[LM24] Dumbrek Flip at Le Mans

[Zagato]

Where did Dumbrek flip at Le Mans, On the Mulsanne straight before Mulsanne corner or before Indianapolis? I thought the former and that Webbers practice incidents were between Mulsanne and Indianapolis.

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by Zagato

Where did Dumbrek flip at Le Mans, On the Mulsanne straight before Mulsanne corner or before Indianapolis? I thought the former and that Webbers practice incidents were between Mulsanne and Indianapolis.

Mark Webber "took off" during Thursday evenings session on the run from Mulsanne to Indianapolis and on the Mulsanne straight during Saturday's warm up. The Peter Dumbreck incident took place on the run from Mulsanne to Indianapolis.

[iucrmh]

As said above the Dumbreck flip was on the run from Mulsanne to Indianapolis, in fact a small hump at this point is being flattened in time for this years race (pictures on on dailysportscar.com).

Didn't at least one car have a similar incident in pre-qualifying that year as well? Possibly one of the BMW LMP's. I seem to remember it was rumoured rather than definite, but one car did suffer a lot of damage from an accident on Mulsanne somewhere.

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by iucrmh

.........Didn't at least one car have a similar incident in pre-qualifying that year as well? Possibly one of the BMW LMP's. I seem to remember it was rumoured rather than definite, but one car did suffer a lot of damage from an accident on Mulsanne somewhere.

I don't remember the incident. I remember BMW ran three cars at PQ's that year but only two appeared for the race itself. Could this have something to do with it?

[Zagato]

The test incident was Webber in the Mercedes at one of the mulsanne chicanes. My abiding memory of that test weekend was the sense of shoch in the Mercedes team after the test finished on Sunday. Problems for Webber and blitzed not only by Toyota but Panoz as well.

[clkgtrlm1]

Zagato,

I still have this somewhere on MPEG - PM me your E-mail

[PascaLM]

Originally Posted by Bentley03

I don't remember the incident. I remember BMW ran three cars at PQ's that year but only two appeared for the race itself. Could this have something to do with it?

Dalmas had an accident on n°16 car which was seriously damaged. The team decided to concentrate on the n°15 and 17.

[Mal]

I thought the Dalmas 'flip' was at Road Atlanta.

[Laurent]

Dalmas was on the #15 car during the prequals. He had a big crash (losing the rear wing) but he didn't flip. At the end of the day, BMW decided to concentrate on two cars, retiring the #16 Art Car...

[iucrmh]

Originally Posted by Mal

I thought the Dalmas 'flip' was at Road Atlanta.

It was in 1998 with the Porsche GT1-98 wasn't it/

[The Badger]

He had some kind of a flip in the Goh Audi a few years back .

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by The Badger

He had some kind of a flip in the Goh Audi a few years back .

...as well as flipping a Peugeot 905 Evo1 Bis at Monza in 1992

[PascaLM]

Originally Posted by rustyfan

...as well as flipping a Peugeot 905 Evo1 Bis at Monza in 1992

The turn over of the Peugeot at Monza wasn't caused by aerodynamics. The pilot missed the brake point before one of the chicanes and the car somersaulted as it got in the gravel trap.

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by PascaLM

The turn over of the Peugeot at Monza wasn't caused by aerodynamics. The pilot missed the brake point before one of the chicanes and the car somersaulted as it got in the gravel trap.

I never said it was - I just said he had flipped a Peugeot as well.

And, yes, I know exactly how it happened, considering I have the live TV footage of it

[PascaLM]

Originally Posted by iucrmh

It was in 1998 with the Porsche GT1-98 wasn't it/

Yes, the Porsche GT1 of Dalmas and a BMW V12 LMR (1999, Muller ?) took off at exactly the same point !

[Fab]

Originally Posted by PascaLM

1999, Muller ?

Bill Auberlen ?

[jhansen]

I'm pretty sure it was Bill Auberlen in the BMW at Petit 1999. I have footage of the two Petit incidents and the Dumbreck flip.

[BSchneiderFan]

I think it was Auberlen who flipped the BMW, but I could be wrong.

[rustyfan]

Bill Auberlen had his flip in 2000.

Brett Parker, driving a Viper, flipped as well during the same race (assisted by going backwards into a tire-wall though). Overall that edition of Petit Le Mans was pretty crazy - lots of wrecks and incidents.

[Woolley]

Didn't Win Percy and John Nielson do much the same thing in the Jaguar and Sauber respectively a few years before.

As for poor Webber, after he'd done it the first time they sent him out to get his confidence back and he did it again. IIRC he was absolved of any blame, but only after Dumbreck did it.

[rustyfan]

There are a series of scans from Nielsen's accident available here:

http://users.pandora.be/aerogi/Racin...ns_Nielsen.htm

Webber and Dumbreck have nothing on Nielsen - the altitude he 'achieved' is simply insane.

[Woolley]

And he landed on his wheels. Didn't help, but full marks for trying.

[David]

Webber in the 1999 Le Mans morning warmup:

[TheNewBob]

Yannick Dalmas seems to have had more than his fair share of scrapes really! Wonder what it's like looking at the sky more than the track hehe

[chunder]

I was workin closely to someone who was repoortin on the Le Mans race that year and he gave me quite an insight into te Mercedes flip.
Wat a lot of people dont know is that Nick Heidfeld had nearlyhad a flip too but backed out of the throtlein the nick of time.
The sad part about this is that the team were very aware of the problem and were put under pressure b the board to race I think.
The tried to combat te problem by fitting some nonc winglets and stuff but the problem was inherent with tat design.
Can you imagine how te drivers flet having to get into the cockpit of a car tat was inheretnyl unstable at over 200 mph. ou might expect i from someone like WM or a private team, ut no Mercedes Benz!!