Does Clarkson know what he's on about.

[Lawnmower Man]

On tonights program Clarkson said that at Le Mans it the number of laps you do that counts
and that you didn't need to be running at the end of the 24 Hours.

I always thought that at Le Mans (and other timed events like the old Six hour race at Silverstone) racing you had to complete the time to win.  So even if you had done more laps if you stopped before the 24 hours you could not win.

I don't think thats ever happend but what is the rule?

t.

[Fran]

I thought u had to be actually still running at the end, but that there is something about covering a percentage of the laps done by the winner to actually count in the results... kinda thing.

F

P.S.  Thats gotta be just the best job in the world for a petrol head tho hasnt it - even just being one of his stooges would be okay too!

[rcutler]

On tonights program Clarkson said that at Le Mans it the number of laps you do that counts
and that you didn't need to be running at the end of the 24 Hours.

I always thought that at Le Mans (and other timed events like the old Six hour race at Silverstone) racing you had to complete the time to win.  So even if you had done more laps if you stopped before the 24 hours you could not win.

I don't think thats ever happend but what is the rule?

t.

I thought that you had to be running when the time was up! If you break down before the chequerd flag then you don't win. Unless everyone is out but I am sure that has never happened!

[Mr. Invincible Mou]

I am not claiming to really know the answer to this, but I quote the official "Sporting Regulations 2005" from the web site.

25.2.1 The car placed first, is the car which has covered the greatest distance when the chequered flag is displayed.

25.2.2 To be classified every car shall:
a/ Cross the start/finish line on the race track when the chequered flag is waved save in case of force majeure
b/ Have achieved a distance at least equal to 70% of the distance covered by the winning car.

This would suggest to me, that in order to win the race, you MUST cross the line on the actual track (in years past it was allowed to cross in the pit lane, but not anymore) as it would be impossible to be a section b/ classment to create a section a/ winner (if that makes sense, section b/ only comes into effect once you have a section a/ winner  ). It would appear that you do not have to be running in order to finish second.

The rules are available on the ACO website http://www.lemans.org/24heuresdumans/live/pages/reglements_gb.html

Ans  I quoted from this http://www.lemans.org/sport/sport/reglements/ressources/auto_2005/rglt_sportif_2005_fr_gb.pdf

[Fran]

I would read that second rule to mean that to be classified (ie, second, third, etc.) you need to cross the finish line on the track when the flag is waved (ie. you must still be running at the end) AND you must have done the 70% of total winners distance.   so you cant just spend most of the time in the pits and just go out for the last couple of hours and then claim to be a classified Le Mans finisher.

But i may be wrong in that!!

F

[Fran]

not sure what would count a force majeure in a Le Mans context........maybe something like a major pile up on the finish straight and drivers being physically unable to drive down the track!!?

 

[Mr. Invincible Mou]

I think that some of that is correct fran, but I think you are wrong about the staying in the pits for ages and then leaving, because that is exactly what used to happen at the end of the race. So much so, that they have changed the rules recently to stop cars from limping round the last lap and either parking up at the end of the Porshe Curves until the flag is waved, or getting in the way of those still racing. You now have to finish the last lap in a certain time.

Please see section Art25 on this http://www.lemans.org/sport/sport/reglements/ressources/auto_2005/regl_particulier/reglement_particulier_fr_gb.pdf

[Fran]

Sorry Mr Invis, maybe i didnt express myself very well, I meant that you [u[cant just hang about doing nothing until last lap....thats why you have to have done enough laps to make that percentange of the winnners distance.

F

Mind you some people still do it just so they can be there at the end.......even tho they know they wont actually be classified as finishing the race, going in for a bit of a valetting so they look all spruce for the final photos.

[Mr. Invincible Mou]

  I get it now fran, however you seem to have your ][ and /]['s mixed up

try

Code: [Select]

[b][u]cant[/u][/b] instead

It gives you this cant

  I know, nobody likes a smartarse  

[Fran]

Sorry Mr Invis - i dont know my []s from my elbow!  

[Mr. Invincible Mou]

Thats OK, I have been on the Sunday dinner vino, so I had to really check the spelling for cant  

[smokie]

I had to look twice too...    

[Stu]

can't    
  Pronunciation   (kant)

Contraction of cannot.

According to the dictionary that is.

[Fran]

Pronounciation depends on where you are from.   "kant" (as in kanterbrau) might be fine for some people, but being a southerner... I say "carnt"....  (i also say tomarto, but not potarto!!)

 

[Paddy_NL]

I don't want to bury Clarkson completely, but this got published in February>>

But the dullest, most excruciating sport of them all — and I’ll brook no argument on this — is the day-long motor race at Le Mans.
At four o’clock on the Saturday afternoon, a grid full of cars from companies you’ve never heard of, and drivers whose names you can’t even pronounce, set off on what in essence is a 24-hour economy run. And then it goes dark.

Now I’m sorry but how, in the name of Zeus’s butthole, can anyone with even a tiny sliver of intelligence imagine that spectators will be interested in watching a sport they can’t see? A pair of headlights is coming towards you and then, after a short, deafening roar, they are replaced by a set of red tail-lights whizzing off into the night. Was that a Courage that just went by, driven by Alfonso Percolinno? And if so, was it winning or coming last? There is no way on God’s earth of knowing.



All you do know is that the race, when it finishes at 4pm on the Sunday, will be won by the team with the most money. And that, for the past few years, has been Audi. Although, for marketing purposes, the car is not always called an Audi. Sometimes they replace the four rings with a flying B and call it a Bentley.

Frankly it would be easier, and quieter, if each team were asked to roll up with a copy of its most recent bank statement. Then the champagne could be given to the one with the most amount of noughts. That way we’d all be spared the public relations-inspired test of a car’s fuel consumption, held under the cover of darkness, half a country away from where 80% of the spectators live.

There’s talk among the sport’s fans that things will improve when the field is made up of proper road cars that everyone recognises. This, they say, is already happening with Aston Martin entering a DB9, Chevrolet a Corvette, Lamborghini a Murciélago, and Ferrari a 575.

Apparently if this new class becomes numerous and competitive enough the one-off Audi-style prototypes will be banned and it will be the basis on which all endurance racing is founded. That sounds great, but there are still two problems. First, it will still go dark, so for a third of the race we won’t see what’s going on. And second, the Italians will bend the rules so hard they are as near as dammit broken.

In fact, it’s already happening. You see, the new class is supposed to be for GT cars. That would be “grand tourers” like the Corvette, the DB9 and the 575. But what Maserati has done is go cap in hand to its sister company, Ferrari, and take away all the components from an Enzo, which is no more a GT car than my dog. From these it has made a racing car.

Of course the rules say that 25 road versions must be sold, but finding 25 people from a customer pool of 6 billion isn’t that hard. Even when the car in question costs £520,000 and doesn’t even have a back window.

If I’d been running the governing body, I’d have smiled while they explained how this car obeyed the letter of the law and then told them to get lost. But I’m not running the governing body, so even though it’s racing on wooden tyres it’s already out there winning races without breaking out of a canter.