If he wins LeMans his first time trying I think I'll be sick.




Soheil Ayari's Pescarolo Sport teammate Eric Helary has revealed they hadn't intended to secure provisional pole, in an attempt to give an optimum track time to Sebastien Loeb.

WRC champion Loeb only completed 10 laps on the official Test Day, and Pescarolo officials decided that the first two qualifying sessions for this year's race should be aimed to giving Loeb more experience of the French track.

However Ayari still managed to top the timesheets with only one minute of the session remaining.

Helary said: "It was very nice to get pole but it was not our target. The aim of today was to give as much time in the car as possible to Sebastien. We didn't want to make pole, everything was wrong to achieve that.

"I only had two laps on intermediate tyres, which yes, did prove to be the best tyres to be on but it is just luck we are on pole. Tomorrow it will be different, the pole was just for fun."

That kid needs to go back to gymnastics...! :mad:


-Mark
MAPmotors.com

That kid needs to go back to gymnastics...! :mad:


-Mark
MAPmotors.com

LOL, either that or Subaru should sign him and have the super team Solberg and Loeb!

hmmm

Loeb does a one off Le Mans deal w/ a French team.
Peugeot/Citroen leave WRC
Peugeot makes a P1 diesel racecar w/ help from Citroen

..............
Think Loeb will be in it?

That's what I thought when I heard about it. Citroen certainly don't want Loeb to join another team if they might come back in 2007. Might be a sneeky way to keep him under contract .

Any lap times for Loeb vs. his teammates? Also, is McRae back this year?

Any lap times for Loeb vs. his teammates? Also, is McRae back this year?
Thats my question as well.

Is it really "winning" if you are on the team because you are a "celebrity" but are the slowest driver on the team and the other teammates get pole and then drive the faster laps?

-Tom

Loeb is not definitely not faster than his teammates.
The thursday "practice/qualifying" times posted are whacky slow...in the neighborhood of 30 seconds off fastest laps posted in early june practice...3'32"'s versus 4' plus
Loeb is seriously lacking time behind the wheel as was McRae in the GT1 550 Maranello of last year.
Get all the lastest right here: http://www.lemans.org/24heuresdumans/live/pages/accueil_gb.html

My own sidebar: the Judd Pescarolo's do fly...but they have some BIG advantages over the AudiR8's this year. Because they are 05 spec'd the Pescarolos are enjoying approximately 75~100 Hp over the Audis due to the Audi's running with restrictors to penalize them for not meeting the new 2005 FIA-ACO specs.....

BriDrive

Thats my question as well.

Is it really "winning" if you are on the team because you are a "celebrity" but are the slowest driver on the team and the other teammates get pole and then drive the faster laps?

-Tom

True enough but, if he puts in enough slower times it wouldn't matter how fast his team mates were. They will still lose.

It looks like the Speed Channel will actually carry the whole thing live all day Saturday. Starts at 6am PST

And it looks like I'll not be home and will miss the whole thing live all day Saturday :(

It looks like the Speed Channel will actually carry the whole thing live all day Saturday. Starts at 6am PST

Where did you hear that they're covering the whole thing on Saturday? Thats not what their schedule says and it would be pretty hard to do considering that they're covering the F1 practice and qualifying on Saturday.

Outright speed in endurance racing is only marginally important. Reliability, consistency and staying out of the pits as much as possible is the strategy they all shoot for.
Loeb and his teammates have a very good shot at the overall.

I love this race each year, as in 24 hours EVERYTHING can and does happen. It becomes a battle of wills and stamina.

BriDrive

Where did you hear that they're covering the whole thing on Saturday? Thats not what their schedule says and it would be pretty hard to do considering that they're covering the F1 practice and qualifying on Saturday.

Of course not 24 hours continually live but, enough to say they are covering it live. Just in case that confused anyone.

I get this searching 'Le Mans' on their schedule:

Saturday : June 18, 2005
Time Program Description Rating
6:30 am 24 Hours of Le Mans The Start (LIVE) NR
2:30 pm 24 Hours of Le Mans Night (LIVE) NR
4:30 pm 24 Hours of Le Mans Night (LIVE) NR
9:00 pm 24 Hours of Le Mans Dawn (LIVE) NR
3:00 am 24 Hours of Le Mans The Finish (LIVE) NR

Should be more Le Mans then anyone could handle

My bet the Judd won't have the long term endurance of the R8 Audi. Audi is unstoppable andwins again!

Those Judds do sound wicked sick though, closest thing to F1 I've ever heard. Dallara Judd driven by Didier Theys 2002 Rolex 24

Loeb is not definitely not faster than his teammates.
The thursday "practice/qualifying" times posted are whacky slow...in the neighborhood of 30 seconds off fastest laps posted in early june practice...3'32"'s versus 4' plus...


It was supposedly raining heavily during this session. Some teams, most notably Corvette Racing, chose not to even take the chance to have something go wrong and sat out the entire session. The forecast for this weekend calls for no rain whatsoever, so the teams really didn't really have any incentive to run, besides some seat time.

http://www.lemans.org/24heuresdumans/live/chronos/24hent2b.htm

Here is a better indicator of what each team is bringing to the table, assuming there is no sandbagging going on. Session's going on right now, so it's constantly being updated. Man, those Aston's are fast...

Great link, thanks!

You can listen to it live at http://www.autosport-atlas.com/RLM/player.asp if you have Media Player 10 installed. I can't get it to work in anything but IE unfortunatly.

As a side bonus you occasionally get to hear what passes for music in the UK these days. Good coverage though.

As a side bonus you occasionally get to hear what passes for music in the UK these days.

:lol:

Radio Le Mans is always really great coverage.