Nizer

CBS Sports Network carried it on Comcast. Broadcast from 2:00am to 7:30am this morning.

CAM14

So, what happened to the 919? When I stoped watching around 2:00 AM US Central, he was in Second place.

Toby Pennycuff

#20 suffered an engine failure. #14 continued to fight fuel pressure problems. Both cars stayed in the garage, with the #14 coming out with less than four minutes to go to take the checker just behind the first and second place Audis. I think Porsche was classified 5th (#14) and 6th (#20) overall in LMP1.

Dr.Bill

I wonder if the #20 team got 'help' from the engineers who made the GT3 engine?

Nimrodical

Porsche was leading at the 22 hour mark. Pretty amazing run for the first try in a long time
The GT class results were kind of a bummer

996FLT6

Which engine? The latest and greatest Motorsport derived one that hasn't been raced one? Lol. I gotta say for 1st time out Porsche lmp1 cars didn't do bad at all. Now the other classes with the rsr's another story. Since they did well last lemans they had to add ballast and a smaller restrictor- as the race team I be sending emails/texts/facebook/twitter 24/7 til race starts with that bs. Geejus sakes were running only on 6 cylinders with low trg compared to the 8 cyl competitors. Mike

TraqGear

14 had tranny problems from what I'm hearing on the live feed and big screen. (I'm at the race) He could only go up to 4th gear. They brought him out just to take the checker and a bow. Crowd still loved it and everyone clapped when he went, even the Audi fans. Awesome experience! Will do an extensive post and pics soon. Even though Porsche had problems, it was still a very special race to see them back in the hunt. Mark Weber behind the wheel was pretty cool too.

bgiere

Great race and a great showing with the new 919 IMHO...Remember it took the 917 a year or so to get the bugs worked out...

nycartdealer

Great showing for the 919???? We must have watched a different race as both cars suffered catastrophic mechanical failures and were classified as NOT running at the end of the race as per the FIA website with posted finishes of 36th and 37th overall!
Embarrassing...

utkinpol

Audi wins 13th title. That is true.

Sterling Doc

Same race I saw. For them to be leading in the top class of the toughest race in the world at 22 hours in a development year, bringing 2 all new car with a ton of new technology *is* impressive. The #14 car did come back out before the finish, regardless of what the FIA site said.

I found it more ironic that Toyota's hybrid system melted down so badly the driver couldn't even radio the pits.

kosmo

another PDK failure?! LOL

the outcome was expected.

bgiere

To come back and be on pace with 919 is pretty damn impressive...This car is no ordinary LMP1 and when it gets fully developed it will rival the 917 and 962 in status I am sure.

Spyerx

Balance of power in the RSR gt cars is hurting them... maybe it switches other way now. You see how the vettes were motoring on the RSRs on the straights? Not quite like LMP vs GT... but way off.
919 was very competitive and was leading at what, hour 22? But the endurance got them. They need time to build the reliability, the team, work the kinks out, not sure if even internally they "expected" a win, that would have been an amazing achievement. I hope they stay in it for the long haul.

Nizer

CH's postmortem:

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/defa...?storyId=30136

For those of you who like your race reports brief - this should be ideal.

We formed up on the green flag lap and ran pretty slowly, congregated into a side-by-side formation for the rolling start and then attempted to squeeze through the last chicane onto the start-finish straight. All was good into the Dunlop chicane, save a couple of spinners - not a bad effort from 61 lunatics all quietly thinking how they might win the race in the first corner.

I think we all suspected it would kick off into the first chicane though, and sure enough the run out of Tertre Rouge was the cork in the bottle. The two cars in front of me were slow, I got a good run, but fellow Brit Rob Smith was inside me, so I had to back off. It was three abreast into the chicane, I let Rob through and cars kind of scattered everywhere. All I wanted to do was stay out of trouble, not ruin anyone's championship (the GB boys were playing for points) and enjoy some Le Mans racing.

I had a decent tow down the next straight, but I had a car right up my chuff into the braking zone for the second chicane. He just wasn't close enough to have position for the left entry - and besides, no-one just fires it down the inside there because the other car literally has nowhere to go. I remember thinking that just before the large banging noise.

He clattered me hard left-rear, then went down the side of the car. It spun me around and the car stalled, triggering a low-oil pressure warning which wouldn't allow the thing to restart. By the time it did fire the whole field had swarmed through and any hope of any racing was over. I limped back to the pits with the steering wheel not straight and the left rear feeling odd. We bunged on new rubber, I went back out, but it still didn't feel right and I just didn't see the point in risking it to drive around on my own.

The driver who hit me is called Eric Trouillet. It appears he makes trailers for a living. Ordinarily, out of pure spite and anger, I would campaign for people to boycott his product, but this time I implore everyone to buy one of his trailers forthwith. He can use the extra profits to buy some new specs and a few driving lessons.

Chris