Le Mans: 'Pesage' Day Two

Although the unsettled weather made day two a little more 'low key' than Sunday, there was no lack of excitement in the Place de la République. An impressive number of intrepid race fans braved the conditions to see the 41 remaining competitors undergo technical inspection and the drivers sign-on.

We can't think of any other motor race in the world where the organisers turn scrutineering into a spectator event. It has become an essential part of the spectacle of the 24 hours of Le Mans. The rain stayed off for most of the day apart from the odd cloudburst, and we did have a brief spell of sunshine after 15:00. The most surprising thing about today was that the ACO managed to keep the proceedings uncharacteristically on time, with the last car, the #62 WeatherTech Ferrari rolling in promptly at 17:30.

The livery 'reveal' of the day was the Dragonspeed BR1/Gibson LMP1. It seems race fans will never tire of the distinctive colours of the Gulf oil company. It is an instantly recognisable and historic livery and good to see back on an LMP1 prototype again. The last time was the Aston Martin AMR-One in 2011, lets hope the pale blue and orange magic works for Dragonspeed. Although endurance racing fans tend to associate the colours most strongly with the Porsche 917 in the Steve McQueen film, it was the Ford GT40 driven by Rodriguez and Bianchi in 1968 and Ickx/Oliver in 1969 that scored the 'hat trick' win for Gulf. The colours were revived in the winning Ickx/Bell Mirage GR8/Cosworth in 1975 but were not seen again at Le Mans until 1994 on the Kremer K8 driven by Derek Bell, Robin Donovan and Jürgen Lässig but with the updated darker blue (6th overall). Since the 90's revival of the colours there have been numerous GTs and prototypes in blue and orange but no outright win since 1975.

The current leader in the WEC LMP2 driver and team standings, the #36 Signatech Alpine A470/Gibson that was do to be in the square yesterday but failed to show up due to a scheduling miscommunication, was rescheduled for 16:30 today.  Although the Alpine leads in the WEC, the two Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca/Gibson cars (through pesage yesterday morning) lie only a few points behind and with 50% extra points available in La Sarthe for the 'Grand Finale', the LMP2 driver and team result is far from a foregone conclusion.

At 16:30 and almost the last through scrutineering were the cluster of Ford GTs, the two WEC entered cars and the two IMSA, plus the first GT entered in the Am class of Ben Keating. Competition between manufacturers that has been missing in LMP1 is as healthy as it has ever been this year with five marques involved in GTE Pro. Although Porsche are unassailable in the GT manufacturers' World Championship, Ferrari, Ford and Aston Martin remain stacked close together in the fight for second place, and of course winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which is arguably a greater honour on its own, and a more bankable PR coup than the Championship. Le Mans has always proved itself a more enduringly popular spectacle and a more historically significant event than any series or championship that it has been part of.

© Craig Robertson - www.racephotography.net

At BMW, Le Mans will be the final race of the M8 in the FIA World Endurance Championship as their #Mission8 will come to an and on Sunday evening. The M8 will, however, keep on racing in the IMSA Weathertech Series. BMW also celebrates a special anniversary at Le Mans this year, as it marks 20 years since the BMW V12 LMR claimed the overall win in the 24-hour race. To honour this success, the race-winning car will be on display this weekend at Le Mans.

The G-Drive team seemed te be in vacation mode already with their Aurus 01, bringing an "orange tree" and airbeds with them to relax during the "exhausting" autograph session. 

© Craig Robertson - www.racephotography.net

SMP Racing presented both its BR1 Engineering LMP1's which have come a far way in development over the past year.  Stoffel Vandoorne, the Belgian ex Formula 1 driver, being added to the line-up of the #11 might be one of the drivers to look for over race week. He adapted himself pretty quickly into his new work environment, scoring a podium finish in Spa last month, and braking the LMP1 top speed record here at Le Mans last Sunday when he touched 350,1 km/h on the Mulsanne straight. 

Amongst the other teams going through scrutineering yesterday were Le Mans debutants Car Guy (Ferrari #57), the return of ARC Bratislava (#49 Ligier LMP2), the Dempsey-Proton Racing armada with 4 Porsche 911 RSR's, Aston Martin Racing and the JMW & Project 1 "Art cars". 

© Craig Robertson - www.racephotography.net

© Craig Robertson - www.racephotography.net

With scrutineering now over and done, all attention goes onto the start of the track action for this years 24 Hours of Le Mans. The first practice session is planned for tomorrow, Wednesday at 16h00.   

Text: Dave Davies
Images: Kristof Vermeulen & Craig Robertson

Le Mans: 'Pesage' day one.

Under unexpectedly clear blue sky, the first cars of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2019 began made the slow lap of the place de La République during the process of driver sign-on and scrutineering that is known in French as 'pesage' (literally 'weighing').

The #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca was the first to go through scrutineering on Sunday

In years gone by there was a risk that some cars may fall foul of the scrutineer's inspection but these days with Test Day only two weeks before the race, and consequently the cars having all been recently inspected, the chance of failure is very low. The worst we can expect is a rookie driver or two turning up with incomplete documentation, but even those problems will most likely be ironed out before the cars hit the track for the first free practice session on Wednesday afternoon.

The spectacle of 'pesage' is mainly for the local people of Le Mans.  Only the most intrepid race fans turn up a full week before the race.  That said, the party atmosphere in the square is well worth experiencing of you can make it. It is free to attend and you get as close to the cars at any time during the run-up to the 24 Hours. The traditional location in the city used to be the square in front of the cathedral, but in the last few years scrutineering has been in the nearby Place de la République.

While we were walking through from the underground parking to the square, Tony Light noticed with moderate alarm that the bronze hand-prints of winning drivers that have decorated the pedestrian streets in the area for decades were (mostly) missing and the scars filled with tarmac. It appears that the streets are in the process of re-paving and the bronze plates have been removed for safe-keeping (phew).

Despite the sky clouding over at about 3pm, the proceedings remained dry for the entire event, y with the sun peeking through the clouds late in the afternoon.  The rain that had been forecasted for the day apparently waited until late at night to fall down over Le Mans.

© Craig Robertson - www.racephotography.net

14 teams, with a total of 22 cars went through scrutineering today, including a few of the "big" teams in the paddock.  Last year's overall winners Toyota and LMGTE Pro winners were popular, but one of the more exciting novelties of the day was the "art car" livery on both Rebellion Racing LMP1's.

Calim Bouhadra, CEO of Rebellion Racing gave us an insight on the rather colourful designs on both the R13's: “We have immediately liked the true contemporary artist flair of RocketByz. When we get started talking about our Le Mans collaboration, everything was going fast and very strong between us, as we share this Rebel DNA with RocketByz. It is so exciting and challenging to introduce our art car and all our new artistic branding in the motorsport playground and make it happen during the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans. I hope we will talk about REBELLION Racing not only for this fantastic artistic collaboration but also for our race results.”

“This bright sense of “having great time” is where we found out our synergy with REBELLION. Why fit when you are born to stand out is a description that is spot on in regard to RocketByz as well as Rebellion. Making no compromises in creating and designing unique and limited art is the common underlying force that puts the extra in this extraordinary partnership. Creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence.” explains Tomboy, the artist who created the livery on the cars.

Amongst the other teams presenting their cars today were Racing Team Nederland, in their final race with the Dallara LMP2 before switching to the Oreca 07 next season and Corvette celebrating its 20th anniversary at La Sarthe with many more come as Doug Fehan said "as long as we keep getting this kind of support of the people in Le Mans, we'll keep coming back"

Kessel Racing was also present with both Ferrari's in their special Le Mans livery, including the #83 FIA Women in Motorsport all female line-up, as was Villorba Corse who will be running their Dallara in the FIA WEC as from September on.  Local team Graff headed the French teams who went through scrutineering today, followed by Larbre Competition, Panis-Barthez Competition and IDEC Sport.

© Craig Robertson - www.racephotography.net

Part 2 of Scrutineering is set for Monday, including the likes of SMP Racing, AF Corse, BMW, Aston Martin, Dragonspeed and Dempsey-Proton Racing.  First car in will be the ARC Bratislava Ligier at 10 am. The whole day of scrutineering will be streamed live on the ACO youtube channel or below:

Text: Dave Davies & Kristof Vermeulen

Pictures: Kristof Vermeulen, JellyBaby.Media and Craig Robertson

Updated entry list

Le Mans 2017 : Pesage, the slowest lap.

A few years ago we had a running joke regarding the scrutineering (pesage) days at Le Mans that nothing happened in the morning and then surprisingly little happened in the afternoon. To be fair, although it's never going to be a thrill ride, it does have its own unique charm.

United Autosports #35 Ligier-Gibson arrives at the square.

If you have never experienced it before, the process works something like this. In one of the main squares of Le Mans (Place de la République ), a set of tents open at each end are set up along the four sides of a square. Race cars arrive according to a strict schedule in the south east corner and are pushed one after another through the sequence of tents within which they are weighed, measured and minutely inspected to ensure they conform to regulations. At the same time as the cars are getting a serious bit of looking-at, the drivers are summoned to present their licenses, helmets, suits and other safety gear in the registration office in the centre of the square. All this sounds a bit dull and if that was all there was to 'pesage' then I would agree that it is an unlikely spectator event.  

Porsche drivers are interviewed on the covered stage.

Once the cars have passed inspection the official ACO stickers are applied and the cars are wheeled into an area where they are joined by the drivers and the rest of the team for a set-up photo opportunity for the group of press photographers positioned to capture the moment. Once the group-shot is done the drivers are invited onto a covered stage area where they are interviewed by Le Mans commentators Bruno Vandestick and David Waldron in front of an audience gathered in small grandstand. Outside the square of inspection tents there is another ring of awnings that contain a range of stalls where you can shop for a T-shirt, hat or scale model of your favourite car past or present. 

In past years the pesage has been on Monday and Tuesday, but a few years ago it was brought forward to Sunday and Monday. The move to Sunday has made the event incredibly popular with the local population of Le Mans, not least because it is entirely free to attend and they can see the cars and drivers at close quarters, possibly the closest race fans will have a chance to get all week. 

Thrilling it isn't, but well worth attending for the party atmosphere, particularly in the gorgeous weather we have been blessed with today.

Dave Davies.