Backstretch Motorsports

Corvette Racing First and Second in Provisional GT1 Qualifying for 24 Hours of Le Mans

Magnussen and Gavin Set Fast Times in First Four-Hour Qualifying Session

LE MANS, France, June 11, 2008 – With the possibility of rain tomorrow, there was a sense of urgency when tonight’s first four-hour qualifying session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans began. When qualifying concluded shortly before midnight, Corvette Racing was first and second in provisional GT1 qualifying. Jan Magnussen turned the quickest time in the GT1 class at 3:49.406 in the No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R, with Oliver Gavin a heartbeat behind at 3:50.766 in the No. 64 Compuware Corvette C6.R.

The two Corvettes completed a total of 86 laps on the 8.48-mile Circuit de la Sarthe. Qualifying will continue with a second four-hour session on Thursday evening to set the starting grid for the 76th running of the world’s most revered sports car race. However, rain showers are predicted for tomorrow.

“Speedwise, we’re faster than we’ve ever been here, as you can see by our lap times tonight,” said Magnussen. “We need a ‘friendly’ car for a 24-hour race, and I’m sure the Corvette Racing engineers will come up with just the right answer for us.”

Magnussen and Gavin ran their quick laps at the 15-minute mark in the second two-hour session that began at 10 p.m. A 33-minute red-flag period then interrupted the session, and a second red flag ended qualifying nine minutes early.

“Jan did a great time, so that’s very encouraging for the team,” said Gavin. “In terms of our speed, it’s looking good, but how often does this race really come down to speed? So often it comes down to keeping clean, being smart and staying out of the pits.

“The circuit is still quite green, but it’s coming in all the time,” Gavin continued. “We’re still figuring out what to do to make the tires perform at their best. It’s a learning process, and I think we’ll have a really good picture of what to do by the end of Thursday. So far it seems that Max, Olivier and myself are all very comfortable in the car.”

The Le Mans regulations require that all drivers complete three laps in darkness during qualifying. With the time lost to red flags tonight, Johnny O’Connell and Olivier Beretta must now complete their night qualifying runs on Thursday.

“We still have to get Johnny and Olivier through three laps in the dark, so that’s a minor concern,” said GM Racing Road Racing Group manager Steve Wesoloski. “The extended red-flag period cost us quite a bit of time tonight. With a chance of rain tomorrow, we can still run three slow laps and get all of the drivers qualified.

“We don’t place a lot of value on the pole for a 24-hour race, but it’s good to see that our cars are able to be near the top of the charts,” Wesoloski noted. “The ACO cleaned the track with vacuum trucks tonight, so the track was good very early in the session. That allowed us to do more setup work instead of waiting for the track to come in. We accomplished a lot in the first two hours, then we were able to give the drivers a different setup and go after a quick lap early in the 10 o’clock session. You never know what the competition is doing, but all things considered, we’re very satisfied with the Corvettes’ performance.”

Practice and qualifying for the 24 Hours of Le Mans will conclude on Thursday, June 12, with two timed sessions from 7-9 p.m. and 10 p.m. to midnight. The 24 Hours of Le Mans will start at 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. EDT) on Saturday, June 14 and finish at 3 p.m. (9 a.m. EDT) on Sunday, June 15. SPEED will televise the start of the race live on June 14 from 8:30 a.m. EDT to 12 p.m. EDT, and the finish from 9 p.m. EDT on June 14 to 9:30 a.m. EDT on June 15.

24 Hours of Le Mans LM GT1 Qualifying Times – First Session:

Pos./Car No./Drivers/Car/Time

1. (63) Fellows/O’Connell/Magnussen, Corvette C6.R, 3:49.406

2. (64) Gavin/Beretta/Papis, Corvette C6.R, 3:50.766

3. (50) Bouchot/Bornhauser/Smet, Saleen S7R, 3:50.920

4. (55) Kox, Rusinov/Hezemans, Lamborghini Murcielago, 3:52.175

5. (009) Brabham/Garcia/Turner, Aston Martin DBR9, 3:52.266

6. (007) Frentzen/Wendlinger/Piccini, Aston Martin DBR9, 3:52.527

7. (72) Alphand/Policand/Moreau, Corvette C6.R, 3:53.990

8. (73) Gouselard/Blanchemain/Pasquali, Corvette C6.R, 3:55.736

9. (53) Negrao/Hardman/Leventis, Aston Martin DBR9, 3:57.371

10. (59) Menten/Fittipaldi/Borcheller, Aston Martin DBR9, 3:58.193

CORVETTE RACING QUOTES:

Olivier Beretta, No. 64 Corvette C6.R: “I did very few laps during the test day because of the weather, and I had only two clear laps today. It’s very good that Max had a long run tonight, and tomorrow it will be my turn. I was happy to see that the engineers have worked very hard since last year at Le Mans. I was quite impressed with the car. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a proper run at this track, and I was very comfortable right away. I’m feeling very confident.”

Ron Fellows, No. 63 Corvette C6.R: “A suspension change took some of the harshness out of the car, and I think there’s even more time to be found in the car in a race setup. We have a fast car, but we just need to make it a little more comfortable for the race.”

Johnny O’Connell, No. 63 Corvette C6.R: “Overall we have a good race car. We’re fast, but we still need to work on the rear grip a bit. The track still needs to come in as well, and with a few tweaks tomorrow we’ll be right where we want to be.”

Max Papis, No. 64 Corvette C6.R: “We definitely have a great car in the No. 64 Corvette. It was nerve-wracking to be out there tonight because there were many inexperienced drivers learning the track and there was a lot of oil as well. I was taking it easy and still running quick lap times. The crew has done an amazing job preparing both Corvettes, and I am more motivated than ever to bring a victory to Corvette Racing. I’m just waiting for 3 o’clock on Saturday to start the race.”

Larbre third after Wednesday qualifying

Larbre Competition’s Saleen S7R set the third fastest GT1 time in Wednesday’s first qualifying session for the Le Mans 24 Hours.

However, the team missed the chance to defeat the factory Corvettes and take provisional pole position after a gear selector problem lost them time in the pits during the fastest section of the session and then red flags spoiled Christophe Bouchut’s later flying laps.

Bouchut, who took pole position for the team in the race last year, set a best time time of 3:50.920, just a few tenths off the pace of the second placed works Corvette and a whole 1.3 seconds faster than the leading works Aston Martin.

He was immediately quick during the session and topped the GT1 timesheets after the first two hours, before the #63 Corvette took provisional pole position in the second part of qualifying while Larbre’s Saleen was in the pits. Patrick Bornhauser also showed good consistent pace during his short stint, but David Hallyday was unfortunate to only manage a single lap at the wheel before the session was ended by a red flag.

Team Principal Jack Leconte said: “We showed we were competitive during the Test Day and we proved it again at the end of the first part of the qualifying session by holding the quickest time. Unfortunately a problem with the gear selector lost us time and saw both Corvettes set quicker laps. After that we had non-stop disruptions due to red flags and oil on the track which prevented us going quicker.

“We still have two sets of qualifying tyres left and have a plan to beat the Corvettes on Thursday, but we’ll wait and see what the track conditions are like first. What’s certain is we’ve made a step forward from last year as our Saleen is ahead of all of the Aston Martins, which we ran in 2007.”

Christophe Bouchut was philosophical about missing provisional pole: “It’s one of those things that you really want to achieve, but at Le Mans, if it doesn’t happen, it’s better to just forget about it and prepare for the race. Third fastest isn’t bad for a privateer team and although we’ll try to improve tomorrow, it will be much harder as the forecast is for rain.”

Patrick Bornhauser explained the team’s strategy during Wednesday’s session: “The idea was to dedicate most of Wednesday to Christophe so he could set a quick qualifying time while David and I planned to do four or five laps in each two hour session. I was happy with my times because they were all within the same second, and that consistency is crucial for the race.”

David Hallyday was unfortunate to miss out on any significant track time due to an incident packed second session. “Well I managed a single warm up lap, and the car felt fine, but apart from that there isn’t much for me to say! Thursday should see me have much more time in the car and so I’m looking forward to that.”

Tenth overall in first qualifying session for Primat, Tinseau and Treluyer

The #17 Pescarolo 01-Judd of Harold Primat, Christophe Tinseau and Benoit Treluyer set the tenth fastest overall time and the fourth quickest of the petrol-powered cars during Wednesday’s first qualifying session at Le Mans.

The car’s best time of 3:30.618 was 3.3 seconds faster than its best at the recent Official Test Day, and within touching distance of the leading petrol-fuelled LMP1 cars.

Primat started the session and set competitive times as he worked on the car’s race set up during his short seven lap stint. Tinseau then took over and continued the set up work before concentrating on setting a qualifying time at the end of the first part of the session. A time of 3:30.914 was set on soft compound tyres and was bettered by three tenths of a second on qualifying rubber.

In the night time session all three drivers got behind the wheel, but Primat’s time in the car was cut short by a session-ending red flag caused by a huge accident for the LMP2 Kruse Schiller Motorsport Lola Mazda.

Harold explained: “Unfortunately I didn’t manage to complete my three compulsory night time laps due to the red flag, so I’ll have to get those done on Thursday, but apart from that we’re looking ok. We’ve got good straight line speed and our time is closer to the Audis than we expected. The important thing is to have a car which is reliable, as well as comfortable for all three drivers, and I think we’ve managed that. It’s a case of so far so good.”

Tinseau admitted that he was slightly frustrated with his qualifying run and hopes to go quicker on Thursday. “I already had a good time in the bank on the soft tyres, but I was a little disappointed not to be faster on the qualifying rubber. I drove a steady out lap, but didn’t have enough temperature in the tyres as I started pushing through Terte Rouge. That spoiled my flying lap, but I have two sets of qualifying tyres left and I think we can go up to two seconds faster on Thursday, depending on the weather.”

Benoit said: “I drove in slightly strange conditions because I used a very hard tyre for the cold track conditions. It was important to do that though as it was part of our work with the dampers. We still have some slight adjustments to make to the overall set up, but generally the car feels very comfortable to drive.”

Henri Pescarolo: “The three drivers all seem pleased with the car and we had no problems at all throughout the session. We got through some important work on the race set up, and the grid position is good, so overall we’re happy.”

The second qualifying session begins at 19:00 local time on Thursday.

Peugeot “all powerful” at the end of first day of qualifying

With the first part of qualifying now complete the Peugeots are definitely easily the fastest cars out there. They have totally dominated this session by showing astounding ‘out and out’ speed. To knock a few hundredths of a second off the fastest lap time is an achievement but to demolish the current lap record by 7.8 secs is amazing. The fastest of them all was the #8 Team Peugeot Total, Peugeot 908 HDI FAP driven by Sarrazin. He had been quick in testing but nobody expected this incredible performance.

The rest of the Peugeot team were also all easily within the existing lap record. Audi did not appear to have the answer today, instead Dr Ullrich Competition Director of Audi Sport told us that the team was not concentrating on outright speed they were looking for a perfect race set up instead.
Unfortunately it was the fastest ‘petrol’ car that had a major accident. It was the #16 Pescarolo Sport, Pescarolo driven by Dumas that was unlucky enough to go off on oil laid down by the #59 Team Modena, Aston Martin DBR9 driven by Borcheller. It was a major impact that damaged the car severely and hopefully it will be OK for tomorrow.

In LMP2 lap records were falling as well with four cars getting under the old lap record. The fastest was the #31 Team Essex, Porsche RS Spyder driven by Maassen. This was six seconds inside the outright lap record.

The only Class that didn’t actually beat the outright lap record was LM GT1, however the #63 Corvette Racing, Corvette C6.R did beat last years best qualifying time.
The record breaking went on in LM GT2 with #80 Flying Lizard Motorsports, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR smashing the existing lap record by almost four seconds.
Right at the end of the session and causing the second Red Flag was the accident that involved the LMP2 #44 Kruse Schiller Motorsport, Lola Mazda driven by Noda. It was a very spectacular accident that Noda will have been very relieved to have walked away from. Once again a prototype seemed to get airborne and then rolled several times into the gravel traps at the Dunlop Curve. The car was extensively damaged and may not make tomorrow’s session.
A record breaking 45,000 spectators came to the circuit for the first day of qualifying. They were privileged to watch one of the most remarkable qualifying sessions for years