Since like many a racetrack, Futility is a Cruel
Mistress at Circuit de la Sarthe!
Author’s Note
Once again, your Humble No Fenders Scribe is running
way way Behind! Definitely more than “One Lap Down” over Le Mans Mega 8.467
mile layout! As Here’s last year’s report which was supposed to be posted prior
to this year’s race…
Tomaso
E89 24 Heurs du Mans
Last year’s 89th running of the 24
Heurs du Mans just didn’t feel right to Mwah, I suppose since it was in August,
not to mention there being an IndyCar race on later that evening. As I’ll admit
I was more intrigued over Romain Grosjean’s Oval track debut thenwhether Toyota
would win again, Yawn!
Thus I began my 24 Hours of Le Mans casually by
switching on Thy Telie’ during a leisurely breakfast by tuning into Motor Trend
TV.
Alas, having missed Thar introductions, I was
left ponderin’ who this “B Team” of Eurosport TV Pundits were? And cannot find
their Identities on the All Knowing Intrawoods’, nee Internet. So I’ll just go
with Thar first names instead. Firs Thar was some ‘Ol Codger named Chris
Something-ruther, may be Parsons? Who proclaimed he’d been Thar in 1965. Y’all
know, the last time that Ferrari won outright, Crikeys!
Hmm, No idea if
this Chris, Charles or Chuck Dude was in any way related to Alan? Y’all know of
the Alan Parsons Project, Righto, Hya!
As Chuck’, Err Chris Prattled on ‘bout how
strange it was seeing Risi Competizione running a “rosso” LMP2 Oreca after
their years of running Ferrari GT’s and speculating about may be running a Ferrari
(Customer) Hypercar in the future? And then banged on ‘bout how la Scuderia
still has “The Iceman’s” phone number, provided Kimi’s (Raikkonen) not busy
having an Ice Cream, as that’s my own Joke Thar, Hya!
Also said there’s some Dude named Rossi who’s
retiring and says he’s always wanted to race at a place called Le Mans. To
which lead Announcer Jake “The shark” said if I remember right, “The Doctor,”
nee Valentino Rossi was only some seven tenths Off of Michael Schumacher’s times
when he tested a Ferrari back in 2006-07?
Whilst the Other booth Boy Charlie “Brown” said
to Chris, it’s when, not if McLaren will have it’s own Hypercar, since Zak
Brown’s a major Shareholder in United Autosport’s who are one of the top LMP2 teams…
But Zackery’s Not gonna be Happy! As
inexplicably the #32 took out it’s Seester’ #23 United Autosport entry when a
passing Shower occurred! With two separate incidents occurring during the sixth
hour, as Sophia florsch in the No. 1 Richard Mille Racing entry went Off-track,
was Hit by the #26 G Drive who wasn’t paying Attenzione, and then when trying
to reverse out of the tyres was Clouted by the #74 who totally missed the
waving Yellow Flags!
MAGS’, aka Jan Magnussen Quipped that it was a
bottle of red wine that put into motion this year’s running with his son Kevin
Bacon’ Magnussen, since Jan is racing the ELMS season for High Class Racing and
they had a second LMP2 car available. And with Kevin becoming a Werds’ Peugeot
Sports Car Driver next year, there probably wouldn’t be another opportunity for
awhile.
The team elected to replace the No. 49’s Gibson
V-8 lump during Thursday’s practice sessions, since even with the two High Class
Racing teams running identical set-ups, Kevin claimed they were 6kph down to
their Seester’ car on the Straightaways…
Hour 3 Me Thinks, ANT’, aka Anthony Davidson in
the LMP2 Pole winner #38 JOTA entry, put on Pole by Antonio Felix da Costa, spun into the “Kitty litter!”
Dropping way down the order, having to wait to
be towed out of the gravel trap. As Davidson later said he was Gutted, but the
incident had occurred during one of the many rain storms and he thought he’d do
it All over again…
One of the Pundits Mentioned that Renger Van der
Zande was being harried by “Mean Jean” Alesi, who I hadn’t noticed on the Entry
list. Whale’ at least it sounded like they said Alesi to Mwah, albeit Don’t
think he was racing there.
Since None of Us
are perfect, especially Myself! Although I noticed that John Hindhaugh still
continuously called Olivier Pla Oliver Clark, as I Don’t know what his
fascination with Ollie clark is, other than he’s a British racing driver…
Also talked about Thee Krakow Kid’, aka Robert
Kubica who was making his Le Mans debut for WRT, aboard it’s #41 entry. As the
former Polish Formula 1 Driver was hoping to finally finish a 24 Hour event,
having failed twice so far, including this year’s Rolex 24 with High Class Racing.
Guess I left just before Hour 10? Off to a
fairly Chaotic IndyCar race at Gateway! Then
came back to Le Mans after Hour 13. With Racer.com’s Headline noting Yifea
Overtakes WRT teammate for LMP2 lead.
And that’s as far as my Notes Jotted down
during the race went, with the exception of the Magnussen’s LMP2 entry, which I’d
Gleamed prior to the race. Whilst it’s a Good thingy’ Father and Son Had that
experience, since little did they know then that Kevin would be recalled to the
Haas F1 Team just prior to the 2022 Formula 1 season commencing after Rooskie’
Nikita Mazepin was Sacked after Mother Russia’s Invasion, Err Special Military
Operation against Ukraine commenced…
And It’s Still as clear as Mud on a Rainy Day!
But the No. 21 DragonSpeed team won the newly created LMP2 Pro Am category,
which must include one Bronze rated Driver and get’s to stand atop the podium a
la it’s LMP2 Class winners. So theoretically Juan Pablo Montoya has now become
the second driver to win the mythical Triple Crown, Righto? Having previously
won the Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500. Although I’m guessing he still
needs to win Le Mans outright…
And from this meandering No Fenders story’s
title, Y’all know that Toyota’s All Conquering GR010 Hypercar was victorious
again. Although the No. 7 finally Cracked it’s Nut, Err Broke it’s Duck! With
one of my favourite Sports Car Drivers K-Squared’, aka Kamui Kobayashi winning!
Along with former IndyCar Ace Mike “Ice Ice, Baby!” Conway and Jose Maria Lopez.
But the Drama was in the lower tier LMP2
category, where it appeared that the No. 41 WRT entry was set to lead a
Historic 1-2 victory sweep for the Belgian team, with it’s Seesster’ #31
tagging behind. Yet on the final lap of the race, Yifea Ye ground to a Halt at
the Dunlop Curve and couldn’t fire the Oreca’s engine that He was sharing with
Louis Delatraz and the aforementioned Robert Kubica. Meaning the Polish Driver
would go 0-for-3 in 24 Hour races, Aye Karumba!
Therefore it was the #31 with Robin Frijns at it’s Keyboard holding off a hard charging Tom “The bomb” Blomquist in the No. 28 JOTA entry by a scant 0.07 seconds at the stripe!
