http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I361oZvBqYE
I’m still recovering from my first American Le Mans Race, and a strange race it was. Luckily I was there for a few days, so enjoyed the practice and qualifying before the ‘Trèz-Petit’!
One of the most impressive things about the weekend was seeing how the Patron Highcroft race team built up a new race car after Scott Sharp destroyed the original during practice (above, with Radio Le Mans commentary). It was one of the biggest accidents I’ve ever seen and it’s a testament to today’s safety standards that he walked away.
The car was completely destroyed and ended up back at the pits on two trucks! Only 10% of the parts were salvageable. A new tub was sent from California overnight and the mechanics built up the car during the course of Friday, amazingly ready for warm-up on Sunday morning. The mechanics looked shattered by the end of it.
This is a great time lapse video of the rebuild.
More from Petit during the week.
-Andy Blackmore
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
AMAZING!! I think this is a first, at least for me, I don't remember hearing or seeing a team build a race car in one day like that.... Major respect to the team for there knowledge and effort and team work!
What I like a lot is how at the beginning they have the engine in the middle of the room. Picture passing by it like: "what's with this engine in the middle of the room?!"
Answer: "Oh, we're gonna build a race car around it by the end of the day, don't worry we'll move it from here onto the track tomorrow"
Amazing performance!
It's all thanks to the engineers as well for designing this car/system the way they did so that it can be assembled easelly (compared to normal road going platforms that is).
RESPECT!
Respect
When I popped my head around the awning on the Friday night (luckily I knew an Acura guy), they were setting everything up ready for the next day when the tub arrived bright and early. That evening, they had built everything up that they could and stripped anything usable off the damaged race car.
It goes without saying that the guys didnt get any sleep and I suspect was pleased for the red flag as they could rest early. Not the result either Acura wanted, but Highcroft do lead going into the final round
HOLY SHIT! Nice
One of the better things about running my own website, SportsCarPros, was getting a batch of photos in