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PEUGEOT WINS LE MANS: BRABHAM BREAKS THROUGH

14. June 2009

French manufacturer Peugeot has broken through to take it's first Le Mans 24 hour race since 1993 and for the second time the name Brabham has gone into the record books. The team of Marc Gene, Alex Wurz and Australia's David Brabham led from early in the race holding on to win from the popular local team of Sebastian Bourdais, Stephane Sarrazin and Frank Montagny Audi who had dominated the race for the last decade had a tough weekend despite a finishing third. Alan McNish, Dindo Cappello, and Tom Kristenson survived a number of mechanical problems to make it to the finish six laps down on the leader. A number of incidents studded the race, the biggest being early in the morning involving Pescarollo Peugeot driver Benoit Treluyer. Treluyer crashed after taking over the car from Simon Pagenaud who pitted with smoke coming out of the car. The Peugeot returned to the race after repair but Trulyer made it only as far as just after the Dunlop Bridge when his Peugeot left the road and struck the barrier at high-speed. The car was totally destroyed in the accident. The driver was taken to hospital, shaken but without major injury. Japanese driver Seiji Ara was also lucky to escape injury after his LMP2 Porsche Spyder had a big crash late in the rate heading into the playstation chicane on the fast Mulsanne straight. LMP2 was won by the Team Essex Porsche Spyder of Casper Elgaard, Emmanuele Collard and Kristian Poulsen. The small GT1 field was dominated by the Corvette team in their final ever GT1 appearence, Johnny O'Conell, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia taking the win from the privately entered Luc Alphand Adventures Corvette of Xavier Maassen, Julien Jousse & Yann Clairay. O'Connell's team-mate Sacha Massen led late in the race but mechanical failure cost him any chance. GT2 was a Ferrari benefit with the Risi Competizioni car of Jamie Melo, Mika Salo and Pierre Kaffer taking the win.

SENSATIONAL SARRAZIN AS PEUGEOT TAKES LE MANS POLE

12. June 2009

Peugeot will start the 2009 Le Mans 24 hour race from pole following a sensational last gasp qualifying lap by Stephane Sarrazin. Audi looked set to take pole after dominating free practice Wednesday evening with Allan McNish setting the fastest time. But as the clock headed to the midnight close of session Sarrazin reeled off a spectacular 3m22.888s just seven tenths quicker than McNish to give the French Automaker it's third straight pole position. The McNish Audi breaks up a Peugeot dominated front grid. The car of Nicolas Minassion. Pedro Lamy and Christian Klein will start from their ahead of the “borrowed” Peugeot of the Pescarollo team led by Jean-Christophe Boullion. Australia's David Brabham will start from fifth place thanks to a fast lap from Marc Gene, they'll start alongside the second Audi led by Marco Werner. The third Audi of Bernhard, Dumas and Premat will start out of position number seven with the Lola/Aston-Martin of Charouz, Enge and Mucke the fastest of the petrol powered cars in eighth place. Aston Martin rounds out the top ten with the Davidson, Turner and Verstappen car just in front of Jarni, Belichi and Prost. Danish driver Casper Elgaard won pole in LM P2 with the Essex Porsche RS Spyder just ahead of the other RS Spyder, of the Japanese Navi team Goh. Third in LM P2 is the Speedy Racing/Team Sebah Lola Judd. As expected Corvette dominated the dwindling GT1 field with Jan Magnussen leading the category at the wheel of the #63 Corvette. The two GM works cars easily lead the class, outpacing the #66 Jet Alliance Aston Martin by over two seconds. Porsche won the first battle with Ferrari in GT2 as the American based Flying Lizard team took their first pole at Le Mans. The famous red and silver Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Jorg Bergmeister won pole with a best lap at 4.03.202. The 2008 champions the Risi Competizione Ferrari team is third, after being overtaken by another Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, the #77 car of the Felbermayr Proton racing team. Australian based Danish driver Alan Simonsen will start out of position number 47 in his Ferrari 430 GT2. The Le Mans 24 begins Saturday at 3.00 p.m. local time, Australian viewers can watch the start live on ONE HD from 10.30 p.m. Radio Le Mans is broadcasting live at www.radiolemans.com . Macintosh users having trouble accessing this feed should install VLC player and go direct to mms://mercury.radica.com/radioshowltd or mms://venus.radica.com/radioshowltd .

LE MANS: THE GREATEST RACE

12. June 2009

It's all happening, the countdown has begun for the greatest spectacle in International motorsport, forget F1, ignore the Indy 500, don't even consider the Bathurst 1000, the greatest race in all motorsport is without a shadow of a doubt Le Mans. For the first time since 1984 Australian television audiences will have the chance to see the race live, well some of it anyway. TEN's new ONE HD sports channel will bring Aussie viewers the race live from 10.30 p.m. Saturday night with live coverage going through until 2.00AM when the network crosses to NASCAR Qualifying. The coverage continues from 6.30AM till 10.00AM with the final few hours also covered live from 8.30PM till 11.10PM when coverage of the MotoGP begins. For most Australians Le Mans is an abstract concept, not since the early eighties has there been any real mainstream media coverage of the greatest race. Even that proud purveyor of obscure sports everywhere cable TV confined their coverage to a scant hour of highlights often weeks after the race. Of course we on In Pit Lane tried our best to keep the spirit of Le Mans alive. In 2004 I attended my first Le Mans, it was everything I had expected and way, way more. The efficiency and friendliness of the ACO officials is a long way from the indifference and arrogance of the average Aussie racetrack. As I've said on the show before, it was easier to get into Le Mans and do our job than it is to get through the tunnel at Phillip Island for a round of the Victorian State Series. The media centre is remarkable, every table with its own monitor, a lockable cage for your laptop and a steady stream of information all delivered with a smile from a crew who are not only professional but knowledgeable and quite rightly proud of their event. It makes a big difference from some media centres at a typical V8 Supercar event when any request for information on a support event is met with a mixture of confusion and utter contempt. The track itself is suburb, sadly not all of it is accessible to the average spectator but there's plenty of good places to view from. The esses down from the famous Dunlop bridge is a favourite, especially on Saturday night when you can stand on the hill and watch the cars on one side and them flip around to the bands at the annual rock concert. Of course any trip to France must include food and wine and Le Mans is no disappointment there either.

RICCIARDELLO’S CUP BUT WALL TAKES THE ROUND

8. June 2009

Western Australian driver Tony Ricciardello won the Clem Smith Cup for Sports Sedans in Round Four of the Shannons Nationals at Mallala Motor Sport Park in South Australia. Ricciardello took his six litre Chev powered Alfa Romeo to victory in the marquee race of the Kerrick Sports Sedan Series, the Clem Smith Cup. The win gave Ricciardello his second Clem Smith Cup, after he won the inaugural Cup in 2007. "We had some problems with the car early on, but after we got that sorted it was perfect, it didn’t miss a beat," Ricciardello said. "Winning the Clem Smith Cup again is an honour, big thanks go to Clem for his support of the race and Sports Sedans." Ricciardello and reigning champion Melbourne's Darren Hossack in an Audi A4/Chev continued their fierce rivalry, which spilt over as the pair clashed in Race One and Race Three. NSW driver Des Wall in a Trans-Am Corvette avoided the trouble to win the two races and the round; Ricciardello claimed a second and a ninth in the other two races, Hossack an 11th and a fifth. Queensland driver Bob McLoughlin in Commodore had a consistent weekend and was rewarded with an outright fourth place for the weekend. Tasmanian Bruce Banks in a Mazda RX7 was next just in front of Victoria's Michael Robinson in his Monaro (Pontiac GTO). It was a disappointing turn-out for the big Sports Sedans with only 13 cars fronting the starter for the first race on Sunday. Local drivers finished first and second in Round Two of the Shannons V8 Touring Car Series.

MOSLER MONSTERED OUT OF AUSSIE GT

11. May 2009

The Australian GT series has lost one of it's major drawcards with the withdrawal of John Teulan's Mosler team. Teulan hit out at Australian GT organisers, saying that that despite encouragement to enter the series, it had now become pretty clear they wanted to get rid of the car. "The organisers want us out there to help the flash car parade, but this way we may as well drive a local taxi" he said. Teulan said that the car had undergone no less than 8 parity changes in it's short two meeting local history that had created confusion and made the car potentially dangerous to drive. "the standard car is 1200 Kilos, in Europe they run at 1300, by the time we're finished we'd be carrying an extra 450 kgs at Phillip Island and that's not to mention the ride height and air restrictors." Teulan said that changes to the car after the first race in Melbourne had already slowed the car by around three seconds a lap "now they want to slug us another 80kg" Air restrictors had already cost the car around 35% of it's power and the ride height changes had left the car in a potentially dangerous racing condition. "These things are not touring cars, they are designed with a certain ride height and if you start messing to much with it the car can become almost undrivable at high speed."

ASIAN LE MANS SERIES CONFIRMED

10. May 2009

Great news for fans of sports prototype & GT racing with the news that the innaugural Asian Le Mans Series scheduled for later this year will go ahead. Speaking at the Spa 100KMs race the ACO announced an official entry list of 31 cars for the events which will take place at Okayama Japan and the Shanghai International circuit in China. Among the 8 LMP1s, a 6-sided battle looks on the cards between the Sora-Racing Pescarolo Sport Peugeot HDi FAP 908, the 2 Courage Oreca AIMs entered by the Team ORECA Matmut AIM, the 2 Sora Racing Pescarolo Judds, the Speedy Racing Team Sebah’s Lola Aston Martin without forgetting the Signature Plus Courage Judd and the Tokai University Courage Oreca YGH Power, which will seize any opportunity that comes their way. The attraction for many of the smaller teams is the prize of automatic selection for the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours for the winners of the LM P1, LM P2, LM GT1 and LM GT2 categories.

FIA GT3: THE STARS COME OUT AT NIGHT IN ITALY

9. May 2009

After two thrilling races at Silverstone, the teams and drivers competing in the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship head to Italy for the first visit by the series to the Adria International Raceway near Venice. The 2.7km circuit is one of the most technically demanding on the 2009 calendar and, in another first for the FIA GT3 European Championship, will also feature a night race on Saturday evening. Last week at Silverstone, the opening round of the 2009 championship saw 37 cars line up to take the start behind the AutoGT Racing Morgan of Dimitri Enjalbert, who claimed Morgan’s first ever GT3 pole position. Enjalbert lost the lead to the Hexis Racing Aston Martin of Thomas Accary on the run into the first corner but fought back at Maggotts to emerge onto Hanger Straight back in front. Accary had to fend off the attentions of the two Audi’s of Christopher Mies (Team Rosberg) and Nicolas Armindo (Team Rosberg). After the pitstops Johan-Boris Scheier in the leading Morgan was caught and passed by Christopher Haase in the Team Rosberg Audi. However the young German was denied a debut win by a transmission failure six laps from home and victory went to the Morgan, the manufacturer’s first international win since 1962 at Le Mans and a first for AutoGT Racing.

AUDI ON TOP AT SEBRING

22. March 2009

Audi continued their incredible sportscar record with a first up win in the annual Sebring 12 hour race, the first round of the 2009 American Le Mans Series. In another thrilling race the new Audi R15 driven by Alan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Cappello crossed the line only 22.279 ahead of the Peugeot of Franck Montagny, Sebastian Bourdais and Stephane Sarrazin. Diesel powered cars took the first three places with the number two Audi of Lucas Luhr, Mike Rockenfeller and Marco Werner in third. Acura finished fourth but it was the P2 car of Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz and not the new P1 car with both the ARX-02a's retiring late in the race with mechanical failures. Corvette was always going to win GT1 with the two factory backed Corvettes the only cars in the class.

MOSLER MONSTERS STREETS OF ADELAIDE

21. March 2009

A winning debut for the controversial Mosler MT900 as New Zealand driver Craig Baird wins race one of the Australian GT Championship on the streets of Adelaide. Starting from pole Baird jumped to an immediate lead and was never headed despite close attention from David Wall in the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S. Klark Quinn showed his potential as a professional driver with a strong third place in his Porsche 996 GT3 also taking the win in the Challenge class. 24 cars finished the race with the tight confines of the Adelaide street circuit testing even the best drivers. Jim Richard's retired early after contact with another car, John Tuelan spun his Mosler late in the race and John Briggs was out early in the Dodge Viper. The second race for the Australian GT Championship will be held tomorrow (Sunday)

ACURA ON POLE IN SEBRING THRILLER

20. March 2009

New Zealand driver Scott Dixon gave Acura/Honda a dream LMP1 debut with a stunning final-lap dash to take pole position for Saturday’s 57th annual 12 Hours of Sebring. Dixon, the defending Indy 500 and IndyCar Series champion, made his first Sebring race appearance quite notable by driving the all-new No. 66 de Ferran XM Radio Acura ARX-02a prototype sports car to the top position in Saturday’s grid over European challengers Audi and Peugeot. It was a big day for the Japanese manufacturer with veteran Adrian Fernandez taking his Acura to the pole in the LMP2 class. It is the first time since 2005 that a manufacturer has captured both the LMP1 and LMP2 pole positions in the same event. This weekend marks Acura’s debut in the LMP1 class in the American Le Mans Series, after two years of competition in the LMP2 category. Acura won the LMP2 division in its initial Sebring event in 2007. Audi's new diesel powered challenger the R15 also made an impressive debut with multiple 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen in the No. 2 Audi taking second place on the grid to edge out arch rival Peugeot. Nicolas Minnasian was the fastest of the Peugeot coupes just ahead of Mike Rockenfeller's Audi and David Brabham in another of the new Acuras.