There's a small bit of light in the sky now. It's 10PM, Central Standard Time in the U.S.A. and so, that means 5AM Sunday morning, French time. Toyota awaits #8 to hit the pit lane. But, Fernando Alonso is now 76 seconds behind Kamui Kobayashi in the sister #7 machine. #8s aero is not the best at all. The Slow Zones continue. Toyota #8 is into the pit lane. The big teams like Toyota and Porsche probably have large crews with multiple engineers, but, the trouble is for the smaller teams with smaller budgets. They just don't have the money or the resources to do that. Again, Toyota #8 has made another very efficient pit stop. 1,000 horsepower under Alonso's right foot, with hybrid drive and 4 wheel drive. The Hypercars are going to mandate the hybrid not being used below 120 miles an hour in the dry, and 140-150 miles an hour in wet conditions.
Arc Bratislava, kudos to them, are back up and running. More Ford's will be headed into the hands of Am class/privateer competitors, after Chip Ganassi pulls out of the factory operation. Ben Keating and company started with Chrysler and the Dodge Viper. Multimatic are also going to be involved with Aston Martin. Larry Holt and Scott Maxwell, based in Toronto, Canada, and in the United Kingdom. Jose Maria Lopez, former World Touring Car Champion is at the wheel of Toyota #7, the Argentine driver. Lopez is indeed getting into the car.
Aston Martin LMP1, Bentley Speed 8, Jaguar XJR9, Porsche 956/962, Nissan R391, Ferrari 330 P4, so many wonderful cars from the past. The Mazda 787B was run by Hughes de Chaunac, and designed by Nigel Stroud. Volker Weidler, one of the drivers, his career as a racing driver was ended by going deaf from the Mazda's shrieking rotary motor. Totally different from the thunderous rumble of the V8 Panoz that made the ground shake. There's rain in the pit lane it seems. Is it dawn at Le Mans yet. It is nighttime now, in the U.S.A. There is precipitation in the air, very light precipitation. Matteo Cressoni of Italy is in the #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari 488 GTE. Luis Perez Companc of Argentina sharing with Matteo Cressoni of Italy, and Matt Griffin from Ireland..
Porsche, Ford, and Corvette, it seems are in the pit lane for routine service. It is drizzling at Le Mans right now, as the sky is lightening. Poor Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen, as Le Mans is slipping from their grasp little by little after they won last year. James Calado and company are the only car to have made 15 pit stops. Larbre and Algarve Pro battle. Romano Ricci, son of the late Jean Louis Ricci, who raced in Group C2 in the '80s, running against Andrea Pizzitola, the Italian. Jack Leconte, has been running Le Mans forever, but Leconte might run his final Le Mans this year because of the way the LMP2 class is going right now.
It is getting more expensive and you can lease the Gibson engine, not buy it. The IDEC car, #48 is in the lane, while Jose Maria Lopez continues to race the Toyota, as we are in the middle of the magic hour with the light increasing here at Le Mans. Matt Griffin is being chased by Frenchman Come Ledogar at the wheel of the #57 Car Guy Racing Ferrari 488 GTE, the Frenchman is sharing with Japanese drivers Kei Cozzolino and Takeshi Kimura. Kimura holds the world record for drifting Ferrari F40's on snow. Come Ledogar is in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Europe.
Streaks of light appear in the sky at Le Mans. The dark blue hue of the sky, between dawn and sunrise. Are we going to get sunrise? Or is it too cloudy? Billy Johnson is at the controls of the #66 Ford GT and he is chasing Matthieu Jaminet in the #93 Porsche 911 RSR, the Brumos liveried car. Billy Johnson brings the #66 Ford GT into the pit lane. Billy Johnson is told to pump the brakes, and also, reset the fuel meter. Thomas Preining and Matt Campbell are battling for GTE Am honors with two Porsche's. It's Gulf Racing with team boss Mike Wainwright, and also, Dempsey Proton Racing. It is indeed game over for the ARC Bratislava. The car was ultimately undrivable. Thomas Preining will bring the Gulf Porsche to pit lane, but he is going to do another lap it looks like.
Ben Keating is still running very well. Poor Tracy Krohn crashed the Porsche he was renting from Dempsey Proton, and he may have injured his back, even though he was fine, his racing license was suspended for a week, so he, Patrick Long, and Niclas Jonsson, couldn't race. Is it proper daylight now? Well, the cameras make it look a lot lighter than it is. But, it is indeed daylight. Ferrari have changed their brake pads. The old signaling pits were at Mulsanne, especially during the Group C days. Neel Jani is in the Rebellion #1 car, and yes, he is doing Formula E with Porsche. But there are three clashing races for Formula E and the WEC. Other drivers will be leaving WEC and focusing on Formula E.
Soemone seems to have locked the brakes. The Toyota's are still smoking after pit stops. They haven't said a word about it. Toyota #7 is in pit lane. It is a regular tire change, and no brake pad change at all. Jose Maria Lopez stays in the car. The #38 Jackie Chan LMP2 car is in the lane, Monagasque Stephane Richelmi at the wheel of it. DRS was talked about for Hypercar, and the full regs are not published yet. We could see DRS, but it wouldn't do much for overtaking. There's far more overtaking in sports car racing and some people believe DRS is artificial. Daylight is coming, so changes on the settings are applied to the cars.
Jose Maria Lopez continues to lead this mtor race for Toyota as Mark Cole and Chris Parsons continue to take us through the opening minutes of daylight. Richard Lietz is 20 seconds behind James Calado in LM GTE Pro. Car #48m IDEC Sport is dinged with a ten second penalty for not respecting track limits, and they will have penalty time added to their next pit stop. Jose Maria Lopez is increasing the gap over Fernando Alonso. Thomas Laurent is a further three laps behind. Pierre Levegh in 1954, he tried to drive the whole race, and couldn't make it. The next year, in 1955, he crashed into Lance Macklin's Jaguar and ended up causing the worst racing accident in history in which 90 people were killed. Le Mans has allowed only three drivers unlike other 24 hour races like Daytona, Nurburgring, and Spa Francorchamps. Daytona is more physically difficult because of thye banking, and so is the Sebring 12 Hours because of the bumps of the airfield track.
A car spun off, and it's Alex Brundle, losing a wheel. We have debris at marshal post 33. All of the LMP2 cars are still running.
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