Le Mans 2017: Things to do in raceweek

The action during race week is not only to be found on track, but also in the villages surrounding the iconic Le Mans circuit. We've selected a few events which are surely worth a visit, celebrating the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 

Museum exhibition

This year, everyone with a general enclosure ticket for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, will have free access to the museum next to the circuit to discover its collection of 120 cars who have made part of the history of the 24 Hours.  

Picture © ACO

Next to the permanent collection, a temporary exhibition celebrating the Formula 1 Grand Prix which was run on the Bugatti circuit in 1967 will be on display under the title "Le Mans 67 – An exceptional grand prix".  This was the only French Formula 1 Grand Prix organised by the ACO on the Bugatti circuit.  Several Formula 1 cars of the era and 1967 will be on display, luke a Lotus 49, a Cooper Maserati and a BRM P115. The race winning Brabham Repco of Jack Brabham will also be on display. 

Le Mans legend Henri Pescarolo won the Formula 3 race that weekend, the Matra F3 he drove in 1967 will also be on display in the museum. 

New additions to the permanent collection of the museum are 2 Onroak cars. The OAK Racing Costa Art Car and the Morgan LMP2 SRT 41 of Frederic Sausset. 

The 2013 OAK Racing art car was designed by Fernando Costa and features a multicolour cover featuring signposts, the artist's favourite material. It was entered by OAK Racing and driven by Jacques Nicolet, Jean-Marc Merlin and Philippe Mondolot. The Morgan LMP2 was entered last year as the "Garage 56" car by SRT 41. The car was fully adapted for Frédéric Sausset, the first quad amputee who has raced and finished in the Le Mans 24 Hours. 

R'Hunaudieres

On Tuesday 13th June, the third edition of the R'Hunaudieres in the small city of Ruadin across the Mulsanne straight will be held from 16.00h to 23.00h.

This years edition will highlight the 70th anniversary of Ferrari.  The centre of the town will be closed for all traffic, giving Ferrari fans the chance to admire the most beautiful cars of the Italian marque.  Ferrari has won Le Mans nine times between 1949 and 1965, and is one of the legendary teams in the 24 hour race.

French driver Fernand Tavano will also be honoured this year. Tavano drove the 24 Hours of Le Mans nine consecutive times from 1956 to 1964, each time at the wheel of a Ferrari. His best finish at Le Mans was in 1960 when he finished fourth overall and 1st in the GT Class in his Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta which he drove with Pierre Dumay. An exposition well be set up, celebrating his career as a driver.

Admission to the exhibition and the town centre is free for all.

More info on their facebook page.

Arnage dans la course

For the fourth year, the "Arnage dans la course" event will take place on Thursday 15th of June.  This edition will pay tribute to Le Mans legend Henri Pescarolo and Matra. Pescarolo raced 33 times in the 24 Hours and won four of them. Matra is one of the iconic French racingteams from the past.

Not only will all the cars Pescarolo participated in during the 24 hours on display (1/43 scale) but also several exceptional cars that will take part in the the exhibition in the centre of Arnage. Many models of Matra will be on display, as will the Pescarolo 001 & 002. The presentation of the Pescarolo 004 and 005 will take place during the day. Lots of other cars will join in for the exhibition; Ford GT40, AC Cobra, Porsche, Ferrari, Corvette ...

The event starts at 9.00h with a car exhibition at the Town hall square 'till 12.00h.  From 12.30h to 12.00h a parade will run through the main street of Arnage. The car exhibition will continue from 14.00h to 17.00h.

Admission is free, food & drinks vendors will be on-site.

More info can be found at www.arnagedanslacourse.com

Classic British Welcome

The Saint-Saturnin Classic British Welcome originated from a passion for Le Mans and the 24 hour race. It’s a fun, colourful car show to welcome visitors to Le Mans, held every year, on the Friday before the 24 hour race. Over a thousand classic cars of all shapes and sizes, from all around the world, gather in Saint-Saturnin on the northern outskirts of Le Mans.

This year's theme is Marcos, a small British sportscar company which was founded in 1959. Exactly 50 years ago, Marcos entered a factory team in the 24 Hours with a Mini-Marcos. The car didn't finish though due to an oil pump failure. Still it was quite an achievement for a small car company to enter a car in the legendary race. Marcos returned in 1995 to La Sarthe, and this time managed to finish the race despite being stranded for 2 hours due to an electrical fault. 

Around 70 Marcos cars are expected in Saint-Saturnin on Friday, who will join the cars on display in the main hall and many other cars on the field. Several exhibitions, food stalls, live music, merchandise stands and much more will keep you busy for a few hours ! 

The festivities start at 9.00h, and are - as always - free to enter.
More info to be found at http://www.classicbw.org/?ln=UK

Virage de Mulsanne

Over the past years, the annual meeting at the infamous Mulsanne corner has become a tradition in the build up to race day.  The theme for this year's event is Jaguar, so expect some nice British machinery on display on the track in Mulsanne. 

Starting 9.00h to 16.00h at the Mulsanne corner : exhibition of classic & collectors cars and historic racing cars on the track, thematic exhibition of Jaguar (racing) cars, presence of past and current Le Mans drivers, exhibition of Ray Toombs, illustrator and artist ... 

19.00h to 22.30h on the Place Jean Moulin (Mulsanne centre): exposition of exceptional cars in front of the town hall, parade through the streets of Mulsanne, free concert.

Live music, food & drink stalls will be present during the day. Entry is free for all ! 

More info is available at www.viragedemulsanne.org

Kristof Vermeulen.

Le Mans 2017 - Test day report

The countdown to the 85th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours now really has started after the annual testday. 

The Green flag for the first test session was on time at 09:00. Lapierre in the #9 was first to set a flying lap time of 3:34.244, but drivers were reporting that the track was very dirty. The session had only been green for about 15 minutes when the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari was stranded just after the Dunlop bridge bringing out a local slow zone. At the 1 hour point in LMP1 quickest was Kobayashi in the #7 Toyota  3:23.576 in LMP2 #26 G-Drive 3:31.405, GTE Pro #91 Porsche 3:57.851, GTE Am #99 4:01.314.

At 10:11 the TF Sport Aston #90 of Salih Yoluc returned slowly to pitlane with a puncture, and shortly therafter Ho Pin Tung has final warning on track limits in the Jackie Chan DC racing Oreca #38. At 10:24 there was a brief slow zone for debris on track which turned out to be a plastic cone at the Dunlop chicane. The track had just one green when Beche put in a lap of 3:30.516 fastest in LM P2 in the #13 Valliante Rebellion. Nicolas Prost who drives the #31 Vaillante Rebellion LMP2: "We were running very well, but we’ve hit a bit of a gear change problem."

Just before the 2 hour point at 10:50 Magnussen in the #63 Corvette went quickest in GTE Pro 3:56.876, while Cairoli in #77 Porsche quickest in GTE Am - 3:59.117. Lopez did his ten rookie laps without incident but later won himself a track limits warning in the Toyota #9.

At 11:27 Sarrazin went fastest overall with a lap of 3:23.450 in the #7 Toyota but that didn't last long because Buemi in the #8 Toyota edged out that time with a lap in 3:23.210 just a few minutes later. At 11:49 Bernhard in Porsche #2 went to the top of the timing screen with a lap of 3:23.089 but only a few seconds later Buemi in Toyota #8 went faster still with a time of 3:22.394. Just as the session clicked over into the final hour, a black and white driving standards flag was awarded to Nathanael Berthon in #23 Ligier for repeated abuse of track limits. Black & White flag also for #7 Toyota of Mike Conway, again for abuse of track limits.

In the final hour, the leading LMP1 cars were putting in fast sectors but falling shy of completing a super quick lap. The surprise of the session was the Ford GT performance in GTE Pro langishing at the back of the class, but it is entirely possible that they are not showing their hand at test day. At 12:25 Van Eerd in the 'Jumbo' #29 Racing for Nederland Dallara went into the gravel at the Dunlop chicane, bringing out a local yellow while the car was recovered and rejoined.

Nakajima got into the #8 Toyota and soon improved the time for that car with a lap of 3:20.778, quickest overall thus far. Lopez then improved to 3:22.006 in the #9 Toyota, second fastest. In the closing minutes of the session, Piquet in #13 Vaillante Rebellion stopped at 1st Chicane on the Mulsanne Straight bringing out a local yellow but going again in a couple of minutes. Right before the chequered flag Negrao in the #35 Alpine was the first LMP2 under 3:30 with a time of 3:29.809.

After the lunch break the green for session 2 was at 14:00. At 14:15 #17 and #29 made contact but both cars continued. At 14:32 Kamui Kobayashi improved the time of the #7 Toyota to 3:18.319 which is faster than 2016 pole time. A few minutes later he improved again to 3:18.132/ At 15:01 Maris in #33 Eurasia was stuck in gravel at Dunlop bringing out a red flag. The track was green again at 15:11. Shortly after the restart, there was improvement for ByKolles #4 when Bonanomi put in a lap of 3:29.428, but that still put it behind the #37 LMP2. At 15:30 Thiim got into the tyres at Mulsanne corner in #95 Aston bringing out saftey cars until 15:39 - the car rejoined and returned to pitlane.

At 16:00 The sun began to peek through the clouds and the track began to warm up significantly. #50 Larbre Corvette led GTE Am with 3:58.302 from Dempsey Proton Porsche #77 a smidge behind at 3:58.449 The United Autosports #32 Ligier of Will Owen went into gravel at 2nd chicane on Mulsanne and was winched out by snatch vehicle. Corvette #64 was having an engine change during the latter part of the session (more of that later).

At 16:23 Kunimoto in Toyota #9 went into gravel at Mulsanne corner and rejoined. With 1 hour and 30 minutes remaining in the session Kazuki Nakajima put in a faster time for Toyota #8 3:20.019  still 2nd fastest overall. Buemi had an improvement 3:19.290 in Toyota #8 with the clock at 1 hour remaining, still 2nd fastest. Improvement also for Porsche #2 by Earl Bamber with 3:21.512 rising to 4th fastest ahead of the #1 Porsche.

At 17:10 #29 Racing Team Nederland stopped after Arnage Van Eerd driving. There was a local slow zone for a few minutes while the car was recovered. With 34 minutes left in the session, the #64 Corvette rejoined with Olly Gavin at the wheel after an engine change which took an impressive 1 hour 31 minutes. He quickly set a time of 3:54.701 fastest in GTE pro, leaping ahead of the factory Porsches. Meanwhile Pedro Lamy set a lap time of 3:58.250 fastest lap in GTE Am for Aston Martin #98.

Roberto Gonzales in #25 Manor stopped after Tertre Rouge bringing out a red flag with 12 minutes remaining. Reportedly it dropped oil on the track before stopping. The session clock continued to count down and remained under red flag until the scheduled finish at 18:00

The surprise of the day was the lack of pace of the Ford GT's. They remained at the back of the GTE Pro times in both sessions and (they say) it was genuine lack of speed. We are inclined  to believe them despite considerable speculation and rumour circulating about sandbagging and BOP shenanigans. These days with the amount of data available to the ACO it would be very hard to hide such activity.

Full results Morning session HERE

Full results Afternoon session HERE

Text: Dave Davies.
Pictures: Kristof Vermeulen

Le Mans 2017: Testday - Saturday pictures

Full gallery can be found here


Kristof Vermeulen.