76th 24 Heures du Mans - page 1

14th/15th June 2008

A pictorial review of the 2008 Le Mans 24 hour race

The works DBR9's, now in the famous Gulf colours, are defending their GT1 title again against the Corvettes. The new AM engined Lola, competing in the top LMP1 class will have a huge mountain to climb against the favoured diesel powered Audi's and Peugeots. I'd love to see the Lola finish as the top petrol powered car but for a first appearance, just finishing will be a success.

Car Number & Class Chassis Number Colour Scheme Drivers Team
10, LMP1 Lola-Aston Martin B08/60-HU01 White/Blue/Red - Czech Flag Stefan Mccke, Jan Charouz, Thomas Enge

 

 Charouz Racing System
007, GT1 DBR9/7 Gulf racing colours (light blue/orange) with orange windscreen band Karl Wendlinger, Andrea Piccini,  Heinz-Harold Frentzen  Aston Martin Racing
009, GT1 DBR9/8 Gulf racing colours (light blue/orange) with yellow windscreen band David Brabham, Antonio Garcia, Darren Turner  Aston Martin Racing
53, GT1 DBR9/4 Vitaphone team colours (Black and Green) Alexandros Margaritis, Peter Hardman, Nick Leventis Vitaphone Racing Team
59, GT1 DBR9/101 Metallic grey and black Christian Fittipaldi, Jos Menten, Terry Borcheller Team Modena

After three years of trying AMR finally took the GT1 crown at Le Mans. Defending it in 2008 would be no mean feat with the challenge as ever coming from the Corvettes and Saleens. The cars run in virtually the same spec as last year but the works team features sponsorship from Gulf Oil International, iconic light blue and orange first seen 40 years ago on a Porsche that went on to win the race. The #59 car is making it's third appearance, this year fully updated to current specs with the air conditioning system as seen on last years works cars. #53, a newcomer to Le Mans is the Vitaphone car. Vitaphone are more used to running the Maserati MC12 in the FIA GT series, but this car is both to long and too wide against the AMC permitted dimensions for the class. For LM08, Vitaphone have teamed up with British based Strakka Racing who are to take charge of much of the day-to-day running of the car and who run the car at other events.

Of great interest and as a way to pointing the way forward, #10 is a closed Lola LMP1 prototype with a mid-mounted DBR9 V12 engine, the only LM prototype to use effectively a production engine within the current regulations. Whilst entered by Czech team, Charouz Racing System, the car is effectively prepared and run by Aston Martin Racing, perhaps to gather information about moving fully upto LMP1 next year.

Test day was a very wet affair - will the race itself follow the same way? Whatever, the LMP1 Lola-Aston achieved 9th fastest in class, and works DBR9 009 in the hands of David Brabham was quickest of the GT1's closely followed by a Saleen and a Corvette. Will 2008 be a three way battle - the Saleen looks strong as do the Corvettes. One must remember that the last time the AMR team competed was a year ago at Le Mans whereas the Pratt and Miller Corvettes have been running in the ALMS since last years encounter. Some will see that this makes the Gulf AMR DBR9's the under-dogs.
Wednesday - Group C free practice

The support race for this years LM features the group C cars on the 80's and 90's. Aston Interest is in the AMR1 of Paul Wright. Paul's lap time of 4:35.046 so far puts him 14th in a field of 30 cars. Qualifying is on Thursday night with the race proper on Saturday morning. A close look at the black stripe on the wing sees the name of David Leslie, AMR1 works driver, who sadly lost his life earlier in 2008 in a plane crash. Initially the black stripe was put in place to respect the former AM team manager, John Wyer, who passed away in 1989.

Wednesday Night 1st Qualifying practice session, 11th June 2008

A record crowd for first night qualifying saw lap records fall in all classes except for GT1. By the end of the second session, the Lola-Aston Martin, number 10 was 13th fastest in class. In GT1, one only hopes the Astons are sandbagging as the works cars lie in 5th and 6th places behind two Corvettes, a Saleen and a Lamborghini. The two privately entered DBR9's prop up the bottom in 9th and 10th. Fortunately Thursday has another 4 hours of qualifying remaining.
AMR Index

LM2008 page 2