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Spa Francorchamps

Proximus

05/08/2001

The 24 Hours

Part 6

The N-GT battle continued hot and swapped again before the RWS car developed a cooling leak during one of its stops and lost three laps. Earlier the car had gone off when encountering some chunks of rubber out on the circuit. The no. 95 Lamborghini continued after a long stop. It still leads Category 3 but is down in the lower teens overall. Also still circulating among the backmarkers is the Renault while the Vertigo and Marcos have retired. The GL PK Viper lost time with a bad front wheel bearing. One of the fastest cars on the circuit is the DD Racing Porsche, now in the hands of Marino Franchitti.

The 14th hour saw a bit more stability, but still no resolution. The skies are beginning to gradually lighten, revealing a high and unthreatening cloud cover. While there are still over ten hours left, it appears that the only weather of concern occurred promptly at the start.

The Larbre cars remain on the lead lap with the Carsport Holland Viper one lap down. Silver Racing is two laps off the leaders and only then is there a gap to the remainder. Thus four cars remain very realistically in the hunt. It is very much a two-horse race in N-GT with the gap again narrowing between the main protagonists, Freisinger and Walch. It’s down to one lap.

The loss of the Seikel car has promoted the PSI GT3R to first in Category 2, the only class with no real competition any more. The second place car, the no. 84 Rudi Penders Porsches is 19 laps down. Category 3 is more with the runners more fragile. The Frei Lamborghini has led all night with the Land Motorsport Porsche a few laps down. The others such as the two Loti are out of the frame.

Lap times remain fast with 2:25s not uncommon (Tassin’s fast lap of 2:23 from yesterday afternoon still stands). It will go down as a good race, not a great one. There are no real negatives that stand out apart from the disappointing size of the entry. The most favorable image that will be taken away is the sheer reliability, especially in the face of the high speeds. There are a number of individual triumphs through the field. The newest Vipers have acquitted themselves well, especially Silver Racing. The Lamborghini runners can be justifiably proud.

Here is a quick review of times spent in the pits:
#3, 31 ½ minutes
#7, 15 min.
#12, 28 min (the other two Belmondo cars are well over an hour)
#17, 18 min.
#21, 18 min.
#26, 19 min.

N-GT
#54, 32 min.
#55, 19 min.
#57, 15 ½ min.
#59, 17 ½ min.
#62, 38 min.
#77, 19 min.

The no. 97 Porsche has spent the most time in of the cars still running at 5 ½ hours.

Approaching 15 hours the N-GT class appears to be shifting yet again with now the Freisinger car experiencing a cooling leak. Hezemans has taken over the no. 3 Carsport Viper and is catching the leading Larbre hand over fist, while the second Larbre car is beginning to fade. The morning seems to bringing more drama.

Important addenda to report:
Its Francorchamping again, i.e., it is raining.

Hour 16 Special

Weather has played another hand. There is a light but persistent rain falling here at 07:30. I’m sure everyone is thankful it came now and not four hours earlier in the dark. Just before the rain came Hezemans put on a flyer resetting fast lap. He then handed over to a determined Thierry Tassin.

Tassin is making the most of his local knowledge of the circuit and the weather, having chopped 20 seconds off the lead of Belloc in the Larbre car in the last 20 minutes.

The rate of closure increases with Tassin now 40.6 seconds down. Another lap goes by and a bout with the still thick traffic prevents any substantial improvement. Of course there is no hurry either as we have 8 hours to go.

Lap 359 and Tassin continues his charge, down to 36 seconds behind. The rain begins to intensify and the rain tires are being hauled out on pit row. Lap times are growing out to nearly three minutes.

Tassin pops in for full wets and the gap gnaws to 2 minutes. Two laps later and Belloc is in. Tassin places the Carsport Holland car back into the lead for the first time since yesterday afternoon. Rooster tails are growing and so is the gap as Tassin goes from 19 to 24 seconds ahead of Belloc in one lap.