever.  It is mind boggling that just three cars have retired from this race.  Happy Hour, is upon us.  Full visibility, cool and dense air, and the engines are at full song, and still crisp.  They fly towards the Porsche curves.  The Corvette may have some bodywork damage. 

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 10

We begin the tenth hour at Le Mans, with another abbreviated update, folks.  Then, stay tuned, for full coverage, when morning comes, and we take you, all the way, to the finish. 

Toyota leads, and they run first and third, with the #2 Porsche, sandwiched right in the middle.  We have a safety car on the road at the moment.  So, there has to be a wreck, or a stopped/slow car out on the road, somewhere.  More details coming, on the safety car.  But, we are waiting, for race coverage, to resume, at the moment, folks.  Toyota is now running 1-2.  We'll see you a bit later on, for more action from Circuit de La Sarthe. 

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 9

Ford still leads LM GTE Pro, and we see the Ferrari being sandwiched between the two Ford's.  Those are the two cars, built to the specific ACO regulations.  Neel Jani, leads this race right now, and this is very definitely, the race that matters.  Oops.  We have a car, stopped.  This is the #28 Pegasus Racing Morgan Nissan, again, this time at Indianapolis.  #28 has been in the wars today.  The #1 Porsche at the moment, tumbles down the running order, as the sister car, is the one that is having the good luck at this stage of the race.  You haven't missed all that much, in the last hour or so, and yours truly, was taking a nap.  In this race, as a driver, a crewman, or a fan, catch sleep, when you can.

This is a race. and a festival, and a carnival.  The weather is lovely and will remain that way to the end of the race.  Ford has two cars that are running very well.  The Risi Ferrari is still in second in LM GTE Pro as we watch Neel Jani in the #2 Porsche, coming to pit lane.  There will be a driver change.  A tear off is pulled off the windshield, and that's more important at night for optimal vision.  Fueling is done first, and use one air hammer for the tires.  Romain Dumas takes over the car.  Dumas is a great driver and can get the job done.  Can Porsche win their second Le Mans in a row?  They are looking, also, for their 18th overall win here.

The ByKolles car is dropping oil, and Dumas says that the windscreen will need to be cleaned and that's the last place you'll see it is directly on the windscreen.  The #1 Porsche continues to be put back together.  You pick up a lot of things on the windshield, and it makes it very difficult to see.  Brendon Hartley is not the driver of the Porsche at the moment.  Ford has managed to bring four cars.  Two up front, and two, running farther down the order.  VW decided to pull back financially, so Porsche and Audi, could only run two cars apiece.

The #60 car pits, the Formula Racing Ferrari 458 Italia, with Mikkel Mac, at the controls.  It is just after midnight in France, folks.  More racing, still to come, in this ninth hour.  Richard "Westy" Westbrook, continues to run in the #69 Ford GT.  Audi #7 is now in the pits.  Ford knows, through 24 hour dyno runs, how the engine will run, as the #98 Aston Martin V8 Vantage of Paul Dalla Lana goes off the road.  Ford can split strategies and have one car push and another go for it.  The #62 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia is second in LM GTE Am.  Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell, and Jeff Segal, are sharing the car.  An all American team.

Right now, your body is tired.  Your brain is driven crazy.  Fatigue is greatest when the sun comes up.  Right now, you are still sharp, because you aren't at the halfway mark.  But, after halfway, you may feel real fatigue.  Porsche #1 is back in the garage.  Whoops.  This was earlier, in replay, when we saw those boys hit the garage.  Brendon Hartley, is slowing.  Big time drama.  More to come, soon. 

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 7

Stephane Sarrazin pits the Toyota.  The new Toyota TS050 is a sharp sword.  They want to be the first Japanese make to win at Le Mans (and only the second in history), to do so, since Mazda won in 1991.Scott Dixon has been running in the 3:53 range.  Toyota #5 in the lane, and is on it's way.  The Toyota's run first and third at the moment.  Twilight, at Le Mans.  The pace is very quick.  If Toyota can maintain 14 lap stints, they can skip a stop.  You can get an extra lap per stint, and eliminate a couple of pit stops.  All of the LMP1 Hybrid's have had a significant share of the lead except for the #7 Audi that was in the garage.  The #46 Thiriet TDS machine just took the LMP2 lead.  We have dealt with incidents, sans the safety car, and it's gone well.  You can't gain a complete lap back, on pace, if you hit th garage.

Speed wins this race, and there is less traffic, and also, the slow zones help.  Soon, it will be dark, and I mean, really, really dark.  Whoa!  One of the Ford's gets squeezed.  Timo Bernhard runs second at the moment, to the Toyota.  Porsche tells him, "keep pushing".  The Toyota's have really surprised everyone at this point in time.  This is an all new car for the team.  They've changed to a turbocharged motor, and changed their energy storage, from a super capacitor, to a battery.  Hybrid technology, is no longer a gimmick just to help with emissions.  It is now, the wave of the future.  So, just take a hard look at these cars and you will understand why.

We will have a little more coverage here in hour seven.  Then, we'll break away for a while, and have some sporadic updates, before going all in, for tonight, when it is twilight in the states, to morning in France.  Your car has broken down, and you have changed into your street clothes.  If you've wrecked the car, thwe team boss, turns his back on you.  If the team car wins, the one you aren't driving, you are gutted.  It's a morbid thought.  But, it's true.  If you are the driver who lets your team down, you are a wreck.

Oh dear.  KCMG is slowing.  They have a problem.  The #1 Porsche hits the lane.  The #13 Rebellion also pits, with 19 year old driver, Matheo Tuscher of Switzerland, at the controls.  He is the youngest driver at Le Mans, this year.  Action continues under a summer moon.  Defending LMP2 champions KCMG are having trouble.  The car was crawling to pit lane.  Bradley says that the team has lost telemetry and had other issues with the radio communication.  Matt Howson and Tsugio Matsuda, share the car.  Richard Bradley normally runs with Manor.  Manor had two cars in the championship and still do, but they couldn't get their second entry filed for Le Mans in time.

Darkness continues to fall over Le Mans.  Folks, we have much more coverage from Le Mans, coming your way.  Night falls, and the party begins, in earnest, here at Le Mans.  8.47 miles around, as we see another slow zone with double yellow flags.  The Bugatti circuit is located within the ground of the ACO property here at Le Masns where MotoGP raced in May, which you may have read about on my motorcycle racing blog.  Neel Jani and Brendon Hartley are the two fastest drivers for Porsche at this point.  A blue flashing light means a car behind.  Nick Tandy ran fastest last year at Le Mans which is why his team won.

Now, we see too, that the SAFER barrier, it comes right up to the verge between the curb and the track.  We'll see you in an hour and a half.

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 6

The race, and the drama, rolls on, at Le Mans.  Pegasus Racing has more issues.  Not sure who was in the car.  But, the Mulsanne corner is a tough one to brake for.  Lots of debris can be deposited if the cars go through these gravel traps, with the heavy, sharp, arrowhead like gravel, here at Le Mans.  A slow zone will neutralize the cars, where the issue is with the #28 car, slowing the area down to 80 kilometers an hour (50 miles an hour).  Toyota, is in the lead at the moment, and again, we see SAFER barriers here at Le Mans, the first track in Europe with SAFER barriers.  Tohyota pits.  Now, Stephane Sarrazin will get in the car.  Game over for WeatherTech Racing.  The #89 Porsche driven by Leh Keen and Marc Miller, both of them, will have an early dinner tonight, and get plenty of sleep, as they have an early end to their Le Mans endeavor.

Toyota, and other teams, they rehearse their pit stops one way.  But, you are allowed only four mechanics and one air impact hammer, in the pit lane.  You can have multiple air guns but can't cross the line in front of the garage doors.  You cannot step over that line until the car stops, and you cannot take tools over it until the fueling is complete.  Sebastien Bourdais has stayed in front of Scott Dixon for the time being.  Matteo Malucelli has a short lead over the Ford, in the Ferrari 488 GTE.  The slow zone has been removed from Mulsanne corner.  Communicate with your team, so you know that the slow zone has been taken away.  On the run to Indianapolis, Bourdais passes Malucelli.  Timo Bernhard, leading in the overall, is moving in.  He sweeps wide right past the GT cars.

The LED lights cause a strobe, and the new rule is, you can flash the lights only one time.  Timo Bernhard has driven in both classes.  White lights for Prototypes.  Amber headlight lenses on the GT cars.  The sun is lowering to the horizon.  It will be nightfall soon at Le Mans.  Great battles in LM GTE Am, and one of the teams is Scuderia Corsa.  Jeff Segal, Townsend Bell, and Bill Sweedler.  Another hour, is going by fast.  Ford GT's run first, second, and fourth, in LM GTE Pro.  Scott Dixon and Billy Johnson, the two rookies, are going well.  As a driver, do your job.  The third driver, cannot be a hero.  He has to put in laps, and hand the car back to his team mates, the way they want it to be turned over to them.

Multimatic and Larry Holt, along with George Howard Chappel are running the UK arm of CGR Ford.  Lucas di Grassi in the #8 Audi believes he has a vibration to contend with in the car.  Rebellion is back on track.  They have persevered to this point, but the small gremlins have popped up, here at Le Mans.  There is a yellow flag someplace.  The #57 AAI Corvette C7R is in the gravel trap someplace.  Ooh!  Timo Bernhard, locked the brakes, and missed the slow zone.  Did he get slowed down to 80 clicks?  He may have to incur a penalty.  With the sun setting, it is hard to see as well.  Shadows grow long. The #44 Manor Racing machine which had led LMP2, is now in the garage.

The team is in no hurry.  Graeme Loudon, technical/sporting Director for LMP2, said that it's a challenge when you have to react when there's a problem.  You have a smaller team and everything has to be practiced.  The #30 ESM car is in the pits.  The top teams have chains of people, and inventories of parts, that have already been bedded in.  The #2 Porsche pits.  Nine-time Le Mans winner, Tom Kristensen, is being interviewed by both Fox Sports and Danish TV.  He insists "I am not a pit reporter!"  Hardy har har!

Khaled al Qubaisi leads LM GTE Am.  Audi takes care of their own.  They still keep their former drivers, involved with the program.  Another slow zone.  Christian Ried is running well in the #78 KCMG Porsche 911 RSR in LM GTE Am.  The racing has been fabulous so far!  Cars go through the slow zone at the beginning of the Porsche curves.  Everyone thought the Oreca was the chassis to have in LMP2.  But, the Alpine is also performing very, very well.  Marino Franchitti has put one of the Ford GT's off the road at the end of the staight.  This is the #67 car that nhas been in the wars for most of the day.

Franchitti got in really deep and slid into the gravel.  We have another slow zone up and running at the moment.  The sister #66 Ford GT of Billy Johnson, pits.  Marino Franchitti was carrying 178 kilometers an hour (111 miles an hour) into Mulsanne, when he flew off the road.  Sebastien Bourdais, still leads LM GTE Pro.  Three fours remain in the top four of LM GTE Pro, with Ferrari in second as the #68 Ford, is in the lane.  Giancarlo Fisichella remains at the wheel of the Ferrari 488 GTE for Risi Competizione.  Marino Franchitti makes it to the garage as we are nearly done with the sixth hour of this race.

Timo Bernhard will have to live with flat spotted tires through the remainder of this stint.  The good news about flat spotted tires, is, the flat spots, can wear away.  But, under braking, the tire still wants to flat spot.  Alpine leads LMP2 at this point.  The Nissan engine is the one to have, in LMP2.  Rebellion has had issues today, so far, after good races at Silverstone and Spa Francorchamps.  The Alpine, is another Oreca, that has been re-branded.  It is what is known in the auto industy as "badge engineering".  Alpine's used to be Renault powered coupes, and there was a prototype version of the car, that raced later on.  The Signatech team that runs the car, has run in sports cars and in Formula 3.

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 5

There is one slow zone, running from pit out, through the Dunlop chicane and the esses, and there is another at Tetre Rouge.  The Krohn Racing Ligier is off the road, with Tracy Krohn at the wheel, getting up on th curb, and losing the car, spinning out.  He was trying to pass Matthew Howson in the #47 KCMG entry.  #34 is in and also in the lane is the #97 Aston Martin V8 Vantage.  Richie Stanaway, Fernando Rees, and Johnny Adam, share the car.  Slow zone extended.  Another look at Marc Miller's shunt into the Dunlop chicane... ker-runch!  The carbon fiber bodywork shred, and the tire barrier grabs the car, like grabbing a baseball with a catcher's mitt.  Oliver Jarvis in the #8 Audi R18 eTron Quattro, pits.

We are 62 laps, (525 miles), into this race.  More issues for the #4 ByKolles car.  Control, Alt., Delete, for the ByKolles machine.  Mark Webber continues to lead Le Mans, with Marc Lieb in the #2 sister Porsche. Kamui Kobayashi is going for it.  This is Mark Webber's fourth start at Le Mans, and Webber wants to win Le Mans.  Marc Lieb pits from third in the sister Porsche.  A modern race car driver, has to be able to drive, but also, be an engineer.  The #82 Ferrari still leads GT Le Mans, with the Ford's still pushing, and these blokes are literally nose to tail.  Both Ferrari and Ford had weight added late before the race.

But, at the moment, nmaybe the weight has helped.  Ford and Ferrari lead.  On this track, since it's such a momentum track, the weight element won't be a concern.  Kamui Kobayashi still leads for Toyota, and the top five cars, are currently on the lead lap.  Go to the FIA WEC official website and check out timing and scoring, as you watch coverage on Fox Sports.  Whoops.  Remy Streibig gets on the whirlygig.  Streibig gets pushed wide, and smashes the wall in the Porsche Curves!  Oh deary me!  As I was saying, he is sharing the #28 Pegasus Racing Morgan Nissan with Leo Roussel and Ines Taittinger.  An all French squad.

Run hard and run smart.  That's what you have to do.  The yellow flags at Daytona, if you are a lap down, it's easy to get a lap back.  Stretch out your lead, and keep pace with everyone, here at Le Mans.  You just don't see the cautions.  There's a maximum of three drivers running in each car at Le Mans, with four or five, at Daytona.  Ford and Ferrari, they continue the legendary battle, that goes back to the 1960s.  Contact is made with the #50 Larbre Competition Corvette C-7-R-. Oswaldo Negri Jr. and Mike Shank Racing, they haven't quit, but they are on fuel strategy.  They are two laps down, playing a fuel mileage game.

Ryan Briscoe passes Toni Vilander.  The Ford has more top end pace than does the Ferrari, with the BoP changes.  Aston Martin is off an on, with Paul Dalla Lana at the controls, getting loose and going through the gravel trap.  A battle in LMP2 between Oreca Nissan's #26 and #46.  Will Stevens and G Drive vs. Mathias Beche and Thiriet By TDS Racing.  Corvette doesn't have the pace they've hoped for this weekend.  Is it the BoP?  You have to have pace, but, you have to endure.  Porsche has fine tuned their cars (the 919 and the 911 RSR), while other makes (Toyota, and Audi in LMP1, and Ford and Ferrari in GTE Pro), are still learning.  Matthew Rao spins the #46 LMP2 machine.

We are nearing the end of the fourth hour of this race.  Oliver Jarvis and Marc Lieb are battling each other.  Matteo Malucelli has passed Scott Dixon.  The #8 Audi is pitting, and they've been going 13-14 laps on fuel stints.  Porsche will pit for fuel.  But, the #1 Porsche and #7 Audi are told that they must respect track limits.  Kamui Kobayashi is still running very well with the #6 entry.  Toyota, mid-season, last year, wrote off 2015, and committed to 2016.  Rebellion is slow, as Dominik Kraihamer has a cut tire, from one of the rocks on the race track.  Porsche pits, and they didn't take tires, according to Andreas Seidl, the team manager,

Audi ended up putting a new door on the car.  Marc Lieb pits the #2 Porsche.  No tires waiting.  Pit delta is 53 seconds, but if tires and drivers are changed, 20 seconds is added to the delta.  Rebellion are back on track and it's routine service for Christopher Hoy, who is a British cyclist.  Whoa!  Anthony Davidson, off the road, just a bit outside, to pass his competition. Marcel Fassler is running well in the #7 Audi, but, that car is a few laps down after their earlier troubles.  #46 pits from fourth in LMP2.  Joey Hand still leads in LM GTE Pro.  Three of the four Ford's are running in contention, as more issues arise for the #34 Race Performance car.

One of the Alpine's passes the MSR Ligier.  Ferrari is in the pits.  Not sure which one.  Ooh!  The #57 Corvtte is off the road, with Mark Patterson sharing with Johnny O'Connell and Oliver Bryant.  Hopefully he didn't get beached in the gravel trap.  The #92 Porsche has had some issues, and needed a hub change after the drive pins were sheared off.  This is four races, in 24 hours, with the four classes that race against each other.  Oh.  Chris Cumming in the #31 car is off the road in the Porsche curves.  The tires are toasted.  Chris Cumming is trying to back up, and now, he is on his way.

The two Toyota's had recent similar incidents.  Kobayashi lifted a bit, and loaded the axles on the car.  Christophe Tinseau pits the #84 car.  They have to put the car on the dolly's, and take the steering wheel off, to put a pole onto the steering column, lifting Sausset, into the car.  He has an automatic gearbox.  He cannot do this, with a coupe.  Only with an open cockpit Prototype.  Frederic Sausset, shares with Christophe Tinseau, and Jean Bernard Bouvet.  We've seen more LMP1 cars here at Le Mans in the past, but, we've got the most competitive field in a while.

The #31 ESM car is in pit lane.  Same for car #36.  This is the LMP2 leading Alpine of Gustavo Menezes, Nicolas Lapierre, and Stephane Richelmi.  Ryo Hirakawa leads LMP2 in the #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing entry.  Professional racing drivers, thrive, under pressure.  Gustavo Menezes has been doing very well, racing in sports cars.  Pit stop time, for G Drive Racing.  #26 had to serve a penalty for pitting, with the engine running.  That's a no no.  Neel Jani has done very well, as a Porsche driver, having run for the Rebellion team, just a few short years ago. 

What a difference a few hours makes.  No more rain, cool temperatures, and sunshine.  But, there's lots of debris on the road.  Audi has been racing a diesel engine, for a decade now, and have proven the cars are much cleaner, and they don't smoke, smell, or rattle.  Pit stop time for the Audi.  Fuel and tires, on this stop.  They have bright headlights, that have low power.  LED headlights.  Porsche is also setting up for a scheduled pit stop.  When you change tires, you change drivers, or vice versa.  Porsche #1 pits with Mark Webber at the controls.  Webber, out.  Timo Bernhard, in.

Bernhard is the longest tenured driver in this Porsche 919 program.  He's been coming to Le Mans for a decade, and came here, with Audi, years ago, on loan, from Porsche.  Kamui Kobayashi has to watch for slower cars.  Now, there were pit inquiries for #2 and #8 that could have caused a penalty.  Audi has already had issues with the #7 car that has had a penalty or two.  There are tons of rocks off line in the Ford Chicane.  One of the Ford nGT's makes a scheduled pit stop.  That's the #68 Ford GT and Sebastien Bourdais is racing now.  Scott Dixon is all over his team mate right now.  We are in twilight, in a transitional stage, between daylight and darkness.

When someone shortcuts the course, the rocks can fly onto the road, and create punctures.  Risi Competizione still leads LM GTE Pro with Matteo Malucelli at the controls of their Ferrari 488 GTE. 

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 4

There is a mixed bag of talent that will run the cars.  Bronze drivers will compete today, or tomorrow.  If you are running a P1 car or a GTE Pro car, it will be hard to see what will happen with the drivers in the P2 and GTE Am cars.  More pit action.  Frederic Sausset's #84 car pits, and so do some of the GT cars.  Richard Bradley leads LMP2 and we watched the pit stop, with Frederic Sausset, is his specially adapted LMP2 racer, to accommodate for his physical challenges.  The team has a device, to help Sausset out of the car, and he uses hand controls, to drive it, also using a wheelchair, when he isn't in the car.  Have no limits.  That's true in racing, as in life.  This is a different race than the 24 Hours of Daytona.  The field doesn't bunch up, and you don't see as many yellow flags.

With all the extra horsepower in a hybrid Prototype, you have to plan ahead.  You can be aggressive.  But stay in touch for the first half, and make your move, in the second half.  Run the pace.  But don't coast.  You cannot save energy.  These are near perfect race conditions since the rain has gone away.  In the lane now is the #36 SignaTech Alpine, shown in fifth in class, with Nicolas Lapierre at the controls.  For Manor, it's their third sports car race.  Tor Graves, Mat Rao, and Roberto Merhi at the controls.  Risi Competizione has Toni Vilander in their Ferrari, making their first Le Mans start, in six years.

We started this race in the wet, and tires were changed from wets to drys.  How will things continue to unfold through the pit stop sequences?  It is hard to get into a rhythm if the weather constantly changes.  Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella have wins.  Matteo Malucelli has experience, but hasn't won at Le Mans yet.  The Balance of Performance, needs to be closer.  Wouldn't it be great, if Giuseppe Risi's team, from Houston, Texas, get a great result, here at Le Mans?  The #51 AF Corse Ferrari is in the garage.  Porsche is leading overall.  Ford leads LM GTE Pro, looking for a win, 50 years after Ford won Le Mans, overall.

Porsche makes another scheduled pit stop.  Mark Webber gets into the #1 Porsche 919.  The crew has issues with tires, changing a few.  Mike Conway and Toyota have gone to the front of this field.  Conway has taken time to come to grips to prototype racing, after being an Indycar driver.  We watch Danny Watts, in the #42 Strakka LMP2 entry.  That car is a Gibson 015S Nissan.  Danny Watts shares with Nick Leventis, and Jonny Kane.  Keep in mind, these cars are the last open cockpit LMP2 cars we'll see before new regulations take form, next year.

We watch LMP1 cars working through GT traffic.  In endurance racing, do heads up driving.  Don't react to someone else's reaction as Matthias Beche chases Roberto Merhi.  Merhi has Formula 1 and DTM experience.  The track temperature is 23.9 Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit).  This is the longest dry run the teams have had all weekend.  Joey Hand is booking it, hauling the mail, in the Ford GT.  Car #25 pits.  This is the Algarve Pro Racing entry.  More about that car, shortly.  Joey Hand, is up on the Ferrari by 6/10ths of a second in terms of fast lap.  Two of the Ford GT's are battling.  Ryan Briscoe vs. Joey Hand.

Joey Hand is making just his second Le Mans start in five years.  Can Ford win Le Mans?  Pit stops continue.  Meanwhile, let's look at that car mentioned earlier.   That's the #25 Algarve Pro Racing entry, that was in the lane.  It's a Ligier JS P2 Nissan, in the hands of British drivers Michael Munermann and Christopher Hoy, and and the Frenchman with an Italian name, Andrea Pizzitola.  Kamui Kobayashi is closing on Mark Webber.  A few issues in LMP2 are the SMP Racing BR01 sliding off the road, and then, the #34 car, going off the road and almost hitting the tires!  More data on the LMP2 cars in a second.  We watch in replay, the Ford GT battle. 

Toyota in the lane, unscheduled, for the #5 of Anthony Davidson.  They had an issue with their tires.  Roberto Merhi also pits after a close moment in the Manor entered LMP2 racer.  Matthias Beche will take the LMP2 lead.  Track temperature is dropping slightly.  Lots of rocks on the road right now.  The gravel here at Le Mans, is very sharp, and the pieces are almost like arrowheads.  The #46 car pits.  Richard Bradley is leading LMP2 in the #47 Oreca Nissan.  The Oreca in LMP2 is faster in a straight line, than is the Ligier.  Toni Vilander now leads LM GTE Pro and problems for the #91 Porsche 911 RSR.

Back to those driver lineups for a moment.  Car #5 for Toyota has Anthony Davidson of England, Kazuki Nakajima of Japan, and Switzerland's Sebastien Buemi.  The sister car (#6) has Mike Conway of England, mentioned earlier, Stephane Sarrazin of France, and Kamui Kobayashi of Japan.  Sarrazin has also driven in factory efforts for Chrysler and Peugeot, in years past.  The #34 car in LMP2 is Swiss team, Race Performance, running an Oreca Judd with Switzerland's Nicolas Leutwiler, Shinji Nakano of Japan, and James Winslow of England.

Meanwhile, the #91 Porsche, is spewing steam and has a holed radiator.  Marc Miller and Leh Keen's car, has stopped.  They've wrecked the #89 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR.  Porsche's LMP1 effort now returns to the front.  It's Porsche vs. Toyota at the moment.  The sister #92 factory GT Porsche is in trhe lane as well for a standard stop.  Earl Bamber is being relieved by Jorg Bergmeister.  Marc Miller was all sideways when he wrecked, spinning the car around.  That car is substantially crunched with the right rear and the right front hitting the barrier.

We see the ByKolles CLM pitting.  Car #34 is continuing to have issues.  .Argy bargy in GTE Pro, as it's Marco Sorensen in the #95 Aston Martin, Tommy Milner in the #64 Chevrolet Corvette C7R and Davide Rigon in one of the Ferrari 488 GTE's.  Battles everywhere.  We've got action all over the speedway. 

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 3

We have seen Audi, with a turbocharger issue.  If the hybrid cars falter, will a private LMP1 car, or an LMP2 car, win Le Mans?  We'll have to wait and find out.  The #7 Audi is the car that had turbocharger issues.  Go to Fox Sports Go, for Ford a Corvette onboard cameras, as we watch Dirk Mueller and Sam Bird battle.  Ford vs. Ferrari, just as it was in the golden days of this race in the 1960s.  Mike Shank Racing had the fastest time for a Ligier.  ESM won Daytona and Sebring, and used the same chassis that MSR is running here at Le Mans.  There has been a flurry of GT pit stops.  The #68 Ford and the #91 Porsche had identical stops.  Joey Hand, Sebastien Bourdais, and Dirk Muller share car #68 and in the Porsche, Patrick Pilet, Kevin Estre, and Nick Tandy, last year's overall winner with Nico Hulkenberg and Earl Bamber.

SMP Racing has moved up nine places from where they started.  The Russian team has Vitaly Petrov, Kirill Ladygin, and Victor Shaytar.  KCMG is also running well with car #47, an Oreca Nissan.  Richard Bradley leads a team including Matthew Howson and Tsugio Matsuda, as cars fly through some of the fastest sections of this track.  While you read this blog, go to www.safeisfast.com, and check out a video on these LMP1 cars.  Hartley has stabilized the lap times.  Everyone is running in the 3:25 range.  The Ford GT driver's do 58 gear changes a lap.  Wow!  Richard Westbrook and Joey Hand said the Ford GT is running really well.  Three wide for some Ferrari's, and the leading LMP2 car, of Roberto Merhi in the Manor Oreca 05 Nissan.

The Ford has an edge on the Ferrari, and the Porsche and Corvette, are in-arrears of both.  The Ford and the Ferrari have the advantage at this point.  Through Indianapolis, to Arnage.  This track is the embodiment of the idea, that you want to go someplace.  Audi North America manager, Brad Kettler, is not here at Le Mans, because of an injury in a road accident.  But, he is watching the race and analyzes that we have seen a great race so far.  In the Prototype cars, there is a lot of complexity in their packaging, especially the plumbing and wiring of the engine, behind the bulkhead.

Audi #8 is in the lane.  Talk about the tires.  How does the driver feel?  You are getting into a rhythm, clicking off runs on full fuel tanks.  Giancarlo Fisichella now runs second in LM GTE Pro to Richard Westbrook. Ford vs. Ferrari.  Pit stop time for the Ferrari. The tuning of these cars is different than it used to be.  It's all about how the hybrid energy works, rather than mechanical things.  The #1 Porsche of Brendon Hartley, pits, from third.  Richard Westbrook and Giancarlo Fisichella are pushing each other and Fisichella is turning up the wick on the Ford's!

Before Ford won in 1966, they were there with a flotilla of cars, and the GT40's couldn't keep up with the Cobra Daytona Coupe's.  Ford is looking for immediate success with cars in the U.S. and worldwide.  We see Frederic Sausset's car driving around.  Sausset is a quadruple amputee, and he's still able to drive his race car, an Oreca Nissan.  Brendon Hartley is a thrill to watch in qualifying and the race.  Remember though, when Hartley was on his side, having clipped a slower Porsche, at Silverstone back in April.

Oh dear!  Car #51 is in the garage.  Gianmaria Bruni, James Calado, and Alessandro Pier Guidi, share the car.  Bruni is a monster in one of these Ferrari's and can drive the wheels off it.  Loic Duval is another wild man in terms of pushing for a quick lap time.  Just getting in the car, is an ordeal.  The car is sluggish, the steering doesn't feel right.  Accelerate.  The car is settled, and then, on the Mulsanne straight, your confidence comes back, and it's your car, again.  Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy, coming into pit lane. 

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 2

Audi and Toyota battle with each other.  The LMP1 cars have amazing acceleration, adding 500 horsepower off the corners.  Loic Duval moves around Timo Bernhard ass Andre Lotterer pits from fourth, going straight onto slick tires.  Frederic Makowiecki in the Porsche 911 RSR has passed Dirk Mueller in the Ford GT.  Loic Duval and Sebastien Buemi, are battling each other.  Buemi looks inside, and he makes the pass without going offline into the corner with no name.  Stephane Sarrazin crashed there, in practice.  The #64 Corvette pits for slick tires.  The Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE has pitted going for slick tires.  Mike Conway and Toyota now lead Le Mans.  Porsche has been abusing their tires.  You have to be very careful about how many sets of tires you have.

The #1 Porsche is in the lane for slick tires.  Aston Martin is running well in LM GTE Pro at the moment as has the #71 AF Corse Ferrari.  There are two GTE Am Corvette's here, and endurance racing legend Johnny O'Connell is running in one of them, as we see the Alpine's pitting and one of the Ford GT's as well as a Corvette.  We have completed 12 laps.  The #49 MSR Ligier Honda has to pit to serve it's penalty, and needs to fix a punctured tire, too.  Porsche #2 pits, and will have a driver change.  Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, and Marc Lieb share that car, as the #1 sister car has Brendon Hartley, Mark Webber, and Timo Bernhard.

This race has quite the driver lineup including former Formula 1 and IndyCar drivers, and active drivers from the Formula E series.  Porsche, Corvette, and Ferrari, battle for GT honors.  All we need here, is one of the Ford's.  Someone has lost a wheel.  What happened there?  Patrick Pilet, Giancarlo Fisicehlla, and Tommy Milner.  One of the Ferrari's has lost a wheel.  But, which one is it?  Not sure.  The run from Mulsanne to Indianapolis is the fastest on this track since the chicanes were put in on the Mulsanne straight back in 1990.  The #49 Mike Shank Racing Ligier Honda pits to serve it's penalty.

Andre Lotterer in one ofn the Audi's is now in the garage.  Brendon Hartley is aggressive through one of the corners.  The #60 Ferrari limped around this 8.5 mile track, but is now in the garage.  Emergency service continus on the #7 Audi R18 eTron Quattro.  Dark clouds are gathering, and we'll have more rain for another quarter of an hour, as Loic Duval has passed the Porsche.  The speed comparison betwen LMP1 Hybrid, private LMP1, and LMP2 is on full display, and we continue to watch this great battle between Audi and Porsche.  Audi now runs a battery for energy recovery with six mega joules, while the Porsche's still run the eight mega joule system.

Porsche has reworked the car and is using last year's battery pack that they won with.  Light rain on the front straight, and through Tetre Rouge onto the Mulsanne straight.  Le Mans is in the Sarthe region of France.  NASCAR Sprint Cup six-time champion, says the Daytona 500, the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500, the Baja 1,000, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, are all special.  Mike Conway has set fastest lap so far.  Toyota is definitely in the game.  But, the #7 Audi is still in the garage.  The Audi is now back on track.  But, they are five laps down.

Brendon Hartly is being hounded by Loic Duval at the moment.  Push the button, 500 horsepower from the internal combustion engine + 500 horsepower from the electric motors, and, whoosh!  These guys have only about 900-950 horsepower at Le Mans, but, it's still a lot.  The Porsche is the only car with two kinetic Motor Generator Units.  The Toyota's are stepping up their pace.  What can you tell your driver, except, "hey buddy, go for it!"  Mike Conway continues to hound Loic Duval as Brendon Hartley continues to lead.  The balance is in favor of Porsche over Audi and Toyota at the moment.  Patrick Pilet and Sam Bird, battle.  Pilet in the Porsche, and Sam Bird in the AF Corse Ferrari.

Patrick Pilet tries his best to get around one of the Aston Martin's.  The Ferrari has a run as we watch more Prototype action.  The Ferrari makes the pass on the Porsche into the Porsche curves.  The rain has stayed away.  The #67 Ford GT is still in the garage.  We see actor Brad Pitt.  Pitt could be involved in a movie about Ford vs. Ferrari.  We are nearly two hours into the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  For the moment, we are dry at Le Mans as Oliver Gavin chases Dirk Mueller.  Ford vs. Chevrolet is hot and heavy in LM GTE Pro, as we watch the #6 Toyota get squeezed by an LMP2 car!  There's no need for that nonsense.  There's plenty of room on track.

There are puddles in the grass beside the track.  Richard Westbrook in the #69 Ford GT has taken the lead in LM GTE Pro.  He shares with Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon, as we watch the #2 Porsche 919 make a pit stop. 

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 1

The summer of sport in France has the French Open, and the Tour de France.  But, it also has the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with three parts.  Beginning, in the early afternoon, the cars sped through the pines and fields.  In twilight, stripes fly across the road, into the darkness, and dawn comes, towards an endless stretch to the finish, at dawn.  12, 8, 4.  Magnetic force increases as the hours tick by.  Winning Le Mans, is the biggest accomplishment in sports car races.  Le Mans, defines sports car races.  It's the same and different every year.  Welcome, to the 84th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, at this 8.5 mile track.

This is the one, and the only, Le Mans 24 Hour race.  We have a record 60 car field.  Porsche won six straight races last year, after Le Mans.  All the factory cars, may be vulnerable this year.  You cannot fake it in racing.  Lots of action during practice and qualifying.  Pirre Kaffer had a fire in his Prototype on Wednesday.  Stephane Sarrazin crashed the Toyota at Indianapolis corner.  Audi also had a few wrecks.  On Wednesday, Neel Jani was going for his second straight Le Mans pole.  Thursday had rain, as even the safety car was spinning, with four-time Le Mans winner Yannick Dalmas, slide.

Leh Keen and Marc Miller, will race the WeatherTech Porsche 911 RSR as a duo, because their team mate, Cooper MacNeil, he fell ill overnight.  Le Mans is wet.  The drivers are hesitant as they move to the grid.  The rain on stopped cars is not good.  You don't want steam on your windows.  The Porsche's have done extremely well in qualifying.  But, these blokes are managing 1,000 horsepower.  A few years ago, there was a huge wreck in the rain.  There are three tire compounds.  We will have three safety cars for each 20 cars.  Slow zones caused trouble last year.  Let's hope that doesn't happen, this year.

Stand by for drama.  50 years ago, Ford won for the first time, but they are back at Le Mans, this year, with four cars.  You race to win, and, that's why Ford has returned.  We are very close, to the start of the race.  Ford Chip Ganassi Racing sees George Howard Chappel and Mike Hull, running each team.  Porsche and Ferrari will be competing.  Porsche has two of last year's overall winning drivers (Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber), back in the GT division.  Risi Competizione makes their first start at Le Mans, in five years, in their Ferrari 488 GTE.  Corvette is making their 17th start at Le Mans.

21 American drivers will start.  Of course, Cooper MacNeil won't take the flag, because he is ill.  Mike Shank Racing makes their Le Mans debut, but will have to take a penalty, for an engine change.  Le Mans is all about testing limits.  Luigi Chinetti drove all but 20 minutes, in 1949.  Cars have wrecked hugely here, and have lots of speed.  Very little total darkness here at Le Mans, but, when it is, it is really dark.  The race has started, as we are behind the safety car.  The teams and drivers have seen rain.  Let's check the conditions, make adjustments, and we'll get underway.

Watch out for aquaplaning off the road.  We will hear 30 year veteran race director Edoardo Freitas of Portugal.  He is a seriousperson who knows his job.  Here are some numbers.  14 laps between pit stops.  395 project laps distance, 3,300 miles, 25,293 gear changes!  Wow!  The #67 Ford GT has been in the garage.  They have an engine issue even before the race starts.  Will the car start?  The same thing happened at the 24 Hours of Daytona back in January.  Let's hope car #67 can get back out there.

1,650 corner marshals.  Many French marshals, ARE HERE.  The ByKolles CLM P1 01 is in the lane, too, and they had a fire in qualifying.  That car is shared by Simon Trummer, Oliver Webb, and Pierre Kaffer.  Michelin and Dunlop are two of the biggest tire brands in this field.  Lots of water around.  Audi's Lena Gade is telling Andre Lotterer to maintain tire temperature.  She will leave the team, after this race, for Bentley.  Will Bentley come back to Prototype racing?  Sven cars were sent to the back of the grid, due to drivers not being able to get laps in during night practice.

Krohn Racing is also at the back with Tracy Krohn, Nicolas Jonsson, and Joao Barbosa.  Extreme Speed Motorsports' car #30 of Scott Sharp, Ed Brown, and Johannes van Overbeek.  Those cars are usually sponsored by Tequila Patron.  However, France bans alcohol sponsorship.  So the cars carry the Paul Mitchell hair care product brand.  The conditions are changing, and you have the brake discs and a reverse motor providing resistance instead of power.  The gearbox on the #67 Ford GT is having gearbox issues.  Under yellow, we see three safety cars.  Right now, we only have one safety car there.

We have more celebrities at Le Mans than we've seen in many years.  The most fearsome section is at the Porsche Curves, as we have paving, and SAFER barriers there.  The privateer P1 cars and the P2 cars might be in contention for a win, if the factory Prototypes have issues.  Going through the Porsche curves at 150-160 miles an hour, it takes your breath away as a driver.  Car #67 is back on track, and it doesn't seem like there is active rain right now.  We have begun a journey, that will go through the night, and into the day beyond.  We have run under the safety car, for almost 20 minutes.  Rebellion Racing is taking car #12 into the garage for repairs. 

Work also goes on on the #60 LM GTE Am entry, from Formula Racing. A Ferrari 458 Italia.  The 1,000 horsepower LMP1 cars, they definitely can't use all that power, in this rain.  We await the green flag yet, as the light is brightening.  There could be clearing and sunshine for the next few hours.  Mike Shank Racing, still needs to serve their penalty.  They need to wait, and cannot do it under the safety car.  We have 60 cars, 180 drivers from 26 countries.  We have the SRT41 Morgan Nissan, have Frederic Sausset... a quadruple amputee, but he's able to drive the car.  He is lifted out of the car, by straps.

The drivers have lots of respect for Monsieur Sausset.  The #61 Ferrari 458 Italia just pitted in LM GTE Am, with Rob Bell at the controls, sharing with Weng Sun Mok and Keita Sawa.  The Ford GT gearbox issues, came under extended yellows at the 24 Hours of Daytona back in January.  Car #49 pits.  MSR is pitting, but they have not served their penalty as yet.  This race, is only just beginning, folks.  We've got a long, long way to go yet.  This is the first time ever that the 24 Hours of Le Mans has begun behind the safety car.  The downtime for a long run, with two drivers, is going to be tough.  MarcMillr and Leh Keen, will be driving.  Cooper MacNeil, he's got a Norovirus bug.  Leh Keen and Marc Miller have special dispensation.  Gunnar Jeanette was there to drive, but the ACO didn't approve him to drive.

The cars are easier to drive, but the pace is way more intense that it was when drivers ran as duos.  A couple years ago, Cooper MacNeil and Jeroen Bleekemolen ran as a duo, a few years ago.  Workers have been sent to the corners to check for puddling.  A green flag, is coming.  Our polesitters in each class are Neel Jani, Rene Rast, Dirk Mueller, and Rob Bell.  The sun is coming out as we are about to green at Le Mans as Neel Jani leasds the way.  Here we go!  No overtaking before you cross the line, and we are underway at Le Mans! 

Sebastien Buemi is in the lead Toyota, as the carsd sweep through Tetre Rouge and onto the Mulsanne straight.  Mike Conway is chasing the Porsche.  In GTE, a Ferrari passes one of the Ford GT's at 300 kilometers an hour.  Drivers look for grip, through the slowest corner at Arnage.  Diving through Indianapolis.  The Audi's are faster than the Porsche's.  Two Oreca's, two Morgan's, and two Gibson's, are the three teams in LMP2 with open top cars.  This is the last year of open cockpit cars at Le Mans.  We are close to the end of hour one, and green, at the worlds greatest sports car race.