Godt klaret Tom

Le Fin!

What a race! So many emotions, so much action.

24 Hours has passed as if a moment. One devastating fatality, tons of thrilling battles, four victorious teams, 12 winning drivers and an appropriate finish by the Danish Tom Kristensen.

The last hour had an ironic final safety car followed by some choice tyre changes and half a wet track. The action that followed was fantastic and culminated in a podium of Audi 2, Toyota 8, Audi 3.

First podium for Toyota and a fourth place mean that next year the top spots will be for the taking from Audi!

But overall the memories belong to the Simonsen family who lost a great husband, father, son and driver. His death in the 95 Aston Martin Racing adds to the intensity of the greatest motor race on earth.

We thank you for reading our blog, we know it hasn't been deep, full of interesting posts or particularly exciting but from Rich, Kris and Peter we salute you fellow 24 Hour fans.

A bientot!

Hour 23 - The Final Countdown

And so we have getting near the finish.  It's all thrills and spills as the rain comes down. A stunt for #7 Toyota and Kris' reaction was "Fuuuuuuuuu"  A massive woop by me being an Audi supporter.  The contest between the #3 Audi and #7 Toyota was close and a sharp intact of breath by all of us when #7 nearly got cleaned into the wall down the Muslanne

The battle for GTE Pro is intense!  We are shouting and hoping that Stefan could catch the Porsche.  While writing this the rain has come down and Aston Martin have pulled Stefan in to put full wets on giving a 1-2 to Porsche!  The Porsche is still on slicks!!! A brave move by the German based team.  Lets hope it doesn't pay off and Aston Martin came the victory.

 This is going to be an epic conclusion to the 90th anniversary Le Mans race! See you all at the other side...

Hour 22 - Now we're fighting

So eventually the Aston Martin 97 took the lead in GT Pro! A 24 second slower pit stop by the 92 Porsche gave Darren Turner a much needed luck break. Much celebration at AAA along with basically everyone who seem to have changed their allegiances to the British team for the day.

In LMP1 the 3 Audi is fighting a massive battle that was also helped by pitstops that means that it splits the Toyotas for the moment.

The Rebellion cars are still keeping the spirit of Le Mans and having rebuilt both cars are in and out of the pits having fun! Unfortunately Belicchi suffered a cracked rib in his accident.

Again we have to comment on the Murphy prototype car is continuing a phenomenal come back and is running 8th in P2, we reckon 6th is a possibility.

Closing in on the end of the race we suspect that the Toyotas have another stop in hand to the Audis but as the weather changes we shall see what happens in the next hour.

We ate ham rolls this hour too, classy.

Hour 21 - Nothing to declare

We've perked up a bit here, we're getting to the business end of the race and the LMP2 class is proving most interesting to us. Looking to us like Toyota can hold on to 2nd and 3rd and the GTPro battle between Porsche and Aston remains as close as ever.

Pretty quiet hour for us, though on a personal note I'd like to endorse McDonald's Strawberry and Banana smoothie. Superb.

Three hours to go.

Hour 20 - We need a new class

Sadly a further Aston Martin Racing car was retired in a rather large accident in the first chicane on the Mulsane straight. This leaves the #97 and #96 cars still running out of the five starters. A devastating day for the team, but hope isn't gone as the lead of GT Pro is within a pit stop's time from the #92 Porsche.

Further barrier repairs and a long safety car show that other safety measures really do need to be looked into for the race. Should there be a separate class for red Audi RS4 and RS6s? There are enough of them doing enough laps to get championship points perhaps?

A slight rain shower caused the lead Audi to go to full wets, then to come off them when the safety car came in after some very light drizzle. Loic Duval got back into the car and is setting quick laps in first place.

At this stage the race has still got a long way to go but the back is broken so to speak. We have had breakfast and sent a man to McDonalds for smoothies.

Glad to see the Strakka top of the privateers, with the hope that the Rebellions can't get enough pace to get the nearly 20 laps back on it before the chequered flag!

Hour 19 - Excel for the Win!

Well I've sat down with Excel and made an attempt working out final standing in the WEC championship.  The results are generated from the current race positions behind the safety car.  There is some interesting jumps, most notably #92 Porsche!

LMP1 M
1		Audi	147
2		Toyota	99
LMP1 P
1	12	Rebellion Racing	70
2	21	Strakka Racing	34
LMP2
1	35	OAK Racing	77
2	24	OAK Racing	72
3	49	Pecom Racing	61
4	25	Delta-ADR	26
5	26	G-Drive Racing	22
6	32	Republic Lotus	10
7	41	Greaves Motorsport	10
8	31	Lotus	8
9	28	Gulf Racing Middle East	6
GTE Pro
1	92	Porsche AG Team Manthey	74
2	97	Aston Martin Racing	71
3	51	AF Corse	56
4	71	AF Corse	52
5	91	Porsche AG Team Manthey	32
6	99	Aston Martin Racing	25
GTE AM
1	76	IMSA Performance Matmut	64
2	50	Larbre Compétition	53
3	95	Aston Martin Racing	44
4	81	8 Star Motorsports	44
5	96	Aston Martin Racing	41
6	61	AF Corse	32
7	88	Proton Competition	28
8	57	Krohn Racing	14

 The guys are laughing at my love for Excel. :(

Hour 18 - Worlds Fastest Welder

Safety car has provided us ample opportunity to discuss the 'correct' size of a bowl of cereal and more time for Pete to continue to be bitter about Rich drinking his tea. It's all go here.

While we wait we're treated to another instalment of Worlds Fastest Welder after Belicchi's head-on shunt into the armco. Not expecting to see the Lola Coupe back ontrack now, good news for the Strakka outfit.

We're pretty impressed by the Vipers remaining in the race. They continue to trundle round, all be it considerably off the pace though finishing was the goal for them so success for them so far. Only one retirement in GTPro so far.

Blinds are open, lights are off and the coffee pot is on in an attempt to trick our bodies into thinking it's an average morning but it doesn't seem to be working.