2004 Le Mans 24 hours

[motorsportnerd]

Looks like Audi will be hard to beat this year. First and second on the grid. Herbert on pole ahead of McNish. Should be a good year for British drivers... See a qualifying report here: http://www.autosport.com/newsitem.asp?id=27802&s=15
Qualifying results here: http://www.lemans.org/univers_sport/...ssais2_gb.html

Also, for those of us residing down under, interesting to David Brabham in third.
And Ferrari quicker than Corvette in the GTS class. McRae in third in GTS.
No TV coverage of Le Mans again in Australia, as usual. Doubt we'll even see highlights.

[DasModell]

there's gonna be a VAG battle for the win . but it's gonna be close for the lower places . with Kondo,RfH adn Courage plus Zytek very close
GTS . i almoast accepted that Corvette will be on Pole . when at around 11:55 i hear on Radio LeMans that ENge put it on pole . i could not belive it . amazing .. expecially when he crashed the Ferrari early on on the Porsche Curves ..
The Taurus Diesel again with problems .

[RedWingsFanG]

I'm a big LeMans Fan, and drive myself an Audi, too (no RS8R of course, too bad ).
But the last years have been really boring in LeMans. First Audi and then Bentley and now Audi again, the winner is no secret. How sweet was LeMans with Toyota (too bad they never won), Mercedes, BMW and Porsche. I hope that somedays we will see such fierce fights again.

[Coventrysucks]

Originally Posted by RedWingsFanG

(no RS8R of course, too bad )
How sweet was LeMans with Toyota (too bad they never won), Mercedes, BMW and Porsche. I hope that somedays we will see such fierce fights again.

You should thank Audi and Bentley, their presence is probably keeping media interest up.
The average person with a passing interest doesn't care about Zytek, Dome or Courage.

Would F1 be as popular if all the major motor manufacturers decided to pull out, leaving Minardi vs Sauber?

There isn't enough coverage, which is a travesty, as it used to be the biggest motoring event of the year.
These days, even with Bentleys first win for 80 years, you'll be lucky to find out when it's actually taking place.

Don't worry about the RS8R, I don't think anyone else has one either.

[Dustin917]

The Problem with Le Mans is that there is no competition!
The last good Le Mans race was 1999. With cars like
BMW V12
Mercedes SLR
Toyota GT1
Porsche 911 GT1
There was a real sense of a battle. It was great, not to mention the awesome crash of the Mercedes driven by Mark Webber. Is the problem that there is not enough interest? Not enough advertising? Do people generally not give a hoot in hell?
Please Help Me

[DasModell]

objections ..
it's the Merc CLR ..
and in the race it wasn't Webber . it was Peter Dumbreck .. and he's racing this weekend at Nurburgring ..

[Coventrysucks]

Dumbreck crashed during the race, but webber crashed similarly during qualifying, or one of the practise sessions.
I think they had 3 take offs that weekend - not a good time for the Mercedes Benz GT team.

[Coventrysucks]

Good start for the Veloqx Audi's and the Prodrive Ferrari's keeping the 'vettes at bay.

Not so good for TVR, ECU problems on the second lap, but it should be a straight replacement.

Also the Goh Audi "stopped on circuit", but they seem to have gotten going again.

[Matra et Alpine]

Live reporting is at http://www.lemans.org/univers_sport/.../index_gb.html

[NAZCA C2]

Originally Posted by DasModell

objections ..
it's the Merc CLR ..
and in the race it wasn't Webber . it was Peter Dumbreck .. and he's racing this weekend at Nurburgring ..

It's the CLK-GTR not the SLR. Don't forget the Nissan R390 GT1

[NAZCA C2]

The Corvette of Ron Fellows just crashed again. Too bad. The other Vette is doing great, I hope they have better luck than their sister car. I hope McNish is OK after his crash, I guess he has a concusion but nothing to serious. Pretty good race so far.

[NAZCA C2]

Colin Mcrae isn't having a good day. Spun early on and now (11:00 in france) the #65 car is stopped on the track. The Corvette people are probably happy.

[Dino Scuderia]

The Vettes are 7 seconds faster than they were last year! A serious factory effort.

Ferrari is going to have to throw more support behind the 550/575 teams.

[Coventrysucks]

Originally Posted by NAZCA C2

It's the CLK-GTR not the SLR. Don't forget the Nissan R390 GT1

Unfortunately you should have checked your facts...

1997 - Mercedes CLK GTR - 6.0 V12
1998 - Mercedes CLK LM - 6.0 V8, revised bodywork and aero package
1999 (the car in question) - Mercedes CLR - still V8 but significant revisions to the bodywork and aerodynamics

Absolutely Heroic effort by Lehto, McNish and their respective teams.
Both cars went off on oil at 300km/h through the Porsche Curves leaving the Champion car with broken front left suspension.
Dragged out of the gravel, driven back to the pits, rebuilt and now back up to 5th.

McNish had concussion, lost the front bodywork, broken suspension on at least one of the front wheels, although it looked like both, broken rear suspension and a puncture. He got it back to the pits, rebuilt in 1/2 an hour and now running 18th.

[Ferrari Tifosi]

Originally Posted by Dino Scuderia

The Vettes are 7 seconds faster than they were last year! A serious factory effort.

Ferrari is going to have to throw more support behind the 550/575 teams.

That's the big reason Ferrari has struggled, they have no factory support. While Corvette is a factory effort.