Hour by hour for Pescarolo


 
Cars on the grid at Le Mans 2004
 
 
21 June 2004
 
The 72nd Le Mans started on Saturday 12 June at 16:00. The four Audi cars, top favourites in this year's race, got off to the best start and were the first to complete the first lap. However, the two Pescarolo cars, no. 18 and no. 17, were soon after them, and at the end of the first hour they were in fifth and eighth position.
 
Unfortunately, at 17:21 car no. 17 began to have electrical problems and driver Sébastien Bourdais had to return to the pit. The problem – a failure in the electrical connections in the cooling injector - took 15 minutes to repair and the car rejoined the race in 44th position.
 
 
 
Pescarolo pit stop
 
 
Throughout the evening the three no. 17 drivers, Sébastien Bourdais, Emmanuel Collard and Nicolas Minassian, overtook car after car and 6 hours into the race they were in seventh position. Then a failure in the alternator forced the driver Bourdais to make another unplanned pit stop for a 15 minutes repair. Despite this setback by the time Bourdais handed over to Collard two hours later the car was back in 12th position. During the night, the three drivers advanced one place per hour to reach fifth position by 08:00, just behind the three Audis and the other Pescarolo car.

Unfortunately their problems were not over. At 10:06 Minassian had to pull in to repair the car's alternator again and then at 11:11 the car had engine problems leading to another 14 minute pit stop. Just 20 minutes later the engine overheated and the car finally had to withdraw.
 
 
 
Ready to refuel
 
 
Fortunately the race went much better for the other Pescarolo-Judd car and its three drivers, Soheil Ayari, Erik Comas and Benoît Tréluyer as they were in second place after just two hours. During the third hour they were overtaken by two cars but managed to gain third place and keep it for 14 hours. Although they were then overtaken by one of the Audis, they managed to keep fourth position until the end of the race. An excellent result even if they did not make the podium.

After the race Henri Pescarolo said, "Our objective was to be on the podium this year and we had all worked very hard for this. The qualification results in pre-Le Mans races clearly indicated that we had the potential this year."
 
 
Madie and Henri Pescarolo
 
Pescarolo and his wife
 
 
"So when we found ourselves in third place after just four hours, and managed to maintain this for more than 13 hours, we started to believe that the podium was within our reach. This explains our sadness at coming fourth, even if this is an excellent result and an important improvement from last year."

When asked why the car is not as fast as the winning Audis, driver Soheil Ayari said, "You have to compare things which are comparable. Their budget could be 10 times bigger than ours so it is difficult for us to compete with them."

However, Ayari added, "I am really happy with the job we have done given our budget".

Although the rules for next year's Le Mans race will require significant changes to be made to the car, André de Cortanze, Technical Director of Pescarolo Sport, says that Pescarolo Sport plan to have a car ready for 2005. Some of the items on their wish list are more power and reduced drag and space technology could once again play an important role in improving the aerodynamics of the car’s body to reduce drag.
  
 

Space tech onboard

 •  Pescarolo-Judd 2004 (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMSUY2VQUD_Improving_0.html)

Related articles

 •  ‘Space’ car comes fourth at Le Mans (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM7NB3VQUD_Improving_0.html)
 •  Space technology races round Le Mans (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMPO03VQUD_Improving_0.html)
 •  Space technology competes on Europe's racetracks again (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM86D67ESD_Improving_0.html)
 •  Winning racer backed by space technology (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMHWF0P4HD_Improving_0.html)

Related links

 •  Pescarolo Sport (http://www.pescarolo.com/index.htm)
 •  Le Mans official site (http://www.lemans.org/univers_sport/24hauto/live/index_gb.html)
 •  ESA's Technology Transfer Programme (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/TTP2/index.html)