Le Mans, 06.-08. July, 2012
This year's edition of the biennial Le Mans Classic was held on
the second weekend of JLe Mans Classic was held on the
second weekend of uly. The classic variant of the legendary 24
hours race was celebrating its 10th anniversary with the sixth
edition since its premiere in 2002. As in previous editions almost
400 cars were entered in six grids sorted by age ranging from the
pre-war pioneers to the very fast prototypes of the late 1970s.
With such a diversity there was something special for every of the
109,000 visitors who came from all over Europe (and some even
from further away) to the Circuit at the Sarthe. Many of them
came with their own classic car to brave the bad weather forecast
and park them in the various club displays in the infield of the
Circuit Bugatti.
With so many cars it is difficult to name a favourite grid but to see
no less than three examples of the legendary Porsche 917 K was
very special. As Anamera reported earlier this year the 1971 Le
Mans winning Porsche Salzburg 917 found a new home in the UK
after many years in an important Porsche Collection in the US,
and when the owners name appeared on the entry list everyone
was very excited to see the car in action during night and day.
When the car was parked on Thursday for the scrutineering
rumours appeared that this might not be the actual Le Mans
winning chassis 23 but a Replica built for the owner based on
original parts to save Porsches most significant racer ever from
damage during the long and hard race. Certainly these rumours
can only be judged by Porsche historians who had a closer look
at the car but still a vivid discussion arose what to think of this
entry if the rumours are true. Everyone agreed that an accident
with the original car would be the worst case but some different
conclusions could be heard. On one side the acceptance of
replicas was the beginning of the end of various race series when
the owner of original cars were not willing to risk their high valued
cars in a battle with replaceable clones but on the other side it is
a fluent passage from a complete replica to a race battered
“original” chassis that was rebuild a dozen times in its life due to
heavy race usage. Where to draw the line what to accept is a
challenge for every organizer as owners of the second category
tend to be more ruthless with their own and others material as
well. So maybe the usage of an exact reconstruction might by the
only possibility to see cars like a 917 in the years to come.
When looking back at the last weekend the decision not to race
the original chassis 23 (assumed the rumours are true) was
without doubt not a bad decision as non of the three entered cars
saw the chequered flag on Sunday afternoon. Just as in the
modern race the cars have to compete with a lot of smaller
classes of the same era and so the 917 were racing smaller 2
litre cars with less than half of the power output. When looking at
the crashes of the last years in the modern race it is easy to see
that most of them are results of misunderstandings between front
runners and slower cares during lapping. With 400 cars and
several hundreds of drivers in action the difference in experience
at the LMC is even far more distinctive ranging from pure amateur
gentlemen drivers to Le Mans legends as 5 times champion
Emanuele Pirro and Derek Bell, so misunderstandings are a
logical consequence. What made things even worse were the
changing weather conditions with several showers during the 24
hours leaving some drivers over challenged with the slippery track
conditions. With a total length of 13,880 km the circuit is long
enough to have different weather conditions even on different
places of the track so the cars might leave the pits in the dry to
drive in a shower on the Hunaudiere to enter a fully wet section
between Mulsanne and Arnage. In these conditions some of the
less experienced drivers are too engaged to keep their car on
track to watch out for faster cars so even experienced drivers are
not spared from risky moments. The Hippie-livered 917 was taken
out during the morning race on Sunday in Terte Rouge, the
Gulf-livered driven by 1983 Le Mans winner Vernon Schuppan
even on Saturday reportedly without own mistake.
But these were not the only incidents as there were several red
flags seen during the weekend but fortunately all accidents
seemed to have a close shave without heavy injuries.
At the end the winning team no.5 was not just very fast but also
luckily spared from such incidents showing once more that in this
team ranking one needs 6 equally fast and reliable cars to
succeed.
For the moment we have put together a preview with about 100
pictures showing some of the action during the practice sessions
and the race for all those waiting to see images right after the
event. A full gallery with all the cars competing that weekend will
follow within a few days after the Ennstal Classic were drivers
fight for hundredths of seconds in regularity on public roads rather
than against each other on the track.
Report & images: Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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