Did some digging, turns out the Vette is slow because it's last years car. It's the final year for this car, then it's being retired and replaced with the new model. So GM/Chevy/Pratt & Miller haven't worked on the car, they aren't doing any development at all, so it's going to be a rough season. See McLaren as a similar example.
I see the Macca as more of a wasted development... Should have just used last years car. Sun is coming up... home stretch incoming.
Toyota should put a diesel engine in the TS030. No point having better fuel consumption if the car is a lot slower than the R18
Ouch, massive shunt for the #99 Aston, similar to Simonsen's in that the car just snapped when Makiowiecki put his foot down.
Is there any other way to drink it? I thought about trying for the full 24hrs, then started watching it in bed, and I think that was my downfall...
Ah mistaken it for the LMGTE Am team 'Larbre Compétition' who won their category that year. I'm an absolute novice in this series.
Right, how did i do. Lmp1 - Audi #2, not Toyota #8 - Got it wrong Lmp2 - Oak #35 - Got it right. Yay me. GTEpro - Porsche#92, not Aston #97 - Got it wrong GTEam - Porsche #76, not Aston #95 - Got it very wrong (R.I.P. Allan)
BBC took an age to get up any kind of report. Apparently there's a section on the site called "Motorsport", which I'd never seen before, but on clicking it, it simply links to the plain old "Sport" homepage. Really surprised the BBC don't have more coverage of non-F1 motorsport, especially the big things like Le Mans.
Other than the terrible tragedy, that was a really entertaining race. Have NASCAR from Sonoma and Indy from Iowa to see out the weekend with now.
What a tragedy. The race was intriguing; but for now all I want to do is express a simple thought for Allan Simonsen. I understand it to be the seventh time he has participated in the event. No age is right to be killed but 34 is simply too young… As I imagine was the case with everyone else on hearing the announcement from the Medical Centre, my heart suddenly became like a lump of lead. Noise levels became muted as the news spread through pit-lane and spectators alike. Such was the hush that suddenly the cars sounded offensive… Full credit to Dave Richards and the Aston Martin team, who immediately consulted Simonsen's family about pulling out of the event, but continued at their insistence that Allan would not have wanted or appreciated such a withdrawal. It was a tragedy without recrimination and no fault should be aimed. Simply and utterly tragic; it cast a shadow darker than any of the threatening storms. Awful. Respects should also be paid to the organisers, who went about their business with creditable professionalism.
I can understand this thought, Crow, but we must remember the purpose of a Safety Car period: safety! Those making up ground to reach a single SC would remain relatively unregulated for a long time, prolonging the whole procedure and spoiling the race far longer than is necessary with more SCs. With just one, it would probably take in the order of three full laps for tail-enders to catch the queue. Bear in mind that the slowest cars are taking well over four minutes to complete an 8.5 mile lap, and that's even without their speeds being restricted by waved-yellows and the incidents and debris to negotiate three times before they finally catch the artificially-slowed-to-a-safe-speed cars! The size of the field and the huge differences in performance would make the restart procedure far more dangerous because of the volume of traffic. Remember that, unlike at the start of the race, the whole field will be mixed up; fast cars may or may not bunched together behind groups of others with different performance and different agendas. Such a restart is exponentially more dangerous if such a field is not sub-divided into smaller groups. And finally, more SC's make things much fairer! The maximum loss of time is a fraction of a lap, rather than a whole one!
