Atomic Pinkie

Those Fabulous Bentley Boys

by: Jimmy Sykes


The 71st running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans was indeed one for the books. When the checkered dropped at 4:00 pm in central France, there were three new teams atop the podium and one there for the third time in a row. After 73 years, Bentley has returned to the top of the podium at the famous French race. This gives the British marques its 6th victory of all time there, having won the very first running of the event in 1923 and four other times before retiring after its 1930 win. The other first time winners were the Prodrive Ferrari team and the Alex Job Racing Porsche. The last class was won by the Reynard/Lehmann, giving them their third straight victory at La Sarthe.

The two Bentley EXP Speed 8s dominated the race and at least one of them was at the head of the pack from the drop of the green to the throwing of the checkered. The #7 car of Tom Kristensen, Rinaldo Capello and Guy Smith took the lead from their sister car on lap 27 and never looked back. This was the first win for both Capello and Smith, however it put Kristensen in the record books. He is the first man ever to win four straight times and has now won the big race 5 times in seven starts, tying Derek Bell with 5 total victories and leaving him only one victory short of Jacky Ickx’s record of six times atop the podium.

Leading from start to finish sounds like an easy time for the Bentley team, however, they were up against some tough competition. Three Audi R8s were poised to keep Bentley from winning its sixth trophy, however, they just proved to be no match for the boys in green who performed flawlessly throughout the race. It was expected that the extra fuel economy of the Audis would allow them to catch the Bentleys at some point in time, even if they could not keep up with them in outright speed, however, that never happened. The Bentleys ran consistently fast laps and took advantage of some kinks in the notoriously thick armor of the Audis. Several small problems kept the Champion Audi and the Team Goh Audi from ever mounting an assault on Bentley. Early on the Champion Audi had a problem with a tire that caused them to make an unscheduled stop and later in the race the Goh Audi had some trouble with its undertray which required it to make some unscheduled and lengthy pit stops to fix properly. The Audi Sport UK entry was out of the running early after Frank Biela failed to enter the pits when he was scheduled to and subsequently ran out of fuel out on the course. By Le Mans rules the car must return to the pits under its own power and Biela gave it a valiant effort using the starter motor to drive the car very slowly around. However, it was not meant to be as there was not enough juice in the battery to get him there and the #10 Audi was abandoned, lonely and out of place, out on the 8+ mile course, its 24 hours over without the other two drivers ever setting foot into the car.



The other prototypes were fighting amongst themselves trying to be the best of the non VAG teams. The JML Panoz had a quality showing finishing 5th, behind the Bentleys and Audis and in front of the Dome/Judd of Jan Lammers’ Racing for Holland entry and a group of Courage entries in 7th, 8th, and 9th. The Panoz, Dome and 7th place Courage were all fighting for position over the closing moments of the race with the Panoz holding off the other two and the Dome taking 6th from the Courage on the last lap. Nothing like a last lap change in position after almost 24 hours of racing.

The LMP 675 class was again the class that no one seemed to want to win. That is except for the Noël Del Bello Racing Reynard/Lehmann which ran trouble free and took home its third trophy in a row from Le Mans. It was definitely outpaced early on by the DBA/Zytek and the MG/Lola of Intersport Racing, however, like in races past, neither of these cars had the durability or reliability to last the entire race and while the Zytek did finish, it fought with gremlins all race long and even its blistering speed could not make up for it in the end. The Lola/MG lost an engine during the first part of the race and had to retire. The WRs also had their fair share of problems during the 24 hours and that left the Reynard/Lehmann to pick up all the pieces and cruise to the victory.


Like the prototype class, the GTS class had been dominated in recent years by one manufacturer, GM and their yellow Corvettes. Having taken home victories the last two races and in virtually every other race they have competed in during the same time period, they were certainly the favorites again. However a bright red car from Italy and prepared by a team from the UK had something to say about that. The Prodrive 550 Marranellos had shown tremendous speed last year and had that over the Vettes, yet they had not shown the reliability to keep it up for the full time period. This year was different though, running first and second for much of the first part of the event. However, during the night the #80 entry had a massive off that left the car in tatters out on the course and Anthony Davidson bruised and sore. A wheel bearing failure is the suspected cause. The third Ferrari of Luc Alphand was also showing speed and for awhile it looked like it might be a Ferrari sweep, however, they had some problems that left them parked in the garage for some time, putting them out of the running. The #88 car ran flawlessly though and continued to do so the entire race. With the Corvettes having some problems that they normally do not, the Ferrari was able to walk away from them and build up an insurmountable lead, leaving the Corvette crew praying for the team to have its own problems. That did not happen and in the end the Ferrari stood atop the rostrum with the two Corvettes taking 2nd and 3rd. The various Vipers and Saleens just never had anything for the Ferraris or Corvettes and ended up well down the final standings.

The final and largest class on the circuit is notoriously a battle of Porsches. This year ended no differently, however the German marques did have a scare at one point as the Risi Ferrari 360 was leading the class and looking very strong. This was right before it lost its engine, ending its race. The other Risi Ferrari had some early problems and if it weren’t for those problems would have also challenged for the lead as it set the pace most of the race. Defending champion Kevin Buckler’s Porsche also had problems early on before running a staggering pace the rest of the event. They too could not make up the deficit and were left near the back of the field along with the Ferrari. In the end it was the combined efforts of Alex Job Racing and Peterson Motorsports that took their car to the top of the podium. The two enemies in the American Le Mans Series worked together flawlessly and overcame their own radiator problems to take the win followed by two other Porsches.

In the end the race was one to be remembered with three new teams tasting victory and one team tasting it for the coveted third time in a row. Bentley’s return was now complete with a dominating one, two finish and for Ferrari it was finally the breakthrough they needed to show they are for real. The 675 race showed that there is still much work to be done to the fast cars to make them reliable enough to win a true endurance race and Porsche continued its dominance in the GT class. All in all a great event with some new faces taking the wins, some records being broken and the same marques standing at the top, as they did at the very first race eighty years ago.




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Where dem bitches at?

Mill

Isn't the EXP Speed 8s the based on the Audi R8?