As can anybody Beat the Only Factory racing
programme at Circuit de la Sarthe? And will the Hypercar formulae next year be
any better?
Author’s Note
This is the second part of last year’s 24 Heurs du
Mans tome that never got “Published” due to the aforementioned Hijinx of
Blogger’com’s Bastardized redesign…
Yessiree Bob’, Bob's
Your Uncle Mates, Oh Never Mind! Ho-Hum, cannot say this year's 88th running of
le 24 Heurs du Mans was anymore riveting than last year's event, El
Correctomundo?
For which if Y’all are interested? You can read
No Fenders LE Mans: 2019 Post Mortem in the following link below.
http://www.nofenders.net/2019/10/le-mans-2019-post-mortem.html
Yet as dually predicted, Toyota Thrashed it's
Meager LMP1 competition once again at Le Mans, winning it's third consecutive
24 Heurs du Mans by five laps ahead of the leading Rebellion R13 Privateer
entry, which will become Alpine next year, Yawn! But more 'bout that at a later
date - whenever I'm able to Post riveting No Fenders Blog stories Solo once
again, But I Digress…
And if you're a Sports Car Geek like Mwah, then
you'll already know that the No. 8 Toyota with Kazuki Nakajima, Sebastien Buemi and
Brendon Hartley at it's controls won this year's 88th running of the 24 Heurs
du Mans for it's and Toyota's third year in-a-row. Netting Nakajima and Buemi a
Hat-trick 'O victories for themselves, with Hartly claiming his second Le Mans
24H win.
As I really Don't know how to look at or
chronicle Toy-Yoters' Sports Car achievement, especially since they've
basically had Le Mans All to themselves the past three years with token opposition from under-powered
normally aspirated Non-Hybrid Privateer efforts.
Although I suppose to Toyota's credit, they did
stick around when the other manufacturers left under the Smoke Clouds 'O “Diesel
Gate,” Cough Cough Porsche and Audi! Since how many would have "Tuned
In" if this was solely a Privateer's Gong Show? And presumably the ACO was
Desperate to have at least one Bonafied Auto Manufacture in its race…
Although I certainly didn't break my record
viewing Duration for this year's event, i did begin a leisurely, enjoyable
Day's outing of listening to the race in thou morning.
Taking Thy Green Flag, Err Viva la France
Tri-colour Saturday (9/19) at 9AM Pacific with Thy Telie switched onto Motortrend
TV as Background noise while eating Breakfast. And Nah, No Breakfast 'O Champions
Jokes Here Mates, Hya!
Before I switched over to Radio Le Mans via Zed
Internets' after nearly 3hr television viewing, and kept it on until round a
Quarter to Eight PM Pacific when I finally grew tired of the inconsistent microphone
volume levels, particularly lead Announcer Der Heindenmeier's, aka John
Hindhaugh, who's my Numero Uno Racing Announcer.
Yet I'd say this year's race will largely be
remembered for the Ultra Narly accident TG' endured! Nope, Not that TG', aka Tony
George, Psyche!
But French racing driver Tristan Gommendy, who
unfortunately will forever be remembered by Mwah as 'Ol "Christian
Comedy," an unflattering nickname bestowed upon the then Chump Carz'
Driver by 'IndyCar's Curmudgeon 'Ol R', aka robin Miller.
Naturally I've got Zero Clue what inspired
Robin's cruel choice 'O nicknames? As this moniker was anointed when Gommendy
was a Champ Car World Series (CCWS) Rookie Pilote for the long Defunct PKV
Racing concern Wayback in the series final year, 2007 alongside team-mate Neil
Jani, who would later win the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours race for Porsche.
Tristan surely Ain't No Slouch behind the
wheel, having won the prestigious '02 Macau Grand Prix along with that year's
French F3 title.
He also took his solitary Pole position at Circuit
Mount Tremblant during his partial Champ Car season. Along with a best Champ
Car finish of P4 in his final outing at Circuit TT Assen, before being replaced
by Oriol "Suitcase" Servia for Chump Carz' final two races that year.
apparently Gommendy holds the current Circuit
Mont Tremblant Road Course lap record at 1:16.776. While ironically the
fabulous Quebec racing circuit is owned by Racing Point F1, soon to be Aston
Martin Racing F1 Team Magnate Lawrence Stroll.
But back to this year's 24 Heurs du Mans, where
Monseir Comedy' spun backwards violently into the barriers at high speed, part
of a three car incident preceded by the byKolles LMP1 machine losing it's rear
wing and also pirouetting Off-track!
As Gommendy's spectacular crash caused major
repairs to be made to the barrier, seeing a team of welders merrily lighting up
the night sky with their torches, which implies to Mwah that Armco steel barriers were Damaged,
meaning the Shunt was on part of the public roads…
Presumably "so it Goes," since in the
race's eighth hour, another Safety Car period would be required to
remove/install the new barrier section! Following an extended "Slow
Zone" to this portion of Ash-fault. As I'll let Racer do the Heavy lifting
and explain the Hour 7 Melee in Detail instead, noting how Hour 7 went Into the
Dark.
https://racer.com/2020/09/19/lm24-hour-7-into-darkness/
As the LMP2 Class would be a battle of
reliability, with many competitors enduring incidents or mechanical maladies,
with another current F1 Individual's outfit winning Class Honours.
As McLaren CEO Zak Brown's United Autosports, which he Co-Owns with Richard Dean's No. 22 Oreca/Gibson V-8 with former Formula 1 Driver and current Sky Sports F1 Pundit Paul di Resta alongside Co-Drivers Phil Hansen and Filipe Albuquerque finished P1 in the LMP2 category…
