The warm up to Le Mans 24 left us guessing to the end, with just seconds between the top three cars after six hours of all out racing. With the Porsche #18 car driven by Jani clawing back time on the leading Audi in the final laps. Mark Webber in #17 had led the pack from pole position and for 90 minutes demonstrated why the Porsche 919 Hybrid is a force to be reckoned with before retiring with a terminal drive train issue.
With infield parking, our club display ran on for over 200 cars, forming a Porsche Curve in homage to the Le Mans circuit. Mandy, Chris and the team did a sterling job in the difficult gale force conditions, keeping members happy with cups of tea and biscuits when they needed a break from the on-track action. With many of the London Region and the Lycian support team present, it was like a Le Mans reunion. The WEC at Silverstone is a great warm up to the main event, in just over 60 days time.
For us, we had the opportunity to do one of those once-in-a-lifetime things; a garage tour of the 919 Hybrid garage, whilst the cars were being prepped ahead of the race. With over 270 people supporting the campaign the attention to detail and organisation is superb. The cars themselves are even more impressive up close, especially during the engine tests which light up the telemetry screens around them. Behind the part of the garage that is visible from the pits there are rows of people monitoring screens, warming tyres, preparing for driver changes and the inevitable. With pit stops taking just 40 seconds including a driver change , their seat, ballast, fuel and tyres everything has to be just so. A big thank-you to Porsche for their hospitality. Unfortunately photos in the garage were not allowed as the project remains super secret with any advantage measured in seconds as was demonstrated in the race.