Both Corvette Racing and Risi Competizione had points to prove and
history to write for this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. In both cases,
it's mission accomplished.
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#82 Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT: Jaime Melo, Pierre Kaffer, Mika Salo. Photo by Rainier Ehrhardt.
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Corvette returned to the top of the GT1 class for the final time after
two years of finishing second to Aston Martin's DBR9s, while Risi scored
its second straight Le Mans win in GT2 and fourth consecutive major
endurance race victory.
Corvette's incredibly successful ten-year period in the GT1 class with
the C5.R and C6.R now culminates with a final victory in the C6.R's sendoff,
the team's sixth at Le Mans. Risi adds this year's Le Mans victory to
wins at last year's Le Mans and Petit Le Mans, and this year's 12 Hours
of Sebring.
The golden yellow #63 Corvette C6.R driven by Johnny O'Connell, Jan
Magnussen and Antonio Garcia has earned the final GT1 victory for the
manufacturer, and potentially the last ever for this class.
"It's a very special win for us," O'Connell said. "Since the first time
we came here, this is always the biggest thing as a team to compete
against the world's best. If you win here, you did a perfect race."
GT2 saw Risi lead a series of Ferraris home to the finish after the
fleet of Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs fell by the wayside by a myriad of issues.
A banner day for the squad saw Mika Salo and Jaime Melo repeat their
2008 class victory and add Pierre Kaffer to the mix, giving the German
his first win at La Sarthe.
"There was a lot more opposition this year, but a lot of them hit
problems and only our car worked perfectly," Salo said. "It's a lot
easier to win this race when you know how to do it. We had to go a
little faster than last year."
To boot, the team's second car driven by Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson and
Eric Van de Poele scored the final podium position. The lime green car
run in conjunction with Krohn Racing secured its second podium in the
last three Le Mans (2007, Colin Braun racing with Krohn and Jonsson)
after a clean race avoiding both on-track incidents and mechanical
gremlins.
For O'Connell, a New York-born Georgia resident with a southern twang
and a knack for perfect timing, he achieves an incredible personal
accomplishment as the first American to have ever won four times at Le
Mans (1994, 2001, 2002).
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#73 Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette C6.R: Xavier Maassen, Yann Clairay, Julien Jousse, #63 Corvette Racing Corvette C6.R: Johnny O'Connell, Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia cross the finish line. Photo by Rainier Ehrhardt.
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Magnussen also garners his fourth Le Mans win after three consecutive
for Corvette from 2004-06. Due to food poisoning, the Danish hotshoe was
sidelined the latter half of the race, costing Corvette one of its top
pilots.
Garcia earns a sweep of last year's and this year's Le Mans in GT1, and
to boot, his second 24-hour victory this year to go along with a win in
the Brumos Racing Daytona Prototype at this year's Rolex 24 at Daytona
in the Rolex Series.
"One of the greatest things about it is that I was able to run with
two of the biggest and best teams here," Garcia said. "Everything ran
perfectly."
In either case, the battle for the class victory was rarely in doubt
these last 24 hours. Corvette's two factory cars ran 1-2 on the same lap
for the first 21 hours, the #63 usually leading the sister (but black)
#64 C6.R driven by Olivier Beretta, Oliver Gavin and Marcel Fassler.
The dream sendoff of a factory Corvette 1-2 went by the wayside in the
22nd hour when Fassler stopped on track with an apparent transmission
issue. The pity was the two Corvettes had closed what was more than
a one-minute gap down to just a few tenths of a second and were just
starting to put on a decisive, no-holds-barred shootout for the
final win.
Beretta would pass Garcia, and Garcia would return the favor. When those
two got out it was "Johnny O" and the Swiss driver Fassler who did
likewise. As the car stopped right before the pit lane it was able to be
wheeled in for repairs, but all hope of victory or runner-up finish was
lost.
The factory Corvette demise was to the benefit of the customer Luc
Alphand Adventures squad and its young driver lineup. In an older C6.R,
the #73 of Le Mans sophomore Yann Clairay and rookies Xavier Maassen and
Julien Jousse finished second, albeit seven laps behind.
Otherwise there was not much to report from what was a depleted GT1
class. The second Alphand Corvette crashed at about 10:00 p.m., Patrice
Goueslard going nose-first into the tire barriers at Indianapolis.
The two non-Corvettes were never going to be factors. The Jetalliance
Racing GMBH Aston Martin DBR9 had all kinds of mechanical issues and finished 88
laps down to the overall winner, but it got a podium finish in class by
default. The JLOC Lamborghini Murcielago parked after merely a warmup
lap and a single timed lap.
GT2 started out as an incredible dogfight between the #82 Risi Ferrari
and three of the five Porsches, the #77 Felbermayr-Proton, #76 IMSA
Performance Matmut and #80 Flying Lizard Motorsports cars. Within the
first couple hours a blanket could have covered the four, Melo leading
in the Risi despite a lack of straight-line speed in comparison to the
Porsches.
But suddenly, like flies, the Porsches began to drop out. The
Felbermayr-Proton car wheeled by three factory pilots Wolf Henzler,
Richard Lietz and Marc Lieb had a fuel pump fail just shy of the pit
lane. The team attempted to go the reserve but that was not functioning
properly.
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#76 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 911 GT3 RSR: Raymond Narac, Patrick Long, Patrick Pilet. Photo by Rainier Ehrhardt.
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The IMSA Performance entry turned some especially quick times with team
principal Raymond Narac, sharing with Patricks Long and Pilet. But with
battery changes, spins, and periodic garage visits, it fell from podium
contention.
The Lizards were on pole and Joerg Bergmeister drove an incredible
four-hour first stint on his own before handing to team principal Seth
Neiman. But with Neiman driving the car fell down the order, then Le
Mans rookie Darren Law had an incident in the 15th hour that ended the
team's chances.
"I didn't expect to see the Porsches out so fast in the first few
hours," Melo said. "But still, Risi Competizione was really prepared.
We were really consistent and could triple-stint the tires, and had no
issues."
With the Porsches out, Risi enjoyed a several lap lead over its closest
competitor, the #97 BMS Scuderia Italia F430 driven by Italians Fabio
Babini, Matteo Malucelli and Paolo Ruberti. The BMS car was the lone
Pirelli-shod car in the field while most ran on Michelin tires.
The top two was a carbon copy of last year's result, Risi over BMS,
save for Kaffer replacing Gianmaria Bruni. Risi's second car of Krohn,
Jonsson and Van de Poele was third, improving from 13th on the grid and
avoiding the pitfalls plaguing everyone else.
JMW Motorsport's #92 yellow and black Ferrari finished fourth, Rob Bell,
Andrew Kirkaldy and Tim Sugden driving. The Snoras Spyker Squadron in
their #85 dark blue hardtop C8 Laviolette completed the top five. The
lineup of Tom Coronel, Jarek Janis and Jeroen Bleekemolen sent the Dutch
in attendance home happy with a great result.
There was also that actor in the field -- Patrick Dempsey -- who did a
more than adequate job on debut at Le Mans. He had several spins during
the week but none in race conditions, stayed out of the way for the most
part when being lapped, and most importantly kept the car on the road
throughout the 24H.
He and co-driver Joe Foster had to pick up the slack as Team Seattle
founder Don Kitch Jr. also encountered a bout of food poisoning late in
the going, to accomplish the team's dream of raising as many dollars as
possible for both the Seattle Children's Hospital. The team finished
ninth in class and completed over 300 laps.
See also Peugeot comes through with a 1-2 Le Mans victory.
