PK The First Hours

The PK Porsche, with Robin Liddell taking first stint, has run a promising first two hours in the 70th edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours to be standing second in class, thirty-second place overall.

The morning was packed with all the usual razzmatazz, including a rousing display by the Moulin Rouge can-can girls, a less athletic pose-by from the perennial Hawaiian Tropic parade, and a fly-past from the French air force acrobatic team, trailing the tricolour. With marching bands, klaxons and the cheering Brits (who were listening to the football commentary through their radio sets! Three nil! Three nil!) Le Mans was generating - as it always does - that unique atmosphere of anticipation. The PK Porsche was just as much a part of all this excitement, with the drivers and team personnel joining in with all the milling about and mutual appreciation. Some of the appreciation was very visual . . .

Half an hour before the start the cars moved out from their herringbone formation to take up their positions on the grid. Many took the opportunity for a drive through the pitlane and a second installation lap, but Robin swept through the Ford Chicane at the first time of asking. With the tension rising the crowd was orchestrated through a succession of Mexican waves and cheers before a lengthy succession of national anthems blared out around the circuit. Then, with a little less than ten minutes showing on the clock, the Cadillac pace car (complete this year with a camera crew in the back, courtesy of Michel Vaillante!) began the steady climb up the hill towards the Dunlop Chicane. Audis, Orecas, Cadillacs and Domes headed off in leisurely pursuit, trailing a total of nearly fifty cars behind them, lacking just two, who would start from the pitlane.

Those minutes as the field weaves its way round the thirteen and a half kilometre circuit are among the longest known to man. The spectators realise that a race lap takes around four minutes or less, but the ACO can make this first lap last as long - or as short - as necessity demands. The race must start at four o'clock - and it will. Sure enough, with a fanfare blaring out over the public address and headlights ablaze (as per ACO instructions) the crocodile of cars appeared around the concrete walls at the head of the Ford Chicanes. Like some police cordon holding back the crowds, the pace car slowed still more, bunching up the leaders. Compressed like sardines in a tin they jostled and stumbled towards the final element before, with a wail and a roar, they leaped away up the pit straight.

If the Audis on the front row were racing, the same could not yet be said for the GTS and GTLM cars further back. So far back, in fact, that they had yet to come into sight. Strangely there was a long gap, revealed to be the deliberate ploy of Rydell in the Prodrive Ferrari 550, who had created space for his own quick getaway. Able to speed up before the last left-right combination, these cars were almost up to racing speed as they came through to take the start. Seizing his opportunity, Robin Liddell was through and into a class third even before he exited the chicane. It was a determined start. "Drudi (in the Seikel GT3 #82) was driving very gently, so I just went past him. It was good to make up a place so soon." said Liddell. "The start was a completely new experience for me and I wasn't sure about the tempo. For the first half of the lap people were being surprisingly sensible, which I suppose is something to do with this being a twenty-four hour race."

By the end of the first lap Robin had consolidated his third position and holding well onto the tail of the #80 Porsche, with the #81 extending its lead. Over the next handful of laps these three pulled away steadily from each other, and from the remainder of the GT LM runners. Such appeared to be their speed advantage over the rest that they alone were mixing it with the slower GTS cars. "I was able to keep close to the other two for the first lap or so, but they seem to have better speed than us, I don't know why."

Half an hour into the race there was no significant change in the class order, but a succession of minor (and some not so minor) problems for other competitors had drawn a fair number into the pits, and the PK Porsche had already made up over ten slots in the overall order. Bergmeister also moved ahead of Buckler in the #81 Racers Group car.

With an hour and fifteen completed, Robin Liddell moved up into second place, finally getting ahead of Buckler, which had pitted earlier than expected. "I'd tried to pass Buckler several times, including once along the Mulsanne. I was able to slipstream up behind him without problem, but as soon as I pulled out from his tow he pulled away from me again! I was able to take chunks out of him through the Porsche Curves and up towards the Dunlop Chicane, and our car seems quicker than Dumas (#80) there as well. We just don't have the outright speed."

It was a temporary gain, since Robin's first pitstop effectively gave the position back to the German team. Robin will be doing several double stints this weekend, and this first would be one of them. The car was refuelled and re-shod and he was away in remarkably short order. It was an excellent stop, and allowed Robin to make up a lot of ground on track. "We took over 20 seconds out of the Racers car in that pitstop," said Mike Pickup, congratulating his crew. "The boys did a fantastic swap, as usual."

It was enough to give Robin the edge, and by the time his opening stint finally came to a close at just after six o'clock, he was back into second in class, fifty seconds clear of the #81 Porsche. Liddell headed for the pitlane to hand over to David Warnock. This stop came one lap ahead of the other two class leaders, which Mike Pickup attributed (without recrimination) to Robin's speed. "They'll be doing one more lap than you," said Mike Pickup. "But it coughed on me at Indianapolis," insisted Liddell. "Yes, but there would be another lap in it at the pace they're driving - not at yours!"

Once able to relax a little, Liddell was happy to talk. "The car is so nicely balanced," he enthused. "It's very important for the other drivers especially. If the car's not spot on, Dave will lose time. It's never easy to drive quickly, but if it's not unpleasant to drive through the places where you'd least like it to be unpleasant, like the Porsche Curves, you can keep up a good pace. It's also remarkably good on worn tyres, which is vital." The theory is that Robin will do an occasional double stint, while David and Piers will do a series of singles.

Robin had, in the main, enjoyed a relatively trouble free run. "The track's a bit oily through the second chicane," he said, "but apart from that the only real problem is the prototypes. Every prototype driver has a problem with the GT cars, but we have just as much of a problem with the prototypes. The trouble is, the GT car has less grip at a given speed. The challenge is to let the prototype through without losing too much time. You get a feel for who can come by without a problem, and all the Audi drivers bar one are very good and decisive, as you'd expect." He did, however, have a problem with one particularly well-known MG driver. "Yes, he tried to overtake me into Arnage, but the Porsche is actually quicker through there! He'd have lost ground to me there anyway, but he still went past waving his arms at me. By the time I got to the Dunlop Chicane he was in the gravel." Liddell clearly found this just deserts, and smiled wryly. "I think he looked like a desperate man!"

Key to the PK Porsche's success may be the Pirelli tyres. "They are truly excellent!" said a genuinely pleased Liddell. "They've done so much development work, and Babini and I have been instrumental in much of that. We've got three different compounds and constructions to use now and we've found out which work best, and they're brilliant."

Liddell will take a break of a couple of hours, but is already looking forward to his next stint. "I could do these times, seventeen, eighteen, or nineteen, all day," he said. "I think the times will go quicker as it gets dark." David Warnock is doing the third stint, and Piers Masarati will take over for the fourth. More on how they fare soon.

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