In terms of sport anticlimax, the final hour of the 75th endurance race at Le Mans was like canceling the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl or the bottom half of the seventh game in the World Series. The rain moved in over the track this afternoon and at 2:12 p.m. the marshals deployed the safety car. According to race organizers, this was done at the request of several team managers -- right, the ones who were being stalked by their opponents!
Because of the safety car, Corvette's Ron Fellows' heroic drive in the rain to catch the Aston Martin was nixed. Fellows was gaining 20 seconds a lap on the ultimately victorious 009 Works Aston Martin. Aston Martin, which had six cars in the race under various banners, did finish six cars, so that's a testament to their durability. But the Works team did everything it could to muff this best chance to win. Johnny Herbert, are you listening?
The safety car thing was a bogus way to end the race. More than 250,000 fans came to see 24 hours of racing, not 23 hours, and it wasn't raining that hard. Besides, that's what rain tires are for. Indeed, this was less like European sports car racing, which is generally pretty indifferent to weather, and more like NASCAR, which will red-flag a race for precipitation in the leader's hometown. On balance, though, it was a good race, a daylong duel and test of nerves for the LMP cars.
The victorious No. 1 Audi stayed cool and kept on pace, even when its sister cars expired. The No. 8 Peugeot team led by Sebastien Bourdais kept the pressure on through the night and day, leaving no doubt that if the Audi slipped even a little, the Peugeot would capitalize. The interval between the two cars was steady at about seven laps for most of the race. I figured the surviving Audi was going to fail, according to the rule of threes (bad things happen in threes). But it was the No. 8 Peugeot team that had the biggest scare when its engine started to stumble in the last hour during the safety car laps. Imagine the festival of recrimination had the engine failed because of overheating. What would the ACO say? Desole? Whoops? Mon dieu?
I feel awful for Pescarolo Sport, though. This is the third year it has finished third, disappointing a crowd hungry for a home team win. The gas-powered car had neither the pace nor the mileage to be truly competitive. I wonder if this means next year the rules will further handicap the oil-burners or advantage the gas-powered cars?
As for me, staying up all night and blogging the race was painful, fun and completely exhausting. Everyone should do a 24-hour race. That said, no one should feel obliged to do two. Thanks for staying up with me.
While we wait for Dan to check in with the latest, here is a link to the official ACO website. Even if French isn't your first (or second) language, you can peruse the final results here -- just click the UK flag for English:
Barring acts of God or intercession by the French government, Audi is poised to win its sixth 24 Hours of Le Mans. The No. 1 R10 with Marco Werner in the driver's seat has a six-lap advantage over the following Peugeot 907 HDi, with Sebastien Bourdais driving.
The rain is coming down hard now, and the field is pretty much frozen into a wet parade. Third-place LMP1 should be the Pescarolo driven by Emmanuel Collard. In LMP2 it's Binnie Motorsports Lola Zytek by miles over the No. 33 Zytek driven by Adrian Fernandez. In GT1, David Brabham is leading in the Works Aston Martin 009, but Ron Fellows is chasing in the No. 63 Corvette; Fellows will probably run out of time. In GT2, it's the Porsche 997 GT3 GTR driven by Factory driver Patrick Long.
I just wanted to show people the press center at Le Mans (this room goes on for an additional 300 yards). And here's an image of your faithful correspondent.
The predictions of heavy weather didn't come true yesterday or last night -- in fact, last night was probably the most beautiful starlit night in France since the Age Moyen. But the rain is coming and with it, a chance for me to be vindicated on some of my crackpot predictions at the beginning of this race. How was I wrong? Let me count the ways.
First, the Peugeots have proved far more durable, and the team generalship smarter and better, than I guessed. I figured the car would break. I also figured that Audi would not make mental errors. Alas, no. Rockenfeller's backing into the barrier in Hour 4 was a bonehead move, and Reinhold Joest was not pleased. If you were anywhere in the neighborhood of the Audi pits you could hear a piping whistle, which was coming out of Herr Joest's ears. As for Dindo Capello's off, it was apparently a team error, a failure to tighten the center nut on the left rear wheel. But at 10 a.m., the No. 1 R10 is in the lead and the nearest Peugeot is five laps back.
The Peugeots are pushing, and being pushed by perennial overachievers Pescarolo. I figured that the Aston Martins had the race well in hand, but the Corvette currently in Jan Magnussen's lunatic care is splitting the AMs. Also, the rival AMR Larbre Astons are pushing the Prodrive AMs. So great racing in GT1. I did predict it would be a destructive race, and it has been, though not because of the rain that hasn't come. Breakdowns, offs and just bad luck have reduced the number of LMP2 cars from 11 at the start to two at 10:16 a.m. However, that means that Adrian Fernandez's Lowe's-sponsored Barazi Epsilon Zytek could inherit second in the class, even though they have had a catastrophic 19 hours. By my count there are 20 cars retired of 55 started, or 36%. But wait, rain is coming.
Oh no! The No. 2 Audi has gone off at Indianapolis! The lead car is out of the race. Now it's up to the No. 1 Audi (currently Biela is behind the wheel). That car hasn't been nearly as quick. Moreover, the Bourdais-manned Peugeot is within four laps of the leader. Could we be looking at the storybook finish?
And when was the last time two Audis went out of a race? Ever. The cause of TK's accident is not clear, but it looks like a left rear wheel failure.
Oh my God! Johnny Herbert has done it again. The 007 Aston went agricultural, broke the front splitter off and has been brought into the pits for a lengthy repair. Meanwhile, the Ron Fellows-piloted Corvette has taken over the lead in GT1. Can Aston think of another way to give this race away?
Well, speaking of Crepe (say it with a French accent): Among the many Le Mans traditions is the Grand Marnier crepes, which you can get in the Le Mans village (much expanded and improved this year). As a public service, here's the recipe: 1/4 liter milk, 2 pinches salt, 25 grams powered sugar, 150 grams of flour, 30 grams melted butter, 5 centiliters of Grand Marnier. Mix all that up in a batch. Get on a plane and come to Le Mans, where the crepe pans are hot and waiting.
For those of you who are not watching SpeedTV coverage, why not? You're missing a great race. The Audis have proved to be just too fast, too disciplined and too talented for the Peugeots. Through the night, the Audis ticked up their speeds, and just as dawn was approaching Allan McNish set a lap record 3:27. Clearly the team is saving the R10 if they can lay down a mark like that, practically at will. But the nearest Peugeot is only five laps behind. It's just a matter of whether Peugeot (Bourdais et al) can be perfect and whether Audi is, after much assertions to the contrary, human.
In LMP2, as of 6 a.m. local, it's the Americans in their Binnie Motorsports Lola/Zytek, which is six laps ahead of their nearest rival. Their night was as untroubled as that of any team in the race. The nail biter is the Aston Martin Works team, 007 and 009. Even after Olivier Gavin broke the No. 64 Corvette in the third hour of the race, the AMs can't shake the other Works Corvette. Johnny O'Connell drove all night, and as of now the car is within a lap of both AMs. This team has been to the altar more than Larry King. I hope Aston -- and Prodrive, which thought so much of the marque that it led a consortium to buy the company from Ford -- will finally win this thing.
It's 1 a.m. but thousands are still sitting in the grandstands. Some are sleeping -- which is a neat trick when squadrons of 113-decibel cars blast by on the main straight or shriek fire as they leave the pits. Some are listening to Radio Le Mans, but many, I gather, are just watching the cars go by, sitting in the dark and watching, content to observe the contrails of light arcing up the hill to the Dunlop esses. And, presumably, not asking what any of it means. And not asking, whatever it means, do we have to stay up all night to learn it?
These are the mysterious hours in endurance racing, when there's really nothing to see and yet people will climb over one another to see it. I spent some time tonight looking at the faces of people watching cars come through Indianapolis corner. The blank rapture was inexplicable. These people are clearly sensualists, who adore the tickle in the breastbone that happens when an open-pipe car roars by. Frisson, I suppose the French would call it.
These machines do offer a kind of mechanical fireworks -- the glowing rotors, the chassis sparks, the gouts of yellow flame from the side pipes. Maybe not fireworks. Maybe torch-lit processions. I don't know. I'm dizzy from the noise and exhausted. It occurs to me as I watch one car after another roll into the garage and out again after frantic repairs, Le Mans is a like a medical drama for cars. The patient may die, all depends on heroic surgery, the clock is ticking. The crowd looks on, hoping for success and disaster at the same time. Just like TV. These hours between midnight and 8 a.m. are where races are won and lost. People are tired, forgetful, temperamental.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dan Neil writes the L.A. Times' weekly car reviews and is featured as a popular culture columnist in West magazine's "800 Words."
The victorious No. 1 Audi stayed cool and kept on pace, even when its sister cars expired. The No. 8 Peugeot team led by Sebastien Bourdais kept the pressure on through the night and day, leaving no doubt that if the Audi slipped even a little, the Peugeot would capitalize. The interval between the two cars was steady at about seven laps for most of the race. I figured the surviving Audi was going to fail, according to the rule of threes (bad things happen in threes). But it was the No. 8 Peugeot team that had the biggest scare when its engine started to stumble in the last hour during the safety car laps. Imagine the festival of recrimination had the engine failed because of overheating. What would the ACO say? Desole? Whoops? Mon dieu? 
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