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Spa Francorchamps

Proximus

05/08/2001

The 24 Hours

Part 5

© Janos Wimpffen

Hours 10-12

The no. 12 Belmondo car has lost 3 laps, dropping it down to 6th place. The no. 3 Carsport Holland car is in for an unscheduled stop, but Hezemans soon returns.

The Kremer / Larrousse / Brisset Lamborghini has retired with a broken transmission. It is the first of the Diablos to go, which had been expected to be among the first to go, but instead they have for the first time not gone first, or something like that.

The no. 77 RWS car lost time with a long stop checking for an unfindable vibration. That last spate of penalties came when several cars passed the safety car at the end of the yellow flag period.

The no. 57 and 59 Freisinger Porsches continue to be among the most untroubled N-GT cars. The former leads the class and the latter is in fifth. Geoffroy Horion went off at La Raidillon with the Gammon Megaspeed Porsche but was eventually able to continue.

The Larbre 1-2 has solidified with both leaders on the same lap, separated by about 41 seconds. The Silver Racing Viper continues in a good third place a lap down, the remaining Carsport Holland also on the same lap. Then three laps further down comes the GL PK Chrysler that has been generally improving all night. The no. 57 Freisinger car sits 7th overall and first in N-GT, just behind the one last Belmondo car. However, the RWS car is very close at 41 seconds down, the best race in the house. 3rd (Art Engineering) and 4th (Perspective Engineering) are well within shouting distance of the class leader. The Frei Lamborghini leads Category 3 and is up to 14th overall.

The no. 17 Larbre entry is now running some three seconds per lap faster than the no. 7. It is likely to be Bourdais vs. Duez at this time.

Heading toward the 11 hour mark, the no. 17 car takes the lead for the first time on an exchange of stops. Duez is back in no. 7 and is able to close the gap by few tenths every few laps, but the gap is largely steady at about 15 seconds. Although there is no fierce dicing going on at the moment the story during the wee hours involves the closeness for the two main classes. A few dozen hard core crazies remain in the stands as all the hospitality centers have shut down. The bleary-eyed count is down to a half-dozen in the press room.

03:15. Antonio Garcia in the RWS Porsche is burning up the circuit and within two seconds of the N-GT leading Freisinger car. Lap 245 and we have a change of class leadership on the track as Garcia moves past Cyrille Sauvage. However, a few laps later the RWS car goes off, losing over a minute before regaining 15 seconds. Then it is the Freisinger car’s turn to falter and the lead shifts once more, all in the space of 15 minutes.

The no. 62 Ferrari had long ago been given up for dead but it is still running and slowly moving up the board. It has passed the Cat. 3 leading Lamborghini. The halfway mark passes and race is increasingly up for grabs as the recovering no. 3 Carsport Holland passes the no. 17 Larbre car for second place. All three lead cars are on the same lap. Twenty-nine cars remain officially as runners although the Marcos and now the Renault have taken up residence in pit lane.