Le Mans 24H 2003

Test Days 2003-04

Saturday
Clint Field – Team Manager at Intersport (the youngest manager here, one presumes) – described Ken May’s work at Putnam Park recently (for dailysportscar) as “a really good job.” Thanks Clint, we thought so too.

So how quickly is your father going to go tomorrow? “Well, he’s never been here before….but sure he’ll go for a time. You know what he’s like, he’ll go as fast as he can, he always does. Lola have helped us with a good set-up for Le Mans, and we’ll be using the 165 compound Goodyears, which we haven’t used before. But we know how good they are. But the first hurdle will be to get Dad and Rick (Sutherland) getting their ten laps in tomorrow.”
Clint was full of praise for the AER engine, explaining that “in the last three races last year and at Sebring this year, we just had one minor engine-related problem, and that was easily solved.”

Sunday morning
The Taurus Lola is running here with a new, unseen-before long tail. “This is the tail Lola would have developed for the car had they kept on with progressing with it,” said Team Owner Ian Dawson. He’s doing his best to hide his disappointment at not having a guaranteed entry (yet) but is ever hopeful – hence pressing on and developing the car. “We’ve got the longer sidepods and the more aerodynamic headlamps that Lola designed for Le Mans, and in testing at Snetterton on Wednesday, the balance was very good indeed.
The long tail is totally unrelated to the extensions that the Konrad / Lammers car ran here in ’99 (2000?). Dawson was sure that his car could have won the Estoril FIA SCC race, but for the mishap on the warming up lap.

Intersport are in engine trouble (five hours to change it?), while times in 900 are peaking at 3:40 after an hour (Audis and Bentleys in the top five, RfH Dome next. The best time in GTS is one of the Veloqx / Prodrive cars at 4:02 (and running a new wing - with the likelihood that they'll try the old one this afternoon, for comparison purposes), Alex Job fastest in GT with a 4:18. All typically ten seconds off the ultimate pace, thanks to a dusty track (and any lines confusion)?

Sunday afternoon
The MG-Lola is back out this afternoon, the engine change “completed well before one o’clock,” said the relaxed Team Manager (Clint Field).

A red flag after 5pm, just when some teams were getting ready to go out for a quick one, left the chargers lined up in the pit lane, raring to go. The air temperature has cooled noticeably, and we’re expecting Jan Lammers to go for a real time, for the Intersport Lola to go for a proper time, for the Bentleys and Audis to go faster – perhaps just about everyone.

Intersport did a great job to be ready to go just as the lunch break began, but their programme for much of the afternoon was to get ten laps in for Jon Field and Rick Sutherland. “I just couldn’t go for it,” said the latter. Jon Field had to do his ten with some kind of turbo-shifter problem, but Duncan Dayton and the team boss were hoping to both have a chance at fast laps in the closing moments. The morning engine failure was suspected to be related to fuel…

Qualification 2003-06-11/12

The third qualifying session of the weekend began with some worrying scenes: Jamie Campbell-Walter hit the barrier - heading backwards, side-on we believe - on his first flying lap in the Lister Storm LMP. The session was immediately red-flagged, and medical staff took extreme care to remove the Scot from the Lister.

The removal of the driver took a good ten minutes. JC-W was carefully placed into an ambulance, and we'll bring news of his well-being as soon as we can. The accident happened at the end of the new section of track after the Dunlop Bridge, at the entrance to the Esses.

At 19.25, the cars went out again, to resume the third session. Then oil went down, and at least a couple of the GT Porsches had wild moments as a result - along the first part of the Mulsanne, towards or at the First Chicane. The Perspective Porsche may have been the cause of the oil going down, after an engine failure. The NASAMAX Reynard couldn't turn in to the First Chicane, and weaved through the tyres, placed along the Mulsanne itself. Michael Cotton has returned from the Lister pit to report that JC-W may have a broken ankle. We'll have to wait and hope that his injuries are no worse than that.

The cars leave the pits for the third time at 19.50. There's a lot of cement dust down into that First Chicane, but it's mostly off the racing line. The #7 Bentley set a 3:37, so the oil doesn't seem to be a factor - and the NASAMAX Reynard is the first prototype to improve its time, by six-tenths - and then by another second or so on Dumas' next lap. The #7 Bentley set a 3:35.907, just to assure us that it is the quickest thing in the place. Bentley and Audi Sport UK Audi were the only other two cars under 3:40, just into the second hour.

At 20.30, JJ Lehto set a 3:36.857, the first car into the 3:36s, other than a Bentley. And it's still hot at Le Mans,

Andy Wallace was out for two single flying laps, before and after the Perspective oil went down. "It's very difficult into the First Chicane: the oil is on the left, just where you'd choose to be to brake. To keep off it, I stayed in the middle, on the crown of the road, but the car bottoms there. My better lap was a 3:41, which was OK in the conditions."

RfH has one set of qualifiers left, and we believe that Jan Lammers will aim to join JJ Lehto in the 3:36s, just after 22.00.

Rick Sutherland skated off at the First Chicane, the Perspective oil still finding victims - this time the Intersport MG-Lola. The older WR, the 675 #24, stopped just before the remains of the hump on Mulsanne, and was pushed behind the barrier.

Action really started at 20.55, Magnussen taking 'fastest Audi honours' with a 3:36.418, Herbert then improving on #8 Bentley's best with a 35.126, an improvement of one tenth.

Duncan Dayton got Intersport moving with a 3:47, while Gounon and Goossens both improved, in #13 Courage and #4 R&S respectively - tenth and twelfth.

22.00 - 00.00

The ten o'clock blast - and Jan Lammers goes third fastest, ahead of all three Audis! A 3:36.156.

Tom Kristensen was ahead of Lammers on the track, just like last night, and set a 3:33. The Dome seemed to match the Bentley round the bulk of the lap, losing out through the Porsche Curves (presumably) and the Ford Chicanes.

Herbert set a very low 3:35 on his second flying lap, a slight improvement. Gounon leaps up to eighth with a 3:40.400, but Tristan Gommendy sets a 3:38.058 to place seventh, behind the three Audis. It's an Audi sandwich.

Intersport's MG-Lola went faster again, a 3:46.404. Still second in 675, two seconds slower than Nielsen's best.

Qualifying for one of the largest races in the world is no walk through the French countryside. As Rick Sutherland and his fellow Intersport Racing teammates found out last Sunday, running along the roads of the legendary Le Mans venue is a nail biting experience, but one not to be missed. Officials require all new drivers to the circuit to complete 10 laps. Sunday’s first session saw Jon Field taking the wheel only to lose the engine on the second lap. Since the track is 8 miles in length, it’s a long way back to the pits. However, Field was able to nurse the broken power plant to the garage area where the team began a 5 hour engine change process. This caused Intersport to miss the entire first qualifying session.

The second, and last, 4 hour qualifying session started mid afternoon. Once again, Field took the helm and fought a problem with the shift-lift in the gear box for a few laps. After several pit stops, he was able to complete his required 10 laps. Sutherland got behind the wheel next. “The car actually ran perfect for me”, said Sutherland via telephone from Paris, France. “With the exception of the front end darting around on the Mulsanne at 130 and 160 mph, it felt really good”. Good that is, until a low fuel warning light came on during his 8th lap! It was seven miles back to the pits and if the car were low on fuel, unlikely Sutherland would make it back to refuel before the session ends.
Nursing the car back to the pits, Sutherland was told he still had half a tank and continued on to complete his remaining two laps. Closing out the session, Duncan Dayton blasted off 8 laps posting the quickest time of the day for the Intersport entry at 3.58.044.
The team is back in the United States and begins preparation for the June 14-15 event

Warm-up 2003-06-14/15

It's stuffy and overcast this morning with a 30% (maybe 50%) chance of rain during the day - and Sunday likely to be hotter but more settled.

The 45 minute warm up saw all 49 surviving entries completing at least one lap, although in some cases it was only one lap...

Bentleys were first and second fastest, 3:35 and 3:37, then two of the three Audis, the #16 Gommendy Dome and the third Audi. If the warm up is a true guide to race pace, we'd take a stab at 3:37 for the Bentleys (on clear laps) and 3:39s for the Audis. That might be pessimistic for the Bentleys, as the Johnny Herbert 3:35 this morning was definitely with a reasonable fuel load. "We intend to push from start to finish," said Team Manager John Wickham.

In GTS, #80 Veloqx-Prodrive Ferrari and #53 Corvette both set 3:58s....interesting.

Racers Group was fastest in GT, with a 4:12. The Pagani set a 4:13 (see below).

David Hart: "We put in an engine with 25 bhp more and tried it on the airfield last night and it broke immediately. We put the old engine back in, and this one is still stronger than the one at Sebring."

Frank Biela: "If it was a full wet race, changeable is bad for everybody. If you're caught out on the circuit on slicks when the rain comes it's very bad news, as we saw a couple of years ago."

Ukyo Katayama: "The new engine has got lots of power but we've not had nearly enough time for testing and the team will be taking a very steady approach to the race."

John Nielsen: "We'll set our own race pace and do what we need to do (to finish and win 675). We have enough in hand to increase that pace if we need to. There's no need to go chasing the 900s."

Raceday for Team NASAMAX got off to the worst possible start when they suffered an engine failure shortly after the start of the session. Romain Dumas managed to get the car around the full lap, but the engine was 'ready for changing' by the time he'd limped back to the pits.

A four to five hour job may take longer because of heat damage to the wiring loom. Less than seven hours before the start of the race. At least it happened at the the start of the warm-up...

Race 2005-06-14/15

Race Result

Race Summary

Race Report

The Intersport Lola-MG of John Field, Rick Sutherland and Duncan Dayton were forced to retire from this weekends Le Mans 24 Hours. A strong run, that saw them lead the LMP675 class, ended just after midnight when engine problems forced the Lola to stop in its garage.

Intersport Racing’s week had begun with frustration after missing virtually the entire Wednesday qualifying period with engine and electrical gremlins. Thursday however was much better for the Ohio based team with John Field setting a best time of 3m46.404 to line up 2^nd in the 675 class and 17^th overall. After a sensible start to the race John Field soon got the Lola in to the class lead and at quarter distance the car led the LMP675 class handsomely as darkness closed in on the famous 13.65 kilometre track. Jon Field, Duncan Dayton and Rick Sutherland were at this stage 18th overall and were a full lap ahead of the Reynard VW Lehmann -- class winner for the last two years at Le Mans -- raced by French trio Christophe Pillon, Jean-Luc Maury-Laribiere and Pascal Fabre.

The early going had not been without problems though as they had to replace a broken alternator belt in the third hour of the event, but although this involved dropping the floor the team did an excellent job and completed the task in 6 minutes, about one and a half laps in real time.

Dropping to 36^th, John Field and Duncan Dayton put in a series of spirited stints to climb back to 19^th overall until the engine halted their progress and forced them to end their Le Mans adventure.