Saturday, June 15, 2019

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 16

We've had a high attrition rate, and we had not lost a single car after the six hour mark of the race yesterday.  Toyota builds the 2.4 liter turbo V6 engines for this car in Kyoto, Japan, while the car itself is built in France as it has had a lot of influence of Hughes de Chaunac and ORECA.  Alex Brundle and United Autosport are under investigation by the stewards.  Irishman Ryan Cullen is at the wheel of it.  Matt Campbell, the Australia, is a Porsche Junior factory driver and won the Bathurst 12 Hours in Australia this past February.;  Thomas Laurent is in the pit lane in the #3 Rebellion.  Ferrari #51 is in the pit lane and so is Porsche #92.  Ferrari #51 is serviced and sent.  Richard Lietz leads Jan Magnussen in LM GTE Pro.  Kessel Racing from Switzerland, has been racing with Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting, and Manuela Gostner. 

Michelle Gatting is at the wheel right now.  Christina Nielsen from IMSA, did not make it to Le Mans this year.  The #31 DragonSpeed Oreca has made a pit stop, and one of the Ferrari's has just made a brake pad change.  Jose Maria Lopez is holding off Fernando Alonso right now.  Panis Barthez and TDS have both pitted in LMP2.  Jan Magnussen has the #63 Chevrolet Corvette C-7-R-.  He raced with Audi in 2003, the same year that their sister brand from Bentley was allowed to win the race.  Both BMW's are still in the race, but the M8 has just not had the race they've wanted.  Phillip Eng and Antonio Felix Da Costa.  Eng is carrying a tribute to Roland Ratzenberger, the Formula 1 driver who was killed at Imola in 1994, thre same weekend as Ayrton Senna.

Sadly of course, this is the final race for BMW and the M8 which will not race after this event is over.  Ford #69, Richard Westbrook at the wheel of it, forces his way past the Am Ferrrari which has gone off the road.  The stewards are going to ping you for that one, sunshine.  That was not a good move through La Chapelle.  Toyota #8 in the lane, and Kazuki Nakajima i9s into the car, replacing Fernando Alonso.  There may still be damagew underneath the floor on the #8 Toyota.  It has been a reverse of a year ago, as #8 has had all the problems while #7 has been running really well, a total contrast to Toyota's Le Mans in 2018.

Rinaub Dynas us anazubgm gavubg raced the Penske Porsche RS Spyder in the American Le Mans Series.  He has run at Pikes Peak and at the Nurburgring and set records at both of those tracks with the electric Volkswagen sports racer.  Jota Sport is back for thr 2019-2020 season which will start in a couple months.  Just eight cars for LMP1 and LMP2.  LM GTE Am will have new entries.  Jose Maria LKopez is in the pit lane for a scheduled stop.  Nicolas Lapierre has made a pit stop, a scheduled one.  Andre Negrao has taken over the Signatech Alpine, the Brazilian from Sao Paulo, Brazil, racing at Interlagos for a good chunk of his early career like all the great Brazilian drivers. 

It is 6:30 A.M. in France with eight and a half hours to go, as the Gulf Racing Porsche needs a floor change.  The #84 JMW Ferrari is also in the pits, outlining all the circuits they run on.  Wei Lu, Jeff Segal, and Rodrigo Baptista, sharing that car.  247 laps, 2,091 miles completed.  Ben Keating continues aboard the Wynn's liveried Ford GT.  Brake discs and pads can be changed at the same time with quick releases on the whole hub, and now, Mike Wainwright is off the road with the #86 Gulf Porsche that he owns.  He's stuffed it into the tire barrier and the #60 Kessel Racing Ferrari of the Italian trio of Claudio Schiavoni, Sergio Piannezola, and Andrea Piccini.

Egidio Perfetti has pitted.  He is in the art car, the #56, that he owns and he is a confectioner, a candy maker.  He is a Norewgian born Italian.  We have the sunlight and clear blue sky.  It'll be a lovely Sunday.  Ford #69 is back on track.  Richard Westbrook can rejoin under the Full Course Yellow.  Jmes Calado leads Richard Lietz and Jan Magnussen in GTE Pro.  Thomas Laurent is in the pit lane.  Any color you want as long as it's garish.  We have five Formula 1 Grand Prix races still to go.  The sun is finally up, but there's still eight hours of racing left.

Porsche #86 has just made a scheduled pit stop.  We are back to green flag racing.  Most of these blokes will be running a dark visor for the rising sun on this Sunday morning.  Olivier Pla and Pipo Derani are running really well.  Derani locks the brakes into Mulsanne corner.  Rebellion and AF Corse both make pit stops.  Again, it is Father's Day.  We watch the GTE Pro battle between Pipo Derani and Olivier Pla.  Ford vs. Ferrari.  This is the final race for Ford as a factory team at Le Mans as we have mentioned already.  Pipo Derani, another driver from Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Jules Gounon, and Oliver Jarvis are on that driver's strength as well.

The circuit is beginning to warm up now.  The racing conditions are ideal.  Blue flags should stay in sports car racing for safety's sake, because these cars are so limited in terms of visibility.  In the background, look, someone has cut the chicane on the Mulsanne straight.  Early morning sun is a distraction for the drivers as it climbs into the sky.  The Gulf Porsche is back in the race now.  It is cleaned and sorted.  Mike Wainwright is still at the wheel of it.  Pastor Maldonado takes two cars through thr Dunlop curves.  Maldonado is giving the car a good ride, he is becoming at home with sports car racing.

Roberto Gonzalez and Anthony Davidson are his co-drivers. 

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