So Much Going On!

I love all forms of motorsport but rallying isn't top of my pops. The main reason is the against the clock element rather than pure racing, the same goes for hill climbs, nonetheless it's still exciting and there's some great machinery involved. Not only that, but this year's Rally of Sardinia saw the fifth winner from five events. Contrast that with Mercedes dominance in F1 and it starts to look a little more interesting.

This weekend though sees both the European Grand Prix and the Le Mans 24 Hours. Give me Le Mans every time, the greatest challenge in motorsport, sixty odd cars, major manufacturers, different classes, night racing, day racing, a week of partying and processions and build up, funfairs and croque monsieur to oysters and champagne.

It's part of a world championship too BUT if Porsche and Toyota in particular have reliability problems in a six hour race at Silverstone what chance twenty four hours at Le Mans? Qualifying for Le Mans is done with, Porsche locking out the front row, Toyota the second and Audi the third. A front row start is good for TV coverage but it doesn't mean much more with 3.1 seconds covering all six hybrids on what is by today's standards a long lap.

Audi lost the first race on a very minor technical infringement due to wear on a skid plate underneath, they won't make that mistake again and they won at Silverstone, they have an enviable recent record at Le Mans too (now in its 93rd year!). Whilst Audi's cars would seem to be favourites I'd like to see Toyota pull it off, I used to work for one of their advertising agencies and they have made a lot of unsuccessful attempts, it would be a great achievement. Although I believe they invest less financially than Audi.

Not that I'd be sad to see Porsche do it again; the 917 from the seventies is arguably the most beautiful and iconic Sports Prototype of all time.Whether that's due more to Siffert, Redman and Rodriguez or to Steve McQueen I'm not sure, but I personally fell in love with it as a youth at the BOAC 1000 at Brands Hatch.

I've been to Le Mans several times, including a couple of trips in a Ford GT40 replica and one on a Laverda Jota. The GT40 and the Ferrari 512M are two more of my all time favourite Le Mans cars and the Ford GT is back in a new guise with four of the top five GT qualifying places taken by the Ford car. However, the organisers like a level playing field and have since limited Ford's boost and added ballast so the Ferraris, Corvettes, et al aren't out of the picture.

Qualifying for the Grand Prix of Europe is next up, lets hope Ferrari and Red Bull have closed the gap to Mercedes!

Malcolm Snook