Le Mans 13 Hours

Subj:	LE MANS 13 HOURS	Section: F-1/Internat'l News
To:	RIS/UK-Jon A Baker, 100412,1253	Saturday, June 15, 1996 8:12:25 PM
From:	RIS/UK-Martin Buck, 100113,3322	#819766

No less than four cars retired between 3am and 4pm. The No 74 callaway of Agusta/Coppelli/Camus, went out with clutch problems. The No 51 Oreca Chrysler Viper GTS-R of Dupuy/McCarthy/Bell went out when the engine cried 'enough', while the No 59 Ferrari F40 of Donovan/Ohta/Nappi had an 'off', and retired just after 3am. But the big news is that there will be no Triple Crown this year. The No 19 Riley & Scott Oldsmobile of Wayne Taylor, Jim Pace and Scott Sharp retired just before the halfway point, with transmission failure.

The failure occurred at the worst possible point - just after the entrance to the pits. Since the differential had just about disintegrated, there was no chance of the driver at the time, Jim Pace, limping round a complete lap of the 13.6km circuit. He did his best to effect running repairs, but to no avail. The elusive sweep, of the Daytona 24 Hours, Sebring 12 Hours and the Le Mans 24 Hours, shall have to wait until next year.

Meanwhile the No 25 Porsche GT1 of Stuck/Boutsen/Wollek has lopped chunks out of the lead held by the No 7 Joest Porsche of Reuter/Jones/Wurz. From a lap behind at 3am, the deficit had been reduced to 3:28 at 4am. At the time of writing, just after 5am, it's down to just 43 seconds - and, even though the fluctuations may be due to differing pit stop schedules, the way the gap is decreasing suggests that the GT1 Porsche has the legs to carry it past its WSC half-brother. Both cars are still regularly turning laps as low as 3:55, and rarely exceed 4:05, hardly slower than they might achieve in daylight.

Regards,
Martin Buck/Jon Baker/Jacquie Groom