The Explorers' Club, № MIII

Toyota GR010 Hybrid—A sports prototype race car built to the Le Mans Hypercar specification, with a twin-turbocharged V6 petrol engine with a lithium-ion battery hybrid system; through three seasons of racing, GR010 Hybrids have won sixteen of nineteen races contested, including two victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (2021 & 2022), & three F.I.A. World Endurance Championships (2021-2023).

Bonus! Song o' the Day: Toyota GR010 Hybrid
Kemuri, "Go! Go! Go! Go! Glow!" from Freedomosh (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey-san)

Commentary: For 2024, the GR010 has a new, predominantly black livery, to better contrast with the red & white-liveried Porsche 963 sports prototypes against which it races in the W.E.C.

Semper exploro.

24 Heures du Mans | +08:30:00

During the 91st 24 Hours of Le Mans, three hours one minute (3:01) were spent running behind the safety car. All three hours occurred in the twleve hours of the race I watched. There was no more time behind the safety car after I went to bed. I regret nothing & enjoyed getting a good night's sleep.

Hypercar-class & Overall Champions
1st Place
№ 51 Ferrari A.F. Corse (Ferrari 499P)
James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi, & Alessandro Pier Guidi
2nd Place
№ 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing (Toyota GR010 Hybrid)
Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, & Ryō Hirakawa
3rd Place
№ 2 Cadillac Racing (Cadillac V-Series.R)
Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, & Richard Westbrook

L.M.P.2-class Champions
1st Place
№ 34 Inter Europol Competition (Oreca 07-Gibson)
Albert Costa, Fabio Scherer, & Jakub Śmiechowski
2nd Place
№ 41 Team W.R.T. (Oreca 07-Gibson)
Rui Andrade, Louis Delétraz, & Robert Kubica
3rd Place
№ 30 Duqueine Team (Oreca 07-Gibson)
René Binder, Neel Jani, & Nico Pino

G.T.E.-Am.-class Champions
1st Place
№ 33 Corvette Racing (Corvette C8.R)
Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating, & Nicolás Varrone
2nd Place
№ 25 O.R.T. by T.F. Sport (Aston Martin Vantage A.M.R.)
Ahmad Al Harthy, Michael Dinan, & Charlie Eastwood
3rd Place
№ 86 G.R. Racing (Porsche 911 R.S.R.-19)
Ben Barker, Riccardo Pera, & Michael Wainwright

Hypercar
I wanted Toyota to win their sixth consecutive Le Mans, but not because of any ill will toward any of the other Hypercar competitors. In short, Toyota have paid their dues, & I wanted to see them prevail in this first year of the full flowering of Hypercar.

Toyota returned to Le Mans in 2012 & entered that inaugural season of the World Endurance Championship (W.E.C.) a year earlier than intended. Toyota had been working toward a 2013 debut of their TS030 Hybrid, but rushed to enter in 2012, at the behest of the A.C.O. & F.I.A., to give Audi a Le Mans Prototype 1 (L.M.P.1) peer competitor after the sudden exit of Peugeot. Toyota came within five minutes of victory in 2016, only for the № 5 TS050 Hybrid to suffer a mechanical failure on the last lap, handing victory to a Porsche 919 Hybrid. Both Audi & Porsche withdrew from L.M.P.1 at the end of 2017, amidst the massive fines resulting from the Volkswagen emissions scandal, but Toyota soldiered on. In 2018, Toyota became the second Japanese manufacturer to win Le Mans overall, & claimed additional victories in 2019, 2020, 2021, & 2022, against admittedly depleted fields first in the L.M.P.1 class (2018-2020) & then in the new Hypercar class (2021-2022).

When the A.C.O. & F.I.A. replaced the incredibly cool but also astronomically expensive Le Mans Prototype 1 (L.M.P.1) specification with the cost-capped Le Mans Hypercar (L.M.H.) specification, Toyota was the first major automobile manufacturer to commit to building a Hypercar competitor. (Boutique automaker Glickenhaus was the very first to commit to Hypercar, & I respect them tremendously for that.) Toyota ran their L.M.H.-spec GR010 Hybrid in 2021 against the non-hybrid L.M.H. Glickenhaus 007 & a grandfathered L.M.P.1 Alpine (an Ocreca 07 L.M.P.2 car upgraded to L.M.P.1-spec), & in 2022 against the very unreliable L.M.H. hybrid Peugeot 9X8, waiting for Hypercar competitors from Ferrari, Porsche, Cadillac, Vanwall, B.M.W., Alpine, & Lamborghini to arrive.

Toyota GR010 Hybrid won the first three races of the 2023 W.E.C. The Ferrari 499P showed tremendous single-lap pace, but not the reliability to beat the Toyota. Twice around the clock at Le Mans, the Ferrari came good. The № 7 Toyota looked stronger than the № 8, but was crashed out in the middle of the night; the № 50 Ferrari looked faster than the № 51, but lost time in the pits fixing a brake-fluid leak. The № 94 Peugeot showed blistering pace during the mixed dry-wet conditions of the early hours, but lost pace as the track dried & suffered a crash the damage from which was repaired, but which cost invaluable time in the pits. All four Porsche 963s came to grief one way or another; two of the three Cadillac V-Series.Rs struggled, but the № 2 ran a clean, consistent race, not having quite the pace to match the Ferraris & Toyotas.

Congratulations, Ferrari, on a well-fought victory! This was the Prancing Horse's first overall victory at Le Mans since 1965, though Ferrari had not competed in the top class since 1973; in those fifty years Ferraris have won numerous Le Mans class victories in G.T., most recently in 2021 (G.T.E.-Pro. by 2023 Hypercar winners James Calado & Alessandro Pier Guidi with Côme Ledogar).

G.T.E.-Am.
The № 33, the lone Corvette in the field, prevailed in G.T.E.-Am., having started from the pole (meaning it was the fasted car in qualifying) but having gone down two laps due to some repairs & a potential screw up in the reshuffling during the terrible safety-car procedure, & having clawed their way back onto the lead lap & eventually into the class lead & class victory, one lightning-quick lap at a time. This victory is bittersweet: sweet because of the vindication of the Corvette C8.R, which was in contention to win G.T.E.-Pro. in 2022 before being crashed out by a buffoonish L.M.P.2 gentleman driver; bitter because this was the last time to factory Corvette Racing team will compete at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

At the end of this year's W.E.C. season, the Grand Touring Endurance (G.T.E.) specification is to be retired, to be replaced by the slower, easier to drive, much more road car-like Cup Grand Touring Car specification, commonly known as G.T.3. (G.T.E. is the evolution of the older G.T.2 specification.) In the W.E.C.'s new-for-2024 L.M.G.T.3 class, no factory teams will be permitted. The N.A.S.C.A.R.-owned I.M.S.A. dropped the G.T.E. spec in 2022; for the past two years, Corvetter Racing has been competing in I.M.S.A.'s G.T.D. Pro. class with a G.T.E.-spec Corvette C8.R detuned to G.T.3-spec (called Grand Touring Daytona [G.T.D.], but it's a pure G.T.3 specification; they are just pretentious jackasses.) For 2024, General Motors is producing a ground-up G.T.3-spec competitor, the Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

While factory teams won't be permitted in the W.E.C.'s L.M.G.T.3 class, they will be permitted in I.M.S.A.'s G.T.D. Pro class, yet General Motors has announced their intention to close down the factory team, Corvette Racing. Instead, they are going to provide unspecified factory support to privateer teams, intending to race eight of the new Corvette Z06 GT3.R: four in I.M.S.A. (two in G.T.D. Pro & two in G.T.D.), two in the W.E.C., & two in the G.T.3-only S.R.O. America series.

G.T.3 cars are slower & less capable than G.T.E. cars. I've watched many G.T.3-only races & they are incredibly, incredibly boring. I.M.S.A. races, featuring the G.T.3-spec G.T.D. Pro & G.T.D. classes, are unwatchable. I am sadly convinced L.M.G.T.3 will be similarly underwhelming. Except for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 2024 W.E.C. will consist of only two classes: Hypercar & L.M.G.T.3. L.M.P.2 will continue as the top class in the European Le Mans Series & the Asian Le Mans Series, & as the second-tier class in I.M.S.A. & at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Doom. Doom. Doom.

Bonus! o' the Last 24 Hours

MxPx, "Sad Sad Song" from Secret Weapon (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary:

"You got a sad, sad song,
So sing it without me…"

24 Heures du Mans | 12:32:00

The pace of the Peugeot 9X8 has been genuinely surprising, not only keeping up with the leading Toyota GR010 & Ferrari 499P, but several times leading the race. Alas, the № 94 Peugeot, from third place, crashed into the barriers & had to limp back slowly to the pit lane. The № 8 Toyota & the № 51 Ferrari lead the field, going at each other hammer & tongs. There have been two retirements from the Hypercar class: the № 75 Porsche & the № 7 Toyota. In general, the L.M.H. cars have had the advantage over the L.M.D.h. cars, but there is still more than half the great race to go & the № 2 Cadillac has been hanging on persistently.

The № 33 Corvette is running in the G.T.E. Am. midfield.

I'm going to bed soon. I'm not going to stay up all night to watch the race, compelling as it is, because I know there are multiple hour-long safety-car periods awaiting me if I continue. This centenary edition of Le Mans should have been an absolute triumph, could have so easily been an absolute triumph, but all I'm left with now is this sorry farce & the genuine prospect that I will never again watch the "Grand Prix of Endurance & Efficiency."

24 Heures du Mans | 14:12:00

As feared, almost ten hours into the "Grand Prix of Enurance & Efficiency," more than fifty per cent of the race (>50%) has been non-green-flag running: safety car periods, full-courses yellows, or partial-cource slow zones. This is a farce, a sad, sad farce. Even with the demise of G.T.E. Pro., this year, the full flowering of Hypercar (sixteen L.M.H. & L.M.D.h. cars vying for top honors, versus five L.M.H. & L.M.P.1 in 2021 & 2022) was supposed to be a triumph, but the awful safety-car chicanery has turned it into a debacle.

I'm not going to stay up all night to watch this farce. Unless the safety-car procedure is completely overhauled for 2024, I won't ever watch the 24 Heures du Mans again. I'm not mad, I'm sad.

24 Heures du Mans | 15:41:00

No sooner had I posted my last update than everything went pear-shaped again. The leading Hypercar-class & overall leading № 51 Ferrari went off track, but soon recovered, only losing a few places. Soon thereafter, the № 7 Toyota slowed down on the Mulsanne Straight with mechanical gremlins & then was hit from behind by a G.T.E. Am. Ferrari. Driver Kamui Koboyashi could not refire the car & eventually had to abandon it, jumping from the roof so as not to become grounded while still in contact with the dangerously electrified GR010 Hybrid.

Meanwhile, the Radio Le Mans commentators, uncritical cheerleaders in the early running, lamented the imposition of yet another interminable safety-car period. The observation was made that it took seven & a half hours into the race for one hundred laps to be completed by the overall race leader; in 1988, it took six hours for one hundred laps to be completed by the overall race leader. Thirty-five years of progress!

24 Heures du Mans | 16:04:00

Shortly before midnight at Le Mans, things have settled down from the early race chaos. All four of the Porsche 963s have been in strife, as have two of the three Cadillac V-Series.Rs. The surprise of the race has been the genuine pace of the normally hapless Peugeuot 9X8s.

Hypercar Top 3
1. № 51 Ferrari 499P
2. № 94 Peugeot 9X8
3. № 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid

24 Heures du Mans | 17:01:00

Forty minutes & counting of uninterrupted green-flag running, albeit on rain tires! There was a rash of crashes when the now-fading rain arrived, but I suspect that after the risible debacle of the first four hours, the organizers are now reluctant to declare a full-course yellow or deploy the safety cars.

The № 33 Corvette, running in G.T.E. Am. because there is no more G.T.E. Pro., is far down the running order, having started the race from the class pole. This is the final Le Mans for Corvette Racing, as factory G.T. teams will not be permitted from next year, when the Grand Touring Endurance-spec (G.T.E.) is replaced by a cheap rebranding of the lesser G.T.3-spec as L.M.G.T.3. It is the end of an era, ending with a whimper rather than a bang.

24 Heures du Mans | 19:46:00

The new-for-2023 safety-car procedure is an ever worse nightmare than I had anticipated. This is zero chance that even twelve hours of this race will be run on a clear green track (meaning: green flag, for "clear to race"). We've had less than two hours of green running in the four hours of this race & I see no reason why that would change. This is unwatchable garbage. Unless something changes substantially, this will be the last time I ever watch the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Here is Toyota's pre-race grousing about the safety-car debacle: Autosport-link.

24 Heures du Mans | 21:25:00

There's no flow to this race, due to interminable "Slow Zones" due to crashes. I agree that Slow Zones are better than Full Course Yellows (a portion of the track is placed under a speed limit with no passing allowed, as opposed to the whole circuit), but there are still very disruptive. The cars can race on two-thirds of the Circuit de la Sarthe, but then have to crawl through one-third of the track under Slow Zone conditions. A Slow Zone itself prompted a collision, as two G.T.E. Am. cars crashed into a Hypercar that was slowing for the Slow Zone. There is a baleful axiom in motor racing: "Yellows breed yellows." The Le Mans centenary is off to a discouraging start.

24 Heures du Mans | 22:38:00

The Hypercar era has begun in earnest. The top class has been called Hypercar since 2021, with the Le Mans Hypercar-spec (L.M.H.) Toyota GR010 Hybrid & the Glickenhaus S.C.G. 007 L.M.H. competing against a grandfathered Le Mans Prototype 1-spec (L.M.P.1) Alpine. This year, there are no more grandfathered L.M.P.1 cars; sixteen cars are competing in Hypercar, nine L.M.H. & seven Le Mans Daytona hybrid-spec (L.M.D.h.). L.M.H. is a specification for the global World Endurance Championship (W.E.C.); L.M.D.h. is a specification for the North American I.M.S.A. SportsCar Championship (I.M.S.A.); the process of letting both specifications race in both series is called "convergence."

L.M.H.
№ 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid
№ 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid
№ 50 Ferrari 499P
№ 51 Ferrari 499P
№ 93 Peugeot 9X8
№ 94 Peugeot 9X8
№ 708 Glickenhaus S.C.G. 007 L.M.H.
№ 709 Glickenhaus S.C.G. 007 L.M.H.
№ 4 Vanwall Vandervell 680

L.M.D.h.
№ 5 Porsche 963
№ 6 Porsche 963
№ 38 Porsche 963
№ 75 Porsche 963
№ 2 Cadillac V-Series.R
№ 3 Cadillac V-Series.R
№ 311 Cadillac V-Series.R

The new era has gotten off to a rocky start. One of the L.M.D.h. Cadillacs crashed on the first lap, producing a safety car period. The new-for-2023 safety car procedure took forty minutes. So, in the first forty minutes of the centenery Le Mans, there was half a lap of racing & forty minutes under the safety car. This augurs ill for the next twenty-four hours, but I hope to be proven wrong.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Next 24 Hours

Michael Giacchino, "I Am Speed" from Speed Racer: Original Motion Picture Score (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: Thus begins the 91st 24 Hours of Le Mans (91^e 24 Heures du Mans), the centenary of the "Grand Prix of Endurance & Efficiency."

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Show-Ska, "Go Kart Twist" from Time After Time (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Above, the overall winners of the 2022 24 Heures du Mans, the drivers of the № 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid: Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, & Ryō Hirakawa.

The Explorers' Club, № CMLIII

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
26-27 May 1923: The inaugural running of the 24 Heures du Mans—Thirty-three cars took the start & an astonishing thirty finished; all the cars were French except for one British Bentley & two Belgian Excelsiors; the winning 3.0 Litre Chenard-Walcker completed one hundred twenty-eight laps, driven by André Lagache & René Léonard; the race was the first leg of the Rudge-Whitworth Triennial Cup.

Commentary: Much is being made of the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans being the centenary of the great race. The centenary, not the one hundredth running; the race was cancelled in 1936 due to a general strike in France & from 1940-1948 due to the Second World War.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: Le Mans
Michel Legrand, "Le Mans: The Race, First Laps" from Le Mans/The Hunter: Bandes originalas de films (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

Bonus! Song o' the Last 24 Hours

Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders, "Chasing Bandini" from Ford v. Ferrari: Original Score (Mike Papa Whiskey)

24 Heures du Mans | 04:32:00

In Hypercar, one of the two Toyota GR010s will win & the other will finish second unless they crash or break down. The principal question is which will win, the № 7 or the № 8?

In L.M.P.2, the № 38 Oreca-Gibson from J.O.T.A. Sport has stood like a colossus atop the category since the Tricolore signaled the start. They will win unless they crash or break down.

There is a question as to which of several contenders will triumph in G.T.E. Am., but it is not the category of greatest interest.

As usual, the closest battle & greatest drama is in G.T.E. Pro., the class that is being eliminated. The № 64 Corvette was dicing with the № 51 Ferrari when the Corvette was brutally crashed out of the race due to two reckless gentleman drivers in L.M.P.2 driving like jackasses. The amateur who directly crashed his Oreca into the № 64 later walked down to the Corvette pits to apologize, which I have to admit was a classy move. The hideous coincidence is that the formal retirement of the sister № 63 Corvette was being announced at the exact moment the № 64 was forced off track into the crash barriers. Thus ends a historyof Corvette Racing at Le Mans that stretches back to 2000.

Currently, the № 51 Ferrari & the № 91 Porsche are nose-to-tail for the class lead. This is the best racing on track, as G.T.E. Pro. is year in & year out. Yet the G.T.E. Pro. class is being eliminated. I'm sure the A.C.O. has was it thinks are solid reasons for getting rid of the best racing at each & every year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, but their logic escapes me.

24 Heures du Mans | 07:22:00

Perilous peril!
The G.T.E. Pro.-leading № 92 Porsche suffered a tire failure, slow return journey to the pits, & repairs that dropped it from the class lead to three laps down & second-from-last in class.

At virtually the same time, the overall-leading № 7 Toyota suffered some manner of software/electrical problem, which required several reboots of the GR010, costing it the lead & a lap to the № 8 sister car.

Beware the Mulsanne corner!

24 Heures du Mans | 10:21:00

This is such a gloriously weird time in my annual experience of the 24 Heures du Mans: dawn has broken ove the Circuit de la Sarthe, with sunrise just minutes away, while midnight approaches here in sacred Michigan!

24 Heures du Mans | 12:31:00

It is with a heavy heart that I report this will be the last year of the magnificent G.T.E. Pro. category. Gone will be the titanic battles between factory squads from Ferrari, Porsche, & Corvette. Instead, in 2023, only pro-am entries (currently represented by the G.T.E. Am. category) will compete, with the G.T.E. cars to be retired after that, replaced from 2014 with the popular but staggeringly dull G.T.3 spec., fancied up with a W.E.C.-specific aesthetic package called "G.T.3 premium." Thus ends Corvette Racing's involvement with the world's greatest race, & my last emotional connection to the godless abomination known as General Motors, a company I sincerely hope burns to the ground. Cadillac is to field L.M.D.h. in the N.A.S.C.A.R.-owned I.M.S.A. championship, but I.M.S.A. is unwatchable, more akin to N.A.S.C.A.R.'s old Grand-Am series than the late, lamented American Le Mans Series; Corvete might well run a G.T.3 factory squad in I.M.S.A. G.T.D. category, but I dont watch those races now & I won't watch those races in the future.

This is a terrible, short-sighted decision by the A.C.O., the governing body of Le Mans. They are trying to force more manufacturers into the W.E.C.'s Hypercar category or I.M.S.A.'s L.M.D.h. category. Without interesting G.T. racing, Le Mans won't be what it is supposed to be, none of the W.E.C. rounds will be what they are supposed to be. This is an incredibly stupid move.

24 Heures du Mans | 13:58:00

'Tis the wee small hours of the night at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

In Le Mans Hypercar (L.M.H.), the top class, the two Toyota GR010 Hybrids (№ 7 & № 8) are solidly if not comfortably in the lead ahead of the № 709 Glickenhaus SCG 007 LMH. Both the faster № 708 Glickenhaus & the solo № 36 Alpine (not a true Hypercar but a grandfathered-in L.M.P.1) have had problems are are several laps down. Those are all the entrants in Hypercar.

By next year's 24 Heures du Mans, the one hundredth anniversary of the inaugural race in 1923 but only the ninety-first running of the race (due to a minor disturbance known as the Second World War), the Hypercar class is supposed to be bustling with entries: L.M.H. from Peugeot & Ferrari, plus new Le Mans Daytona hybrids (L.M.D.h.) from Acura, B.M.W., Cadillac, Porsche. (Audi, Alpina, & Lamborghini are supposed to field L.M.D.h. by 2024.)

I have the greatest respect & admiration for Toyota & everything they have given to the World Endurance Championship (W.E.C.). They entered the W.E.C. with the L.M.P.1 TS030 Hybrid in 2012, a year earlier than they intended to enter, to give Audi some competition after the sudden withdrawal of Peugeot. They then battled against Audi & later Porsche, until they both withdrew from the W.E.C. after the 2017 season (both withdrawing as a result of the Volkswagen emissions scandal, "Dieselgate"). Toyota soldiered on in L.M.P.1, finally winning the 24 Heures du Mans, & were the first team to field an L.M.H. They entered the W.E.C. before they were ready in order to give Audi someone to race against, but no one else has paid Toyota the same courtesy; so, I have no problem with them triumphing over the "lesser" competition of non-hybrid privateer Glickenhaus & an aging, non-hybrid Alpine L.M.P.1.