Ken
Gone but not forgotten
From Crash.net:
Wet weather halts Corvette progress
THURSDAY 16TH JUNE 2005
The #64 Corvette in action at Le Mans [Pic credit: Regis Lefebure]
With wet weather hitting Le Mans for the opening day of qualifying for the 73rd Le Mans 24 Hours, the Corvette Racing team missed out on the opportunity to further fine tune the new C6-R for its debut in the event.
With the chance to set a representative lap time and develop the set-up of the car gone due to the weather conditions, the team only used the two two-hour sessions to allow its six drivers to complete the mandatory laps in darkness with the quickest of the two yellow cars some 16 seconds off the pace of the leading GT1 car.
"Despite the bad weather, we accomplished our goal of having the drivers complete their three required laps in the dark," GM Racing road racing group manager Steve Wesoloski. "That's one item we won't have to worry about tomorrow night. We had hoped for two good sessions to continue to develop our Le Mans setup, so to lose four of the eight scheduled hours will certainly compress our plan."
Light rain began to fall as Ron Fellows and Olivier Beretta pulled out the pits at 7pm to start the qualifying sessions but neither completed a lap at speed as the rainfall increased, and the team elected to sit out the remainder of the initial two-hour evening session.
Following a scheduled one-hour break, the test and qualifying session resumed at 10pm allowing Fellows, Johnny O'Connell and Max Papis to complete their laps at the wheel of the #63 Corvette, while Beretta, Jan Magnussen and Oliver Gavin did their laps in the #64 car.
With most cars on the course turning lap times nearly 30 seconds slower than those recorded during the test day, the Corvette team finally called it a day at 10:55pm
"You've got to look at the big picture, and the worst thing we could do now is to damage either of the cars in conditions we're not going to race in," said O'Connell. "The weather outlook for Saturday and Sunday is hot and sunny, so there's no reason to take any chances when the track is dark, wet and slippery. We'll pray for better weather tomorrow, but if it's wet, we're going to have to lay down some fast times for our starting position."
Team-mate Gavin also admitted conditions had been tough after completing his required laps around the 8.5-mile course.
"This track is always fun to drive around whether it's wet or it's dry, but tonight the surface seemed to have a glaze on it in sections," he explained. "There's new black asphalt coming out of Mulsanne and going down through Indianapolis and Arnage, and on that whole section you're guessing whether it's wet or dry.
"It's pointless to try to accomplish our test plan in this situation because it's imperative to keep the race car together. Tomorrow is going to be dry, and so today."
Wet weather halts Corvette progress
THURSDAY 16TH JUNE 2005
The #64 Corvette in action at Le Mans [Pic credit: Regis Lefebure]
With wet weather hitting Le Mans for the opening day of qualifying for the 73rd Le Mans 24 Hours, the Corvette Racing team missed out on the opportunity to further fine tune the new C6-R for its debut in the event.
With the chance to set a representative lap time and develop the set-up of the car gone due to the weather conditions, the team only used the two two-hour sessions to allow its six drivers to complete the mandatory laps in darkness with the quickest of the two yellow cars some 16 seconds off the pace of the leading GT1 car.
"Despite the bad weather, we accomplished our goal of having the drivers complete their three required laps in the dark," GM Racing road racing group manager Steve Wesoloski. "That's one item we won't have to worry about tomorrow night. We had hoped for two good sessions to continue to develop our Le Mans setup, so to lose four of the eight scheduled hours will certainly compress our plan."
Light rain began to fall as Ron Fellows and Olivier Beretta pulled out the pits at 7pm to start the qualifying sessions but neither completed a lap at speed as the rainfall increased, and the team elected to sit out the remainder of the initial two-hour evening session.
Following a scheduled one-hour break, the test and qualifying session resumed at 10pm allowing Fellows, Johnny O'Connell and Max Papis to complete their laps at the wheel of the #63 Corvette, while Beretta, Jan Magnussen and Oliver Gavin did their laps in the #64 car.
With most cars on the course turning lap times nearly 30 seconds slower than those recorded during the test day, the Corvette team finally called it a day at 10:55pm
"You've got to look at the big picture, and the worst thing we could do now is to damage either of the cars in conditions we're not going to race in," said O'Connell. "The weather outlook for Saturday and Sunday is hot and sunny, so there's no reason to take any chances when the track is dark, wet and slippery. We'll pray for better weather tomorrow, but if it's wet, we're going to have to lay down some fast times for our starting position."
Team-mate Gavin also admitted conditions had been tough after completing his required laps around the 8.5-mile course.
"This track is always fun to drive around whether it's wet or it's dry, but tonight the surface seemed to have a glaze on it in sections," he explained. "There's new black asphalt coming out of Mulsanne and going down through Indianapolis and Arnage, and on that whole section you're guessing whether it's wet or dry.
"It's pointless to try to accomplish our test plan in this situation because it's imperative to keep the race car together. Tomorrow is going to be dry, and so today."
