24 Hours of Le Mans

[pfc_m_drake]

2022 Edition starts in ~30 minutes. Temperatures are warm. Lots of fans. Good to be back! Should be a good one!!!

[pfc_m_drake]

Approaching the end of hour #1 - the 7 Toyota driven by Mike Conway leads from the 8 Toyota in a change of lead that occurred after pit stops following a very shaky first stint by the 8.

77 degF Air Temperature and 124 degF track temperature :eek:

It'd be impressive if I could come back and update this thread after every hour...but it's not going to happen...so you'll have to watch for yourselves :D

[TravelGal]

Approaching the end of hour #1 - the 7 Toyota driven by Mike Conway leads from the 8 Toyota in a change of lead that occurred after pit stops following a very shaky first stint by the 8.

77 degF Air Temperature and 124 degF track temperature :eek:

It'd be impressive if I could come back and update this thread after every hour...but it's not going to happen...so you'll have to watch for yourselves :D

Slacker.

[pfc_m_drake]

Slacker.
:D

Believe it or not, the 'overnight' hours (for me) wouldn't have been the problem necessarilyit's the daytime today that was killing me. I had too much stuff to get done :(

[pfc_m_drake]

We'll see how this plays out, but with about 15 hours to go in the race, the #8 Toyota pitted with a slow-zone advantage that the #7 did not have when they pitted on the previous lap. I know that with over half the race remaining it's too soon to render judgement on anything - but I wonder if the 30 second advantage this 'good fortune' gave the #8 will play out to be pivotal.

Fun race - I think I'm just happy to see 'normal' again.

[pfc_m_drake]

Just before sunrise with 10 hours and 36 minutes to go, it looks like the slow zone advantage previously mentioned has been neutralized as the #7 just gined a similar advantage on the current round of pitstops. Of note is that the #7 had reeled in he #8 leading up to that stop...it certainly looks like the #7 is the stronger of the two cars...but that, of course, means nothing.... it's why they run the races.

[pfc_m_drake]

4am update - the 7 leads the 7 after pitstops. If my hazy memory from the half-awake half-asleep events of the past couple of hours, the 7 has been consistently faster, but needed to pull over and reboot the electronics along the way (hence the lead for the 8). Just under 6 hours remaining.

One of the Corvetts was punted big-time by one of the LMP2 cars. Check out the replay if you didn't see it.

[pfc_m_drake]

https://www.autosport.com/le-mans/news/corvettes-le-mans-victory-hopes-destroyed-in-crash/10320848/

[pfc_m_drake]

5 hours to go. Just had the first Safety Car period (which means 3 Safety Cars because of the circuit length) Due to this unique setup it's har to say who's won and lost with this shake-up. The 7 had unlapped itself and put the giddyup on prior to the SC and were gaining at ~2.5 seconds per lap.

GTE Pro seems to be the best battle despite both Corvettes being out.

[pfc_m_drake]

Looks like the SC was the final nail in the coffin of the 7. Still 4 hours to go...and that's why you run the races, but the 8 has over a lap on the 7 at this juncture.

In other news, I wa informed last night that we had signed up for a sculpt-and-flow Yoga class from 9-10 this morning, which means that I will miss the final hour of the race. :\

Unconfirmed reports of mass consternation in South Florida upon the discovery of this news...

[pfc_m_drake]

3 hours to go - the 7 has unlapped itself again, but looks like they'll need some help as the gap is 3 minutes and 19 seconds. Too much bad luck for them today, as they clearly have the dominant team and car.

But we'll see...

[pfc_m_drake]

(My) final update: 8 just pitted, the 7 is about 2 minutes and 50 odd seconds behind.

2 hours 30 minutes left till the end of the race.
1 hour 30 minutes until Yoga...:eek::confused::shakehead::shakehead::thumb down::saywhat::saywhat:

Somebody text me if something interesting happens...

[nrc]

What's a Glickenhaus?

Doesn't sound 'Merkin to me.

[pfc_m_drake]

Don't say that too loud, people in other places will start to claim that the cowboy hat is just a decoy...