Rob Willis

A great PDF file spotters guide to print out with all the cars (pictures) and drivers names and car numbers.

Very cool. Done by "yamato" on the ALMS site.

Download the 2006 Le Mans Spotters .PDF Guide Here

Mako7

Will not download and print without joining, buying, etc.

Rob Willis

Click link.

See estimated wait time of 12-15 sec in middle of page. Wait.

Click on the link that says "Don't want a premium download? Click here to access our free download links."

Wait again ~15seconds.

Pick download link.

Download.

VetteBoy1979

Is there a place to look to find out what stints Johnny O'Connell will be driving? Maybe on CorvetteRacing.com? Did I just answer my own question? I CANT WAIT!

93Polo

I doubt it. Feehan prolly keeps that under wraps and it is subject to change.

Can't wait for the race. Hopefully we'll have a close race. Pro Drive does have the speed and experience to take on the C6Rs.

Rob Willis

Here we go. Final qualifying sessions today to set the grid for Saturday's race. The weather is said to be a lot better then yesterday, so it might get interesting.

1-3pm EST (USA) session1 (day2)
4-6pm EST (USA) session2 (day2)

www.radiolemans.com ----> live commentary
http://www.lemans.org/24heuresdumans...hronos_gb.html --> live timing/scoring

rcolling

The Flying Lizards have a great Blog and radio monitoring on their site.

Here is one of todays Blog entries

http://www.lizardms.com/

VetteBoy1979

Good point Lamar, I hadn't thought of that. I agree, ProDrive has the speed and experience, so it should be a great battle. I just hope they don't get so far ahead like they have before and pull off the track for a car wash again

93Polo

Radio Le Mans is on now with regular updates of the English world cup game

93Polo

it'd be nice to see Pro Drive running at the finish not fixing the car. IMO they push to hard during the race.

Dave, Come on down for Petit

TRAIL BOSS

From www.johnnyoconnell.com , Johnny update on the rain session.

Le Mans
Added 06/15/06

Doesn’t it figure that after waiting to finally get things going here it rains ?!! We generally have a policy that if it doesn’t look like it is going to rain in the race, we don’t go out for practice as it’s just too big a risk, and nothing is gained. That was the case tonight as we skipped the first session from 7 to 9. For the second session which goes from 10 to midnight each driver did one timed lap in the rain. There is a rule that says each driver has to do a lap at night to be qualified for the race…so we got that done which is good.

The bad part about it is that we really didn’t get to run hard in the conditions that we expect for the race. The engineers came back from a week at the shop with a lot of great ideas, and now tomorrow will be interesting and a challenge to see what they come up with. I’m not really worried as they always get us close. But with time now at a minimum…it will be more difficult.

The Astons spent almost all the time running, which surprised me. I expected them to do what we did, but then maybe they saw a different weather report then what we did. They ended up being quickest over us by a lot but then really it doesn’t mean anything. None of us as drivers did anything other than what Doug Fehan told us which was to get the lap in, and park the car.

As a result of not running the crew has a much easier time getting things ready for Thursday. Several teams including Audi had crashes, and so there day will be spent fixing wrecked cars. Our guys will be doing little things here and there to make the cars nicer, and doing prep work for the race.

Hopefully the next report I’ll be able to tell you more about the cars and how we are running, and less about the weather !!! Thanks for checking in.

Johnny O "

AU N EGL

"Daniel Poissenot, the sporting director of the A.C.O., has hinted that there could be an announcement on Friday pertaining the rules and regulations of the LMP1 and/or LMP2 cars. As seen during MotorsTV’s broadcast from Le Mans, Mr. Poissenot explained that he is not the happiest with the reliability factor of the baby class LMP machines. Could there be changes ahead for LMP2 and possibly LMP1? During the Radio Le Mans broadcast on Wednesday evening, there was even talk that the LMP1 cars becomming an all-closed top catagory in the future. We will have to wait if any announcments will in fact come this week."

Source: http://www.the-paddock.net/content/view/240222/1/

95jersey

What's up with the Vette times? I am reading this right?!?! It seems the Astons are running in the 4:30's and the vette's in the 4:50's? Last year they were only 4-5 seconds off the fastest pace. Unless Corvette is holding back (I doubt it), they are going to be crushed with speed. I can't beleive the Aston is runing 4:33, isn't that LMP2 territory?

AU N EGL

Rain

What did Kenny Rodges say in the Gambler ??

Know when to hold them,

Rob Willis

Here are your overall "GT1" qualifying standings with about ~30min to go in qualifying. Only 8 seconds seperates first from last in GT1. Things may change though with 30min to go.


009 Aston Martin Racing LMGT1 ORTELLI S. 3:52.561

007 Aston Martin Racing LMGT1 ENGE T. 3:53.088

67 Convers Menx Team LMGT1 VASILIEV A. 3:53.781

63 Corvette Racing LMGT1 PAPIS M. 3:53.993

69 BMS Scuderia Italia LMGT1 PESCATORI C 3:54.024

64 Corvette Racing LMGT1 BERETTA O. 3:54.092

66 ACEMCO Motorsports LMGT1 FITTIPALDI C 3:54.476

72 Alphand Aventures LMGT1 ALPHAND L. 3:55.629

62 Russian Age Racing LMGT1 BRABHAM D. 3:59.054

61 Russian Age Racing LMGT1 SUGDEN T. 3:59.822

53 Jloc Isao Noritake LMGT1 YAMANISHI K. 4:00.287

50 Larbre Competition LMGT1 BORNHAUSER P. 4:01:920

AU N EGL

WOWZAAAAAA

Les Girls
http://www.endurance-info.com/module...alid=25&page=1

John Shiels

who would want to leave the pits

micro

Those are times when it was wet.

A fast LMP1 is 3:30 (in the dry)

A fast LMP2 is 3:40

A fast LMGT1 is 3:50

A fast LMGT2 is 4:00

GT2 Pole-sitting Porsche damaged

http://www.lemans.org/24heuresdumans...MC_775_gb.html

micro

The other Corvette

Luc Alphand Adventures has the Corvette C5-R that won the GTS class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2004. They qualified 8th in GT1, ahead of a DBR9.

http://valeo-motor-sports.com/le_mans_home.html

This link has a video of Le Mans

TRAIL BOSS

Last Post from Johnny O' on www.johnnyoconnell.com until his return to the States:

" Le Mans
Added 06/16/06

Grrrrrrrr !!! Well make that Grrrr. Right now a bit frustrated in that at the end of the run last night I was on a good set of tires, not qualifiers, but at least stickers, and twice had laps going that would have placed us second in qualifying. But then every, and I do mean every time I would get to the Porsche corners there would be a slow Porsche or prototype not watching their mirrors and the lap would be wasted. And really in that situation there is nothing you can do but cuss a bit and hope you get another chance. We didn’t and so for the race we are starting in 6th with the other Corvette in starting third.

Ollie, like he always does here, put in a very good lap. I’m pretty sure that but for the traffic we would have been ahead…but as we’re in France, c’est la vie. Now so that you know, on our dash we have a pretty serious computer that lets us know if we are going faster or slower than a lap that we have done previously. This allows us to judge if we’re doing better, or worse. And it can be a great motivator when you start seeing numbers you like…and numbers you don’t !!! It’s just one of many tools that the engineers give us to improve ourselves when we are out on the track.

So that said, I think we should be in good shape for the race. We had made some changes to the car before I got in based on what Max had been feeling. He had been dealing with some understeer, but with the changes made to the car we went a little bit too far and for me that car was very much on the nervous side. OK to drive for a few laps, but not for a whole stint much less a double. So a few changes to the car will be made today and then tried out in morning warm-up tomorrow.

Today, Friday, it’s a mad house here. So many fans you would not believe. It’s a crack up as Jan Magnussen is like a superstar here, all the Danish fans going wild each time they see him. And everyone of them with a beer in their hand !!! Nah...just kidding about that…but I’m sure that doing the parade later this afternoon we’ll see lots of guys toasting him !!

Speaking of the parade, it is a huge event here. Basically they close the roads downtown and hundreds of thousands of fans line the streets. All of the drivers are then driven through the crowds in antique cars that are beyond cool. Sometimes they break down and people end up having to push them the rest of the way. Then once all the drivers go through they have bands and dancers cruising the same route so is very fun for all the fans.

After that is over, around 7, we have an appearance to make for Compuware, and then it’s back to the track to have dinner and then hopefully a good night sleep. Now the race always starts at 4 PM, but this year due to World Cup Soccer it is starting at 5 PM. And that in itself is one of the hardest things about Le Mans. By the time the race starts you’ve already been up a long time. You try and sneak in a nap here and there before the race, but that’s always hard to do.

I once was told that the reason that the race starts so late is that for the very first 24 hour race, the night before everyone partied way too hard and it took until 4 PM to get everything organized !!! And thus a tradition was born. Sure would be nice if they changed it and started the race early, but I doubt that will ever happen.

I’m going to be focusing now on the race, so won’t get anything up here until I get back in the states. I hope that you’ve enjoyed these little tid bits of what we’re doing over here. This is our biggest race of the year, and I guarantee you that all of us are going to be giving 100 % to bring back another win to the USA. Speaking of which, one final cool thing to share with you.

Speed TV was doing a thing on the team this morning with hundreds of fans looking on as they interviewed Dan Binks about all the prep work the team does getting race ready. At the end, Mike West ripped out his guitar and totally rocked the Star Spangled Banner Jimmie Hendrix style. The crowd went nuts and made us all feel really good about our team, and the way we are treated over here. Over the years we as a team have been solid ambassadors not only for General Motors, but also our country. And that along with the success we’ve enjoyed on the track here, well as Kelly Collins used to say, is rocking chair equity. Fingers crossed for us, 63 is due !!!

Over and out…Johnny O "