Saturday, June 13, 2015

24 Heures du Mans | 18:01:00

In L.M.P.1, which earlier in the week I described on the FaceSpace to a neophyte as "the big-boy manufacturer class," Porsche have amended their previously awful livery. Whereas before all two or three 919s were in identical white-with-black-lettering liveries, only one is so liveried now; the other two Porsches are in black with white lettering & red with white lettering. The white-with-black livery is also not distinguishable enough from for predominantly white Audi livery; now, all three cars are easily distinguished from one another & the red & black cars are instantly identifiable. Porsche & Audi are dicing at the sharp end, for the overall lead of the race; Toyota is running behind, but steadily so; Nissan, which missed the opening two rounds of the W.E.C. at Silverstone & Spa, are out to sea, hopelessly outmatched, exactly as expected. The red № 17 Porsche, currently driven by former F1 ace Mark Webber, currently leads.

In G.T.E. Pro, the № 63 Corvette was lost in a qualifying crash on Thursday (drat!), but the № 64 is running strongly, much more competitively than would have been guessed from their pace in practice & qualifying. The № 64 has been dicing with the № 99 Aston Martin for the class lead, & currently runs second. One of the factory Porsche 911s (yes, it is a little confusing that Porsche runs similar-liveried factory teams in both L.M.P.1 & G.T.E. Pro, as well as customer cars in G.T.E. Am) caught fire in the first hour, while the other currently runs fourth. The quasi-factory A.F. Corsa Ferraris were slow in qualifying, ever slower than the Corvettes, but are hanging around in the race.

L.M.P.2 & G.T.E. receive less coverage & boast hoards of cars, so things are crazy there, part & parcel of the glorious madness of Le Mans. Le Mans! Le Mans! Le Mans!

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