24 Heures du Mans 2008 Scrutineering Session
So, second day at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2008 scrutineering session. Weather is great and there's a huge crowd, which is understandable because all french teams are to complete technical and administrative checking this second day: Pescarolo Sport, Courage Oreca and the latest and the greatest of them, the Audi challenger, Peugeot.
What stroke me yesterday is the great number of closed top prototypes. Le Mans prototypes don't generally have a roof, so each time a team uses the closed top form factor over the traditional one, it gets noticed. 24 Heures du Mans 2008 will probably be remembered as the return of closed tops, as in recent years only two teams have chosen to race closed top prototypes: Bentley for their two years program a few years back and Peugeot from last year on. Choosing a closed top form factor is also in line with future ACO regulations. Indeed, the ACO intends to make closed top prototypes a standard starting with 2010. The official motivation of this decision is that the open top prototype form factor is
to far away from cars respective manufacturers are building with all prototyped looking virtually the same. Closed top prototypes are supposed to remind the manufacturer's stock cars and therefore show a much stronger identity. And after having a look at what was shown today, I can say the result is quite appealing.
Henri Pescarolo passed by to complete the administrative checking procedures for Pescarolo Sport and while at it he joined the crowd and signed a couple of autographs. After which he drove back to his engineering centre.
Both drivers involved in heavy accidents during the June 1st tests seem to have fully recovered. Tracy Krohn appeared to be in good shape while interviewed by Radio Le Mans at the Quinconces des Jacobins. His Ferrari F430 GT was repaired and he will enter the race as scheduled. Peugeot on the other hand had a harder time recovering from Marc Gene's crash. Although Marc has fully recovered and is in a very good shape, his car, the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP number 7 was completely destroyed so Peugeot has to rebuild a new one from scratch. They've put together a tremendous effort and managed to finish the new car Monday evening, just in time to bring it to the Quinconces des Jacobins for technical inspection. The car that was shown though didn't run one single lap so right after the technical inspection Peugeot shipped it directly to the circuit for testing and tuning. The number 7 is the Peugeot flagship car, driven by Marc Gene, Nicolas Minassian and former Formula 1 driver Jacques Villeneuve.
The three Peugeot 908 HDi FAPs have attracted a huge crowd but Embassy racing almost managed to steal the show using a subversive but very effective weapon. I'll let you decide, would you rather look at her or at three metal - sorry, carbon fiber - objects? Hawaiian Tropic Girls watch out, there's competition!
Oh, you thought there will be 55 cars on the grid next Saturday? Take another guess. Italian team Racing Box SRL was the victim of an irresponsible builder. How come? Well, in order for a car to pass the 24 Heures du Mans technical inspection the car manufacturer must provide a conformity certificate. Which their car manufacturer did, so Racing Box participated in the official June 1st test and prepared to enter scrutineering at the Quinconces des Jacobins when without much of an explanation their manufacturer retracted the conformity certificate. As a result the team was disqualified for administrative reasons. The relationship between Racing Box and their manufacturer is a little bit tense now, which is understandable as Racing Box will loose a lot of money over this fiasco, not talking about the team members' hurt feelings. Being selected for 24 Hours of Le Mans is not an every day opportunity and for many drivers and teams it is a lifetime accomplishment. I cannot imagine what it is to be deceived by a manufacturer like this.
Of course the Audi squad was there and they all talked about how Peugeot are favorites as they're much faster on a lap, but that Le Mans is a 24 Hours race and one lap is not enough to win. The Audi R10s look, you know, just like last year.
