Le Mans 24H 2004

Test Days 2004-04-25

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 2004-06-10/11

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 2004-06-12/13

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

RML Eight Hour Report

RML started this years Le Mans 24 Hours race today with the teams three drivers Mike Newton, Tommy Erdos and Nathan Kinch securing a 7th row grid position with the MG Lola EX257.

Tommy took the start of the 24 Hour race and a clean getaway saw him maintain his position on the first lap. The following early laps saw him climb the leaderboard and gain 10th position before he began to experience a throttle problem and was forced to pit. A few minutes were lost before he was back out on track where he rejoined in 37th position. He drove a trouble free run for the next hour, gaining a place, before pitting for Mike to take over.

Mike's first stint was delayed when a starter motor problem had to be rectified during the driver change and resulted in the team losing approximately 6 minutes on track. Rejoining in 43rd position he drove a fantastic stint, gaining places consistently and taking the MG up to 15th. The team optimised a safety car period to refuel which also enabled Mike to extend his stint to over twice its scheduled length. Despite being pushed into a spin by another car he drove superbly to rejoin the race before pitting to hand over to Nathan.

Nathan began his stint in 16th position and after one and a half laps the MG lost power and he had to make an unscheduled stop. The car was found to have a broken exhaust manifold and the team worked tirelessly to replace the complicated system for the next two hours. Nathan rejoined the race in 43rd position and with darkness fallen he drove a very impressive two and a half stints, setting the fastest time of the day, and lapping consistently to maintain 41st position. After over two hours in the car he pitted for a driver change and Tommy took to the track for his second drive of the race

Intersport Racing
Field, Binnie and Sutherland triumph
The American trio of William Binnie, Clint Field and Rick Sutherland took their Intersport Racing Judd-powered Lola B2K/40 to an LMP2 class win at Le Mans, a full 18 laps clear of the rest of the field after a reliable and determindrun at the worlds toughest sportscar race. The three were delighted with their victory and it mirrored the 2000 race when the B2K/40 run by Multimatic took the LMP675 honours in its first year of competition.
"The team did a fantastic job all week," said an ecstatic Clint Field after the race. "It is so tough out there especially at night but we did it and I am so pleased for my team mates Rick and Bill who were just superb."

Intersport Racing's second car, a B2K/60 driven by Jon Field, Duncan Dayton and Larry Conner, crashed out in the third hour with Jon Field driving.

Taurus Motorsport
Ian Dawsons had a day of mixed fortunes when Didier Andre, Benjamin Leuenberger and Christian Vann were heading for a top 10 finish overall before a clutch problem intervened and caused them to pit for more than 20 minutes on Sunday afternoon. They brought their car home in 20th position but were delighted to have reached the flag.
The sister V10 Caterpillar diesel car of Phil Andrews, Calum Lockie and Anthony Kumpen was one of the first retirements just under three hours into the race, also with a clutch problem. The car had its most cohesive run to date, completing 17 laps between fuel stops, more than any other competitor, and with fuel to spare. The innovativecar was one of the weekends biggest attractions and proved to be a firm favourite with the crowd which was thought to be around the 200,000 mark.
"We had a carbon clutch but we wore that out on Thursday night," said team manager Ian Dawson. "It was a one-off, so we fitted a conventional clutch for the rest of the weekend. Though we turned down the power a bit, it was still too much for it."

RML
Mike Newton, Tommy Erdos and Nathan Kinch were also on course for a finish in their Ray Mallock-run Lola B01/60, but they stopped just short of the 20th hour when their car started to lose power. They had already been delayed when they cracked a manifold, which was replaced

Christian Vann race report

So Far ~ So Near

Christian Vann and the Taurus Sports Racing Lola came within a whisker of recording a remarkable top-ten finish at last weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours. The former privateer World GT Champion was co-driving the squad's conventionally-powered Lola B2K/10 #4 alongside Frenchman Didier Andre and Swiss driver Benjamin Leuenberger.

The first twenty hours of trouble-free motoring had seen the trio running as high as ninth and looking set for a best ever result for Vann in only his second appearance at Le Mans. Then, with the end almost in sight, a combined clutch and transmission problem cost the team over two hours in the pits. "That was such a shame," said Vann with understatement. "We really thought we had a top ten in the bag." The Taurus Lola crossed the line an unrepresentative 20th in an event where merely going the distance is considered a triumph.

While the team's Caterpillar-powered entry (#10) gained all the pre-race publicity, for being the first diesel-fuelled racecar to run at Le Mans for nearly forty years, it was the Judd-engined Lola that earned the plaudits. One of the reserve entries on the list and a late confirmation for the race when others dropped out, the Taurus Lola Judd crept almost unnoticed up through the field. A relatively elderly chassis, and prepared on a minimal budget, the #4 Lola plugged away faultlessly for hour after hour. "It was difficult to drive, and hard work," admitted Vann. "It's a 2000 car and, understandably, it's showing its age. We had no power steering and no paddle-shift gearbox, so it's a very physical car to drive. I'm not making excuses, but it is a little harder! We all wished we'd had something more aerodynamic, with some up-to-date software, but we did the best with what we had."

The three drivers shared the driving equally, and posted consistent and reliable times throughout the race, thereby maintaining a serious challenge while other, newer and faster cars encountered problems and driver error. "We were disappointed by our lack of pace," conceded Vann. "That's what did it for us. If we'd been able to run even just a bit faster we could have qualified better and, perhaps, been looking at a top six. Unfortunately, we didn't have the car to do that. As drivers we were very closely matched, and had we had a car that was more capable, we'd have done the same but quicker." Vann completed five stints at the wheel totaling over seven hours of hard racing, and was given the honour of taking the chequered flag at the end of an extraordinarily demanding race.

Qualifying had seen the silver Lola placed nineteenth out of forty-eight starters. The opening stint of the race, driven by Andre, earned two further places, and by the end of the third hour, when Vann took over, the #4 Taurus Lola was lying fifteenth. Vann's first turn at the wheel was especially fruitful, and while the sister car retired early with a gearbox gremlin, he eased the Lola Judd into the top ten for the very first time. It was eight o'clock on a hot, dry and sultry Saturday evening. As dusk drew in, and then night fell, the car thundered on like clockwork. By the time dawn rose on another perfect summer's day the trio had covered nearly 200 laps of the 13.65 kilometer circuit and were still in ninth place.

At just after ten on Sunday morning Vann completed his fourth double-stint, handing over to Andre once again with the car still holding ninth. An hour later, however, the first sign of trouble when Andre came in mid-stint to refuel and complained of problems changing gear. "She's run beautifully, no problems at all," said team boss Ian Dawson. "We've just got a clutch problem right now which means we'll struggle to start the car from the pits, but once it's going it's fine." Probably true, but at the next pitstop the car refused to oblige. "The clutch release bearing broke," explained Vann. "We couldn't engage the clutch from standstill. When the problem first started we were able to pull away by setting the car in first gear and then pressing the starter button with our foot full on the throttle. After a while that stripped all the teeth off the starter and drained the battery. The only way we could carry on then was to take off the back end of the car and replace the release bearing and the starter motor." Leuenberger was stuck in the garage for two and a half hours while repairs were completed. "Of course we always knew we couldn't compete on pace," admitted Vann, "but we also knew that if we could put together a reliable run we could finish well up. We were then faced with just looking after the car as best we could and seeing it carefully to the end."

With just over an hour remaining Leuenberger resumed racing. From an excellent ninth, the team found themselves a disappointing 22nd, but resolutely determined to finish. Fifty minutes short of the 24 hours the Lola pitted for the last time, allowing Vann to step aboard and savour the privilege of taking the chequered flag, 8th in class. "It was brilliant to finish and to take it across the line myself, even if I felt somewhat deflated by the position, but I was back in the car more by default than anything else," conceded Vann. "Benjamin was supposed to do that, but after the car had been standing so long in the garage while the repairs were being made the fuel had got hot. When he started the car again it pumped petrol out the back and all over his suit. He also got a bit of a nasty burn. I seized the opportunity to jump in before anyone else noticed, and drove away!"

In a race of attrition, where nearly half the competitors retired, this was a commendable result. "I was delighted with the team," said a grateful Vann afterwards. "They did a fantastic job. They'd come in for some criticism after Monza (where the cars did not run especially well) and to turn the car around after that performance and not only finish the race, but to make it look like a top ten, was a marvelous achievement. That's credit to Ian Dawson and, for my part, to our number one mechanic Tom, He was absolutely fantastic."

Christian Vann currently works in corporate event management for former F1 racer Jonathan Palmer, the new owner of the Brands Hatch Circuits group, but would dearly like to get back into more regular motorsport. "I'd love to carry on and do a bit more with Taurus," he says. "They've been a great team to drive for. I am also considering opportunities in America for next season, but I'm particularly keen to race sportscars again. I don't really care if it's a GT or a prototype, I'm not too fussed, just so long as it's competitive. I've been away from the sharp end for too long." He came remarkably close to it at Le Mans last weekend!

Clint Field race report

Clint Field's 24 Hours of Le Mans Win Starting to Sink in BRASELTON, Georgia - Only a few days removed from scoring a class win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans this past weekend, and being awake for 48 straight hours in the process, Clint Field is back home in Ohio and the reality of his accomplishment is starting to set in.

Days shy of his 21st birthday, Field became one of the youngest winners in 72 editions of the most famous sports car endurance race in the world as he led an All-American effort to victory in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class. The Dublin, Ohio, resident co-drove his family-owned Intersport Racing Lola B2K/10-Judd Prototype with William Binnie of Portsmouth, N.H., and Rick Sutherland of Los Gatos, Calif.

Field's win came in his first start at Le Mans. His next race will be a little closer to home as he drives in American Le Mans at Mid-Ohio June 25-27, the next race for the American Le Mans Series. Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is his home track, located only 50 miles from his team's shop.

"It's great that our next race is at home," he said on Tuesday as he was the center of attention at a media gathering at the Lexington, Ohio, track. "For us, it's really a big convenience, especially coming right from Le Mans. Our cars and equipment will get back from Le Mans and we're ready because we're right here. "But it means a lot to be able to race at home, especially after winning at Le Mans," he said. "I'm thankful that we're going to have the chance."

Field said that his victory in France now seems more meaningful since he is at home, receiving attention from the media, friends and fans. "You really don't see all the hype and attention when you are racing," he said. "You're caught in the moment when you are there. But it's really sinking in that we won at Le Mans now that we're home."

Except for some minor problems, including a broken half-shaft during the night portion of the race, the Intersport car ran like clockwork. In contrast to several other teams in the LMP2 class, Intersport used an endurance racing-proven engine setup and the car kept going when many of its competitors were retired from the race.

"There are so many things that can go wrong in a 24-hour race, especially at Le Mans," Field said. "That circuit is so big, if you break down and you're a long way from the pits, you're pretty much done. We had a lot of luck and our team was grateful to be invited to race there. "The best part was being on the (victory) podium," he said. "To see all of those people out there, just thousands and thousands of them, all cheering, was unbelievable. I'll never forget that. "Le Mans is such a big race that everyone knows it," he said. "People can hear that you won at Le Mans and everyone knows what you're talking about. It's one of the biggest races in the world and is great to win."