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Guy Smith's 24 Hours of Le Mans
06/20/10
Endurance racing can be so rewarding but equally, it can be just as frustrating and that is exactly how I felt on my return from this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
I was driving for the Rebellion racing team in their P1 Lola coupe with the Rebellion engine. I had previously raced for them in the LMS opener at Paul Ricard where along with my teammates Jean-Christophe Boullion and Andrea Belicchi, we finished the eight-hour race on the podium in third place.
We had high hopes going into Le Mans that we could finish as the top petrol car fighting with the Aston Martins and the Oreca, but we knew that we would have no chance against the diesel Audis and Peugeots who simply have more power and better fuel economy. A top-five would have been a great result.
The week did not start off so well with Jean Christophe passing a car under red flags in first qualifying and having our car’s fastest times taken away. That left us with a lot of work still to do on Thursday’s qualifying session which was forecast to be wet.
Sure enough, as Thursday’s qualifying approached, it had been raining quite hard but as the session started at 7 p.m. the rain began to stop and most of the cars took to the circuit on wets getting in some sighting laps to see if there was a chance it may dry out. Shortly a dry line began to appear and soon the first of the cars pitted to change onto slick tyres and we choose to do the same.
Jean Christophe began to lap at a really good pace and was soon amongst the fastest cars on track. He was on a flyer of a lap and then it came to an end when he crashed on the exit of the Porsche curves. He had tried to pass a GT car on the outside and got onto the damp part of the circuit and lost control and hitting the outside wall heavily.
Unfortunately the chassis was quite damaged and had to be stripped down and sent away to be repaired. By Friday afternoon, the car was back in the garage as good as new and was swiftly built back up with the Rebellion guys doing a great job.
Andrea and I drove in the warm-up and both of us felt that the car was really good and in great shape for the race. Unfortunately due to the crash, we were unable to post a competitive qualifying time so we had to line up in 16th position on the grid for the start of the race but being a 24-hour race, it’s not so important.
We decided to start the race with triple stints and then after each driver had completed their first stint, we would go to quadruple stints from there onwards as the tyres looked more than capable of doing that.
Jean-Christophe took the start. As the race settled into a rhythm we began to make progress through the field. I was sad to see one of my childhood heroes, Nigel Mansell, crash out just 18 minutes into the race and having to be stretched off and into an ambulance. Luckily he was fine but it just shows how challenging Le Mans can be no matter how much experience you may have.
By the end of Boullion’s stint we had moved inside the top 10 and the car was going well, but we still lacked the raw pace to take the fight to the Aston Martins, but we looked competitive against the other petrol cars.
As Jean-Christophe pitted at the end of his stint, I was ready to jump aboard the number 13 car and set off and try and gain some more places. The stop went smoothly and I set off full of excitement about getting back onto the Le Mans circuit in race conditions. It really is a special feeling hurtling down the Mulsanne straight at well over 200 m.p.h. when only seconds before you stood in the garage, seat in hand, waiting to get in the car.
I found the car to my liking and soon settled into a good rhythm having only completed eight laps in practice. I was able to start to close in on the Oreca and Signature Aston and during my second stint, I was able to move the Rebellion car past them both and up into eighth position right behind the works Astons.
As my third stint came to an end, I pitted to hand over to Andrea and again the Rebellion team did a great job in the pits and we had quick and smooth pit stop.
Andrea was able to maintain 8th place despite a small off and as night started to draw in, he handed the car over to Jean - Christophe who was able to lap at a solid pace keeping the Astons within sight. As he came towards the end of his fourth stint, I began to get ready in the pits - all fired up to tackle my quad stint and then there was a pace car out for a car that had stopped on track. As the track went back to green, the TV screens flicked to an image of our car spinning backwards hard into the barrier as Jean- Christophe lost control of the car on cold tyres. Unfortunately the car was damaged beyond repair and our Le Mans was over.
It was a frustrating end to a frustrating week but that is Le Mans. It is the ultimate challenge and despite all the drama early in the week, I felt like we had a good chance to pull out a good result as the car was going so well.
My focus now switches back to the American Le Mans Series and Utah. I think the Castrol/Mazda team has a great deal of momentum going into to rest of the season. We had a great race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, getting pole position and leading the race only for a technical problem to put us out with just 20 minutes remaining. It was frustrating but at the same time, I think we showed that we will be a force to be reckoned with for the rest of the year. We still have much more potential to come from the package so I really hope I can score my first ALMS win very soon.
You can follow me on www.twitter.com/guysmith16 to keep up with my thoughts and ramblings during the season as well as here at here and at www.americanlemans.com.
Cheers,
Guy
www.guysmith.com
www.twitter.com/guysmith16 |
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