Thread: 24 Hours of Le Mans

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Well I wouldn't go quite that far, but yes, he started racing in karting for Jenson's dad and they are best mates.

Yeah was taking the piss about the sucking cock thing.

But fuck yeah what a dream to move to Monaco to be best buddies with Jenson !!

Wahooooo The LMGTE Am title goes to the America and @CorvetteRacing

Inter-Europol won LMP2 having led since daybreak

Ferrari winning drivers

Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado
Antonio Giovinazzi

Still no proper highlight pack available.

Ferrari was leading by 10 seconds. The race was close. But this was the moment it was lost for Toyota. Allegedly they told the Toyota driver to push to the max and then this happened

Originally Posted by Fondles

Yeah was taking the piss about the sucking cock thing.

But fuck yeah what a dream to move to Monaco to be best buddies with Jenson !!

He's always been best buddies with Jenson (who by the way finished second from last overall).

Brilliant topical story:

Duncan Hamilton was never afraid of death. The hard-drinking Irishman flew Lysander planes in WWII, and when the war ended he took up an even more dangerous past time: motor racing.

Hamilton found himself at the wheel for Jaguar at the 1953 Le Mans 24 hour race. Ferrari were the red hot favourites, but Jaguar with their new C-Type, were hopeful of causing an upset.

But in a colossal fuck up during Friday’s practice, the team sent Hamilton out with the same number as a rival car. They were immediately disqualified from the race. Hamilton and his driving partner Tony Rolt were determined that wouldn’t ruin their weekend - “To the pub”, Hamilton shrugged. The pair stayed up all night necking continental lager and pastisse at a bar in the local town, when at 10am the next morning a MkVII Jaguar drew up outside. Little did the boys know, their (fantastically named) team boss, ‘Lofty’ England, had spent the night negotiating with race organisers, and after paying a hefty fine, they’d agreed to let Jaguar race. England was there to pick them up. As the car drove them back to the race track, there was just one problem: with hours to go till the race, both drivers were blind drunk and hadn’t had a wink of sleep. But, this being the 50s, that was no obstacle: after a splash of cold water and a few espressos, Hamilton found himself sprinting across the starting grid and firing up his motor. Remarkably, after a few hours racing, everything was going well. At each pit stop, the mechanics plied Hamilton with another round of coffees to him sober up. So much so that he began twitching uncontrollably. There was only one thing for it: brandy. For the rest of the race, Hamilton and Rolt switched in and out of the drivers seat, sipping coffee and booze to keep equilibrium. Halfway through the race, coming down the Mulsanne straight, Hamilton hit a bird at 130mph, and it smashed through the windscreen breaking his nose. Somehow - perhaps due to the brandy - he ploughed on. And incredibly, Hamilton and Rolt crossed the finish line the following day in first place. Not only that, but they set a new course record, and became the first car to finish Le Mans with an average speed over 100mph. And of course there was only one way to celebrate. To the bar. Having stayed up all Friday night drinking, and raced through Saturday night, Hamilton and Rolt were spotted propping up the bar in the wee hours of Monday morning… What a weekend.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

He's always been best buddies with Jenson (who by the way finished second from last overall).

At least they finished. They were classified 39th out of 62 starters. They were first in their class - a class of one.

To be fair, they did 3m 50s something fastest lap, about the same as the Corvette that won the LMGTE AM. They were running well until they had a reliability issue that kept them in the garage for a long time. I never did hear what the problem was.

I was hoping to see the pink Porsche of the Iron Dames do well, they looked set for a podium place until quite late in the race and ended up fourth in the LMGTE AM. Good to see an all-female team in the mix.

Originally Posted by prawnograph

Earl Bamber[/URL] from New Zealand has a good record at Le Mans with two wins and three podiums from 7 races - all with Porsche

Add one more podium for Bamber
Third: #2 Cadillac V-Series.R shared by Alex Lynn, Earl Bamber and Richard Westbrook, a lap behind the winning Ferrari.


#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

The two other NZers racing Hypercars finished second [#8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa] and fourth [#2 Cadillac V-Series.R Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon finished three laps down in fourth].

Brendon Hartley one of 18 former F1 drivers in this race; Scott Dixon and Simon Pagenaud (LMP2 class) from the current Indycars series