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Pastimes : Motor Sports Notes -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: X Y Zebra who wrote (488)	6/12/2004 4:29:36 PM
From: X Y Zebra	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 764

Elsewhere in racing.... Le Mans Chasing Audi In 1999 a BMW prototype won Le Mans. That was the last time the Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency has not been commanded by Audi. After three years of domination by the factory backed Joest team, last year the privateer Audi teams were hampered slightly by Audi's wish that their sister team Bentley have as clear a run as possible at the 2003 race. Now as a reward for years of patience, the three Audi privateer teams now can fight the race out amongst themselves. Audi Sport UK heads into the race the strongest, with the support of full time sports racing team Veloqx, they are the best equipped both in mechanical and human technology with driver line-ups of Allan McNish, Frank Biela and Pierre Kaffer in one car, Jamie Davies, Johnny Herbert and Guy Smith in the other. The American Champion Racing team have a driver line-up equal to either of the British teams in JJ Lehto, Marco Werner and Emanuele Pirro, but don't quite have the resources, while ever that little bit further behind is the Japanese Audi from Team Goh. Goh have perhaps sensed an opportunity and in Seiji Ara, Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen have the strongest team they have ever fielded. Is it harsh to dismiss the rest of the prototypes so thoroughly? It seems so but long experience at La Sarthe has proven otherwise, although the pace of the Reynard-inspired IRM 04S entered by Zytek Engineering had been quite promising. David Brabham, ever leading the Audi opposition at Le Mans and Andy Wallace will be joined by a third driver in the fastest non-Audi from the April test day. The rest of the prototype ranks is an eclectic mix of new cars and older well-developed ones. The teams from Pescarolo Sport, Racing For Holland, Zytek Engineering will fight out the minors, with the two MGs entered by RML & Intersport and the Rollcentre Dallara-Judd capable of joining the fight with luck and reliability. The others represent some of the odd, like the diesel and alcohol-powered cars, and the ageing Panoz and Reynard-VW turbo. The small prototype class feels different this year after the realignment in classes, and now seems more forgotten than ever. With the MGs and Reyanrd moved into P1 class, P2 will be fought over by the Courage outfit and the ever hopeful WR turbos. Three other Courages are listed for Epsilon and Belmondo along with an American Intersport Lola in a class likely to only number six cars after withdrawals. Just as bad numerically, GTS however have four strong teams to make up the numbers. The perrenial factory-backed Chevrolet Corvette team faces Ferrari-equipped opposition from Britain, France and the US in Prodrive, Larbre and Barron Connor. While Barron Connor has the newer 575M model, the Prodrive team has expereince and the best driver list in the class, including 1995 World Rally Champion Colin McRae making his major circuit racing debut. Expect this battle to rage all night. In GT, Porsches dominate as much as ever with eleven of Stuttgart's finest entered, led by the pair of RSRs of Freisinger Motorsport. The defending champs are vulnerable though with one car significantly better than the other this year, and the teams from Orbit, White Lightning and Seikel ready to pounce. However the depth of strength in the Porsches isn't what it has been in recent times, and the best equipped rival to Freisinger looks like the Ferrari 360s from JMB and Risi Competizione. There is another Ferrari from long-time Porsche team Cirtek and the usual class oddities in the Morgan Aero 8 and a pair of TVR Tuscans fielded by perpetual non-conformists Chamberlain Motorsport.