HELL BENT
Bentleys Demolish Field in Le Mans 24
By KEVIN MA
After its 3-year domination in 24 Hours of Le Mans with the R8s, Audi finally pulled the plug on its work team effort in favor of the Bentley program this year. With no surprise, the Bentley Speed 8s picked up where its 'topless' cousin left off from 2000 to 2002, and came home 1-2 in this year's French classic. Interestingly, the #7 Bentley (Tom Kristensen/Dindo Capello/Guy Smith) [with "chicken wings" - extended rear winglets] from the German side of the team took the victory, and gave one of its drivers Tom Kristensen an unprecedented record with four straight Le Mans 24 victories - three of them came from the Joest Audi R8s. The British side of the team (#8, Johnny Herbert/Mark Blundell/David Brabham) [with no "chicken wings"] took second to complete a Bentley 1-2. It was Bentley's first Le Mans title since 1930.
The extended Audi family also claimed the top next two spots in the race, with 'adopted' privateer R8s taking third and fourth in the endurance race. American-based Champion Audi (Emanuele Pirro/J.J. Lehto/Stefan Johansson) took third ahead of Audi Sport Japan (Seiji Ara/Jan Magnussen/Macro Werner). Pre-race favorite Audi Sport UK (Frank Biela/Mika Salo/Perry McCarthy) suffered a heartbreak early on when the team failed to get Biela into the pits for refuel on the 30th lap. With the Bentleys running way faster than the R8s, saving fuel was one of the tactics the privateer teams used in the race, but Biela's team tried too hard to squeeze out the last drop of fuel and it backfired.
Bentley's domination started long before the race, when its cars ran faster than anyone else in the field throughout practice and qualifying. In the #7 car's case, Kristensen qualified almost 3 seconds ahead of its sister car. The pace was one thing, but the reliability was another issue. With their test runs in ALM's 12 Hours of Sebring, the Speed 8s' reliabilities were bullet-proofed and both cars ran without serious problems during the race. While the #7 Speed 8 ran smoother than ever, the #8 Speed 8 was behind the 8 Ball in the second half of the race when a battery problem arose. The #8 car had to pit in for new batteries and lost a lap every single time it pitted. However, the minor problem didn't put its second place in jeopardy as the Champion Audi failed to capitalize, and the two 'stingrays' swam their way to the checkered flag for the sportscar glory.
"This was a great way to win my fifth Le Mans," said Dane Kristensen, who has become the Sportscar King after another Le Mans victory. "We had a near perfect race on the track and a perfect one in the pits. I was able to do quick laps, especially at night. It was great to win with my long time driving partner Dindo; Guy has done an excellent job with the development of the car as well as driving a great race today. My thanks go to whole Bentley team."
"We had a number of small problems but we had the speed on the track to compete, but not the luck," said Herbert from the 8 car. "It was great to come into a team that was the best prepared for the race and be able to drive the car to such a fantastic result for Bentley. Of course we are gutted we didn't win, but Tom, Dindo and Guy did not put a wheel wrong the entire race and fully deserved the victory."
A late battle between the #11JML Panoz (Oliver Beretta/Gunnar Jeannette/Max Papis) held off #15 Racing for Holland Dome Judd (Jan Lammers/John Bosch/Andy Wallace) and all-French #13 Courage Judd (Jonathan Cochet/Jean-Marc Gounon/Stephan Gregoire) for fifth overall finish.
"Fifth place is the best finish we could have expected and I am very glad we actually achieved it," said Max Papis, who will return to Champ Car at Portland after landing a seat at PK Racing. "We arrived here and nobody really expected much from us, but we quietly said don't count us out. We probably achieved the goal of "best of the rest" behind the Audis and Bentleys - that is a not a bad result at all".
In the LMP675, former IRL racer Didier Andre along with co-drivers Jean Luc Maury-Laribiere and Christophe Pillon took the class win easily in the #29 Noel De Bello Reynard-Lehmann, while other 675 cars all suffered various problems and dropped like flies throughout the race. In the GTS class, the #88 Prodrive Ferrari (Peter Kox/Tomas Enge/Jaime Davies) took advantage as both Corvettes (#50 Oliver Gavin/Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins; #53 Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/
Franck Freon) suffered early mechanic problems, and the Maranello 550 finished 10 laps ahead of its archrivals.
IN GT class, it was business as usual for Lucas Luhr and Sasha Maassen with Emanuele Collard. The #93 Alex Job Racing Porsche overcame early problem and finished first in the class, six laps ahead of YES boss Leo Hindery lead #87 Orbit Porsche (with co-drivers Peter Baron and Marc Lieb). Last year's class winner The Racers Group Porsche (Kevin/Buckler/Jorg Bergmeister/Timo Bernhard) was only able to finish fifth in the class.
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