[Le Mans images by Regis Lefubure] Click any thumbnail below to view larger image w/caption >
17 June 2007 | Hour 24 | 24 Hours of Le Mans
a proud finish & unfinished business
Hour 24. The race close is a bit of an anti-climax. The safety car is out for the close and as the cars come around for the finish, the stands are once again filled with fans, tooting horns and waving flags and screaming for their favorites. The Peugeot has come in second, a brilliant start for their program. In GT1, Aston Martin takes the heavily favored Corvette team. I am totally delighted for my friend John Sinders, who put together the deal to buy Aston Martin from Ford; in his first race as an owner of Aston Martin, his team has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In GT2, the No. 99 Risi Competizione/Krohn Racing Ferrari 430GT has taken second. For 2007, Risi Comp has a nice pair of bookends: first at Sebring, second at Le Mans. Risi himself goes on Speed TV and gives credit to the competition, a typically gracious presentation. I see the smiles on the faces of the techs and drivers of No. 99, as they realize their honor in bringing home a car on the podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
There is a giant push to the podium and prize awards, but I have things to file and write and so I stay in the support truck. I am delighted for Schomann and Tracy and Nic and Colin and Giuseppe Risi and all the Risi Comp techs, especially Chris Riggs, the head mechanic. Well done, boys, very, very, well done.
It was everything an epic event should be and it was an honor to be here.
But…we’ll be back in 2008. We have unfinished business at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
17 June 2007 | Hour 23 | 24 Hours of Le Mans
driving into history
Hour 23.The circuit is positively drenched. It is so bad that safety cars are out. And still No. 99 drives on to history. Unless the lead car in the class goes down because of a mechanical problem, we are not going to snatch first. But the car behind us is feeling the same thing about grabbing second: unless No. 99 suffers a mechanical glitch, they’re not going to capture second. The rain is brutal and when the cars go by the pits, they toss up rooster tails, like unlimited hydroplanes did during the era when Miss Budweiser was the perennial Number 1 on the most dangerous liquid-based racing circuit in the world. Still, Schomman refuses to give the high-sign—he’s been here before.
Our garage is now jammed with people and friends: Krohn Racing’s group, Colin Braun’s family, Nic Jonsson’s supporters, Giuseppe Risi’s clients and friends; they are pouring into the garage to watch the final laps and see history. You can’t do a damn thing in these situations—something you probably did not know is that it is impossible for the people in the pits to even SEE the cars at Le Mans. For that, you have to be at the timing stand, positioned between the track and pit lane, or seated someplace else. Think about it: it is possible to come here, run a car for the 24 hours, and never actually see the car live unless you tear yourself way from the in-pits TV coverage and walk the circuit.
As we wait for the final minutes to count down, I hide out in the support truck, the place where I have found internet connectivity and a place to sit and write. I take a few minutes to scan the photography of Regis Lefebure, the team photographer for Risi Competizione. There is a huge sense of pride as I get a chance to check out his images, which define this race for Risi Competizione. Regis is absolutely the best photographer in sports car racing today and when I pair him up with Anne Ellen Geiger, who runs the Risi Comp site, it is just magic. Sometimes, you do best when you just let it flow and for this event, I have stayed on the sidelines and let those two shoot and edit and post. But whoa—this work is way past photojournalism. We have some art on our hands.
17 June 2007 | Hour 21 | 24 Hours of Le Mans
we do not blink
Hour 22. We do not blink. No. 99 blasts on through the rain, maintaining second position in GT2 Class. To the enlightened, a nice story is building. Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson, and Colin Braun are closing in on a podium at Le Mans. For Risi Competizione, the possibility exists that a first at Sebring in 2007 will be bracketed by a second at Le Mans. Schomman’s saying nothing. The garage, which had plenty of space at 7:00AM, is now jammed with friends and supporters and family. I take another walk, and try not to “Think the Unthinkable�…..
17 June 2007 | Hour 21 | 24 Hours of Le Mans
the crowd gathers
At Hour 21, the rain comes to Le Mans. We had been expecting it all weekend, and the weather odds were such that we expected it to come in earlier, in hours three or four. But, of course, this is Le Mans, and why not now throw yet another hurdle up as a challenge to those still left on the course: a blinding rainstorm. Add in tired drivers, uncertain circuit grip, and mechanical gremlins and the odds have just risen against anyone finishing the race. But on we go, driving into history through a blinding rainstorm, holding on to second place with the firm grip of a serious contender. The crowd continues to build in our garage.
17 June 2007 | Hour 20 | 24 Hours of Le Mans
now in the hunt
Hour 20. No. 99 remains in second. A Porsche, from IMSA Performance, remains in first. The new 997 911 GT3 RSR Porsche has yet to fulfill it’s promise on the ALMS Circuit where we race from March until October in the USA, but the IMSA Porsche is looking strong. And so is No.99. Four hours to go in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We’re very much in the hunt for a podium and despite the fact that everyone on the Risi Competizione team has now been up at least 36 hours, the garage is filling with friends and supporters to root No. 99 Home. No. 97 sits in the garage, the garage door down, it’s race finished. It’s a bit difficult to see that beautiful race car at rest, but……our other car is on the track and doing everything the right way. Can we make it to the end without incident?
17 June 2007 | Hour 19 | 24 Hours of Le Mans
retirement & redemption
Hour 19. No. 97 officially retires. Too many bumps and grinds. Officially, it’s the water pump. Racing cars are finely tuned instruments. We have the best techs in the business and the fact that they were able to send No. 97 out again after Jaime’s adventure early in the morning is ample testimony to their skills. But a racing car in a long distance race is a highly pressurized system—the car goes out, and as the race gets deeper into time, the systems (fuel, water, oil, brakes, suspension, etc.) integrate tightly and are working in their zone. When an interruption occurs—i.e. a shunt—and parts are replaced, the delicately balance of a closed mechanical system that was a Le Mans contender is interrupted and then it’s a bit of a roll of the dice if things will continue as they were before. For No. 97, it was not possible to return to the state of excellence that existed previously and the car is retired.
Redemption. No. 99 is now in second, as Le Mans asks for and is given due respect, in the form of retirements.
17 June 2007 | Hour 16 | 24 Hours of Le Mans
following the winning script
At Hour 16 of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Risi Competizione/Krohn Racing Ferarri 430GT, No 99, is circulating in fourth place while No. 97 has dropped to 5th place.
Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson, and Colin Braun are following the winning script to a “T�—circulating at a good pace, avoiding incidents, and delivering one non-dramatic lap after another. T. Krohn himself is turning some nice, tight laps, but the surprise is what happens when Nic Jonsson goes to work in the F430GT. Jonsson is racking up impressive times, without drama. He is cruising, and as No. 99 works it way up the list of challengers in GT2, No.97 is working its’ way down.
Risi Competizione is a two-car team. The reason one enters a two-car team (or in the case of Audi, a three car team) is racing insurance. One car goes down, the other car goes on. It’s the same brain trust doing the prep work; a different set of drivers doing the hard work on the track.
And so it is with No. 99. They’re holding onto 4th with 17 hours gone, while our boys in No. 97 have slid down to 6th place. And the car is rock-solid. Mark Schomann, the engineer for No. 99 is calling a brilliant race. He is calm, reasoned, focused. There are 7 hours remaining and Schomann now believes a podium is possible. But he tells no one.
Mark Schomann is a bit of a story on his own, and deserves some space and time. At the Houston Grand Prix (which Risi Comp won, for it’s fourth victory in a row in the 2007 ALMS season), Schomann was in charge of the No. 99 Ferrari. While the car was being taken out of the transporter, Schomann took a fall from on high, hitting hard and fracturing his ankle. He was lucky—he hit hard enough and fell far enough that if he had gone in head first, it would have been catastrophic. With the type of injury that Schomann suffered, anyone would have excused him if he couldn’t do the race that weekend.
Not Schomann. He gets the injury set, they put a cast on him that stop an NFL linebacker in his tracks, and he shows up at the track, pulls his shift, as always, and on Monday, has the entire ankle reconstructed by Dr. Kevin Varner, a very, very good orthopedic surgeon who happens to be a friend of the dealership and the team. Mark’s trademark is, not surprisingly, cool under fire. He is in his element now, 7 hours to go, a Ferrari to run, and three drivers who pay attention. This is going to get very, very good.
17 June 2007 | Hour 15 plus | 24 Hours of Le Mans
pay attention! say the ghosts
The best race reporter of all time was Henry N. Manney III, who wrote for Road & Track magazine in the 60s and 70s. Let me give you a short brief on Manney: he drove a Ferrari GTO as his daily drive. End of short brief.
The man was brilliant and what became in the early 1970s, the “new journalism� school of non-fiction writing (think Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe and Truman Copote before he fell off the writing wagon and decided to be a socialite) was home field advantage for Manney, who wrote the most brilliant coverage ever of a Le Mans race, his absolutely transcendent “Casey at the Bat� coverage of Ferrari vs. Ford GT (not the Ford GT40s, which Ferrari dispatched with ease but the big mother Mark IIs with the huge 427 Ford Blocks in them, driven by speed studs like Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt).
Manney covered racing in Europe for Road & Track. His style was such that he should have been writing for David E. Davis’ Car & Driver magazine at that time, but Car & Driver didn’t do much in the way of race coverage, which was where Manney’s genius was most evident. No one—to this day—has been able to equal Manney’s style and observational eye. I mention his name today as a sign of respect and to encourage all who love the written word to dig out some 1960s and early 1970s Road & Tracks for the sole pleasure of reading Manney. It is worth the effort. And yes, it was Manney (and Thompson and Wolfe and Davis with his essay that stated that the real worth of a Land Rover in the 1970s was to take it down to the liquor store for a case of gin) who lit the fires under your humble correspondent and inspired him to take up writing, at huge cost to familial relations.
Manney is the ghost who circulates Le Mans for me. He shaped the place, described it in all of its’ glory and pain, brought me to the circuit when I was thousands of miles away. This morning, I sense his presence as I break out of the gloom of No. 97 going down, down, down for the count. There is another story going on here, and it just might turn out to be the best one. “Pay attention� says Manney in urgent voicing from beyond the ether. And I do.
Throughout the race meeting at Le Mans, Dave Sims and Rick Mayer and Don Shaver and Giuseppe Risi have all hammered away on one point: to do well at Le Mans, one must keep the car out of the shrubbery, on the track, run a consistent race in terms of times, and avoid long visits to the garage to take broken things off and put unbroken things on.
17 June 2007 | Hour 15 | 24 Hours of Le Mans
the healing game
If you want to know the mood I’m in now, if you want to know what it feels like to have a goal you worked so hard to reach and to which you gave so much effort evaporate into thin air, disappearing with the speed of the shallow smile of a politician, I will point you to the opening bars of a modern classic, the John Lee Hooker and Van Morrison rendition of “The Healing Game�.
There’s a painfully beautiful opening set of bars, just a bass, an organ, and some deft guitar solo work, the light chords progressing into melancholy, as first Hooker and then Morrison sings, “Everything’s the same, and it don’t ever change….. Down those ancient streets, down those ancient roads, where nobody knows, where nobody goes. Back on the corner again, everything’s the same. It don’t ever change in the healing game.�
I don’t think John Lee Hooker ever took his very special form of boogie to Le Mans—nor did Van the Man-- but he sang of the place and the drama it can bring and the cloud it can drop on the seekers. Down the ancient roads. Where nobody knows.
Le Mans has done it again and I am stunned by this sudden reversal of fortune. We were up at hour 6.
In first at Hour 7.
In First at Hour 8.
In first at Hour 9.
In First at Hour 10.
In First at Hour 11.
In First at Hour 12.
In First at Hour 13.
In first at Hour 14.
In First at Hour 15.
But…it is a 24 hour race and things happen in the 24 format that don’t happen in the 12 hour format, no matter how tough your car, how resilient your crew, how focused your resolve, how quick your drivers.
Mr. Pierce meet Mr. Luck. He’s got a surprise you won’t like.
It was a beautiful run, professional, majestic, relentless, precise, metronomic. Without drama. Just the way we like it. Out in front and pulling away and pressing the advantage, because that is the Ferrari way, that is the Risi Competizione way, to go as fast as we can for as long as we can. That is who we are and what we do. We do not apologize for pulling out a three lap lead, for being 24 freaking miles in front of the closest competition. We press, even when we lead. It’s the way you race a Ferrari.
We love running at the front, where the air is clear and trouble in the form of potential overtakers is far behind. This is what we do. This is what we came to do. This is what we were doing when Melo spun out after hitting oil or antifreeze or coolant or who knows what that spewed from a car in front of him. Basic laws of physics applied and Jaime was instantly rotating at speed and hitting things as he addresses the stations of the cross. He managed to get back to the pits, a minor miracle.
In the back of our minds, and especially in the minds of the team’s brain trust of Giuseppe Risi, Rick Mayer, Dave Sims, Don Shaver, and Mark Schomann, the hurdles to be overcome were external ones, the ones for which we could plan but not prevent. Another car crashes into ours. A problem with debris which leads to a problem with tires. Oil on the track. An accident was always on the depth chart of possible dramas, but as the field thinned out, the chances of an accident drop simply because there are fewer cars on the course to collide with. And we have absolute confidence in our drivers—these guys are simply terrific and they fit the Risi Comp stereotype: fast, safe, and not accident prone.
An accident such as the one that captures Melo and No. 97 was always a possibility, of course, but it comes so quickly and with such finality, that I am a bit breathless, even though this scenario was definitely one of the unthinkables that was thought about. Not this car. Not with this driver—Melo, who never sets a wheel wrong. Not this way. Not at this time of day. Not when we had turned the corner from night into day.
I shake my head and walk out of the paddock, turning left as I walk behind the transporters and supply trucks that line the area behind the garages at Le Mans. I have to have some distance and fresh air.
As I walk, head down, I am reminded of what Team Manager Dave Sims, “Beaky� as he’s known to everyone in the racing world (and everyone in the racing world knows Beaky) had told me: “All the crap at Le Mans happens in the early morning�, he said at about 5:40AM. “Don’t know why. It’s weird. But that’s when it happens. Early morning. Every year.� Guy knows his stuff. Damn!
It’s cold out now. Cold enough that you can see your breath as you walk. It’s June and there’s a cloud in front of my mouth. I’m still in my red Risi Competizione fire suit, with a layer or two of insulation beneath the quilted surface of the suit, but it’s still brisk. Never noticed it before now.
Moving a bit quicker as I walk up the hill toward the tunnel that leads to the outside world and the small village of shops and restaurants and displays near the Dunlop Bridge, I look to my left and catch a glimpse of a couple of racecars going up the hill, engines screaming. A high-pitched wail catches my ear and then the No. 99 Risi Competizione 430GT, in Krohn Racing’s distinctive, fluorescent green, pops into view for a second and then is gone, light on its tires as it goes uphill and under the Dunlop Bridge.
I wheel around and head back to the pits. We have nine hours of racing left. Our Number 99 car is still in the hunt and anything can happen. There’s a lift in my spirits as the possibility of redemption recharges me.
Better get back to the pits. We are 100% still in it.
17 June 2007 | Hour 15 | 24 Hours of Le Mans
in a groove, and then...
Dawn is just making its presence known at this storied old race track and so I take a walk out of the pits just to see if I can get a glimpse of the sun rising. With the dawn comes hope and optimism—hope that the car will hold together and run without incident to the finish and optimism that it might grab a podium finish.
All through the night, the No. 97 Rosso Corsa Ferrari has hammered its way around the long, fast, Le Mans Course. Up the main straight, under the Dunlop bridge, over to Tetre Rouge, down the Mulsane with its two chicanes breaking up what was once the longest straight in motor racing, then through Arnage, a right hander to Maison Blanc, up through Indianapolis and then the swing and sway of the Porsche Esses at high speed and then again, back down the main straightaway.
The grandstands are empty as I walk. Only those who are the most rabid fans—and fans with a ticket but no other place to go for the weekend—remain, watching with sleepy eyes, standing up to stay awake, or just totally abandoning the fight against sleep and surrendering to slumber in the stands. Surrendering to slumber sounds like a very good idea, but it is morning at Le Mans, and one never knows when one might be back, so the walk continues, working up the energy, winding up, to write again and preparing for the day to come.
The No. 97 Ferrari has thus far run a very solid race. A passenger side door that wouldn’t latch correctly was replaced; there was much tire changing as the team tried to stay on the right side of the weather forecast. At approximately 4:00AM, the team came in for a pit stop that was a little out of sync with the ones which preceded it. I saw two of our techs, PK and Lee Storey, working very quickly and decisively through a slot in the back window of the No. 97 Ferrari 430GT to bleed the clutch, because driver Johnny Mowlem, a British ace who has lots of experience at Le Mans as well as working for Risi Competizione, was noting on the radio that “the clutch is soft�. Instead of removing the back window—which is normally required to bleed the clutch on F430GT, PK and Lee work through a pre-existing slot, where the clutch line has been routed, just in case it needs to be bled during the race and time is at a premium. Thinking the unthinkable.
Le Mans rules are very specific about how many people can work on a car at a time, especially when it is in the pit area. It is so important at Le Mans to follow the rules to the letter, because if one does not the penalties can be savage. At each pit stop, a pit marshall is present, with a clipboard, taking note of everything that a race team does that might be against the rules. There are over 25 different rules at Le Mans, each one an infraction that could result in a time penalty in the race or a disqualification. After each stop, the pit marshall hands out his grades; grade too low, too often, and you’ll likely be given the ACO equivalent of a trip to the Coach’s Office.
Risi Competizione is a mature, professional racing team. It would be an overstatement to say that the only result that interests us is winning, but that statement is truer than most people know. Risi Comp has won this race before, in 1998, in a Ferrari 333SP, a model that Giuseppe Risi literally rescued from oblivion by ordering and racing. Risi’s success with the 333SP prompted other teams to look at the car for their racing programs. When Risi bought into the 333SP (mid-engine, twelve cylinder, and the last purpose built Ferrari sports race car ), the production line had stalled at No. 18. By the time Risi Comp stopped racing, the production line for 333SP had reached VIN#40, as teams all over the world decided that the 333SP still had some life. How fast was the 333SP? Fast enough to lead a couple of hours at the 2002, 24 Hours of Daytona, before gearbox failure followed by a shunt put the car down for good. This is a race we really want to win and we have put a lot of effort into coming here and preparing to win. We have thought about the unthinkable and now we are spending a bit of time thinking about the thinkable—winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
There is a flow to every race and even though it’s early in the morning, the Risi Competizione pits are filled with optimism. The team has been leading the 24 Hours of Le Mans for almost 11 hours straight. The car is running like the very finely tuned and balanced machine that it is. The drivers are in a groove. Energy in the pits is high, even though team members have been up now for over 24 hours.
Jaime Melo is in the car when it turns onto the Mulsanne straight at approximately 6:10AM on Sunday, 17 June 2007. And then…
Crash.
Going down Mulsanne, with light levels low and speeds high, Melo hits an oil patch and the car is gone before he can counter-steer and get it back, rocketing into a barrier. . Although the car still runs, the damage is substantial. The radiator, nose, splitter and front bumper are all destroyed. Melo limps back to the pits, where the car is pushed into the garage, to seek repairs. It’s a miracle he got the car back to the pits, but the damage is more substantial than hoped. The two-lap lead that Melo had prior to the accident is evaporating by the second, as techs scramble over, around, and under the Ferrari 430GT to try and make it run yet again.
Forty five minutes later, Mika Salo takes the now-rebuilt 430 GT onto the track but he is on the radio in no time, communicating that the car is tough to drive and is oversteering. Back in it comes, for another quick check, and then Salo is out, leaving the pits like a man with something to prove on a race track. Within minutes, he has lost the car and done more damage to the once pristine Ferrari, with an ugly metal scar covering the passenger’s side. The team pulls the car into the garage, works to clear bodywork from rubbing against the wheels, checks out the water and oil supply, runs a quick wheel alignment test and then sends Salo out again. But he returns to the pits again, this time at 8:40AM and after a close inspection to find the source of his reported overheating. The 430GT that Mika Salo had hopped would bring him a victory, is parked and retired: the official cause of retirement is a blown water pump but it is more complex than that.
When Melo retires, the dream for the No. 97 car is over. A watchful observer could start to see energy drain from the shunt that Melo endured, but now with Salo and the No. 97 out of action, the techs who have been tending the car for weeks now drop a notch in both attitude and energy level. Before, they looked like people staying up late at night: now they have the look of people who have stayed up too late, too often. Hope and Optimism have left the paddock. Everyone is a little down.
16 June 2007 | Hour 6 | 24 Hours of Le Mans
hour 6, consolidation
Risi Comp’s No. 97 remains in first as Mowlem drives the team deeper into the lead, exercising stunning car control around the corners and chicanes of the fabled circuit of Sarthe. And now, in 6th place, the No. 99 Krohn Racing 430GT, with Colin Braun at the wheel. Fiona Miller, who handles Risi Competizione’s Press Relations in Europe and for Le Mans posts her 6th hour review of the race, which you can read on this site, for the official point of view.
There is no drama in any of this that is visible to the outside world; not surprisingly, this is the way team wants it. A professional race team doesn’t have much of a warm spot for drama unless it’s in a movie theater or on TV. Drama implies problems—a spin, a gearbox that needs replacement, a blown tire at the wrong time—and professional racing teams do not like problems. What they want to do is come to the circuit, set up the car to suit both the circuit and the drivers, check it once, twice, three, four times to be sure all is well, and then have the combination of car and driver do as planned and post lap after lap of increasingly quick times with no dramas or side trips to the shrubbery to slow things down. Repetition is good in professional motor racing; constantly having to make it up as you go along may work for improv groups but not for professional athletes and racing teams.
The sun is dropping over the horizon as it is, finally, sunset at Le Mans. I’m here; you’re there…but you won’t miss a thing if you keep reading. And yes, it’s OK to watch it on TV. Back, after the break!
16 June 2007 | Hour 5 | 24 Hours of Le Mans
and the band plays on
Hour 5. Risi Competizione’s No. 97 grabs 1st in class from a very game Autolander Sport 997 911 GT3 RSR. Johnny Mowlem cruises through traffic with envious car control, increasing the team’s lead while driving a totally professional, solid race. And in 8th spot—it’s Risi Competizione again, this time the Krohn Racing car with young Colin Braun, at 18 the youngest driver at Le Mans this year, behind the wheel.
And on they run, into the twilight, the low sun on the horizon seeking a path to earth through the trees that line the Mulsanne Straight, casting long shadows as blurs of speed and power cruise by, racing the light for the tiniest advantage on the track and a chance to be the Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
16 June 2007 | Hour 4 | 24 Hours of Le Mans
hour 4, moving time
Risi Comp’s No. 97 is now in second and No. 99 has moved up to 11th. Others are not so lucky: a Lamborghini Murcielago, running in GT1 against the Corvettes and Aston Martins, has dropped out after one lap. An R10 goes down in the first hour and a half, taking with it the hopes of winning Le Mans for Mike Rockenfeller, a fine young Porsche driver who was a very tough competitor in 2006 for Risi Competizione. Even Corvette is taking some lumps as their No. 64 C6R calls it a race, leaving drivers Beretta, Gavin, and Papis to wonder what might have been.
16 June 2007 | 6 pm | 24 Hours of Le Mans
first three hours
At the end of Hour 1, Risi Competizione’s No. 97 is in fourth place (two Porsches and a Ferrari are in front of it) and the No. 99 Ferrari is in 13th position, having lost a few spots when starting driver Tracy Krohn takes a spin (without damaging the car). It’s a long race. Leading in the first hour is the equivalent of leading in the first hour of a marathon—it’s a good thing, but not as good as leading in the 24th hour.
By Hour 2, the No. 97 car is in third and the No. 99 car has backed it down a bit and is running in 15th. Salo takes over for Melo in No. 97, and Jonsson takes over for Krohn in no. 99.
In the third hour of the race, Risi Competizione is fourth with No. 97 and No. 99 is back to 13th. Salo is driving smoothly and quickly and without incident. No team owner or manager could ask for more. The situation both on the track and in the pits is starting to settle down, as the nervous energy of anticipating a big race is replaced by the professionalism of actually running one.
16 June 2007 | 3 pm | 24 Hours of Le Mans
it’s go time
3:00 pm, It’s Go Time. The cars roll off the grid for the formation lap, right on schedule, and take a pace-car led lap of the 8 mile plus circuit. The crowd, sensing the start of the race from the rolling pack of thunder that is working its’ way through the French countryside, is scrambling to take up a position to see the start. There are 50 cars in the race and the noise shakes the area, as fans run up stairs to get to the top of the grandstand, jump over barriers to find their seats, gather around the pits of their favorites or duck into one of the many corporate and personal suites at Le Mans.
As the cars move around the track, the sound system on the main straight starts to play build up music—catchy, dramatic stuff that gives the audible cue that the show is about to open. The music starts with a bit of fanfare, then moves into rising chords and finally edges into a heavy-metal melody as, right on cue, the LMP1 cars cross the start/finish line, the green flagged is raised, and, as they don’t say in France, it’s time to rock and roll.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is billed as the world’s greatest endurance race and that it is. Nothing else matches it for spectacle, tradition, or demands on teams. Even the starting time—3:00PM in the afternoon (usually 4:00PM but it was moved up this year one hour because of the French elections) is tough. By starting at 3:00PM, the body clocks of drivers and team members are tested to their limits. For team members, it is not the 24 Hours of Le Mans but the 36 Hours of Le Mans. From 3:00PM the car races into sunset at 10:30PM, then through the night, and when the sun comes up tomorrow monrning, there will still be a very full day of racing to contend with. It is often said that the race to win Le Mans starts in the last six hours but I have a different theory.
Racing at Le Mans requires endurance in every single category of operations and the race on the track is just one of them. A team must arrive early (at one time, they had to spend a month in Le Mans before the race), persevere through rule changes and communications difficulty, maintain economic liquidity while spending tens of thousands to be at Le Mans and race, and recuperate after an un-ending series of long days and short nights. Much of the endurance at Le Mans is expended in just getting to the starting line and then…there is the race to be won. It takes a toll on everything, every one, and every element of a program.
The first hour of the race for Risi Competizione is marked by frequent pit stops for No. 97. The first pit stop comes about because the passenger side door on the car will not stay shut—a minor problem at 25 MPH, a huge one at 185 and change. Jaime Melo, who opens the race for Risi Competizione, pulls into the pits, gets more fuel and a new door and squeezes out onto pit lane, then back into traffic and the race. He comes in again twice more in the next thirty minutes, as Melo, Team Engineer Rick Mayer, and Team Manager Dave Sims play Texas Hold’em with tires and weather. Off come the slicks, on go the rain tires in one stop. Ten minutes later, Melo is back looking for new rubber: off go the rain tires, on go the slicks. These stops eat up a bit of time (we started third on the grid in GT2) but keeping the car fast and safe under changing conditions is most important. To win a 24 Hour Race, you have to finish.
16 June 2007 | 1 pm | 24 Hours of Le Mans
no brown shoes with a tuxedo at this party
Le Mans is a place that prizes “presentation� and this is not a party where one wears brown shoes with a tuxedo. Every aspect of a team’s “presentation� is constantly reviewed by ACO officials: uniforms, garage appearance, pit equipment, timing stands, and on and on and on.
At about 1:00PM, all the cars are gridded; it is quite a procession. From the television coverage, which typically starts when the race starts or just a few minutes before, one sees the cars all nicely laid out on the grid, but that is not even one-fourth of the fun of the gridding process at Le Mans. One team after another pushes their car out of the garage and onto the grid, technicians and managers and engineers leading their car out onto the circuit, like the handlers of a prize fighter before a championship fight. Each car is polished and cleaned until it shines, looking out over the grid, one sees row after row of the most sophisticated sports cars in the world, gleaming in the sun like mechanical diamonds.In 24 hours, the survivors will be unrecognizable from the road grime and brake dust, and carnage that found its’ way onto the vehicle, but for now, they are perfectly outfitted for the most prestigious sports car race on earth.
Le Mans is a place that prizes “presentation� and this is not a party where one wears brown shoes with a tuxedo. Every aspect of a team’s “presentation� is constantly reviewed by ACO officials: uniforms, garage appearance, pit equipment, timing stands, and on and on and on. As the teams go past with their cars and drivers and techs, there is a palpable sense of optimism, hope, and pride. Every team here is hand-picked by the ACO; you don’t just enter Le Mans, you are invited to enter. It is an honor to make it this far.
As the cars take their position on the grid, the stands break into cheers and horns blare and toot as flags are waived. The French are pulling for Peugeot and all French drivers; the British for Aston Martin; the Americans for Corvette and their all-conquering C6R race car; the Italians for Ferrari. There are fans from every part of the world and they are here to not just be at the race, but to live the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It is a cacophony of support, bursts of cheering breaking loose from the massive stands fronting the main straightway and crashing down on the drivers and techs and those in the pits. It must be experienced to be believed.
16 June 2007 | 9 am | 24 Hours of Le Mans
pomp, tradition, and circumstances
Race day at Le Mans is full of pomp, tradition, and circumstances. We pour into the pits early in the morning, open up the pit lane doors, and starting re-checking everything on the car. At 9:00AM, there is “Warm Up�, a chance to take the car around the circuit a few times and see if all is well in every department. “Warm up� is also a chance to recon the circuit, with the car in race trim and ready to go. If one goes out and doesn’t feel the tires are quite race ready for conditions, a quick visit to the pits will solve the problem. It’s the last chance to get it right before the race begins.
Prior to the 9:00AM warmup, a group of Bentley and Aston enthusiasts get to drive the track. The cars range from 1930s Bentleys like the ones driven to victory here by the famed “Bentley Boys�—loud, open, positively ancient vehicles painted a totally committed shade of deep green running on tires so skinny they appear to come off a large skateboard. There are other, more recent Bentley’s on the track as well; I spot a recent vintage Red Label Arnage, it’s passengers touring with the windows up and the heater on in the cold, misty rain (the 1930’s Bentley drivers are wearing rain coats and hats with amazingly wide brims), probably playing some symphony music in the background and looking as warm as toast that just popped out of a four-slot Dualit toaster.. A very nice DB4 blasts by, followed by the now-in-production Bentley Continental GT, their first really big hit in terms of car designs in several decades. Rule Britannia (even if the Continental GT was designed on the Audi A8 platform).
As the legends drive off into the mist, I turn back to the pits as we are now just minutes from warmup.
Warmup changes nothing. We go out on slicks (high grip tires with no grooves) and we go to the grid on slicks. Serious work is done, however, on the brake pads. One set of thick pads is “bedded-in� for the race (i.e. used in race type conditions) and then the car comes in and yet another set of pads, designed for use in the second half of the race, is given the same treatment. Think about the unthinkable and there’s a lot of think about.
16 June 2007 | 7 am | 24 Hours of Le Mans
a sport for insomniacs
At 7:00 AM, the team gathers in front of the hotel for the van ride to the track. It is hoped that everyone got plenty of sleep, because the next time these team member see a bed, they will probably have to be given an instruction manual on how to use one. It’s going to be a very long and sleepless weekend. If you’re an insomniac, endurance sports car racing is your sport.
15 June 2007 | 6 9m | 24 Hours of Le Mans
prep school confidential
Want to run at Le Mans with the big boys? Get a pencil and some paper and let’s go to Prep School.Here’s what it takes to prepare a car to Risi Competizione standards. This the actual job list as performed on Friday, 14 June 2007, in preparation for racing the 24 Hours of Le Mans, for Risi Competizione Ferrari 430GT No. 99, driven by Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson, and Colin Braun:
Check Front Uprights
Check/replace brake discs and pads
Bleed brakes and clutch
Check and adjust shock absorbers
Check fuel balls (these are small plastic balls that go into the fuel tank)
Remove rear cover and check gear box
Clean radiators and condenser
Silicon floor seams
Inspect under-dash
Check seat bolts
Charge Battery
Check water hoses
Check Brake Reservoirs
Check Rear Uprights
Loctite wing bolts
Lube hubs and Spare nuts too
Pressure Dampers
Spizz shock collars
Charge A/C(Le Mans racers are now required to have air conditioning for drivers)
Fill windscreen washer bag
Prep tearoffs for windscreen
Repair engine floor
Silicon Floor Bolts
Repair Screen in front bumper by tow hook
Drill Drain holes in rear bumper
Nut and Bolt engine bay and boot area
Extra springs for muffler
Inspect cockpit wiring in ECU areas, as well as radio plugs and fuse panel
Inspect all wishbones for play or super sloppiness
Rear Bar set full soft
Inspect Tail lights
Prep 7mm Gurney & 10mm Gurney if wet
Remove dampers for inspection
Change starter
Change AC wire
Bleed LF Shock to test dynamics
Finish Spare Door
These jobs were divided up among all the crew members for the No. 99 Ferrari and when they were finished, each crew member initialed the job—taking responsibility for their work. This is true team work, as everyone depends on everyone else doing their job to perfection and, equally important, taking responsibility for it.
The crews finish off their job lists relatively early (6:00PM) and we pile into the vans to go back to the hotel, have some supper, and pre-load on sleep. The car has been prepped and is ready to race.
“But I'm in tune
Right in tune
I'm in tune
And I'm gonna tune
Right in on you
Right in on you
Right in on you�
--Getting in Tune, The Who.
15 June 2007 morning | 24 Hours of Le Mans
the end of the 'rabbit' strategy
This year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans will test traditionalists and think tankers alike.
During the heyday of the cold war, one of the most influential companies that worked in and around the industrial-military complex was a think tank known as The Rand Corporation. The Rand Corporation’s brief was to “think about the unthinkable�; to achieve this open-ended but almost impossible mission, the Company brought in the brightest minds in the world. Among the Rand Alumni are a soccer team’s worth of Nobel Laureates, including a few you probably know extremely well: Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State, famous for opening up diplomatic relations with China and inventing “shuttle diplomacy� to deal with the problems in the Middle East, and Paul Samuelson, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics and no doubt wrote your textbook on that topic if you took Econ in College. Blame him if you didn’t get a full understanding of modern economic theory.
Managing a racing team at an event like Le Mans is a little like the Rand Corporation’s early brief: think about the unthinkable. The Fellows at the Rand Corporation postulated theories and scenarios about nuclear warfare and strategies like MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). The racing team management at Risi Competizione must do the same thing: think about the unthinkable, but in an endurance racing context when planning for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In practical terms, this means all eventualities including the most unlikely ones must be planned for. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, for example, have to be provided for the crew; on non-race days, the crew will go the caterer for the event, sit down, and enjoy a meal. On race-days, the meal must come to the team and it must come with napkins, plates, utensils, drinks, fruit, water, energy drinks, chocolate, bananas, oranges and apples and it must come in small, bite-sized, meal-sized, and I-have-not-eaten-in-six-days portions.
The team managers must also plan for tire usage as well as what types of conditions and which type of tire to use in those conditions. For bodywork that suffers an incident: which part of the body, and does it come off to be replaced or is the damage simply pulled out so the car will function and can later be repaired after the race. Uniforms get a lot of thought: what to wear while traveling, while working on the car, when in the pits during a practice or race (firesuits); after the race; in very hot weather or very cold weather. Oh, all this stuff needs to be washed, too. Or in the case of firesuits, drycleaned. Additionally, each piece of the uniform kit has specific requirements for sponsor representation.
The same type of process applies to the strategy used during the race. A decade or so ago—before cars were as reliable as today’s modern race cars—race car strategy was a key part of endurance racing. A common strategy in the “good old days� was to have a two or three car team and to send one car out as the “rabbit� , to go as fast as it could in the hopes of luring the competition into trying to run with "the rabbit", which would then have the hoped-for result of the car chasing the rabbit breaking down and dropping from the race. The “rabbit� also typically went down, but that would then leave—theoretically—the second and third team cars, which were running at a conservative race pace, to cruise home to the win.
That strategy is now deader than a swing band on the hip hop charts. Here’s the way it works now: go as fast as you can as long as you can and don’t count on the other guy breaking down because he probably won’t, as he did just as much advance testing and development work as you did. This means that races like the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, places where strategists held sway for years, are now flat out sprints to the finish line. Does that mean the car is going 10/10ths the entire time, or even 11/10ths some of the time? No. It means that a race pace is developed that is quite fast and totally sustainable and will win the race, given the known parameters of the competition. Another area of strategy is pit stops—take them at the right time, and no time is lost; take them at the wrong time and you can go backwards on the placement chart. Driver selection is another interesting area of strategy—who starts, who finishes, who qualifies, who’s best in the rain, best in the dry, best on a surface as slick as a Hollywood deal pitch. Engine mapping is another form of strategy: do you want fuel consumption or power. Or both. And….uh…what do you want when?
There’s quite a lot that goes into running and winning a major race and Team Managers, Engineers, Owners, Drivers, and Techs are constantly debating race strategy and changing race strategy depending upon what happens in the event. Even when one spends lots of time thinking about the unthinkable, sometimes there’s an unthinkable that didn’t get quite enough attention and that’s the one thing everyone then thinks about—did we miss one?
Hopefully not, but this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans will test traditionalists and think tankers alike. Because of the weather. The weather is a big thing this weekend. It’s rained multiple times over the last few days and so tire selection is going to be key. There are a lot of variables in tire selection for Risi Competrizione’s cars and that means both more opportunities to get it right (good) or wrong (bad).
15 June 2007 morning | 24 Hours of Le Mans
not just a race, it is an event
Part Indianapolis 500, part Super Bowl, and part World Wrestling Federation Smackdown.
We get a rare late morning (8:00AM) start to the track. Today, the emphasis will be on prepping the car for the race tomorrow. Everything will be checked, re-checked, and re-set. There is no practice today and the next time the car runs on the track will be the 9:00AM warmup on Saturday, morning, race day.
The crew is relaxed and moves through the day in a methodical way. Fluid are drained and replentished; brake pads replaced; brake rotors checked; gears pulled out of the gearbox to check for cracks; spares organized; tires marked; compressed air tanks—used to lift the car from the ground when the team needs to work on it—are refilled; tools cleaned and lubricated. The job list for the crew of each car is endless. This is the most relaxed day of the race; after being in France for over three weeks, they are ready to get it on and race.
During the afternoon, I wander the race grounds. Le Mans is not just a race, it is an event. Part Indianapolis 500, part Super Bowl, and part World Wrestling Federation Smackdown. The entire circuit is covered with pavilions, team headquarters, caterers, team transporters, supplier vans and buses, official cars, media cars, safety cars, and every possible type of motorcycle. There are outdoor cafes and shops that sell everything from toy models (BAM) to art (F1 Group) to Peugeot Team Gear (the new Peugeot 908 diesel is on the pole but the Audi R10 diesel is still favored to win overall). Xbox360 is on site with a massive display, featuring multiple plasma screens and driving seats to show off the new Forza2 Motorsport game—I stop in and watch for a few minutes. The game looks terrific; Forza2 Motorsport is one of the sponsors of the Risi Competizione team (car No. 97 at Le Mans, car No. 62 in the ALMS series) and so I take a few shots to send back to Alan Hartman, Che Chou, and our friends at Microsoft and Turn 10 Studios, the developers of the game. Turn10 Studio runs a blog on Forza2 (released in May; check it out, it’s mind-bogglingly terrific and crosses the line from game into racing simulator) and so they often run photos and interviews of our team. Great to see the fans go crazy over the game.
There are outdoor restaurants, car manufacturer displays, tire manufacturer displays, a disco, and even upscale luxury stores from Rolex and Hermes. If it involves motorsport or the upscale motorsport lifestyle, you can find it on display or on offer at Le Mans.
Walking out of the boutique and shopping area, I turn right and go into the car park for the vintage Le Mans racers. It is as if a door has opened into the past of the race. I walk past a stunning P4 Ferrari, one of the most beautiful cars ever designed. There are a few GT40s from the Ford era here, as well as a GTO Ferrari, a pair of 275GTB Ferraris, a racing Lusso, a rare 250 LM in David Piper’s distinguished green colors. I spot an old favorite—one of the Cobra Daytona Coupes. How appropriate. The Daytona was designed by Peter Brock when he worked with/for Carol Shelby’s COBRA racing operation. It was one of the first aerodynamic designs and remains very iconic. Beautiful but very purposeful. On Thursday, I had enjoyed a lunch with Pete Brock and his wife Gayle, who are here to cover the race (and our team). That’s one of the really interesting things about Le Mans—it brings the legends back together at least once a year.
The day ends surprisingly early, as the cars are put up for the night, the garage area secured, and everyone piles into one of the team vans for the 20 minute ride back to the Comfort Suites hotel. At the hotel, everyone unwinds on the outside patio. It’s “go� time and Risi Competizione is ready to compete at the 24 Hours Of Le Mans.
Bedtime is the earliest it’s been in a week, 10:30PM. Crew call is 6:00AM. From that time forward until 3:00PM on Sunday, 17 June 2007, the focus is only on winning the race..
14 June 2007 afternoon | 24 Hours of Le Mans
perfect and ready to go
In 1957, Mahalia Jackson performed at the Newport Jazz Festival. Just as she started to sing, the skies opened up and rain poured on the crowd of what was, at the time, the biggest jazz festival in North America. 
Without missing a beat, Jackson moved into a song called “Didn’t It Rain� with an introduction that said “If you all want to stay in the rain, I’m just getting warmed up�, and then, with her big, booming, gospel-strength voice, she dove into the song and blew everyone away, creating, in the process, one of the classics of recorded live performances (Mahalia Jackson, Live at the Newport Jazz Festival, 1957 for those taking notes).
That mood was more or less present at Le Mans and in the Risi Competizione pits today. In the afternoon, after installing new engines, tightening and tweeking, the rain—which had alternately been on and off the accelerator all afternoon—decided to just let it flow and a drenching, soaking, cold downpour took up residence over the famed circuit.
It can rain during the race or it can be dry, and so the team takes the weather in strides and sends out both cars to test tires, traction, and setup. Jaime Melo, one of the drivers of the No. 97 Ferrari 430GT (Salo/Melo/Mowlem) did a few circuits and pronounced the setup “perfect and ready to go�. The No. 99 Krohn Racing Ferrari went in and out as well, as each driver took his turn working his way around the track in the downpour.
At the end of the first practice session, the No. 99 car was brought in and parked for the night; the set information from the No. 97 car would be transferred over to No. 99 on Friday morning. The No. 97 Risi Competizione Ferrari 430GT went out just for a few laps in the second, night prace, and then returned to the garage; the setup was done and there was no reason to risk the car further by tempting fate on a wet and often treacherous track.
After a management team debriefing and a checkout of the car, the techs of No.97 packed it in and went home for the evening, ending their night at midnight, vs. the typical 1:00AM or 12:00 Midnight of previous days.
Tomorrow, Friday, is an “off “ day, with no practice scheduled. With that in mind, crew call for the morning is set for a rather luxurious 8:00AM!
14 June 2007 morning | 24 Hours of Le Mans
the race is run, rain or shine
That little rain delay stuff that NASCAR and the Indy cars go through does not apply here; these cars will run in the rain and they will be expected to run at top speed. And so, rain tires becomes a hot topic of conversation.
We leave the hotel early and arrive at the track at about 8:00. The traffic patterns for Le Mans have been changed from last year, so even the most seasoned visitor is having a problem getting around.
There’s another slowdown that has huge implications, however: the ACO (Automobile Club L’Ouest, the organizing body of the 24 Hours of Le Mans) has gone to a new system for credentials. Each set of credentials or badges (called “hard cards� by the American racing professionals because the credentials the pros use are permanent, plastic, and not the temporary one-race types used by spectators and visitors) has a unique bar code on it. Each vehicle entering the circuit (you must, of course, have a special pass to get into the circuit and park) is required to have the credentials of every person in that vehicle scanned. This is to prevent the old Le Mans Custom of buying one set of spectator tickets and then passing those tickets out through the fences to another set of friends so they can get in. But there’s more: the tickets have to be scanned on the way OUT of the circuit. If a ticket pops up more than twice on the computer, there will be a problem. Le Mans is a special event, and the organizers certainly have the right to prevent ticket piracy; the big problem, however is the amount of time the scanning will take on the day of the race. It is possible to have well over 300,000 people at the race, and each one of those tickets is going to have to be scanned, coming and going. Traffic along the access roads into the circuit, already tough, is going to be brutal.
The techs for both cars have a rigorous schedule for the day. Both cars are getting their “race “ engines today, and so that means two engine changes will take place in the garage where the 430GTs are serviced and prepped for the race. Out comes the portable crane used to pull one engine out and put another one in; broken down for shipping, it’s assembled by two team members while two other members roll out the red “ANVIL�brand armored shipping cases containing the two, fresh, race engines. A racing engine has a finite life, measure in miles or kilometers; after that life span is reach, the engine must be replaced (and ultimately rebuilt by Ferrari and/or Michelotto) or the engine will fail or, even worse, blow, which requires a far more expensive rebuilding job than one done on schedule.
The heart of a Ferrari is its engine—always has been and always will be—and Ferrari engine blocks are generally thought of as bullet proof. We have rebuilt engines from cars manufactured in the late fifties and early sixties at the dealership, replacing the worn out bits with new ones and doing a bit of serious clean up work on the block. The engine of a Ferrari is also unique in that among road cars, Ferraris have typically been the ones that rev highest. The 360GT had a redline of over 9000 RPM and the 430GT’s redline is still high at 7000 plus RPM. The difference between the 360GT engine and the new 430GT is not only a much broader torque band but the use of chain drive for the cams vs. synthetic belts. The new engine is more efficient in its delivery of power. To the observer, the signature of a Ferrari engine is its sound—nothing sounds like a Ferrari at speed, be a 12 cylinder engine or the four cam eight cylinder’s found in the 430GT.
Within an hour and a half, both cars have their race engines installed with all connections checked and double checked. The engines are then fired up, with each team’s techs looking over the engine and all the connectors carefully, with flashlights, to see if there are any leaks. Simultaneously, the data and electronics gurus for both cars, Don Shaver for No. 97 and George “Andy� Markham for No. 99, have plugged in their laptops and are pulling data off the on-board computers to check the performance parameters, engine mapping, and to see if there are any anamolies in the engines performance. A second set of technicians, from Michelotto, then move in to check and re-set the engine mapping. The engines are rev’d quickly and, then with a throat-clearing and very loud blip, shut down. As soon as the engines are turned off, another set of techs moves in to check the oil and see if any oil has been lost. With indications from all parameters good, the team then starts the prep work for the afternoon and evening sessions.
Today’s schedule will be much like yesterdays, but with the prospect of even more rain in store.
There will be a practice session from seven until nine PM and then another one from ten to midnight. During the way, there are rapid, massive downpours of rain.
It makes no difference in this competition.
The race is run, rain or shine. That little rain delay stuff that NASCAR and the Indy cars go through does not apply here; these cars will run in the rain and they will be expected to run at top speed. And so, rain tires becomes a hot topic of conversation.
There are three different types of rain tires available to the team, all supplied by Michelin, a company with whom the team has enjoyed great success over the years. For Le Mans, Michelin has brought in rain tires for light rain/damp service; intermediate tires for medium rain, and yet another design for downpours/monsoon conditions.
13 June 2007 Wednesday | 24 Hours of Le Mans
a singular sports car racing series
The major teams—Corvette, Aston-Martin, Audi, Peugeot—all have major compounds here. As a private team, Risi Competizione operates on a smaller but no less precise scale
The plan lands in Paris at 11:55AM, Tuesday, at the famous Charles De Gaulle airport. Travel to Le Mans is made extraordinarily simple by the TGV station that is located in Terminal 2 of the airport; there is no need to even change terminals. I gather up my baggage and walk to the embedded train station. Arriving in the waiting area, I see Scott Atherton, the CEO of the American Le Mans Series. This trip to Le Mans is an annual ritual for Atherton; ALMS is, as one can discern from the name, a series that is closely linked to the Le Mans Sports Car tradition. One key part of Scott Atherton’s job is maintaining close relations with the ACO and keeping both sanctioning groups on the same page. The American Le Mans Series was created by Dr. Don Panoz, a prolific inventor, gifted investor, and sports car enthusiast, who saw a need for a unified, big-time sports car championship in the USA—the world’s biggest automobile market. To create ALMS, Panoz acquired a sanctioning/jurisdictional group, IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) to handle licenses and racing policies and rules and set up ALMS as the governing body, promoter and manager of ALMS races. Drivers hold an IMSA license and run in the ALMS series.
This combination provided American sports car racing with a unified, singular sports car racing series with some real clout in the marketplace—something the U.S. had not enjoyed since the glory days of the Can-Am series, when Denny Hulme ruled the tracks in his Orange McLaren. Atherton is a sharp, funny, effective executive and we have a brief but very informative chat before boarding the TGB to Le Mans. At Le Mans, I am to be met by one of our team members, but for unknown reasons (I turned left, he turned right?), we don’t connect. As I am standing on the corner by the train station at Le Mans, waiting, Atherton breezes by again, a man on a mission with a rental car to find and things to do. He spots me, asks if I need a ride to the track and after a fraction of section mulling the decision (take the sure thing of a ride to the circuit vs. the unsure thing of hoping to hook up with one of the Risi Comp team members), I accept his generous offer and we set off to find his rental car, which is tucked away on the fourth floor of a garage in an marked spot, a pointed reminder—as if one was needed—that we are not at the Avis facility in Orlando anymore.
Atherton wheels out of the garage and heads to the circuit at Le Mans, never consulting a map. His memory of how to get to the track is spot on—only one U-Turn interrupted our journey. As we get closer to the track, the enormity of what is in front of me starts to hit home. The circuit is huge and the bureaucracy is omnipotent. After we clear Credentials—it’s good to travel with the CEO of ALMS—we set off to enter the paddock, where I can connect with my Risi Comp teammates and Atherton can start the first of a series of meetings at Le Mans.
Between last year and this year, the entire traffic pattern at Le Mans has changed; where one once was allowed direct access into the paddock via the main entrance, it is now necessary to make a long and traffic-delayed circuit of the track itself, to come in via “the back way�. Security is everywhere, and the grounds inside and outside the track are filling with tents. We pass a group of campers, tents set up around a card table, enjoying a bottle of red wine and a loaf of French bread. To the right, Atherton points out the Le Mans airport. “On Saturday,� he says, “The airport will be jammed. Over a thousand plans will fly in for the race.� The fields around the runways are dotted with white markers (“Each of those markers is a parking spot for a plane , � Scott remarks).
A trip that once took only 25 minutes stretches into an hour and a half as we negotiate the backroads around the Le Mans circuit in Atherton’s rental car, only to end up less than 500 yards from the front entrance where, normally, we would have been granted access. I unload my gear (backpack with Ferrari Acer laptop, a Ferrari team bag and a travel bag stuff with uniforms) and start walking to the Risi Competizione pt in the paddocks. On the way, I run into Dave Sims, the very well respected Team Manager, who asks where I’ve been and how I missed the connection at the train station and how I got in to the track. I point to Atherton and Sims just nods and smiles. I park the team bag and travel bag in the Ferrari hospitality suite and take the backpack with the laptop to the team’s garage area. The whole scene is massive—much larger than Sebring—and one gets the measure of the scale of Le Mans and its’ importance as a commercial venue for the teams that compete.
The major teams—Corvette, Aston-Martin, Audi, Peugeot—all have major compounds here. As a private team, Risi Competizione operates on a smaller but no less precise scale. When I enter the garage, I see both cars being buzzed over by our technicians. Le Mans runs on a totally different schedule from any other race. Tonight, there will be two practice sessions, one starting at 7:00PM and running until 9:00PM (that is still daylight in France) and the other starting at 10:00PM and running until midnight. Both cars will go out and all drivers are required to do a minimum number of laps at night during practice to meet regulations for racing at the track.
Qualifying at Le Mans is very different from qualifying in the American Le Mans Series; in ALMS, there are multiple practice sessions and a defined qualifying session, one each for GT1/GT2 cars and LMP1 and LMP2 prototypes. At Le Mans, the process is not so tightly defined: the fastest time in any of the practice sessions on Wednesday or Thursday before the race is used as a car’s qualifying time. Our best time is a 4:05.358 lap; this will turn out to be our fastest time in any of the qualifying sessions, primarily because of weather issues, and is good enough to put us third on the GT2 grid. This time is good enough for third position on the grid. In first is the Ecurie Ecosse F430GT, running in Rosso Scuderia (the color of red used by Ferrari’s F1 Team), which turned in a lap of 4:04.385. A Porsche splits the two Ferraris, with a top lap time of 4.04.622.
Talking with Team Manager Dave Sims, I find out that there’s not been a “wet Le Mans� since 2001, when the place was in a virtual monsoon for the entire 24 Hours. “It’s not only quite possible that we will have rain on the circuit, but probable.� The circuit at Le Mans is huge, 8.31 miles, and each lap in a GT2 car is going to take approximately four minutes and change. The size of the circuit means that it is totally possible for it to be dry on one part of the circuit and rainy on another; that not only presents a hazard for the drivers but is a strategic nightmare.
We are the track until very late, about 1:00AM as the teams for both cars pour over every aspect of the cars and then tidy them up so they are ready to go on Thursday morning. By 2:00AM, I finally get to sleep, but tomorrow is another early day, with a 7:30 crew call to leave for the track.
