75th 24 Heures du Mans - page 1

16th/17th June 2007

A pictorial review of the 2007 Le Mans 24 hour race

The DBR9's have some noticeable differences for this years race. All of the cars have only four bonnet vents instead of the six that have been seen upto this point. The works and works supported cars also had their roofs painted white in an attempt to reduce cockpit temperatures. In order to keep cockpit temperatures even lower, the GT1 cars have been strongly encouraged to fit air conditioning or similar cooling device. Temperature sensors are fitted, and if the cockpit temperatures exceed 38 degrees C, the cars have to stop. Also the cars have to stop if the sensor is faulty. Since air-con takes a small amount of power from the engine, the air restrictors have been made slightly larger to offset the power loss from the air-con.

Another change for this year is the fitting of three lights on the body (green for the GT1 class). These indicate to the spectators the position of the car within it's class. One light, and the car is leading the class, two lights for second and three for third. The operation of the lights is controlled remotely by the ACO.

Wednesday Night 1st Qualifying practice session, 13th June 2007

Despite a short sharp shower mid afternoon, the first session of Wednesday evening practice began both dry and a pleasantly warm 23C with decent evening sunshine. On the stoke of seven, the cars streamed onto the track to begin what is a total of 8 hours of practice before the race proper on Saturday. Each DBR9 appeared to do three laps - out, flying and in. Being at the last chicane (Ford), I only got one opportunity to get a shot of each car. Then suddenly at 8.05 practice was brought to an abrupt halt following a serious incident involving Lamborghini 53 which crash heavily at the Playstation chicane and thus appeared to be out of the race. The session restarted at 20.50 for just another 25 minutes BUT a sudden thunder storm out at Indianapolis encouraged all teams to pull cars back in that were not already out.

The final 2 hours were from 22.00 until 23.59 where is it vitally important that all drivers get the chance to practice at night. Best Aston of the whole 1st session was the AMR Larbre Comp. car 008 with a very impressive best lap of 3:50.761, 23rd overall and 1st in class ahead of a Saleen. Full works car, 009 was the next Aston with a best lap of 3:53.471. To put this into context, the fastest car, the Diesel Peugeot prototype lapped in 3:26.

Aston Martin 006 apparently also suffered a fuel leak and changed the fuel pressure regulator in the process of sorting this problem.

AMR Team Drivers Meet the Press, Thursday Afternoon, 14th June 2007

An informal gathering at the AMR facility in the paddock gave me the opportunity to take some informal shots of key people in the team. 

David Richards, Chairman of Prodrive and very soon to become Chairman of Aston Martin

Dr Ulrich Bez, CEO of Aston Martin, sharing a few thoughts with Darren Turner prior to Dr Bez driving DBR1/2 in practice for the LM legends race

George Howard-Chappell - AMR Team Principle comes with a wealth of experience from F1, touring cars and sportscars.

The Drivers of 007

Tomas Enge, the 30 year old from the Czech Republic, has again joined AMR for their third Le Mans. Very quick in qualifying with five pole positions in GT1 class in five years at Le Mans. Drove 007 to 2nd place in GT1 in 2006.

Johnny Herbert, best known for his years in Formula 1 and being team mate to Michael Schumacher at Benetton in 1995. Finished 1st at le Mans in 1991 and also more recently, three second places.

Peter Kox, a Dutchman with experience in European Touring Cars. Regularly driven in the AMR team since 2005

The Drivers of 009

David Brabham - Australian born David has Formula 1 experience and has driven a DBR9 at Le Mans in both 2005 (AMR) and 6 (Team Modena).

Rikard Rydell - perhaps better known for driving in Touring Cars, Swede Rydell has Le Mans experience dating back to 1990.

Darren  Turner, 33, is only one of two Britons driving for AMR. Regularly seen driving the works DBR9  Took the DBR9 to 3rd place in GT1 in 2005 and 2nd place in 2006.