Le Mans Weekend Part Three - Hours 13 to 17
13 Hours
Five o'clock brought with it the first hint of a lightening in the eastern skies. It is reputedly one of the most difficult times for the drivers, with changing lighting conditions not only making it harder to judge braking points but also acting as an inducement to sleep. A dangerous time, then, and probably one reasons why the experienced Scot was selected to carry the car through to the morning.
Robin's first test came half an hour into his stint, when the car suffered its second puncture of the night. This time it was the right rear that deflated, but not to the same devastating extent as David's earlier front right. Robin was able to sweep into the pitlane, collect some replacement rubber, receive a top-up of engine fluids, and sweep out again.
Once more Robin was double-stinting, and would stay in the car for over two hours. During that time he inherited one place as a result of the forced retirement of the #80 Prodrive Ferrari; driver Anthony Davidson requiring a hospital check-up for whiplash injuries following an accident at the Mulsanne Corner. At half past five he then passed the #19 Durango LMP900 to bring the PK Sport Porsche into its highest overall position to date; 28th.
14 Hours
Knowing that the PK Sport 911 had clocked almost exactly two hours in the garage by the time the fourteen hour mark came up makes it hard to resist the temptation to play "what if" games. It's perfectly possible, but hardly a fruitful exercise. The important point to note is that the car was now circulating smoothly.
At six fifteen an air of expectation descended over the crewmembers gathered around the pit apron. It hinted at the imminent return of Robin Liddell to the pit garage, and was confirmed by the sight of David Warnock strapping on his helmet. Sure enough, a few moments later the PK Porsche coasted to an abrupt halt directly outside the garage. These engineers and mechanics had already been working through the night without a pause, yet there was a fluid efficiency about the way each man moved to his station; refuelling the car, changing wheels, cleaning the windscreen or checking for debris, damage or possible faults. Meanwhile the two drivers swiftly exchanged places, Robin leaping out to assist David into the car, helping to fit his seat insert, reconnecting the radio jack, and tightening up the harness.
All scheduled, all efficiently completed, and David Warnock was out again in about a minute. It was the start of yet another uneventful hour-and-a-quarter for the man they called "Uncle Warnock" last year, but is now more often referred to as "The Warlock".
15 Hours
In its own way the relentless and unerring way in which the #78 Porsche was now pounding around the circuit was starting to take its toll on the team watching the timing monitors back in the garage. In terms of class position the PK Porsche had been occupying seventh position for over four hours, but the gap to sixth had remained static throughout at around five laps. In truth, however, the target was not really the #81 Racers Group car, which was lapping marginally quicker that the PK Porsche, but the #84 T2M car ahead of it. Here the gap had been narrowing by a lap or more each hour, and it seemed possible that both cars; #81 and PK, could catch and overtake it. That, at least, was the new target.
At half past seven the next driver change came up, with David handing back to Piers, who would begin his first ever early-morning stint. David was satisfied with the way his period had gone. "I did some good times, and I was very pleased with that, but it was really just a case of going round and round."
16 Hours
As so often happens, Sunday morning in the Le Mans 24 Hours saw the race set in a kind of perpetual rhythm. The cars still running, of which there were technically thirty-six (although five of these might be considered as merely awaiting 'the count' before retirement) continued to circulate with almost monotonous regularity. Every now and again there would be a moment of concern, as a car locked up into a corner or took an uncharacteristic spin, made an unscheduled stop or emitted a brief puff of smoke, but in the main it was a case of "business as usual" for these die-hard competitors.
After a string of early crises, ranging from Robin's broken drivebelt to David's blowout, the #78 Porsche had settled into a groove. Piers pounded round the track for lap after lap, admitting later that he was starting to find it boring. To those who dream of becoming racing drivers, the thought that taking part in a motor race could ever become 'boring' is probably impossible to comprehend. On a track of the length of this La Sarthe circuit, where a driver can complete a lap and see only one or two other cars in every four-minute tour, boredom is indeed one of the greatest dangers. Knowing how to fight the tedium, compounded by the fatigue that sets in no matter how disciplined and effective the sleeping regime, is the mark of a good driver. Accept the boredom, but never let your concentration waver for a moment. That is the task that faces all these drivers, who still have ahead of them more hours of racing than almost any other motor race in the world even before it has started.
17 Hours
Nine o'clock in the morning and the circuit is finally awake once more. Through the night pockets of activity have persisted, and while campsites have slumbered and racefans have slept, thirty racecars have continued to blast around the Le Mans circuit flat out. The days when drivers could "relax" down the Mulsanne, coasting for a moment to ease the pressure on the mechanical components of their cars, are long gone. The Le Mans 24 Hours of 2003 is not the endurance race of tradition but a twenty-four hour sprint.
The cool of the dawn had already started to lift as Piers handed the car back to Robin Liddell. The bulk of the driving has fallen on the broad and experienced shoulders of the Scot, so the dice-throw of chance demands that he should also have endured a greater proportion of the trying times. Those snake eyes were about to tumble his way once again, and it wasn't far into the first of his proposed two-part stint that the temperature gauges started to rise. At half nine he crawled slowly back into the pits to begin what was starting to become a painfully familiar routine. Back into the garage, and off with the rear wing and engine cover.
It took the team half an hour to establish the fact that there was nothing that could really be done to correct the problem. At 10:10 Robin pulled away from the garage once more facing the prospect of defying his racing instincts and coddling the "old girl" round the track, slowly and gently, the sole intent being to carry the car to the flag. With fingers crossed and the occasional skyward glance, Mike Pickup and the team hoped for the best. "He's out there to cruise through five-minute laps," explained Mike Pickup. "We're just aiming to be within the 75%," he shrugged, the strain and disappointment clearly apparent in his posture. Seven hours still to go. It's a lot to ask.
