24 Hours of Le Mans

Incident with Audi Puts Convers Menx Out

© Planetlemans

A completely trouble-free two days of practice/qualifying was unfortunately not to be rewarded by a trouble-free race for the Czech-Russian Convers MenX Team. The black no. 67 Ferrari 550 Maranello was officially retired at 0800 hrs due to accident damage sustained as driver Alexey Vasiliev was approaching the Porsche Curves. After seeing the accident on the television and hearing from the driver, it was decided that the damage would be too great to repair in the time available.
The heartbreak for the team (making their debut at Le Mans this year) came after a strong fight back from delays during the night. Peter Kox had been maintaining a steady 6th place in the GT1 class when, in the 9th hour of the race, he was hit by an Audi in the Indianapolis section of the track. The Dutchman said, “He hit me quite hard and pushed me off the track. I was just a passenger from then on and went over the gravel and into the tyre wall head on. The front of the car was quite badly damaged and we had to change the bonnet, bumpers, radiators and so on. It was quite a lot of work but the team did it really quickly – they did a fantastic job.”

Larbre Compétition also lost some time during the hours of darkness after an off-track excursion by Jean-Luc Blanchemain. Once the car returned to the pits, the team took the opportunity to repair a damaged carbon panel situated between the floor and the front splitter which had been damaged earlier in the race. Since then the car has not had any further problems and all three drivers have been turning in steady and consistent laps.