Comments on: Petit Le Mans – Race red flagged for bad weather

By: Audi Fan

Audi Fan — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:57:55 +0000

I would like to see an r10 nose on the r15!!!!

By: Enduro

Enduro — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:57:30 +0000

Enough with apologies to this Audi fans.

To bring you more sad news… I believe Audi will have to change the front aerodynamics of the car.

The regulations are to change and ACO is making clear about the subject. Endurance-info.com can tell you more.

By: Planetlemans

Planetlemans — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:06:38 +0000

@Dan and GTfour: Most drivers and team owners agreed this was the best thing to do, so Kai is quite right in what he is telling you. To quote some of the drivers/team owners: Doug Fehan: Safety is always paramount at GM Racing, and we applaud the officials in making the decision to call the race. Safety must always prevail." Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: "The fact that the race was not re-started was a shame for us but absolutely right for safety reasons." Allan McNish: "It was sad for everybody but the track conditions made it impossible to continue." Lucas Luhr: "It really would have been too risky to re-start the race. Therefore, the decision was entirely reasonable." Olivier Panis: "If the race hadn't been stopped, all of the cars would have ended up in the gravel trap on the next lap! It's too bad for everyone, but it was a logical decision for safety."

By: Christopher

Christopher — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:57:19 +0000

Oh well, im shore next years Petit will be better….

By: GTfour

GTfour — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:56:04 +0000

@kai,

Stop the drama. As said,nobody orders the teams to drive their cars in heavy rain,but we all know that cars are very well capable of doing so anyhow. All’s just a matter of set up.
If the drainage system couldn’t live up to the circumstances,there’s a lot of work for Don Panoz and his guys,I guess!

Any which way you turn it,this dicision is gonna draw a heavy negative line over an allready shaking ALMS…

By: ian

ian — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:36:24 +0000

Sadly, sometimes the weather turns round and bites you- almost every major race series I can think, from F1 downhas had this happen to them at some point.

Yes,you can drive slower, yes you can adjust your car to take account of the conditions, but sometimes there comes a point when it’s just simply too wet to race safely. Sure the teams could have taken that decision for themselves, but the spectacle of half the field parking their cars because of the weather wouldn’t have looked any better

Would the fans who paid money to see a 10 hour race be happy if the decision to keep racing had led to someone- a driver, a trackside marshal or even a spectator getting killed?

By: TomE

TomE — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:07:03 +0000

The conditions were atrocious and heavy rain on a circuit w/ drainage is MUCH different than one w/ water pooling in apexes, etc. I’ve seen events red flagged at Sears before due to similar circumstances. The concern I have is that ALMS might find it difficult to sell the idea of flag to flag TV coverage for this event in the future…too bad as previous years coverage has been chopped up for NASCRAP and the flow of the race was lost. Oh well, nature!

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:49:08 +0000

yes, however, They could have easily raced on Sunday, and at least i would have kept driving. And i do not mean that the drivers dont have balls, infact quite the opposite, however, the series directors need to make a decision. All the fans that payed money to see the 10 hours race but got a 4hr30min race should be kicken’ down some doors… or atleast i would. Plus i would rather be hit by a crashing car watching a 10 hours race than go home drenched after a 4hr race. Personally…And I dont mean to piss anybody off, this is just my opinion.

By: kai

kai — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:56:34 +0000

@ Dan.
Sorry but your comments are unqualified. Silverstone 05 LMS was similar and my P2 car was third overall (!) First in class. The organisation made a meeting during the race and it has to be a 100% decision. 99% said we should stop. One said we should carry on what we had to do. It was lucky because he was right due the wheater went better. Here the wheater didn´t. You can take the job of the driver or a teammanager and take the responsibility to “swim” a 500k USD car with 160MpH steered by a Human being where Human beeings (like you maybe) are siting 3 feet behind the fence.. And when you call the ALMS stupid for their decisions that they may have no “balls” than you should recognise that they find out that there are more important things like racing.. Normaly I would also say not to stop but sometimes you have to take the decision and when you think twice you will find out they were right and you are probably thankfull for that… Every series (like the Audi one) comes to an end at some point. That is also part of history..
Think about.. and if not create a similar series where Oreca and Peugeot will race with you than in Monsun areas or maybe with Spikes at Alaska.. That should be for real man like you than
Bests

By: Enduro

Enduro — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:04:57 +0000

You guys were definitely sitting on your sofas watching the race, hoping that Mcnish came back to life. Hundreds including ALMS director do understand what torrential rain means, cause we were there and it was like hell. None of those cars would have survived turn #1 nonetheless #10.
..what I don’t understand is why the race was not postpone from the beginning when Georgia was under heavy water.
Ironically… the sun came out on Sunday.
Thanks to the new entries like team Oreca, Dryson, Muscle Milk, Jaguar, and Radical… hope they all stay for next season.
The race was a fight.
It was awesome.. It think more will come to compete…
I don’t want to see Acura doing what Audi accomplished either and when you a car like the Porsche RS Spyder… LMP1 needs to clean out the rear view mirrors.

Sorry for you Audi fans but on slick tires and dry track the chances are zero.When you competitor comes from almost two laps down to bump draft you…you sucks

Dr. Panoz it look like you want the fans walking all the way to S. Carolina to buy tickets, please bring the ticket booth closer.