[LM24] Support Races 2009

[Le Vieux]

I see that Endurance Info are reporting that there will be two Aston DBR1s in the support race this year - both the 1959 winning car and that which finished second.

In addition, Sir Stirling Moss, in his eightieth year will be driving the OSCA, albeit painted red instead of BRG!.

Does anyone have news of further entries?

[Rodger Davies]

now, assuming that's the car I think it is, I believe the conversation went something like this...

"Sure Mr Leventis, we'd love to invite Strakka Racing to Le Mans. We do however, have one small condition..."

[Nordic]

I doubt Mr Leventis needed much prompting!

He is one of the few that lets his collection be raced, and hard.

[The Badger]

Support races , why not pick the best 3 teams from each country doing the Porsche cup and invite them to do a support race . I remember seeing a Porsche 924 support at Le Mans , 1989 I think it was and it was great .

I dislike a lot of those historics , as a lot of the time its not a support race , but a support parade cuz of the value of the cars themselves .

And before anyone can call me wrong , a personal friend of mine is the team manager of a Porsche 962 historic team , and he says that the cars are a sad shame of what they used to be ..... from the horses mouth you could say .

[Le Vieux]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Support races , why not pick the best 3 teams from each country doing the Porsche cup and invite them to do a support race . I remember seeing a Porsche 924 support at Le Mans , 1989 I think it was and it was great .

I dislike a lot of those historics , as a lot of the time its not a support race , but a support parade cuz of the value of the cars themselves .

And before anyone can call me wrong , a personal friend of mine is the team manager of a Porsche 962 historic team , and he says that the cars are a sad shame of what they used to be ..... from the horses mouth you could say .

Not what they used to be? Straight from the horse's mouth?
Clearly they're not Prancing Horses then...

Personally I enjoy the historic races and would happily settle for more of them, even if not everyone is trying. At least some do, so there's always a race.

[GT6]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Support races , why not pick the best 3 teams from each country doing the Porsche cup and invite them to do a support race . I remember seeing a Porsche 924 support at Le Mans , 1989 I think it was and it was great .

I dislike a lot of those historics , as a lot of the time its not a support race , but a support parade cuz of the value of the cars themselves .

And before anyone can call me wrong , a personal friend of mine is the team manager of a Porsche 962 historic team , and he says that the cars are a sad shame of what they used to be ..... from the horses mouth you could say .

I would beg to differ, some people will take a little more car of the cars than others but most of the cars are driven hard. If a "historic car" is not actually racing it is unlikely to be invited back and a reputation of just turning up to parade round is very likely to see a lack of invites in the future. As for the horses mouth I suspect that perhaps they may have been facing the wrong way.

[The Badger]

Fair enough comment I suppose .

What about the Porsche supercup idea then ?

[GT6]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Fair enough comment I suppose .

What about the Porsche supercup idea then ?

Lets see how the Formula Le mans works first, it may be a complete waste of time, in which case a Porsche supercup race will be great for 2010.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Fair enough comment I suppose .

What about the Porsche supercup idea then ?

Not for me. I've seen enough 911s and derivatives at Le Mans to last me a lifetime. It might be good racing - in fact, it almost certainly would be - but for me, that's not what a support race at Le Mans is all about. I'm very mjch in favour of the historics and even though the Group Cs were tamer than I remembered last year, they were still magnificent to watch. I'd like to see more of the era before Group C, personally.

[Le Vieux]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Not for me. I've seen enough 911s and derivatives at Le Mans to last me a lifetime. It might be good racing - in fact, it almost certainly would be - but for me, that's not what a support race at Le Mans is all about. I'm very mjch in favour of the historics and even though the Group Cs were tamer than I remembered last year, they were still magnificent to watch. I'd like to see more of the era before Group C, personally.

I'm in total agreement - preferably immediately before Group C- say the Seventies: 917s, Renaults, 935s, 936s, a Matra or two, maybe even a few Ferraris, plus a Rondeau to keep the locals happy......

Maybe we could even entice a few period drivers out of retirement; Messrs Bell, Ickx, Pescarolo for starters!

[Aysedasi]

Yep, that would be wonderful - exactly what I was thinking.

[Nordic]

Nice idea, but just how many cars are they out there? the classic could only rustle up a single Renault and 936, a few 935's and they where not really driven hard.

I would love to see a good field of Grp 5 935's, M1 and 512s with healthy mix of 2 litre Lolas and Chevrons, but really cant see it happening.

I think the Grp C era is your best bet at the moment if you want a historic race, the cars are not too valuable to race, there are some very good drivers in them, but the one I saw left me a bit cold to be honest, maybe the memory is to fresh.

If I cant get a good field of Grp 5 and 6 cars, then I would prefer the historic's are given a miss, the 911 supercup does provide good racing, but Le mans is a strange track and I cant really think of a good one make race there since the renault GTA Alpines.

Hopefully the new Le Mans series would fill the void but what I would really like is a 1 hour GT3 race!

[GT6]

We do need some sort of support race and I think one historic and one modern race makes sense as it will a[[eal to most race fans.

I still remember the days of alternative entertainment and in particular the guy on a Kawasaki 1300 doing tricks, however now days I am usually doing something else at lunchtime on the saturday and hopefully so will most of you.

[Nordic]

Originally Posted by GT6

I still remember the days of alternative entertainment and in particular the guy on a Kawasaki 1300 doing tricks, .

This one?

By modern standards he may not be cutting edge, but he was fearless to say the least!

I think there is alot to said for demo laps, there are plenty of cars that are resting in mesuems that would never race but given a chance would do a few laps.

[GT6]

Yep that looks like the guy, I was trying to work out what year, in those days we stood in front of the grandstands opposite the pits from late morning and needed some form of entertainment, unlike now when I have agood lunch at the campsite and then make my way to watch with about 15 mins to go.

[Le Vieux]

Those of us who spectate at the outer reaches of the circuit missed the biker. Does anyone remember the "parade" in (I think) 85 or 86 when we had the weird sight of go-karts doing a few laps of the whole circuit?

Why is it that there are plenty of former LM cars from the fifties and sixties and plenty from Group C onwards, but so few from the Seventies? Or are they all out there somewhere, but hidden away in museums and private collections?

[Kpy]

Originally Posted by Le Vieux

Why is it that there are plenty of former LM cars from the fifties and sixties and plenty from Group C onwards, but so few from the Seventies? Or are they all out there somewhere, but hidden away in museums and private collections?

Why do you say that? - 94 1970s cars raced at the LM Classic last year, against 75 from the 1960s.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Le Vieux]

Why do I say that?

[QUOTE=Nordic;2440574]Nice idea, but just how many cars are they out there? the classic could only rustle up a single Renault and 936, a few 935's and they where not really driven hard.

I would love to see a good field of Grp 5 935's, M1 and 512s with healthy mix of 2 litre Lolas and Chevrons, but really cant see it happening.

[Kpy]

[QUOTE=Le Vieux;2441637]Why do I say that?

Originally Posted by Nordic

Nice idea, but just how many cars are they out there? the classic could only rustle up a single Renault and 936, a few 935's and they where not really driven hard.

I would love to see a good field of Grp 5 935's, M1 and 512s with healthy mix of 2 litre Lolas and Chevrons, but really cant see it happening.

I must have been at a different race.

[Nordic]

I was at the classic last year and thought there was over 100 cars from the 60's spread over 3 races, maybe I was at a different part of the track.

I did feel it a shame that more 935's were not there given the amount that had been produced and raced plus the fact that they were THE grp5 car to have (3 are shown, but I can only remember 2). There was also no Lancia Montecarlos, granted plenty of M1's turned up, maybe something to do with special M1 race later in the month and a handful of 512's.

Those to my mind are the cars of the late 70's

(http://www.lemansclassic.com/2008/uk...teEngages.html)

The 2 litre sports cars were well represented, as always but not many over 2000 cars. Correct me if I am wrong, but only one 936 and one Alpine, the class leading cars of the late 70s were present plus single entries from Rondeau (2 if you count the INALTERA) WM and Lola etc

I really cant see that changing if we had a race that covered the era late 70's - pre grp C 80's, given the small amount of over 2000 cars produced can you?

There is little that would give me greater pleasure than being proven wrong and quality field of top cars could be generated.

All IMHO.

[Nordic]

Originally Posted by Le Vieux

Those of us who spectate at the outer reaches of the circuit missed the biker. Does anyone remember the "parade" in (I think) 85 or 86 when we had the weird sight of go-karts doing a few laps of the whole circuit?

I dont remember the Karts, the only other ones I recal are a group of tractors doing a display that revolved around them driving on 2 wheels, 1982 or 83 (may have been French farmers doing a protest come to think about it)and the same sort of display, but in Peugots with flags out the passanger windows.

I expect they have many others, there have also been the free fall parchute displays, I cant think of many air displays, maybe due to the airport being active and so close but Pesca did fly his micro light one year I think

Who can forget the Goodyear airship lit up at night, have it in my mind it gave a rundown of the race order in lights, did I dream that?

[Steve Tarrant]

I certainly remember the tractor and lorries driving on the start/finish straight on 2 wheels, the parachutist that landed with the French flag on the track on the front of the grid, and a mad motorcyclist and girl that had a motorcycle but seemed to spend more time hanging off the front/side/back of it while blatting along at over 100 mph with sparks coming off their skid shoes!!!! Plus a jazz band on the back of a flat bed truck.

These memories are from 1983/84/85 when I was much younger, able bodied and naive!!!!! There were other things too, but I was too shy to investigate them!

[GT6]

I centainly remember most of those and some of the other races, the one I still have night mares about was either a Lambo or venturi race, seeing so many accidents no injuries to people that i remember but the sight of a low loader having cars placed on the back one on top of the other just to get them clear of the track, I think there were 5 or 6 in the end what a way to treat beautiful cars.

Also have find memories of the official fireworks on the friday night the year the new star ship enterprise control and pit complex opened, that was a great way to spend the evening before the race.

[Nordic]

The worst one i saw was one of the Renault races, think it was when they used the Alpine's and horrific crash on the start straight. pretty sure the driver died a few months later.

The Renault 5 Turbo races were pretty good, very close slipstreaming with a different leader on every lap.

THe lambo's were always crash fests but looked good, were they pro-am races? I think some of the drivers for the 24hrs took part, which struck me as a bit of a risk!!

The Venturi's looked like proper race cars, I had forgotten all abot them till now.

However the Pug single seater sportscars of the early 90's bored me to tears.

I remember the fireworks when the ACO opened the new pits, we were in the grandstand, (was it Friday evening?) the 'silk cut Volvo' drove up the straight either just before or after they were set off.

Happy days

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by Nordic

the 'silk cut Volvo' drove up the straight either just before or after they were set off.

LMAO@ the Silk Cut Volvo . How many years has that car been going to Le Mans ?

I saw it 2 years ago , and again I think last year .