LM24 Le Mans 2005 - Page 54

Maxmil · 19 Jun 2005, 14:48 (Ref:1332910)

Between the Audi team's and the Corvettes' results, this has got to be the greatest day for American Motorsports since the 1960's, if not ever. Briggs Cunningham will rest easy tonight.

the_royksopp · 19 Jun 2005, 15:12 (Ref:1332930)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maxmil

Between the Audi team's and the Corvettes' results, this has got to be the greatest day for American Motorsports since the 1960's, if not ever.

You can be absolutely SURE, that today, i'm proud of being both danish and american. Tom Kristensen and Jan Magnussen winning in american teams, it's just great!

Congratulations to Pescarolo too though - had i not been coloured by national interest (

), i'd have very much liked to see him finish the Audi reign.

Maxmil · 19 Jun 2005, 15:41 (Ref:1332947)

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_royksopp

You can be absolutely SURE, that today, i'm proud of being both danish and american. Tom Kristensen and Jan Magnussen winning in american teams, it's just great!

Congratulations to Pescarolo too though - had i not been coloured by national interest (

), i'd have very much liked to see him finish the Audi reign.

And well you should be. I was particularly pleased with Magnussen's finish myself. It's good to see an old F1 driver doing well. Pescarolo was a great driver and is still a fine sportsman. His team will also have it's day,

I am sure.

xterra48 · 19 Jun 2005, 17:13 (Ref:1333013)

to hear the natonnal anthem play at LE MAns. and to take three class wins, makes your heart melt. Lets not forget that without Dr. Don Panoz there would be few/no americans in sportscars, this is the successfull goal of the ALMS, and a proud day for america.

Karl Kling · 19 Jun 2005, 19:43 (Ref:1333365)

A selection of Fab's fine pics can be found here!

Great race!

**batmobile** · 19 Jun 2005, 20:08 (Ref:1333411)

Yes, we had a great race with a lot of intensity in each category until the last year.
Great battle in LMP1, despite or thanks to the retrictions.
Corvettes and Aston Martin, the four cars in the same lap along few moments, LMP2 leaders often changing .
VERY GOOD EDITION.

djb · 20 Jun 2005, 03:30 (Ref:1334001)

well that was great fun wasn't it? Saw nearly all but a few hours of the 17hrs shown on "Speed" here in N.A. Those darn Audis are really iron-brutes aren't they (not breaking I mean) and I have to say, it was too bad for the Pesca's to have both driver error stuff and the gearbox etc problems, as it was exciting to have the speed difference almost come into play re: almost catching up....

Question for anyone: was it ever clear why McNish went off into the tirewall at Indiannapolis? Just curious

and speaking of that name, what a motorsp0ort weekend, Lemans, then a bit of a rest and then the US GP (sort of-wow, what a jawdropper) and then the CART race. And then a three hour drive back to Montreal....

Back to subject at hand, I thought of all of you suffering with the 30-34c temps out there, looked brutal. We had about a week of 30-33 around the time of the GP here the other week, so it was fresh in my mind. Also didn't envy the working photographers there this year (Lemans) must have been a slog--mind you, seeing Braham with the towel and ice bag on his head puts that in perspective doesn't it. What a shame for the Astons....next year perhaps?

cheers all and hope you all had a great time there (but drank lots of water)

David

gwyllion · 20 Jun 2005, 07:55 (Ref:1334180)

Quote:

Originally Posted by djb

Question for anyone: was it ever clear why McNish went off into the tirewall at Indiannapolis? Just curious

Dixit McNish:

Quote:

“I ‘locked-up’ under braking for an earlier corner, the tyres were getting old and I’d been pushing very hard,” commented a crestfallen Allan who won Le Mans in 1998. “The tread came off at Indianapolis and I was helpless - it’s even more upsetting because I was actually making a scheduled pit-stop at the end of that lap.

“It took four minutes to get dragged out of the gravel trap and back to the pits and a further 18 minutes to repair the front suspension which dropped us to third, six laps behind the lead Audi.”

djb · 20 Jun 2005, 20:13 (Ref:1335033)

thanks he or she with the Welsh sounding name

Gerard R · 21 Jun 2005, 14:17 (Ref:1335947)

well............ we did some pictures too :-)

And some more ofcourse :-) But it wasn't easy to complete the job with more then 36 degrees celcius........ in the shaddow that was.......... Besides the equipment, it meant (for me) at least 1,5 liters of water to carry.........

rdjones · 21 Jun 2005, 21:23 (Ref:1336486)

Cracking weekend, the photos are now online if anyone wants to take a look.

seanolynn · 21 Jun 2005, 21:51 (Ref:1336534)

Nice one, Mr Jones! Who took the pics? By the way thanks for the positive feedback on our humble track 'Green for Go'. I believe it was played a few times on Radio Le Mans and on the tannoy on the circuit.

All the best, mate

Seán

Roel_Ooms · 21 Jun 2005, 22:57 (Ref:1336577)

Phew, a hot edition once again this year! Nice race in LMP1 and GT1 altough the endresults weren't surprising... My pics from thursdayevening till the end:

http://www.student.ru.nl/r.ooms/lemans/2005

Don't mind the offtopic (non-racing) pics and the Dutch comments.

rdjones · 22 Jun 2005, 06:46 (Ref:1336802)

Quote:

Originally Posted by seanolynn

Nice one, Mr Jones! Who took the pics?

Er me....

kdr · 22 Jun 2005, 11:14 (Ref:1337008)

i've added mine in the photography and art forum as i can't attach errr..attachments here. this link might work. http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70611

vandijk · 22 Jun 2005, 14:42 (Ref:1337261)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roel_Ooms

Phew, a hot edition once again this year! Nice race in LMP1 and GT1 altough the endresults weren't surprising... My pics from thursdayevening till the end:

http://www.student.ru.nl/r.ooms/lemans/2005

Don't mind the offtopic (non-racing) pics and the Dutch comments.

Great shots Roel! You caught me a couple of times in action!

Mal · 22 Jun 2005, 14:47 (Ref:1337266)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maxmil

And well you should be. I was particularly pleased with Magnussen's finish myself. It's good to see an old F1 driver doing well. Pescarolo was a great driver and is still a fine sportsman. His team will also have it's day,

I am sure.

He had a pretty good day as it was - for a private team to split the Factory assisted audis was a pretty good show.

Marcel ten Caat · 22 Jun 2005, 20:47 (Ref:1337650)

Pick all 49 cars and cut the surroundings and put them online...what do you get?

Check the LMES/Le Mans section at www.autosportpics.com

Pilgrimage · 22 Jun 2005, 21:39 (Ref:1337700)

Thumbnails!!!!

19dodge · 23 Jun 2005, 04:20 (Ref:1337918)

we have put the final photos from our team of four photographers in our Le Mans raceweek gallery.

All 250+ pics from Le Mans Here: http://www.the-paddock.net/index.php...egory&catid=14

brielga · 23 Jun 2005, 13:32 (Ref:1338337)

Quote:

Originally Posted by 19dodge

we have put the final photos from our team of four photographers in our Le Mans raceweek gallery.

All 250+ pics from Le Mans Here: http://www.the-paddock.net/index.php...egory&catid=14

great site, great pictures

Marcel ten Caat · 23 Jun 2005, 16:13 (Ref:1338457)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pilgrimage

Thumbnails!!!!

Yes, but when you click on them, normal size cars.

**FIRE** · 24 Jun 2005, 17:37 (Ref:1339366)

Le Mans 2005: My Conclusions

LMP1
Because of the rule changes it was not a walkover for Audi. The battle for victory between #3 Audi and #16 Pescarolo was great. Also the performance of the new hybrid Dome of the Gainer team was impressive.

Audi - The R8 cars are still very reliable, but not longer dominant due to the rule changes.
Jim Gainer - Before Le Mans I had not expected this car would be so quick and battle for a podium finish. A broken gearbox made an end on their dreams, but still a very pleasant surprise.
Courage - One car retired early, the other finished 8th general. I am a little bit disappointed in their performance. Were the Yokohama's not able to do their job? Were the Courage people to busy with their customers?
Creation - An anonymous race but the drivers did some very quick laps.
Rollcentre - Before the Judd powered Dallara got steering problems it was a frontrunner and showed again potential Chrysler never found. The Nissan car surprised me in qualifying (slowest LMP1 but less then 1 sec slower then the next LMP1). But already before the race started the car was in deep trouble due to engine problems. I hope Nissan (or Nismo?) isn't disappointed and will go on with this project.
Jota - Until they crashed they were 5th in class. They were not the fastest but very constant and reliable. I am surprised the Zytek had no major technical problems.
Racing for Holland - After 1 year of no competition RfH showed again they can put a reliable car on the track.

LMP2
In this class reliable problems are (still) a big issue. Also the fact the winning LMP2 car is more than 30 laps behind the winning GT2 car is not positive for this class, also because we know the fastest LMP2's are faster then the GT1's in qualifying.

GT1
Before the race it was already clear it would be a battle between Corvette and Aston Martin. It was only a question if the AM cars were reliable enough to race 24 hours and if the Corvette’s had sandbagged in qualifying and testing. It was a great race and at the end Corvette was 1st and 2nd. One Aston Martin was 3rd and the other car retired just a few hours before Sunday 16:00h. The next few years we can expect some good racing in this class.

GT2
With the absence of the LNT TVR’s and the debut of the relative new Panoz Elan’s I was convinced it would be a Porsche victory.

Spyker - The return of the Spyker Squadron at Le Mans was welcomed with some mixed feelings on this forum (including me). At Sebring and Spa (LMES) the car wasn’t competative. I have to say at Le Mans the car had more speed and was able to be midfielder in GT2. Because of a heavy crash on Wednesday they started from last position. After the start on Saturday Tom Coronel drove the car to the midfield of GT2. The race ended around midnight after a fire caused by a broken fuel hose. The pace of the car is promising but to make it reliable and faster they have to race in more then 2 or 3 races a year.
Panoz – These cars have the potential to be a future Le Mans winner. I hope we see a couple of these cars in FIA GT or LMES next season.

Final conclusion: It was a great race!

lj79 · 24 Jun 2005, 23:11 (Ref:1339564)

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIRE

Le Mans 2005: My Conclusions

Spyker - The return of the Spyker Squadron at Le Mans was welcomed with some mixed feelings on this forum (including me).

But dont u think it looked absolutely fantastic? Its the car I filmed most, despite its early exit. And Coronel waving to the Dutch fans as he deaprted on his installation lao was seminal.

**John Turner** · 25 Jun 2005, 07:28 (Ref:1339691)

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIRE

Le Mans 2005: My Conclusions

Before the race it was already clear it would be a battle between Corvette and Aston Martin. It was only a question if the AM cars were reliable enough to race 24 hours and if the Corvette’s had sandbagged in qualifying and testing. It was a great race and at the end Corvette was 1st and 2nd. One Aston Martin was 3rd and the other car retired just a few hours before Sunday 16:00h. The next few years we can expect some good racing in this class.

Final conclusion: It was a great race!

Good little summary there, FIRE, it was indeed a great race; just a pity that both the Audi v Pescarolo and the Corvette v AM confrontations didn't quite go right down to the wire. The Astons were almost reliable enough (which, of course, isn't good enough!), and just to clarify, the non finishing Aston stopped with less than an hour and a half to go, which was also the time that the other Aston hit trouble that took it out of contention. Although in qualifying, the Corvettes didn't go for pole, I don't think that they were sandbagging either and in the race the Astons confirmed their ability to lap regularly 2 to 4 seconds quicker ..... when they were on track, that is! Can't wait for next year.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
[LM24] Le Mans 2005 - Who, Where and When	rdjones	24 Heures du Mans	40	7 Jun 2005 21:20
[LM24] Who do you think will win overall at Le Mans in 2005?	SALEEN S7R	24 Heures du Mans	37	13 May 2005 18:38
Le Mans 2005	Steve Tarrant	Marshals Forum	3	13 Apr 2005 12:05
Le Mans 2005, who will be going?	Craig	Trackside	68	24 Sep 2004 13:59
[LM24] Le Mans 2005, who will be going?	Craig	24 Heures du Mans	55	20 Jun 2004 12:09