The 24 Hours of Le Mans 2005

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GTPlanet, I've hosted this thread for discussion of this year's Le Mans endurance. Since I don't see a thread fully devoted to this race, I feel I will do the honors. Share your thoughts about this race now that it's at least 20 hours since the race's finish. I'll start with my overall thoughts.

-LMP1-Winners were Kristensen/Letho/Werner in LMP1 with the ALMS's Champion Audi team. You know what? Maybe Tom Kristensen is perhaps that good at Le Mans. As the Pescarolos had troubles, Champion Audi was clearly the toughest team to beat at this year's race. Even though I [somewhat] get sick of seeing the Audi R8 continually win, I have to hand it to Audi. I almost wanted to cry at some points of the final laps. One of which for the Pescarolos coming only so close to challenging for the lead, then the other reason because Tom Kristensen is perhaps one of the best racers of this lifetime. Audi is perhaps one of the best racing participators in the world today. Look at it like this. Kristensen has raced Le Mans a total of 9 times now, and won 7 times. Maybe we should call Tom Kristensen as the Tom Brady of sportscar racing. As Tom Brady has quite a few Super Bowl rings in only a few years, Tom Kristensen has lost at Le Mans only twice. He surpasses Jacky Ickx as the all-time Le Mans winner, and he also has won six straight Le Mans races, best record of all time. -LMP2- The Lola MG team with Erdos/Newton/Hughes won class honors in a great effort. -GT1- God Bless America as the #64 C6R is now 1-0 at Le Mans, with the winning combo of Gavin/Beretta/Magnussen. The Aston Martins had a good run, but struggled late in the race. -GT2- Goodbye, Leo Hindery. You leave Le Mans with a class win. Hope you enjoyed the experience Other teammates were Lieb and Rockenfeller for the Bam! Racing YES Network Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.

Congratulations to all at Le Mans this year. It was hot, but a beautiful race weekend with blue skies and very few clouds.
 
I tell you. This year's Le Mans race was probably the best Le Mans I've ever seen. I didn't [really] want to see F1, sure as hell didn't want to see NASCAR at another oval, Champ Car at Portland... I seen it afterwards, but the big story was Le Mans. All weekend for me, it was all about Le Mans. People, I love this race, I love sharing my love of this event to everyone on GTPlanet and some other message boards, and I am glad to have seen this race with all the action, thrills, chills, and spills. I taped a total of about 10 to 11 hours with two tapes. People, Le Mans is the real deal. You may have your other favorite types of racing, but this race and this track is the measuring stick for what qualifies as one of the world's best races. It's a race that's withstood the test of time and shown off pure performance. The thing about it all is, if you win it all, you're on top of the world. You see Heaven. If you just manage to finish the race, you should still be proud. Why? You're invited to an 8-mile race course mostly of French public roads in a 24-hour test. You must be invited to compete, and if you can make the most of that invitation and win in a race on a track that's usually not available for full-on racing, you've proven a point. Sure, this race had a lot of history being made, but it still remains near and dear to my heart as the best race in the world. I now wake up before 8:30 AM Central Daylight Time just to see the pre-race show, then await 4:00 PM French time for the cars to go to work.

The ALMS teams did their best job, being a wonderful contingent all race long. About 40 to 45 percent of the starting grid had their garage doors down and out of the race. But to me, all 49 starters were winners. Regardless of where you finish (if you do), you have to be a winner to have been invited to compete on a once-a-year track deal. When the Circuit de la Sarthe isn't underway, the Bugatti circuit is raced. But barricade up the streets and use curves from Tetre Rouge to the Ford Chicane, and you have a motorsports paradise. It was a beautiful race, perhaps even the best I've seen.
 
Wow, incredible race. I agree that ALL participating drivers are winners. Lets also not forget about the mechanics, engineers, etc. who worked hard throughout the race - they get my respect. Le Mans is my favorite race. I get to watch my favorite sports cars racing against each other. And there's just something about watching cars racing while the sun is just coming up in the morning.

Congrats to Audi - I know many people didn't want to see them win yet again, but they found a way to do it, and they deserve all the credit in the world.

Corvette vs. Aston Martin - I almost gave up on the Corvette boys but I should have known they could do it. Aston Martin proved to be a worthy opponent (understatement) and I can't wait until the two teams meet again.

I know its hasn't been long since the finish but I already can't wait until next years Le Mans. The new Audi LMPs, Pescarolo LMPs, Dome LMP?, Porsche LMP!, factory Corvettes, customer Astons... there is much to look forward to. There is also the rest of the ALMS season. (Go Saleen!)
 
Can anyone recommend a website full of this years Le Mans pics because the coverage in the UK on the standard channels was poor.....Thanks
 
I don't know anything about 24 hr of Le Mans, but how do they race all 4 classes in a 24 hr. period?
 
Event
I don't know anything about 24 hr of Le Mans, but how do they race all 4 classes in a 24 hr. period?
Click to expand...


They all race at the same time. All 4 classes on track at once. What's funny is that at one point in the race, one of the Aston Martin cars from the GT1 class was in 10th place overall putting him infront of all the LMP2 cars and right behind the LMP1 cars.
 
You know, I should have came up with this thread some time before the Le Mans race went underway, but now there's a thread to discuss this year's race instead of here-and-there stuff.

Like I said, I don't think I've been any more emotional about one Le Mans race like this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. As I was watching Speed Channel coverage, I was able to see the first 3:30 of coverage, wait until NASCAR Trucks finished up, seen and taped more Le Mans, kind of fell asleep before the 8PM EDT return of the race, and seen more of the race. Broke from the USAR highlights, seen the rest of the race, then taped it after 4AM CDT. Afterwards, the finish was exciting. The would-be LMP1 showdown didn't happen as the Pescarolo had some overheating problems. And afterwards, if the #3 Audi didn't have problems, Pescarolo would have made a huge upset.

Prodrive is a tough-as-nails team. You may recall their Ferrari 550 Maranello efforts against the Corvette C5R. Corvette's C6R took down the Prodrive Aston Martins. The green/yellow DBR9 couldn't seem to get out of trouble. The green/red (not really a good color combo if you ask me) had a good advantage, but it didn't pay off to the finish line as the green AMs saw the Corvettes' brake lights to the finish in Le Mans.

If I had to title this year's race, I'll call it instead of "American Le Mans Series," I'd call this race "America's Le Mans." The ALMS teams really shown their stuff against the European and Japanese teams. The ALMS contingent was very well represented in all four classes, and at one point, ALMS teams took the lead in all four classes. I know the ALMS wouldn't pull a Grand-Am in the sense of having a American-spec racing series with very little lineage to Le Mans. The ALMS is as marketed- European style, American attitude. The ALMS was in-your-face all race long and made the devil blink for over 24 hours of racing. My top underdogs were the Pescarolos and the Mugen-powered Dome who took the fight to the big dogs, but not to victory, apparentely.

More commentary on Le Mans 2005 is yours to express.
 
Well, I got back from Le Mans late last night.

and boy was it hot, 38 degrees. Started off watching the legends race, which I was determined to watch as I missed it last year. Watching Stirling Moss and Johnny Herbert thrashing around in D Type Jags was nothing short of breathtaking, especially as they came round the ford chicane, sideways :) bearing in mind stirling had his trademark cloth helmet on, (special concession by ACO).

After the legends race finished, I walked around the village for what seemed ages and sat down and took in the atmosphere which is Le Mans, (whilst listening to Radio Le Mans of course). As 3:30 approached I took my position by the Dunlop bridge, and watched as the field did their warm up lap at 3:52.

That moment in the film when everything is silent before they start their engines and the heartbeat. 4:00pm the sound, the smell, the atmosphere, the crowd.

I stayed trackside until my stomach called out for food about 6pm, :) . Went back to the track for nightracing at 10pm. I made my way to Tetre Rouge stopping for 2 hours at dunlop bridge, and made my way slowly, stopping at the new section too.

And then, a fan of motorsports' heaven,(for me anyway) Tetre Rouge, less than 20feet from the track where the field were braking, downshift ready for the long haul down the Mulsanne, It was a cool night, I can't explain the feeling as carbon brakes heated the cool air, the smell of racing fuel from the backfire as they downshifted. I stayed at Tetre Rouge until 5am, walking back to my tent, stopped at Pit straight watched as the TVR came in for pitstop. Hit the sack about 6am.

The sunday sun emerged with a vengence, heating my tent like a sauna. No choice but to get up, The heat was unbearable, talking to one of the guys from my group, on sunday morning. He had managed to sneak his way through the forest, past the gendarmes, and stood trackside on the Mulsanne. This is something I will be doing next year. Hopefully see some of you US gtplanet boys there.

Excellent weekend, loads of racing, lack of sleep, loads of Beer, loads of Sun and best of all Le Mans

John, I've been a member here at gtplanet for sometime now, and your threads on Le Mans are something I have always read with interest. And if there's one thing you need to do in life, is get your arse on a plane to paris, rent a car and get yourself to Le Mans. You will not regret a single moment, and who knows, the guy standing next to you at Tetre Rouge with the cheap french lager could be me. :) :) here's to Le Mans 2006 :cheers:

JayJam
 
First of all, JayJam, thank you for the kind words at the end of your post. Skies were beautifully blue in Le Mans, yet the searing heat wasn't really beautiful at all. I'm going to tell you something. I wanted the Pescarolos to win Le Mans to upset the Audis. But with all the restrictions on the Audis, they still won. Last time I remember a car being heavily restricted for one race, I remember the BMW M3 GTRs (I loved those GT race cars) had air restrictors, but I think they still won at Laguna Seca back in 2001.

NASCAR at Michigan... eh, nothing I haven't seen before (though it was sad to see my boy Jeff Gordon go out of the race). Formula One at Indianapolis... highly unfortunate. NHRA at Englishtown... not really a drag racing guy. To me, Le Mans was the key event. In fact, I still think that the 24 Hours of Le Mans should be a holiday weekend. This race is bigger than any NASCAR event. It's even bigger than the Indinapolis 500. On another message board, someone was like "just another reason to hate the French." The Le Mans race has seen 73 races complete with all sorts of competition and such. I think this is the biggest event of the year, even if 5% of the race features factory teams. This is a test of time on an 8-mile track which is part high-speed, part-technical. I don't claim to have seen every Le Mans in existance. I'm only 22 years old that love watching sportscar racing. We have Grand-Am, but my blood is with Le Mans, and especially the American Le Mans Series. God bless Don Panoz for this idea. His series he founded has grown to be just as popular and just as challenging as the LMES in Europe. I'm not really a Nurburgring Nordschleife guy, and the Le Mans challenge is actually more manageable. While Le Mans may not have 200 cars going into Tetre Rouge and Arnage, I respect Le Mans for its history and prestige of this annual racing event. When the track is not in use, you see the Bugatti Circuit. When the Le Mans endurance starts up, it's about 8.3 miles of all-day, all-night, all-day action that never has a dull moment, even when no real race is taking place.

You missed this year's race, you've probably missed the best Le Mans in the 21st Century.
 
Well, I think I missed a good race, but not the best race, IMO.

During the '95 LeMans series, I watched all the cars battle for positions and everyone putting up a fight, espcially the GT1 class. I sat there at the Start/Finish as the UenoClinic F1 GTR crossed the line making history.

Then I returned in '97 to watch once again, a fantastic race watching once again, a McLaren (Davidoff) taking the GT1 class title in 2nd behind the TWR Porsche WSC95.
Once again, I went back in '98 to watch Porsche take another LeMans victory with their 911 GT1.

I haven't been back since, but in 2006, you can expect to see me come back to LeMans after a near 8 year absence.

LeMans ins definately one of the world's, if not, the best Racing event.
Monaco's F1 used to be a big 2nd, however, the F1 GP from Monaco doesn't seem as big as when I had last seen it years ago.
 
Fitting you're here, McLaren F1GTR. Because during the Speed Channel coverage, they shown that black McLaren F1 GTR race around Le Mans in 1995. I still consider the McLaren F1 as one of the best race cars of the previous decade. I think it's up there with the Toyota GT-One and Porsche 911 GT1. As I said, I think it's the best race of the 21st Century, and I don't think another racer will win 8 Le Mans over Tom Kristensen. Of course, this all pending that Tom Kristensen doesn't retire between now and then. But if you follow the NFL, I say that Tom Kristensen is perhaps the Tom Brady (for non-American sports types, the QB of the New England Patriots) of Le Mans. Much as Tom Brady has won the Super Bowl several times in only a few years, Tom Kristensen won Le Mans 7 out of 9 times for a win percentage of 0.778. I don't care who you are, that is pretty damn impressive.

I have a thing for 1997, seemingly. Maybe it was when I've enjoyed seeing GT1-spec cars challenge the prototypes. If you consider it a real race anymore, for a few years straight, the 24 Hours of Daytona had some GT-class winners. Of course, what kind of car won the 24 Hours of Daytona in... 2003? Yeah, a Porsche 911 RSR.

The next Audi will be a diesel, but I think at this year's Le Mans endurance, there was a diesel-powered car, but from what I heard, the clutch was all messed up. I think it was that Caterpillar-powered Lola prototype. I'd have to see how Audi would pull off IT'S diesel entry. Also recently, the Porsche LMP2 prototype was recently unveiled to the public. I'm not going to provide any links because I fear that I may give out old news.

Anyhow, another Le Mans done, and remember. No matter where you place at Le Mans, if you go there, you're a winner already. It's like being in the playoffs. You're a winner even if you don't win it all. You, your team, your car, all winners no matter what. I know you have to win the big races in class, but how do you actually win a Le Mans invitation, as I'm sure it's very hard work?
 
I agree!
Tom has done extremely well.

Also, was it the Pescarolos who diesel powered?
They did very well at LeMans also.
I was happy to see Champion (my favorite racing sponsor) win in the R8 this year.
 
i watched the le mans race and i must say that this race is better than any other motorsport in the world, and anyone who races in le mans is really lucky...even if they lose they still were good enough to make it there...and on that alone i would say they'd still be so happy to race at one of the greatest places on earth...i know i would.

i dont know much about the lmp1 and p2 cars, i was mostly interested in the gt1 class, choosing between corvette and aston martin was a tough choice for me...but at the end corvette emerged victorious with a 1-2 finish...it's a shame that the aston martins broke down on the same lap, aston should have done more work on their cars...but unfortunately we have to wait another year to see if their cars will be any better at le mans....the choice will be even tougher this time cuz we'll have corvette the winner from the previous year...and aston martin a car which i just really really like.
 
Waves of change, huh? If you ask me, this has been the last Le Mans I was REALLY into. I mean, Pescarolo could have been the David story in trying to knock off Goliath Audi. Had it not been for some overheating problems, Pescarlo would have made France party all night in downtown Le Mans, or even go to Paris and party. Corvette gets their revenge from Sebring against Aston Martin. So if you ask me, it's Pratt & Miller - 1, Prodrive -1. C6R- 1, DBR9-1. The score is even in GT1. How about we give out a "ONE MORE TIME!" like with close Formula D matchups? Come on now, people! We can make this Corvette/Aston Martin, Round 3! I don't think I've seen the Ferrari 360 Modena win one of the big endurances (Sebring, Le Mans, Road Atlanta), or at least, any of the endurances us Americans follow. I think the Ferrari 360 Modena is one of the most beautiful machines out there on the street and on the track. With the amazing F430 to be released, it would be very interesting to see Ferrari really take it to Porsche in GT2.

Well in America, the final endurance us Americans follow will be Petit Le Mans this September. This is that annual pilgrimage to Road Atlanta for one of the youngest bigtime endurances, Petit Le Mans. Ten hours or 1,000 miles (whichever comes first).

I still believe this was the best Le Mans I've ever followed. If Tom Kristensen keeps winning Le Mans after Le Mans, I don't think anyone in our lifetime will beat Tom Kristensen. He's just putting a stranglehold on Le Mans winning. He's won the most consectutive Le Mans races, and he's won 7 of the last 9 Le Mans endurances. That is amazing to me. This is the world's greatest race, and he's out there winning about 78% of every Le Mans he entered. That... is... impressive.
 
And is exactly why this man is going to becoming very wealthy. With all these LeMans wins, there's no doubt, he's probably wanted by a quite a few teams, and I don't think it'll be long before a few teams start paying some nice cash.
 
http://www.championracing.net/Audi_R8/home/

Well GTPlanet, if you love Champion Audi, the word is out. Champion Audi decided to share their Circuit de la Sarthe victory with the whole world. That website above is Champion Audi's pictoral proof of their dominance at Le Mans 2005. The site uses Flash media, so make sure you have the latest Flash software.
 
Integra Type R
What's funny is that at one point in the race, one of the Aston Martin cars from the GT1 class was in 10th place overall
Click to expand...
And what's not funny is that that Aston broke its front splitter and had (how many was it?) 2 punctures.

That said, the other DBR-9 ran out of fuel... 👎
 
Give the Aston Martin team some credit. Those DBR9s were looking to prove that their success at Sebring wasn't a fluke. They kind of (I'll admit) shot themselves in the foot and had some extra troubles. One team's pain is another team's pleasure as the Corvette C6R won its first race at Le Mans, being only one of a few cars to win Le Mans either in class or outright in its first try. Now keep in mind, those cars are run by Prodrive. Prodrive is one hell of a racing team. You may remember Prodrive's Ferrari efforts taking on the American brutes in yellow elsewhere, blue and red at Le Mans in 2003, and maybe even Millenium Yellow at Le Mans last year.

I really want Ferrari to win in GT2. That 360 Modena is perhaps one of the most beautiful race cars today. With the F430 waiting in the wings, that car should probably make the 360 Modena obsolete. I don't know what it is about Porsches. Say what you want about Porsches in low-level GT classes, but they really can withstand the sort of pain and pressure of racing a 24-hour race, much less any other endurance. They may not be LMP1s, but their reliability and inexpensive nature makes them out-the-box race cars. And they proved it again this year by winning Le Mans. My best respects go out to the YES Network's Leo Hindery and his boys. They did a great job there.

Still though, I've loved certain races before, but Le Mans 2005 is one of my favorite races of all time that I've seen. Second would probably be Danica Patrick's efforts at the Indy 500 this year. I've seen one of the greatest races while F1 in America went to Hell in a handbasket. Now I see why announcers say "that was a great race," because if it didn't satisfy, I'd see why.
 

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