With the night session ending at midnight it isn't until this morning that 'Press Releases' arrive on our desks here in the Media Centre. By the time we see them the appropriate 'spin' has been applied so the truth probably lies somewhere between what we heard last night and what they tells us happened last night!

Audi are looking after us well, not just conventional press releases but an entire newspaper arrived this morning. This gives us everything from the weather forecast (26C during the day and 13C tonight) through to news about Euro 2000 football. Oh yes and a fair bit of motor sport as well.

Head of Audi Sport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich tells us ' All our drivers and technical staff around the circuit report the same story: that the car was smooth and stable and that we'd made a big step forward since we were here at the pre-test'

But it hadn't been entirely trouble free ...#8 car suffered a rear puncture when it ran over a screw, flat out in top gear .. Christian Abt stopped car #7 after three hours because of an engine failure. The engine failure remains a mystery ... all the press release simply tells us is ' #7 had to stop because of an engine failure'. Some say it was an oil pipe that fell off, some say it maybe more serious, others say that engines have let go in the past ... interesting. All the same Christian tells us 'This is a dream car and our team works perfectly together. Everybody knows exactly what to do. That is how work is real fun'

GM are active in the media world as well ... After a fifty-year break Cadillac have four cars here this year. In 1950 Briggs Cunningham brought two Cadillacs to Le Mans, one was a weird looking 'special' (nicknamed Le Monstre by the locals) with an aerodynamic body, the other was a virtually standard Coupe. They did well, the aerodynamic one finished 11th after visiting the gravel traps and the coupe, with its stock engine and gearbox finished 10th.

The 2000 car has a 4.0 litre V8 engine with twin turbochargers delivering some 580 bhp. The Cadillacs also boast a remarkable new secret weapon ... 'Night Vision'. This system uses military thermal imaging technology, which will allow the drivers to see three to five time further than is possible with 'low beam' headlights. One has to ask what would happen if the lights were on 'main beam'? All this might or might not help the drivers but it will give us some amazing new views of the race. Eric Van de Poele tells us that 'The idea is certainly good but some times right now it is hard to see the screen - especially at speed. So right now we are going to have work on it to make it optimal for a race application ... just like we would have to work on the suspension or an engine'

Less 'High-Tec' is a new rain gutter on the #2 car. The idea is to keep water out of the cockpit when it rains .. A bonus seems to be that it cuts down the buffeting the driver's head takes.

The Motorola-DAMS car is suffering from technical gremlins but the team is confident that they will have things sorted by the second session on Thursday.

Incidentally the safety cars are also supplied by Cadillac and are modified STSi models. These will be pushing out a respectable 350 bhp from their V8 32 valve engines.

GM are also fielding two Corvettes, #63 & #64. The #64 has had an engine change after yesterday. The problem was brought about by low fuel ... the computer got confused and thought the engine was running too lean and then it just expired. It was feared that the valves might have been damaged so they changed engines. Having split the Oreca Vipers Justin Bell tells us 'We are making really good progress with the chassis and aerodynamics ... We are right on target at the moment'

All race (male) fans owe Dick Barbour Racing a huge vote of thanks for it was he who introduced the Hawaiian Tropic Girls to Le Mans back in 1978. This scribe had assumed Hawaiian Tropic was a drink having misread a bosom .... In a lust crazed moment he read Tonic not Tropic ! Sad isn't it.

The Dick Barbour #83 is much, much quicker than all the other Porsche GT3Rs, six seconds is a lot here ... nobody seems quite sure why apart from a smaller rear wing (faster top speed .. less down-force maybe?) and also a few extra vents here and there. Otherwise it looks much the same.

At 60 Mario Andretti is the oldest man in the race. He is piloting one of the Panoz. The youngest is Gunnar Jeannette, he is 18, possibly only just passed his test but he is the #75 Porsche, currently lying 48th out of 48.

Prize for the poshest press pack currently lies with Chrysler .. it is stunning and stuffed full of information, so much so that we have not had time to read it all.

Stephan Johansson is driving car #24 .. The Reynard 2KQ-LM ... 'It was bit disjointed today because we had a power steering problem. The fast lap that I did still had a fair bit of traffic, so in reality I think we could have done around 3:42 this evening' This would have put the car around 5th on the grid rather than 10th. Team Manager John Wickham agrees ..'We should be able to go around 3-4 secs quicker'

Aspen Knolls #71 Porsche GT3R is an all American privateer team with all the team principles coming from USA. Shane Lewis even has a travelling fan club that follows him around ..' This is unbelievable, the fan support here is great anyway, but to have people come all the way from Florida just to cheer me on is wonderful. I just hope they know how much it means to me'

There is key 'Brit' in the team, Ms Sherry Austin. Michael Corlucci saw her at work with the British FIA team G-Force and reckoned she was 'working circles around most of the guys'. There can't be many lady pit crews at work here ... good luck to you Sherry!

There are only 6, yes 6 UK drivers here this weekend ..Andy Wallace #1, Allan McNish #9, Geoff Lees #15, Guy Smith #24, Justin Bell #63 and Johnny Mowlem #82.

There are no UK teams .. the nearest we get is #56 which is one of the Chamberlain Vipers run by Hugh himself.. The driver line up is Toni Seiler, Walter Brun and Christian Glasel.

This has not deterred the usual massive 'Brit' contingent from taking over all the campsites and hotels for miles around.