We hope Corvette will be back, and the COVID restrictions forced them not to come. Some great tributes to the Iron Dames for Iron Lynx. It is very strange for Oliver Gavin to not be at Le Mans. Jan Magnussen ran sixteen Le Mans events with Corvette Racing. AF Corse has a huge central command, but boy, they've had a torrid time with shock absorbers. Ben Keating has gone off the road in the #57 Wynn's liveried Porsche 911 RSR. Alessandro Pier Guidi is stuck between the two Aston Martin's. Very unusual to have lap gaps between the GTE Pro cars. The #61 Luzich Ferrari with the NART colors used as retro liveries, is great. Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt won Le Mans for Ferrari in 1965. That was Ferrari's last Le Mans win.
The sun is climbing into the sky. It's a gorgeous day, but we have been told a lot about rain for the last day or so. Porsche of course is using the colors of the Salzburg Porsche 917 run in 1970, driven by Richard Attwood and Hans Herman. Hans Herman says the car is still very much a part of his DNA as a person and as a driver. These two are still living and they are still historic racing and driving race cars. Such great races for the 917, not just at Le Mans, but at other tracks as well. Toyota #7 is in the pit lane. A huge legacy for Poirsche's and we saw so many great Porsche's from through the decades. Filipe Albuquerque is back in the #22 United Autosport car leading in LMP2. G-Drive car #26, in the lane for service. That's the Rusinov/Vergne/Jensen car.
JMW's #66 Ferrari is in the lane. So is one of other Ferrari's. Cannot see which one. Two of the Dempsey Proton Porsche's are in the lane. Today marks the final Hybrid era Le Mans race. Alexandre Coigny is at the wheel of the #42 Cool Racing Oreca 07 Gibson. Michelle Mouton, is the President of the Women In Motorsport Commission, and the commission has been around for a decade. She is also a World Rally Champion from the 1980s with Audi. Ben Keating almost clobbers the Iron Lynx Ferrari as the #29 Racing Team Nederland Dallara Gibson, is back in the garage again. The Gibson motors are normally bulletproof. That's a 4.5 liter normally aspirated V8.
Jota are closing up, but United Autosport also needs a pit stop, soon. Antonio Felix Da Costa gets into the car. More woes for Iron Lynx, spinning and we've seen a lot of spins at Dunlop Curve. We see the Dempsey Proton car, one of them, in the 2010 Felbermayr colors, as we lost Horst Felbermayr Sr. earlier this year, and his son, Horst Jr. is still driving. Rest In Peace Horst Felbermayr Sr.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horst_Felbermayr
Brendon Hartley is having some braking issues on the Toyota. It's a bugbear on the brakes. The old guard in Formula 1 are making no room for younger drivers, so the younger drivers are going sports car racing. We were wrong about the acronym of LMP. LMP, Le Mans Prototype. Nope. Nope. Lemon Meringue Pie. John Wolf, a friend of Mark Cole on Eurosport, had a Porsche 917, that was untested. It crashed in 1969. It was a horrible accident. The 917 Porsche aerodynamics were a total experiment. Rolf Stommelen was driving the 917 and it was so incredibly unstable. The ACO was worried that the car was totally unsafe. Rolf Stommelen really tried hard to keep the car under control. The accident for John Wolf was at the old Maison Blanche, Jacky Ickx, drove a Ferrari 512 through a river of fire and caught the fuel tank.
Miguel Molina is in the pit lane in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari. Steve McQueen said the 917 was a very safe car. They were space frame cars. The factory filled the tubes of the roll cage with gas. Test driver Frank Gardner said "if the pressure drops, I walk home." Gardner was racing a Chevrolet Camaro in the British Touring Car Championship and said the car was "as surefooted as a leper in a swamp." John Fitzpatrick had a Ford Escort or something, racing that championship. Of course, John Fitzpatrick went on to race Porsche's like 935s and 956s. Rebellion #3 is in the lane as we find out there will be fog in Ireland. None of us have had the excuse of it being Father's Day for Le Mans, because it's September, not June.
Ben Keating brings the #57 Wynn's Porsche into the lane. Antonio Felix Da Costa is stuck in traffic in LMP2. Felipe Fraga ran into a spinning car at the left hand corner after Indianapolis. The car needed a new bumper and new radiators. The sun is up for sure. Aston Martin #90 is in the pit lane. Mikkel Jensen says his first Le Mans has been tough and the prototypes are physically demanding compared to GT class cars. His body is sore. But he is not tired, oddly. We still have two Grand Prix distances to go, four hours and 15 minutes left on the board. It is 10:15 A.M. in France. We end at 2:30 P.M.
Gustavo Menezes has cut the fastest lap time for the #3 Rebellion even though it is a lap down to the sister car. Romain Dumas is in the #3 car. Three of the top four cars are in the 3:19 bracket as here is another pit stop for the #51 car. The track is perfectly rubbered in. We had some dew on the road, but never got any kind of rain whatsoever. The prototype cars don't change brake discs or pads and the sensors indicate high brake temperatures causing the brakes to wear down faster. There's no different feel to the driver on the pedal. Change the brake bias to the rear. The temperature is good on the rear, so remove the energy from the front. Road cars are split diagonally. A race car is split by the axles, for front and rear brakes and you change the balance and bias.
Power steering is the Achilles heel for the new Porsche 911 RSR-19 here at Le Mans. The #7 Kamui Kobayashi Toyota has had more troubles and even the race for the #8 has not been trouble free. Rebellion are solid, but we shall see. Romain Dumas is really pushing hard. He's going for it. 3:28.856 for Jean Eric Vergne. Personal best time in LMP2. 17 sets of tires for LMP1 and 24 sets for LMP2 as we watch Brendon Hartley in slow motion replay. Kevin Estre says there was little pace in the new Porsche. They've had power steering problems and had to take off the floor of the car to fix it, and there were more issues, and his car also had trouble with a taillight.
Jean Eric Vergne brings the #26 G-Drive LMP2 car to the lane. The trouble is on acceleration, and it is not due to lack of testing, but what will the FIA and ACO say? The car corners well. Porsche are suffering from extra ballast, 40 kilograms more than the Aston Martin's and the air inlet restrictor is really hurting them. The Porsche can carry more speed in the apx of the corner, and it is nimble, but on the straights it is getting blown away. Horsepower is the scoop. The 30 millimeter air restrictor is the same setup they ran at Spa Francorchamps, but Le Mans has longer straights. Losing the straightaway speed is what kills them in the race.
Dempsey Proton is in the garage with the #88 car. Again, Jackie Chan DC Racing was disqulaified with their #37 car after the alternator packed up, draining the battery. A team member went to the car, giving him a new battery and the ACO police reported it, and the car was disqualified. It was a battery. It was a Costas Los move. Costas Los, the great Group C driver in the '80s, from Greece. Alessandro Pier Guidi is still second in GTE Pro behind Aston Martin. James Calado ran second on the grid behind Gianmaria Bruni, a former Ferrari driver.
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