2008 24 Hours of Le Mans

[NapoleonMikey]

I checked the Speedtv coverage for North America and here's what it is.....

Sat 8:30 AM -12:00 Pm
Sat 9:00 Pm - unlisted, so i dont know if we will go through the night.

Sun 6:00 AM - 9:30 Am

well at least i will get to watch most of the race ill have to miss from 9PM to about 2am so i hope they do air it till the end so i can see as much of it as possible.

 

[CAMikaze]

I checked the Speedtv coverage for North America and here's what it is.....

Sat 8:30 AM -12:00 Pm
Sat 9:00 Pm - unlisted, so i dont know if we will go through the night.

Sun 6:00 AM - 9:30 Am

I work that afternoon from 4 to 8 pm so I guess I won't be missing any coverage of the race here.

I imagine the Le Mans official website will have the timing and scoring for the race online for us to look at during the course of the race, so I'll have my laptop PC handy too.

 

[Sureboss]

Anyone know what the coverage of this in Blighty is? Is it just Eurosport's bits and pieces coverage like normal?

 

[Danny]

Motors TV cover Le Mans in it's entirety.

 

[Sureboss]

http://www.motorstv.com/tv-guide-uk?d=2008-06-14

It does?

 

[Ardius]

http://www.motorstv.com/tv-guide-uk?d=2008-06-14

It does?

I think someone has got mixed up:
http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/209100/24_hours_of_le_mans_tv_coverage.html

This site appears at the top of a google search for "uk tv coverage le mans 24 hours", its dated as last year, so may have confused some people.

 

[GTP_Alex]

Pretty much, just been sorting my stuff out for the off tomorrow. 8 days off work and 5 watching cars and drinking beer. It doesn't get any better.

Haha !

Thats the way to do it

 

[JohnBM01]

Motors TV will show off all of Le Mans over there in Europe. But here in America, we're getting coverage as well as being forced to watch NASCAR breaking in. Breaks are good, but only as long as any break-in coverage is relevant. Bring back "Legends of Motorsport" and talk about some great Le Mans moments. Maybe I should move to Europe... or unless that "The Racing Network" gets plenty of life.

 

[Sureboss]

I think someone has got mixed up:
http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/209100/24_hours_of_le_mans_tv_coverage.html

This site appears at the top of a google search for "uk tv coverage le mans 24 hours", its dated as last year, so may have confused some people.

Thanks, Ardius.

 

[Ardius]

Motors TV will show off all of Le Mans over there in Europe. But here in America, we're getting coverage as well as being forced to watch NASCAR breaking in. Breaks are good, but only as long as any break-in coverage is relevant. Bring back "Legends of Motorsport" and talk about some great Le Mans moments. Maybe I should move to Europe... or unless that "The Racing Network" gets plenty of life.

No, as I just confirmed, Motors TV are not showing Le Mans this year, Eurosport is. It also looks like they (Eurosport) have managed to get their hands on a 3 year exclusivity deal too. Pretty lame, especially because although they are apparently showing the race live in its entirety, they are splitting between 2 channels.

The only reason to move to Europe for TV coverage is for F1 coverage on UK TV, although I'm not sure how good its going to be with the BBC, hopefully as good as it was and at the very least as good as ITV's.

 

[Sureboss]

It'd be hard for them to be worse than ITV.

 

[Ardius]

It'd be hard for them to be worse than ITV.

I dont know.....this rumour of having a Top Gear-esque commentary urks me. Although it would be hilarious, I'm not so sure its the right way to go about it.
Anyway, a bit off topic.

 

[Motominded]

I dont know.....this rumour of having a Top Gear-esque commentary urks me. Although it would be hilarious, I'm not so sure its the right way to go about it.
Anyway, a bit off topic.

we will see.

But going back to what you said about European tv....know that we here in the u.s. dont see...

1. WRC
2. FIA GT
3. LeMans series
4. WTCC
5. DTM
6. Supergt
7. Aussie v8 supercar
8. F3

Oh and for those that are gonna tell me the recaps of the season in winter for wtcc and v8 supercar, that aint good enough.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

It'd be hard for them to be worse than ITV.

Could be the Australian swimming commentators. They get so excited - even during Olympic trials - that they come out with some incredibly stupid things. They even have a direct link to the competitors' minds as they know exact what each of them are thinking at any given moment.

And oh yeah, they treat each and every swimmer like James Allen does Lewis Hamilton.

 

[Earth]

Follow qualifying with live video

mms://livestream.eurosport.com/nogeo/76043.wsx

4-6 pm est TODAY

 

[Earth]

Working stream for the next 100 minutes

mms://livestream.eurosport.com/nogeo/75206.wsx

 

[Mt. Lynx]

No, as I just confirmed, Motors TV are not showing Le Mans this year, Eurosport is. It also looks like they (Eurosport) have managed to get their hands on a 3 year exclusivity deal too. Pretty lame, especially because although they are apparently showing the race live in its entirety, they are splitting between 2 channels.

The only reason to move to Europe for TV coverage is for F1 coverage on UK TV, although I'm not sure how good its going to be with the BBC, hopefully as good as it was and at the very least as good as ITV's.

Correct. And the coverage is very lame, I must say. On Eurosport, not Eurosport 2, all in all they cover 5 hours and 15 minutes of the race, plus qually and warmup. Miserable to say the least! So all the rest runs on Eurosport 2, wich you naturally have to pay extra to get. And for me, that is impossible to get in time by now.
And considering that they have a 3 year deal...

Overall the motorsport coverage on Eurosport is very bad, since things like tennis, golf, snooker, football (soccer) and most other sports without engines has to be covered (supposedly according to Eurosport) preferably live, and in their entirety .
They do have full coverage of WTCC, WRC, MotoGP and Superbike, and of course I have very little interest in either of those, compared to LMS, ALMS, FIA GT and F1 They do show the LMS, but only 45 minutes of the entire 1000km races! Lame!
How do you get Motors TV without paying for an entire package with lots of lousy other channels? 💡

 

[Ardius]

Combining that Eurosport stream with Radio Le Mans
http://rlm08.0157.org/lm24.php#

 

[La Sarthe]

Oh and for those that are gonna tell me the recaps of the season in winter for wtcc and v8 supercar, that aint good enough.

+1000000000

 

[prisonermonkeys]

First part of qualifying is done.

Peugeot "all powerful" at the end of first day of qualifying
Wednesday 11 June 2008 - 23h59

With the first part of qualifying now complete the Peugeots are definitely easily the fastest cars out there. They have totally dominated this session by showing astounding ‘out and out’ speed. To knock a few hundredths of a second off the fastest lap time is an achievement but to demolish the current lap record by 7.8 secs is amazing. The fastest of them all was the #8 Team Peugeot Total, Peugeot 908 HDI FAP driven by Sarrazin. He had been quick in testing but nobody expected this incredible performance.

The rest of the Peugeot team were also all easily within the existing lap record. Audi did not appear to have the answer today, instead Dr Ullrich Competition Director of Audi Sport told us that the team was not concentrating on outright speed they were looking for a perfect race set up instead.
Unfortunately it was the fastest ‘petrol’ car that had a major accident. It was the #16 Pescarolo Sport, Pescarolo driven by Dumas that was unlucky enough to go off on oil laid down by the #59 Team Modena, Aston Martin DBR9 driven by Borcheller. It was a major impact that damaged the car severely and hopefully it will be OK for tomorrow.

In LMP2 lap records were falling as well with four cars getting under the old lap record. The fastest was the #31 Team Essex, Porsche RS Spyder driven by Maassen. This was six seconds inside the outright lap record.

The only Class that didn’t actually beat the outright lap record was LM GT1, however the #63 Corvette Racing, Corvette C6.R did beat last years best qualifying time. The record breaking went on in LM GT2 with #80 Flying Lizard Motorsports, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR smashing the existing lap record by almost four seconds. Right at the end of the session and causing the second Red Flag was the accident that involved the LMP2 #44 Kruse Schiller Motorsport, Lola Mazda driven by Noda. It was a very spectacular accident that Noda will have been very relieved to have walked away from. Once again a prototype seemed to get airborne and then rolled several times into the gravel traps at the Dunlop Curve. The car was extensively damaged and may not make tomorrow’s session. A record breaking 45,000 spectators came to the circuit for the first day of qualifying. They were privileged to watch one of the most remarkable qualifying sessions for years.

 

[RACECAR]

First part of qualifying is done.

Yet again, I'm very concerned about the current LMP regs. The fact that they can just go airbourne by going sideways is a very unconfortable thought.

 

[Earth]

 

[CAMikaze]

Yow!That did look really bad. And judging by the movement of the head, I'd say the Japanese driver appears to be OK, but I don't exactly know what condition he is in at this time.
EDIT: Taken from another thread...

Hideki Noda spun his LMP2 car entering the first chicane at Le Mans and it promptly went airborne and when it hit the earth again the car flipped 8 times....

He walked away from the car without appearance of any major injuries

Yup, I watching that also. Turns out it was because of oil dropped by an earlier car, I think it was one of the Creation cars.

It's good to know he's allright then.

Maybe someone can work on a way to reduce the chances of a LMP car flipping over like that after the race us run? I don't know if flaps on a LMP car would work out like they would on a stock car.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Yet again, I'm very concerned about the current LMP regs. The fact that they can just go airbourne by going sideways is a very unconfortable thought.

Small problem with your theory: the Peugeot 908 is LMP1, the Lola Mazda is LMP2, which is the old-school LMP1 class. New regulations about enclosed cockpits only apply to LMP1. If the current LMP2-class cars are as unsafe as you're implying, we would have seen many more blowovers in the past few years. The Pescarolo only skidded off on oil, which is not a design fault, but environmental conditions. Yes, it crashed heavily, but it wasn't a rollover, and it's not a enclosed chassis the way the 908, Epsilon Euskadi, Dome and Lola entries are. As for Gene's accident, it was clearly driver error that put him in a position to roll over in the first place. Le Mans cars are but to similar standards as F1 racers in terms of safety, as proven by the fact that both Gene and Noda walked away from their accidents. These are not cases of engineering faults like the CLK-GTRs that were doing backflips under normal racing conditions: other factors contributed to the rollovers. Look at Jacques Villeneuve's accident at Albert Park a few years ago, where a marshal was killed by a 46cm tyre going through a 47cm gap in the fence. If one variable in that accident had changed: a kilometre slower or faster, and inch to the left or right, anything, and the marshal probably would have lived. The same thing here: change on variable in Noda or Gene's accident and you would have a remarkably different outcome. It would be impossible for the teams to predict the exact set of circumstances that caused those accidents in advance. If, for example, Gene had taken the previous corner 10km/h slower than he did, the outcome would have been completely different. It doesn't mean the new regulations are making the cars unsafe, it just means physics is a bitch.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Peugeot is going to win it, and Dr. Ullrich knows that.

Race setup whatever, with such gaps already in qualifying, there's no way the Audi's will be able to keep up during the race...


That was a nasty crash though, another flip?

 

[CAMikaze]

Like any motor race, anything unexpected can happen during the duration of the event.

Keep that in mind this weekend.

 

[Muzaffar]

2 crashed prior to the 24 hour race?
Well, at least he was safe. But my, oooooooohhhhhhh my, the 908 demolish the current lap record by 7.8 secs? There is no way the others is gonna compete against that. But I think Audi has the advantage of having better reliability and having won lasts years race, so its really gonna be close. 👍

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Peugeot know how to win. The 908's predecessor, the 905, won comfortably back in 1992, if memory serves. Sure, they've been out for a while, and last year they were dominated by the winning Audi, but that doesn't mean they can't be successful or that an Audi victory is a foregone conclusion.

 

[RACECAR]

Peugeot know how to win. The 908's predecessor, the 905, won comfortably back in 1992, if memory serves. Sure, they've been out for a while, and last year they were dominated by the winning Audi, but that doesn't mean they can't be successful or that an Audi victory is a foregone conclusion.

But how do we know Audi isn't sandbagging? They didn't show there pace last year in qualifying and when it came race day, they overwhelmed the peugeots so for all we know, Ulrich isn't gonna show Audi's hand just yet..

 

[prisonermonkeys]

But how do we know Audi isn't sandbagging? They didn't show there pace last year in qualifying and when it came race day, they overwhelmed the peugeots so for all we know, Ulrich isn't gonna show Audi's hand just yet..

But how do we know Peugeot simply haven't made up the distance? I'd say it's far more likely than sandbagging because endurance racing requires stamina over speed. Sandbagging is understandable in Formula One where the races are shorter, but the only people who drive at ten tenths for Le Mans are racing drivers who are more used to setting fastest laps than lapping within a pre-determined range. The expression "to finish first, first you must finish" is usually applied to Monaco, but it means a lot more here.