It would have to be one of the shortest race series in the world. One weekend, two races, but with a guaranteed start in the Le Mans 24 hour classic as one of the prizes, it was little wonder that Sora racing were delighted to win the first Asian Le mans series at Okayama.
The Sora Racing Pescarolo of Christophe Tinseau and Shinji Nakano won Saturday's first race with the Gulf Aston Martin of Stefan Mücke and Harold Primat winning the second race.
A second place to Tinseau and Nakano in race two was enough to give the team the overall victory.
In LMP2 the team of Mathieu Lathaye, Jacques Nicolet and Richard Hein in the Pescarolo-Mazda came out on top, while Lamborghini won in GT1 thanks to the all Japanese team of Atsuhi Yogo and Hyroyuki Iiri.
Australian based Danish driver Alan Simonsen had a great weekend as he helped co-driver Dominick Farnbacher to a win in GT2.
Driving their Ferrari 430 GT, Simmonsen and Farnbacher turned the tables on race one winners, the BMW M3 of Dirk Muller and Tom Milner to take the overall win and an invite to the 78th running of the World's greatest motorsport spectacle the 24 hours of Le Mans on the 12th and 13th of June.
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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.
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Monday, November 2, 2009
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