2006 Le Mans 24 Hours

Qualifying sessions 1 and 2

There’s an increasing ‘buzz’ about the circuit today. More and more spectators have been arriving. A ride about the place on the Team’s scooter revealed villages of tents and gazebos – ready for the ensuing party activities for many, I’m sure.

Scores of little marquees are having their finishing touches done to them in preparation for offloading merchandise and the like to racegoers in exchange for Euros.

The grandstands have gradually been filling up opposite the Team pits – the excitement is building to the first two, two-hour qualifying sessions. There’s another two tomorrow.

In a nutshell, the Team have four sessions in which to set their fastest time – and determine their grid position for Saturday’s race. Cars must run a ‘day’ session (19.00 – 21.00 hrs CET) and a ‘night’ session (22.00 – 24.00 hrs).

Also – to clarify – there are four categories of car here. Le Mans Protoype 1, LMP2, Le Mans Grand Touring 1 and LMGT2. We’ll explain these in another article where there’s more space… Team LNT’s Panoz is a LMGT2 car running alongside the likes of Ferrari F430s and Porsche 911s…

Qualifying 1

The skies above have looked overcast most of the day. The air temperature has still been warm, but as the day progressed, the clouds have got lower and thicker – threatening to pour rain down on the 13 650km part-track, part-street circuit.

The session got underway with few cars actually completing a flying lap. Most cars – including Team LNT’s Lawrence Tomlinson – came out of the pits, went around the track and returned to the garage for a precautionary check over.

The #81 Panoz Esperante was then released on slick tyres but could not run to its full potential. The rain came. It was fairly light in the pit lane, but heavier on the other side of the circuit according to reports coming in from the pit radio. Tv monitors were showing images of cars pirouetting at various points so a set of wet tires were prepared.

By the time Tomlinson returned to the garage, the heavier rain had reached us too.

Equipped with wet tyres, the circuit was still very low on grip - Tomlinson putting in a lap time of 5.27.002. With the Le Mans circuit being so long, it takes longer for the car to come past the pits than races we’re used to! 10 minutes can have passed before a flying lap time is registered!

Richard Dean was next to run in the Orange LMGT2 car. Only 38 mins of the session remained. Dean’s first flying lap registered a time of 5.08.603 – reducing to 5.03.817 and 8th in the LMGT2 category.

It’s probably worth mentioning the top running times in the GT2 category at this point. However, the top times are a little misleading. Car #90 is White Lightning Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3-RSR and currently in the ‘top spot’ with a time of 4.39.912. It will probably remain so today. The time was set early on in the session when the track was dry and the cars were on slick tyres. It doesn’t look like the cars will return to slicks today…

2nd is #76 - IMSA Performance’s Porsche 911 and 3rd. #85 - Spyker Squadron BV in their Spyker C8 Spyder GT2R. Car 77 is currently 7th. This is the other Panoz on the circuit. The silver one from Canada - Multimatic Motorsport Team and the winners of the 12hours of Sebring back in March this year. They’re running a time of 5.03.616.

Tom Kimber-Smith closes the first session in the Team LNT Panoz but unable to get a good flying lap as the session is stopped 9 minutes from the end. The LMP2 #39 Chamberlain-Synergy Motorsport Lola went off.

“It’s unbelievably slippery out there” said Dean. “The difference in grip on the different tarmac is phenomenal – going from circuit to the streets. The first few corners aren’t so bad – I could feel the grip, then suddenly it’s as if someone’s poured Diesel down!

I’ve never experienced anything like it before!”

So Team LNT complete their first decent run prior to the race on Saturday. With the engine troubles in Pre-Qualifying, all fingers were crossed that those problems had been sorted out. The Team will check the engine over in the hour gap prior to Qualifying 2.

Qualifying 2

Team Chief Engineer Alan Mugglestone had his scope out down each piston barrel in the hour break, looking for signs of any repeat of the engine troubles that blighted the Team two weeks ago. The smile on his face told us there were none.

It had also stopped raining. In a style typically akin to British weather, it began again at the start of the second two hour session.

Tomlinson went out and posted a flying lap of 5.05.508 and then came in for a driver changeover. Dean had a flying lap then pitted to allow Kimber-Smith to get back out there. His first qualification session track time had been cut short by the red flag.

Alas the rain has stopped – Kimber-Smith put in a Team LNT best time of 5.03.184 to then go fastest in the second and third sectors and cross the line in 4.58.832.

“Even though the rain’s stopped, it’s still a nightmare out there” explained Dean. “The spray on the main straight is just a mist - hanging in the air under the trees. That’s bad enough in the daytime, but in the dark it’s a nightmare. You can’t see a thing!”

41 minutes remaining – Dean is back in the car to get some more track time. The top two GT2 times were unchanged but the #80 Flying Lizard’s Porsche nipped into third place; fellow British GT runner Chris Niarchos in his Ferrari 430 6th and #83 Seikel Motorsport Porsche 911 ran a 4.56.674 for 7th.

With rain still holding off, Dean’s flying lap was looking good. He immediately set Team LNT’s fastest time in sectors one and two and cross the line in 4.56.674 to then immediately go faster again in all three sectors. The time: 4.50.424 and up to 6th place in GT2 – 35th place overall.

A quick check in the pitlane – tyre pressures / temperatures taken in various places, etc and Dean went back out to set fastest time in sector one again on his flying lap. Then the heavens opened again. It was literally as if a tap had just been turned on – it came on that quickly. Torrential rain that turned into a thunderstorm.

So, that put a halt to increasing lap times.

At the end of the session, the top three GT2 runners were still #90, #76 and #80; Team LNT’s #81 finishing in 6th.

There’s two more sessions at the same times tomorrow (15th). Let’s hope it’s dry – the forecast says 20% chance of precipitation apparently…

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