2006 Le Mans 24 Hours

Qualifying sessions 3 and 4

Qualifying 3

Well, it’s been hot and sunny again today. The Panoz has been stripped and cleaned in preparation for today’s final qualification sessions.

The first of which hasn’t lived up to the hopes and expectations of the Team finishing in 9th place in class.

Lawrence Tomlinson was first out on the dry tarmac. On slicks. Something the LNT Group chairman preferred having been on slicks yesterday in the wet following the introduction of rain.

The first flying lap gave a time of 4.21.687 before coming into the pits for a quick check around of the car. Over the ensuing laps, Tomlinson achieved a best time of 4.17.874 after putting in three quickest sector times the Team had achieved so far.

21-year old Tom Kimber-Smith climbed aboard the Panoz mid-way through the session and doing a 4.15.686 oh his first full flying lap of Le Mans in the dry. The engine troubles a fortnight ago meant he could not go ‘full throttle’ and yesterday was wet.

He didn’t stop there – pushing himself to achieve a 4.13.677 and maintaining 8th place in GT2 – improving times in every sector.

With 30 minutes of the session remaining, Richard Dean took over the driving duties but could not improve the time set by Kimber-Smith. A change of tyres enabled the Yorkshire-based driver to set at Team best time of 4.13.069 - now in 9th place in class.

Meanwhile, #80 held onto its lead at the top of the GT2 class, #87 and #76 following ahead of the #77 Multimatic Panoz.

So what then, for the fourth and final session?

Kimber-Smith explains: “We’ve got some new tyres to try out. The air temperature will be cooler, but the track temperature will be quite high so we should be able to get some time back.”

Qualifying 4

It’s 22:00hrs and the final running time before warm up on race day. Dean was first out for Team LNT and on new rubber set a time of 4.12.043. Tomlinson then went out for more flying laps in the dark – a very different experience than in daylight…

Kimber-Smith’s run in the car was short – sending reports back to the pitlane of steering problems. With 43 minutes left to run, the car returned to the garage to be checked.

After some adjustments being made, the regular British GT racer returned to the track for two final laps. As it happens – there appears to be a crack in a wishbone, perhaps the result of a trip over the chicane kerbs.

So the final grid is set for Saturday’s race. It is as follows:

1st - #76 - IMSA Performance MATMUT - 4.03.438

2nd – 87 – Scuderia Ecosse – 4.04.596

3rd – 83 – Seikel Motorsport - 4.04.897

4th – 80 – Flying Lizard Motorsports - 4.05.266

5th – 90 – White Lightning Racing - 4.05.700

6th – 85 – Spyker Squadron BV - 4.06.299

7th – 77 – Multimatic M'sport Team Panoz – 4.06.642

8th – 86 – Spyker Squadron BV – 4.07.939

9th – 89 – Sebah Automotive Ltd. - 4.08.688

10th – 81 – Team LNT - 4.12.043

11th – 93 – Team Taisan Advan - 4.14.477

12th – 73 – Gordon Racing Team - 4.16.246

13th – 91 – T2M Motorsport - 4.17.342

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