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Posted: 6/15/2003 6:49:31 AM EDT
The Ferrari 550 Maranello entered by the UK Prodrive team (who normally build and run the Subaru WRX STi's in the World Ralley Championship) beat the two Pratt & Miller built Corvette C-5R 50th Anniversery cars. The winning margin for the Ferrari was 10 laps-that is 84 miles. With 15 minutes to go the Ferrari was 16 laps ahead-they pulled in to give the car a WASH for the finish line photo op and gave the Corvettes 6 laps back! The Vette team was not pleased with that. A 1999 Dodge Viper, a one-time works car now entered by a French privateteer finished 4th behind the two Vettes.
The Bentley Speed 8 GTP's finished 1st and 2nd ahead of two private 2002 Audi R8R's. A [i]1997[/i] Panoz came in 5th. This is Bentley's first win overall at LeMans since 1930, their 5th overall victory in the history of the race. A sea of people dressed in British Racing Green and carrying green Bentley flags swarmed all over the pit strait. The #7 Bentley finished ahead of its #8 sister car by 2 laps, after the #8 had to change out broken batteries twice. One Bentley or the other lead almost the whole race, they were never headed after sundown Saturday, and the #7 never relinquished the lead after midnight. Its victory was more dominant than any of the Audi victories the last 3 years. The 3rd and 4th place Audi R8Rs, the 1st and 2nd place cars from last year, were 4 and 7 laps respectively behind the leader. The US Champion Motorsports team finishing ahead of the Team GO Audi of Japan entry. |
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I was going to post about the race, too. Congratulations to Tom Kristensen, who now has a second-place-record-tying 5 LeMans victories, and a record-setting 4 consecutive outright victories. Catching and exceeding Jacky Ickx's 6 victories is well within grasp. Incidentally, Ickx's daughter, Vanina, co-drove the #84 T2M Motorsport Porsche GT3-RS with Frenchmen Patrick Bourdais and ROland Berville. The car apparently was retired at about the 16th hour.
Gunnar Jeannette in the Panoz LMP-01 Evo and Jean-Christophe Boullion in the Courage-Peugeot C60 has a great battle for 5th position in the final laps. Jeannette got around the Courage with about 23 minutes left, but Boullion kept the pressure on, and clearly demonstrated that the Peugeot was superior in the tighter sections. Jeannette held off the challenger, though, bringing Panoz a good result on what will likely be the last appearance of the LMP. Panoz will focus on the GT category. Good race. The Bentley was circulating less than 3 seconds off of its best lap time in the middle of the night. Kristensen is a machine. I was disappointed to see the Veloqx Prodrive Ferrari take a breather near the end for a carwash. I've never been a fan of that type of tactic. I think it's gratuitous and ill-advised. If you've got a comfortable margin, there's nothing wrong with taking it easy and coming in for a long pit stop, but to disassemble the car and clean it in the garage is a bit silly. |
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yeah, but it's not NASCAR, so it's not 'real' racing...just a bunch of sissy europeans.[rolleyes]
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Quoted: yeah, but it's not NASCAR, so it's not 'real' racing...just a bunch of sissy europeans.[rolleyes] View Quote [ROFL] |
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Quoted: yeah, but it's not NASCAR, so it's not 'real' racing...just a bunch of sissy europeans.[rolleyes] View Quote |
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Some of them were making left and right hand turns. I got confused and had to turn the channel.
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Goober racing? Oh sorry ,I mean NASCAR is such a booring thing to watch. Formula dinosaur sedan run by a bunch of rich hillbillies who have duped toothless fools out of their small incomes.
Hell no wonder Bill Clinton was POTUS for 8 miserable years. Hell, there are only a handfull of drivers in NASCAR who are talented enough to run a 24 hour race like this one!!! NASCAR, go join Jimmy Carter & drink some of his brother's swill & eat peanuts!! |
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Quoted: yeah, but it's not NASCAR, so it's not 'real' racing...just a bunch of sissy europeans.[rolleyes] View Quote Actually, because its not WWF/NASCAR, it is "real" racing. If it were WWF/NASCAR it would be "real" derby.[BD] |
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Ok Im bored this moring, watching the preshow for Nascar, they are talking about F1, even they agree that the Nascar drivers dont have the, how did they put it, intelligence and skills to race F1, that only J Gordon comes close.
sad, just sad... |
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Meanwhile, Michael and Ralf are tearing up the Isle de Notre Dame, after JV DNFs yet another home race. Methinks the Michelin 2-stint front tire strategy will backfire at the end of the second stint. Stand by...
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No front tire changes for Ralf! Michelin will pay. There's no way there will be "four clear grooves" when the cars make it to Parc Ferme. Nice finish for Clothead, though. WTF?
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Quoted: .. even they agree that the Nascar drivers dont have the, how did they put it, intelligence and skills to race F1, [i]that only J Gordon comes close.[/i] View Quote Isn't Jeff Gordon gay? |
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Quoted: How in the hell can you break two batteries in a Bentley? View Quote They were saying that it was a battery problem and I'm thinking it's an alternator problem. It seems that while the car is running, the alternator charges the battery, but if the alternator goes bad, the battery will run out of charge, thus necessitating a battery change. I don't see why they didn't change the alternator, as I don't see 2 successive batteries failing. The battery appeared to be an Optima and I use those in my RX7 and have used them in other cars and they are great batteries. |
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Quoted: yeah, but it's not NASCAR, so it's not 'real' racing...just a bunch of sissy europeans.[rolleyes] View Quote |
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Quoted: How in the hell can you break two batteries in a Bentley? View Quote Vibration caused the plates to break. Though why it only happend on the 8 car and not also on the 7 is something of a mystery. They must of had massively different shock settings. Or the drivers in the 8 wouldn't stay off of the curbs. |
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Quoted: How in the hell can you break two batteries in a Bentley? View Quote Quoted: I love Ferrari! View Quote |
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Hey LarryG, are you working the Atlanta Grand Prix this year? I'm coming out to GA that weekend. I'll get in Saturday but I was thinking of heading out to Road Atlanta on Sunday, June 29th. I'm coming out to Newnan. Where is Road Atlanta, exactly.
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I hate Shoemaker!
Jeff Gordon kicked butt in Montoya's BMW. He should dump Nastycar and step up to CART or F1. |
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Quoted: I hate Shoemaker! Jeff Gordon kicked butt in Montoya's BMW. He should dump Nastycar and step up to CART or F1. View Quote Mark Martin and Bill Elliott are both outstanding road racers, and have demonstrated the ability to be fast and smooth in anything they drive. |
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Quoted: I hate Shoemaker! Jeff Gordon kicked butt in Montoya's BMW. He should dump Nastycar and step up to CART or F1. View Quote OK, I respect your point of view... but you can't deny the fact that the man CAN drive a F1... and that he's pretty good at race tactics too... |
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No, CART is the spec car series-they all have the same engine and the same tires, are not allowed to change the body work for weeks at a time, and are even told when to make their pit stops so no one has to worry about getting good fuel mileage.
IRL has multiple engine builders, multiple chassies builders, and more American drivers than CART. And Gordon did very well at Indy in Montoyas year old car, the FW24D. After just ten laps in it he turned a lap that would of qualified him for last years US Grand Prix. |
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Quoted: No, CART is the spec car series-they all have the same engine and the same tires, are not allowed to change the body work for weeks at a time, and are even told when to make their pit stops so no one has to worry about getting good fuel mileage. IRL has multiple engine builders, multiple chassies builders, and more American drivers than CART. And Gordon did very well at Indy in Montoyas year old car, the FW24D. After just ten laps in it he turned a lap that would of qualified him for last years US Grand Prix. View Quote On the Gordon issue: If he were good enough to be in F1, he's be there already. He's got the money; he could buy a ride. The fact is, it's not the kind of racing he's good at and the discussion will never be anything more than acedemic, anyway. Schumacher scored a goal in a pro/celebrity soccer match a couple of weeks ago, but don't look for him to be playing in the World Cup. Ever. |
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Actually, I would really be interested in seeing Marcus Grunholm and Michael Schumacher either swap rides or share a Le Mans ride or something. Something where we could compare the two. Both virtually destroyed their respective championships last year. Both have had some car problems this year but are still 2nd in their respective championships.
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Quoted: Actually, I would really be interested in seeing Marcus Grunholm and Michael Schumacher either swap rides or share a Le Mans ride or something. Something where we could compare the two. Both virtually destroyed their respective championships last year. Both have had some car problems this year but are still 2nd in their respective championships. View Quote |
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Quoted: Quoted: Actually, I would really be interested in seeing Marcus Grunholm and Michael Schumacher either swap rides or share a Le Mans ride or something. Something where we could compare the two. Both virtually destroyed their respective championships last year. Both have had some car problems this year but are still 2nd in their respective championships. View Quote View Quote Then have them share a 550 Maranello at Le Mans. It would have some features that would be common to both and some that would be different for both. |
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Quoted: On the Gordon issue: If he were good enough to be in F1, he's be there already. He's got the money; he could buy a ride. The fact is, it's not the kind of racing he's good at and the discussion will never be anything more than acedemic, anyway. Schumacher scored a goal in a pro/celebrity soccer match a couple of weeks ago, but don't look for him to be playing in the World Cup. Ever. View Quote Watch the Tradin' Paint on Speed, and you may rethink Gordon. I mainly like him because Nastycar fans hate him. Anyways, I think he would have a better chance of winning an F1 race than Jenson Button or Olivier Panis. Oh Yeah. Death to the IRL! |
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Quoted: Then have them share a 550 Maranello at Le Mans. It would have some features that would be common to both and some that would be different for both. View Quote |
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You know jumping series used to be a COMMON thing as recently as 30 years ago.
Jim Clark drove F1 and F2 for Lotus, and drove at Indy AND the World Ralley Championship for Ford from 1965 till his death. And found time to take in the Times Grand Prix Can-Am race at Riverside every February He also had two Grand National (Winston Cup) starts in 1966 at Darlington and Rockingham. Exactly 30 years ago, Mark Donahue raced in that one year in competition the Porsche 911 (Daytona, Sebring, and in the first IROC series), the Porsche 917/30 Turbo (Can-Am), AMC Matador(Winston Cup), AMC Javelin(Trans Am), Gurney Eagle-AMC (F5000), Eagle/Offy turbo(USAC). Its kind of sad that drivers can do this anymore. |
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Quoted: You know jumping series used to be a COMMON thing as recently as 30 years ago. Jim Clark drove F1 and F2 for Lotus, and drove at Indy AND the World Ralley Championship for Ford from 1965 till his death. And found time to take in the Times Grand Prix Can-Am race at Riverside every February He also had two Grand National (Winston Cup) starts in 1966 at Darlington and Rockingham. Exactly 30 years ago, Mark Donahue raced in that one year in competition the Porsche 911 (Daytona, Sebring, and in the first IROC series), the Porsche 917/30 Turbo (Can-Am), AMC Matador(Winston Cup), AMC Javelin(Trans Am), Gurney Eagle-AMC (F5000), Eagle/Offy turbo(USAC). Its kind of sad that drivers can do this anymore. View Quote |
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Quoted: I hate Shoemaker! Jeff Gordon kicked butt in Montoya's BMW. He should dump Nastycar and step up to CART or F1. View Quote "He went off course, albeit briefly, on his first speed lap under braking on the infield straightaway but was turning consistent 1:17 (one minute, seventeen seconds) laps by the end of the run. To put Gordon's laps in perspective, the pole at last year's U.S. Grand Prix was 1:10 while the slowest speed in the field was 1:13.} I wouldn't call that as kicking butt. Plus he did it at Indy which is possibly the easiest F1 track to run at. Lets see how he'd handle Eau Rouge at Spa-Francorchamps, a 180mph left-right-left sweep containing a dip and a crest without lifting off of the throttle. It took talent for Gordon to just be able to drive the F1 car at all, and I'd have to say he did pretty darn good turing 1:17 lap times, but he'd get murdered trying to do a season in F1. FYI-Eau Rouge is such in infamous corner that when I play F1-2000 on my PC, over the course of a 20 some lap race quite often there will be a dozen or so cars destroyed in that corner in single car accidents. |
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Quoted: I missed qualifying, how did Webber do? View Quote |
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Quoted: yeah, but it's not NASCAR, so it's not 'real' racing...just a bunch of sissy europeans. View Quote Oh I see....if the same sissy You-Row-Pee-In's were illiterate, former bootleggers who chug-a-lugged cheap beer, spit tobacco juice everywhere and only turned left....then they would be NASCAR approved? |
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Man, some of you guys are dense. Maybe I should have enclosed my original post in [sarcastic] tags.
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For some reason I was under the impression that Gordon won almost all the road course NASCAR events?
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Quoted: For some reason I was under the impression that Gordon won almost all the road course NASCAR events? View Quote IIRCC, he's won 5 of the last 9 road courses. Also, while the F1 swap with JPM was Gordon's first for an F1, he had driven a CART car a few years back. After Gordon won his third championship, he went on the Letterman Show. Letterman started in on Gordon about how boring it must be to keep driving "those taxi's" and he should move on to something more challenging. Gordon replied " coming from a car owner, that's a pretty tempting offer". Anyways, a test was set-up and Gordon did around 25 laps in a Bobby Rahal car. |
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Have you seen the new driver for Prodrive? She is supposed to be pretty fast.
http://www.fhmus.com/girls/covergirls/220/ Her first race with them will be at the Atlanta Grand Prix. I can't make that race, but I'll see her at Road America and PLM. |
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