2012 24 Hours of Le Mans

[Marco Bijl]

Back home again. Damn this was intense. 65 hours, no sleep, 1680 km car ride, 40 - 60 km walkin along the track, but it was SO worth it!​

LeMans 2012 was a succes for Audi (again ), and for me. Enjoyed it a lot! Even got a new desktop wallpaper ​

For those who are interested, some photo's can be found here. Not all are as sharp as possible, but I was to busy enjoying the race, so made just a few photo's this time.

In the beginning, there was competition for Audi. Just to bad the Toyota could not hold on. I am confident that they COULD have won if the car would have lasted. There where times that they just where quicker then Audi.

One remark about the audi. Although it looks well, and drives good and fast, it is SO disapointing in terms of sound. From time to time, it seemed as if a Suzuki Swift was passing by when it was not surrounded by other cars. They sound exactly alike the suzuki..

 

[Marco Bijl]

Damn this was serieus... I did hear on the radio station around the track that although he was in hospital, no permanent damage has been done to him. He needs some time to recover, but he will be alright again.

I almost feel guilty for some of the things we said while waiting for the safety car to go in . It took so long to clean up, but after seeing this, I can understand.

By the way, later on, someone crashed into the same spot in the wall. Forgot who it was at this moment, but it's a good thing they took the needed time to fix it.

 

[Tom]

https://twitter.com/antdavidson/status/214322453474840577/photo/1

https://twitter.com/antdavidson/status/214764104072695810/photo/1

He'll be back on track soon, I believe.

 

[James Johnson]

Damn this was serieus... I did hear on the radio station around the track that although he was in hospital, no permanent damage has been done to him. He needs some time to recover, but he will be alright again.

I almost feel guilty for some of the things we said while waiting for the safety car to go in . It took so long to clean up, but after seeing this, I can understand.

By the way, later on, someone crashed into the same spot in the wall. Forgot who it was at this moment, but it's a good thing they took the needed time to fix it.

He came out of it with a broken back or more specifically a fractured Vertebrae.

 

[Marco Bijl]

Ah, thanks. It is so nice to actually experience a race like this on track, but if you want to know whats going on during a race, it's so much easier to watch it at home It's really hard to keep up to date on the trackside. At home, with internet and television, its much better to keep track

 

[James Johnson]

Well i was up for all 24 hours at home so i saw it all

 

[Boy van de Laar]

Back home again. Damn this was intense. 65 hours, no sleep, 1680 km car ride, 40 - 60 km walkin along the track, but it was SO worth it!​

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Glad you got home in 1 piece. I went to my tent and slept in the early morning hours after the #75 car went off as that was the car i was hoping to do well in the GT Am class. Nothing sounded like the Dome btw. I absolutely love that car.

Toyota will win the Silverstone 6H - Reason why i am thinking this is because they have their ex F1 team doing all the development on the car. Knowing that, you can expect huge aerodynamic improvements on the car for the next race. Looking forward to what seems an awesome WEC race.

 

[Dave Simmons]

I hope i get to return next year.. watching on TV isnt the same as actually being there
Shame about the toyotas .

 

[Richard Sobolewski]

Gah, photobucket fail.

 

[Michael Brown]

This year I watched something like 16 hours of this race... next year I'm doing the whole 24 hours!

 

[James Johnson]

24 out of 24 and 28.5 hours total this time!

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Impressive JJ Didn't make the full 24H this year as I really needed a nap during the night

 

[Marco Bijl]

​

Glad you got home in 1 piece. I went to my tent and slept in the early morning hours after the #75 car went off as that was the car i was hoping to do well in the GT Am class. Nothing sounded like the Dome btw. I absolutely love that car.

Hmmm Should have known you would be there, we could have had a beer together then

We had just the car. No tent, nothing We went for the race, not to sleep . But indeed, it's better to have a place to rest a bit from time to time. Not sure if we will go again next year, but when we go again, I will bring a tent or something like that as well. We had a superb parking place. It was a 1 minute walk from the entrance of the track, to our car, and 20 seconds to the pub which is located right before the track. Good place for coffee and chroissants in the morning I can tell you

All in all, I think that every real race fan just simply HAS to do this at least once in his life. It's such a superb experience.

 

[Rokas Charlapavicius]

24 out of 24 and 28.5 hours total this time!

Same here, we deserve a medal

 

[Mapu]

 

[Richard Kortland]

Hmmm Should have known you would be there, we could have had a beer together then

We had just the car. No tent, nothing We went for the race, not to sleep . But indeed, it's better to have a place to rest a bit from time to time. Not sure if we will go again next year, but when we go again, I will bring a tent or something like that as well. We had a superb parking place. It was a 1 minute walk from the entrance of the track, to our car, and 20 seconds to the pub which is located right before the track. Good place for coffee and chroissants in the morning I can tell you

All in all, I think that every real race fan just simply HAS to do this at least once in his life. It's such a superb experience.

The Le Mans 24h is so much more than only the 24h race. If you really want to experience what this race means, you have to be there the full week. Starting at sunday with scrutineering in town.

This was already my 5th visit, next year i'll be there again
Still need to sort my photo's, hope to show them soon.

 

[Marco Bijl]

Yep, thats true indeed. But as I have more vacation plans, and limited time off work, I need to make choices .

Perhaps next time, we make it a longer stay.

 

[David Jundt]

Hi guys, I didn't log in for some days(Thus I also missed the RDRC round...).

*Looks at the spotter guide from simraceway*

LMP1 Diesel/Hybrid(Aka gadget section): #Whatever Audi drives fastest(hopefully not McNish)
LMP1 Petrol(Aka No gadgets attached section): Rebellion Racing
LMP2(Aka slower than LMP1, faster than Formula Le Mans): Probably #42 Greaves Motorsport, maybe #45 Pekom in for a chance apart the other suspects
GTE Pro(Aka GT2 for BOSSES): #51 AF Corse Ferrari
GTE Ama(Aka GT2 for guys that need help by a BOSS): #50 L'Arbre Competition Corvette

I'll be leaving tomorrow anyway to get a close look...

http://blog.simraceway.com/2012/06/down ... guide-now

Hey, I was close with a prediction I did

Glad Audi #1 won out of the 4. I couldn't care less about McCrash, especially as he crashed once more, nearly again with a Ferrari. Audi should put him into retirement(Last year Le Mans, then Road Atlanta and now Le Mans again).

Audi #3 was entertaining. We were at the Audi screens inside the track when it crashed again I think. The crappy techno music they played there had the PERFECT beat to the movements of the wobbling Audi(or both of them when Audi #2 crashed)!

Someone mentioned "poor Nakajima". In terms of performance at the re-start, yes. I was cursing him on the tribune so much because that blind guy crashed the DeltaWing out. Why did he go so far right, there was enough space on the inside? Idiot. The DeltaWing cursed the second Toyota anyway...

As for Pescarolo, is it more bad luck or just fail? I hear there was a fire, so I can't tell really.

Strakka had some terrible luck. Right behind the big guys on the grid, but have to push the car back in and lose already about 2-3 laps.

GT Ama was done when Pons had to drive and was 10s slower than Lamy, but it was a good fight(I didn't see it as we left 40 mins from the end to avoid the traffic jams, I drove the whole distance from Switzerland to France and back anyway).

As for Toyota VS Ferrari... as LMP you have to pull a clean pass, was Anthony maybe a bit late to dive there?

He said:

"Ich habe ihn schon im Rückspiegel gesehen, aber es ist sehr schwer die Entfernung abzuschätzen",

"Er ist mir einfach in die Rennlinie reingefahren und hat mich seitlich getroffen. Das war schon so spät in der Bremszone vor der Kurve, da konnte ich nicht mehr reagieren."

"I saw him in my rear mirror, but it is very difficult to tell the distance"

"He just ran into my racing line and hit me at the side. That was rather late in the braking zone before the corner, I could not react anymore."

Taken from: http://www.motorsport-total.com/wec...erazzini_waehnt_sich_unschuldig_12062002.html

You also have to take into account that the brake zones for LMPs and GTs are different. What Davidson would call a point not to brake is already Perazzini's braking point. Don't try to squeeze past there mate.

It feels like the LMPs got what they asked for

Last year's crash was because of Audi's headlights, the GT drivers couldn't tell where they were going to overtake as they only saw a big ball of light IIRC. But nobody complained about Peugeot.

It looks like Audi didn't gave a damn back then to improve the situation. Why should anyone else?


But the start of the race was really good, breath-taking battle between Audi and Toyota.

 

[Thilo Falkenberg]

Glad Audi #1 won out of the 4. I couldn't care less about McCrash, especially as he crashed once more, nearly again with a Ferrari. Audi should put him into retirement(Last year Le Mans, then Road Atlanta and now Le Mans again).

Hmm... Glad you didn't start to list up the mistakes of the other Audi drivers in LMPs in the last years Kristensen for example ran into the slow BMW M3 GT2 in a white flag situation at the entry of Porsche curve or Rockenfeller, who destroyed his car exiting Tertre Rouge in the first hour.

 

[Richard Kortland]

Yep, thats true indeed. But as I have more vacation plans, and limited time off work, I need to make choices .

Perhaps next time, we make it a longer stay.

I've more holiday plans too, but it's just a case if priorities. My holiday time is reserved for Le Mans and summer holiday