The 78th Running of Le Mans

For those of you that braved the full 24hrs of Le Mans, be it at home on your couch or at the historic Circuit de la Sarthe, you were treated to a fantastic race with periods of great triumph and total devastation. Peugeot looked strong from the beginning with four cars against Audi's three. All four were power houses and after a full course yellow put the Audi's 3min back, it looked like Peugeot would have an easy win with the faster car. In GT2, the Risi Competizione and the now GT2 classed Compuware C6R were locked in an nose to tail battle that looked as though it would go all night long. But then Le Mans began claiming victims.

It started with the front running Peugeot having suspension failure that damaged the carbon fiber tub of the car meaning an early end to their day. 3 Peugeots....3 Audis left. The heated battle for GT2 was going strong but unexpectedly the Risi F430 had to come in with gear box troubles...the troubles proved more then the team was willing to fix and their day ended. The remaining three Peugeots ran strong through the night until the fairy tail started to crumble. The #2 Peugeot went out with fire billowing from is exhaust just before day break. The #1 Peugeot went out in similar fashion just a few hours to the end. 1 Peugeot....3 Audis. During Peugeot's charge, they made contact with the Compuware C6R causing total destruction of the rear end of the Corvette putting them out of the race. The crowns are falling.


With just 75mins to go, the final Peugeot of Team Oreca went out with a burst of flames from its exhaust pipe (sounds like a common problem to me) and with that, Audi had an "easy" 1, 2, and 3.


The final rankings were (First, Second, Third):

LMP1: #9 Audi, #8 Audi, #7 Audi

LMP2: #42 Strakka Racing HPD, #35 Oak Racing Pescarolo, #25 RML Lola

GT1: #50 Larbre Competition Saleen S7R, #72 Luc Alphan Adventures Corvette, #52 AMR DB9R

GT2: #77 Team Felbermayr Proton Porsche GT, Team Hankook F430, #97 BMS Porsche GT3 RSR