2000 - Le Mans - A battle between two French LMP teams

There is a nice onboard in the Team DAMS Cadillac Northstar LMP with Emmanuele Collard onboard in the car.

At 12.05, Andy Pilgrim in his #64 Corvette Racing C5-R is right with Ni Amorim in his #53 Team Oreca Chrysler Viper GTS-R and he is having a serious attack. Best racing for a couple of hours. This is more like a sprint than an endurance race. Catching up on a slower car, had no problem.. less than a second between the two batgtling cars.

Pilgrim needs to get an aerodynamic 'tow' at the Ford Chichan and still pushing hard, almost touched. Amorim is fending him off.

This has woken up the crowd, media centre and commentators who are getting weary after 20 hours of racing! The Viper looks a bit unstable under braking. Pilgrim will be fed up with the fact that the Japanese Panoz got between the two GTS cars. Pilgrim is looking smoother than Amorin but he isn't catching the Viper at the moment. Pit stops are lurking...

12:20 hrs they have both come in and this will be a race of the pit crews. Amorin out of the car, Pilgrim stays on board.

The Viper is out first and the 'Vette just behind. Nothing lost and nothing gained... Yeah fabulous stuff!

At 9.23am, the Cadillac is smoking big time at the back end, it looks like broken rear suspension. Emmanuel Collard was trying to nurse it home. He would have to have done an entire lap to get back to the pits. So it has stopped for the moment but he is back in car and having another try but the whole back end disintegrates leaving rubbish all over the track, but he staggers on.

He made it, great drive to get the wreckage home. At 1.25pm, the #3 Cadillac ready to go out again.but now running 8th now. But the Cadillac is back in the pits at 20 minutes later and into its garage. Thedriver is out. Remember that the suspension problem blew out the tyre which in then did a lot of damage to the rear end, wing etc.

It was repaired but the set up was all wrong and the team didn't want to send the driver out with a set up that was wrong. Good news is that they will come out again right at the finish for a well deserved 'grandstand finish'.

Watch the battles and drama unfold in the video clip...

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• 2000
• Le
• Mans
• Olivier
• Grouillard
• Sébastien
• Bourdais
• Emmanuel
• Clerico
• Pescarolo
• Sport
• Courage
• C52
• Team
• DAMS
• Cadillac
• Northstar
• LMP
• Emmanuele
• Collard
• battle
• French
• suspension
• problems
• Oreca
• Chrysler
• Viper
• GTS-R
• Corvette
• Racing
• C5-R
• Andy
• Pilgrim
• Ni
• Amorim
• scrap

[mic88check]

yeah my Peugeot here i drive it 240mins in Le Mans 2000 the game :)

[f40f50enzof60]

@Poseiden2 I guess they pulled out because this is when Corvette Racing was just beginning. I can imagine that the cost difference between funding a prototype program or a GT program was probably very persuasive to the GM exacs :( oh well, at least the 'vettes have been successful!

[Poseiden2]

Although the 2000 Cadillac LMP wasn't the most successful prototype, particular compared to the Audi R8, I much preferred the sight and sound of this one with its hollow, mellow hum, to the 2001 and 2002 versions. Those cars were increasingly competitive, though, which made GM's decision to withdraw all the more surprising - they were just getting somewhere by then!

[Scope951]

look at how little front end protection this car offers! god damn motorsport has sharpened up their safety

[speedimages]

Amazing Car!

[hochen72]

This year, Audi = victory :)

[demander11]

Great footage!

[FormulaOneSpy]

awesome