Communiqué N° 10 - Sunday 18th June

02h00 - 08h00 : Panoz hit by gearbox problems !

The 3 Audis still had no team orders as the night ended. Alan McNish again improved the lap record in 3 mn 37.359 secs at 7h20. The Panoz challenge had evaporated due to georbox problems.
At 2h34 the leading Audi No.7 driven by Christian Abt came in with a puncture after going down an escape road (probably due to a gearbox problem as the Joest mechanics changed the rear and the box). This allowed the Biela-Kristensen-Pirro Audi into the lead with a lap in hand over the other R8Rs. A few minutes later the No.11 Panoz fell victim to gearbox problems and the change took some 20 minutes, Mario Andretti falling from third to sixth. No.12 then met the same hitch at around 4h30 and both cars were in their pit at the same time puting an end to Don Panoz's
hopes of victory. No.11 was also hit by an oil leak and this required a third stop which lasted almost an hour. It rejoined at 6h45 in 23rd place some 37 laps behind the leading Audi. No. 12 too had to have the rear end changed losing 30 minutes and seventh place. Just before 8h00 the Panoz Spyder's Achilles heel struck again as No.22 had to have the gearbox repaired.

The closest Cadillac was 8 laps down on the Audis while in fifth was the Bourdais-Clérico­Grouillard Courage C52 which lost around 8 minutes at 7h30 as the front right-hand suspension rocker arm had to be changed. The best placed of the Panoz Spyders was No.23 driven by the Kageyama brothers and Toshio Suzuki in sixth place ahead of No.12.

The Courage-Judd of Gache-Formato-Cottaz ran into brake problems first of all, then cooling. A purging valve had to be changed which dropped the C60 down to twelfth. Just before 8h00 Gary Formato had the rear left-hand tyre explode on Les Hunaudières and stopped just after Mulsanne. The No.15 BMW retired after Gounon crashed at Arnage due to a seized transmission. The No 1 Cadillac was hit by cooling problems followed by a gearbox change. The No.6 Reynard-Mopar was in and out of its pit and the Rafanelli Lola-Judd went out with a blown engine just after half- distance.
 

The LM GTS duel cut short

Like Panoz the Corvettes were unable to put pressure on their direct rivals the Chrysler Vipers. The  Fellows-Kneifel-Bell Chevrolet which held fourth place just behind the 3 Vipers lost contact around 5h22 when its gearbox change. When it rejoined it became the first GTS to lap in under 4 minutes. Beretta-Wendlinger-Dupuy had a brief off during the night as they battled with their team-mate No.52 but both stayed on the same lap, one ahead of No.53. The No.64 Corvette of Pilgrim-Collins-Fréon was slowed by a starter change and just before 8h00 the Martinolle-Derichebourg-Lagniez Viper retired with a broken rocker arm.
In GT the Repsol Porsche of Saldon-Lavaggi-Villaroel went out just before midnight with a blown engine. The Dick Barbour 911 GT3-R was still way out in front ahead of the No.73 Taisan Porsche and the No.81 Haberthur entry. A wheel transmission was changed on the Perspective Porsche and the water pump on No.80.