Qualifying to start in under ten minutes, again going until midnight local time. A recap of the day is below:2:00 PM Just returned from about 3.5 hours out, first to the LM 24H Museum to see all the old cars and have the ACO Press Conference, where they determined the rules and regulations for 2010-11 going forward. The main points: GT1 is questionable (as everyone here knows) because of a lack of A. manufacturer support and B. reliable entries. The GT1 class here has only six entrants and one of them, a Japanese Lamborghini Murcielago has not been on track yet.
Also, the race will continue despite Peugeot’s feeble protest. The P1 class may be undecided until after the race but on the surface it appears more a marketing ploy or French whine than anything else. The Audis passed scrutineering and homologation so shouldn’t be affected by the FIA.
Still, the fact we were in the museum was nothing short of awesome. You’re walking amidst legendary vehicles throughout the entirety of history, all with amazing style cues and bodywork. We walked back from the museum amidst the fans, on the other side of the paddock and media center. It’s such an incredible assembly of international flair. Notable among all the Europeans are the French, of course, the Brits, and the Dutch. The Brits are loud and the Dutch, vibrant as ever in their orange attire, are drunk – already – at 2:45 p.m. I’m loving every bit of it as they're walking around the paddock with open beer cans.
I went into the pit lane and examined each of the 55 cars – or at least the ones that were open. Most cars had all bodywork removed as the crews prepped for tonight’s qualifying session. Still, walking down pit lane is amazing. I can’t think of more superlatives at the moment.
Just off to see Team Oreca in P1 right now, their main driver is Bruno Senna, Ayrton’s nephew. Also notable among them are ex-F1 pilots Olivier Panis and Tiago Monteiro. Oh, and it hasn’t rained today… yet. I’m hoping it will hold off for a bit longer.
4:15 PM Back from Oreca. Bruno Senna was mobbed, and was the opposite of everyone else on the team. He was the only one to speak English (four of the other five drivers are French, Tiago Monteiro is Portuguese but they all spoke French), wear the team’s sweater over the t-shirt (odd because it was hot), wear a sponsor hat over the team hat (Embratel 21) and wear his sunglasses. Dude already is like his uncle, a complete badass and anti-establishment type figure.Afterwards, I talked a bit to Monteiro, then later Pat Long with two SPEEDTV guys in the paddock, and then Joao Barbosa and Darren Law. They’ve driven Brumos Porsche DPs for a while; Barbosa began in Atlantic in the late ‘90s and Law has driven sportscars for a long time, but this is his first time at Le Mans.
Surprisingly Monteiro remembered me after only encountering him in Champ Car in 2003 twice (Long Beach and Road America) and the ill-fated 2005 USGP. This was a good race for him – a third-place for Jordan was the only podium finish of his career – bad for everyone else because it was a six-car race. I'm not planning to leave the media center for a while, perhaps the rest of the night.
6:15 PM I just talked to the PR person for Oreca – she jokes Bruno Senna “is superhuman, because he’s driving all 24 hours in both cars” to indicate their other 5 drivers don’t exist.
They’re not slouches – Panis won the legendary rain-soaked Monaco Grand Prix of 1996, Monteiro scored his podium at the infamous 2005 US Grand Prix, and Ortelli, Ayari, and Lapierre can hack it when they need to. But apparently they don’t exist.
I have photographic evidence to provide that they do. Out for now, cheers.
ACO 2010-11 regulations article:
http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=331891
Patrick Dempsey at Le Mans article:
http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=331869
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