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2016 Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 racecar. (Source:
Bing.com Images)
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As Y'all recall Toyota's crushing defeat last year
on the race's final lap after leading forever, handing Porsche a totally
unexpected victory...
Holy Spinning World Batman! another year's
done Blasted past us as it's time again for another epic running of le 24 Heurs
du Mans; ZOINKS!
By my very unofficial reckoning, there's 19 Former
F1 Drivers competing in this year's 85th running of this epic event, with the
four classes as follows. LMP1: seven, LMP2: seven, GTE Pro: three and GTE Am
two. Whilst the field is almost split evenly 50-50 between Prototypes (31) and Grand
Touring Endurance (GTE) Tintops'. (29)
NOTE
It has subsequently been announced that Lucas di
Grassi, who was slated to co-drive the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE in the
Tintops' Pro category has broken his ankle while playing soccer and won't be able
to race. Therefore there's now only two ex-F1 drivers contesting the GTE Pro
category and a total of 18 ex-Formula 1 Gunslingers taking part this year.
PROTOTYPES
Unfortunately, Audi who's still licking Thar
wounds over Diesel Gate used this Debauchery to conveniently Exit Stage Left,
especially since their Seester' brand Porsche was beating them at the Circuit
de la Sarthe regularly. Hence the Uber' exotica Space Age LMP1 Hybrid field has
contracted to a measly six entries, albeit one is a Privateer which most definitely
won't win.
As I'd enjoy
seeing some of this technology make its way into Showroom vehicles instead of
the Hysteria over Rorge-Retson' Autono-Bots'
Interestingly, the lone Privateer run by
ex-Formula 1 team manager Dr. Colin Kolles of Midland F1 and Hispania fame, is
running the ex-Works Nissan LMP1 3.0-litre turbocharged hybrid V-6 in the back
of his byKolles Racing CLM P1/01 Prototype entry.
As it'll be Toyota's three strong entry vs.
Porsche's two for the overall victory this year Me Thinks. Like AIN'T exactly
going out on a limb Thar, Eh!
Especially with
the byKolles entry being 10 seconds adrift of the factory LMP1 Hybrid
Toy-Yoterz! And barely ahead of the top Oreca LMP2 runners...
Most notable of the largest class contesting
this year's event, with a mammoth 25 entries in the heavily restricted LMP2
category is a 45 year old Brazilian rookie driver fondly known here in
Nofendersville as Rubino', aka Rubens Barrichello.
As the Brazilian who currently holds the
record for most Grands Prix starts with 322, will be making his Le Mans debut
aboard the No. 29 Racing Team Netherland Dallara P2/17 (Gibson V-8 Spec engine)
chassis, with 1988 winner Jan Lammers and the totally unheard of Niederlander'
Amateur Super Market Magnate Fritz
van Eerd as his co-drivers.
Stateside Runners...
Once again, the Weathertech SportsCar
Championship, denoted as WSCC for Le Mans entrants is represented by a small
contingent 'O drivers and teams, most notably making up nearly half of the 13 strong LMGTE Pro category, with
the factory Corvette tandem hoping to wrest class honours back from last year's
FoMoCo winner's, who once again field a quartet of Ford GT's.
Interestingly, the Brother's Taylor, nee
Ricky and Jordan, currently having decimated the Sports Car landscape aboard
their ultra dominant Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac VR DPi, having gone
undefeated in five IMSA events! (to date( Will run their own separate races,
with Ricky co-driving the Keating Motorsports Riley Mk 30 LMP2 with Ben Keating
and Jeroen Bleekemolen,
appropriately sporting the legendous #43.
Meanwhile Jordan will once again return to
Corvette Racing to co-drive the No. 63 C7R Vette in the "Slower" LMGTE
Pro class with Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia.
Bolstering the Prancing Horse's chances, once
again Risi Competizione will run it's No. 82 Ferrari 488 GTE with Toni Vilander, Fishyfella',
aka Giancarlo Fisichella, and Pierre Kaffer at its controls.
In the LMGTE Am (Amateur) ranks, Scuderia
Corsa will run a tandem of Ferrari 488 GTE's, with Indy 500 Specialist
(Townsend) T-Bell' returning to Le Mans with his longtime cohort Bill Sweedler
to pilot their familiar #62 - with Cooper MacNeil sharing driving
duties with this championship winning pair.
Reigning IMSA GTD (Daytona) class champions Christina Nielsen
and Alessandro Balzan
will run the team's #65 with Bret
Curtis sharing driving duties.
IndyCar Drivers
It appears that just three current IndyCar
drivers will contest this year's race, with naturally two of the Cheepster's'
regulars sharing seat time in the Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT's.
With TK Follow-your-Schnoz! Kanaan deputizing
for the injured le Hamburgular', nee SeaBass', aka Sebastain Bourdais in the
No. 68 with defending class champions Joey Hand and Dirk Muller. Whilst Scott
Dixon will co-drive the No. 69 with its regular tandem of Ryan Briscoe and
Richard Westbrook.
Meanwhile, the "Mad Russian," aka
Mikhail Aleshin, thee "Mayor 'O Hinchtown," nee James Hinchcliffe's
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team-mate is slated to co-drive the #27 LMP2 SMP
Racing Dallara P2/17 with an all Rooskie' line-up which also features F1
hopeful Sergey
Sirotkin and the unknown Victor Shaider.
As hopefully
Kanaan won't be enticed into telling his good buddy Rubino he's No. 1 when
being passed by the faster LMP2 Prototype; Hya!
Radio Le Mans...
Once again, I'm looking forward to listening
to copious amounts of the race via Zed Internetz on the Radio Le Mans
broadcast, with lead announcer Der Heindenmeier', aka John Hindhaugh's typical hyperbole!
As the only notes I scribbled down during
last year's radio broadcast was when Hindhaugh mentioned around 10PM in Le
Mans, in his typical sardonic wit. Noting upon Marino Franchitti's unexpected foray
into the gravel trap aboard the No. 67 Ford GT; where unbeknownst to Mwah, they
lift the cars out via crane vs. dragging thru the gravel traps...
Hindhaugh wryly commented 'bout how Marino was
awaiting the "Snatch Mobile;" Hya!
As the race is also available Stateside on Fox
Sports channels, which I'm once again ignoring since my BOMBASTICALLY OVERPRICED
Cable TV Provider comca$t refuses to make Fox Sports Two (FS2) available in
Seattle; BASTARDOS!