Dbltime

How did that happen? The Porsche RSR was 6 seconds per lap faster. Contact, Incident, pit time?

Porsche missed 3rd to Ferrari. Not a good race for Porsche.

analogmike

The Seikel/Farnbacher team, which was a LAST MINUTE entry, only allowed as two other cars on the waiting list ahead of them could not be ready in time, did an AMAZING job. Dominik Farnbacher was about the fastest Porsche driver there, and got the car about 4 laps ahead in GT2 until 3rd gear left the gearbox. Then the sequential shifter broke and stranded him on the other side of the track with no communication to his dad Horst in the pits. Finally team members made it out to him (maybe told him how to jam it into a gear?) and he was able to limp it back to the pits, though he lost more time as it must have popped out of gear again. They installed a new shifter but all that lost time allowed the Panoz to get ahead by nearly a lap, and driving with no 3rd gear they could not catch them. Dominik was pressing hard and drove off the track, smashing the LR of the car and wing but was able to continue and finish 2nd.

Dominik had two gentleman racers co-driving, Pierre Ehret who also co drove for the Daytona win in 2005, and Lars Erik Neilsen. They almost ended up getting their money's worth, they must be dissappointed now but a podium finish is still pretty amazing.

Another great finish for team Farnbacher!

mikew968

The Panoz had only 20 pit stops; I believe the least of the field.


Mike

911

Pretty disappointing news. When I went to bed last night Porsche were 1-2. When was the last time they didn't win a class at Le Mans?

911

I just found the answer to my own question as a reliable source informed me that it's been 16 years since Porsche hasn't won a class.

Dbltime

Seikel/Farnbacher Teams shifting issues could have resulted in a DNF so they are probably happy with 2nd.

Racing is full of those bad luck stories.

JCP911S

I think the Panoz win is great... an American made sports car wins a major international race without GM sized $$$ behind them... all power to them. As much as I like Porsches, I like competitive racing better.

Basically the Panoz won by running consistently, having no problems and having the fewest pit stops... a blueprint for success at LeMans... lets give these guys the credit due...

Alan C.

Seems they took a lesson from Porsche racing history at Le Mans

DrJupeman

I definitely give Panoz credit and I hope Porsche was paying attention. This feels like a lowpoint for Porsche, even with the RS Spyder in the wings. Are they too scared to bring it to Le Mans where thy probably know it won't last?

JCP911S

IMHO Porsche is giving the spyder a year of development in ALMS to get the reliability up... I would be very surprised not to see them next year unless they have REAL concerns about the car... which seems to be right on track...

I think Porsche would not put that kind of dollars onto a program unless they felt they could contend for an overall win... they have nothing to win with moral victories...

But Audi and Peugeot appear to be coming in with HUGE dollare effrots next year, so it will be a real dogfight.

DrJupeman

No joke. Did you hear the commentary on Speed that Audi was feeding several hundred journalists 3 meals a day and publishing an 8 page circular everyday through practice to the race that was printed for 250,000? Big $ and that has nothing to do with the car.

Time for Porsche to return to the giant killer ranks!

Dbltime

I am a Porsche racing fan. Panoz winning is not great to me. Did they work hard, race smart and deserve the win? Yes. I still wanted to see 3 RSR's on the podium. GT2 is all Porsche people have at Le Mans.

Did you read the car specs in GT2? We discussed GT3RSR HP to nauseum some time ago and the car specs were from 440-480 @ RL7600-8600, huge spread.

Fortunately we will have Lea Keen there next year. Co drivers....? Cory F, Chris B and Rick DeMan.

Panoz people must be back flippin in the streets.

Mighty Shilling

they were handing those out on every corner in le mans

Larry Harris

I'm embarassed for Porsche. They used to own this race.

Larry Herman

I know the others, but who's Chris B?