YOONG PREPARING FOR A WET LE MANS 24 HOUR RACE
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, June 15 2007
A1 Team Malaysia driver, Alex Yoong and his team mates at CRS undertook final preparations for this year’s Le Mans 24 hour race yesterday, although with torrential rain shortly before the first practice session, it was wet weather tyres and no chance to improve on their qualifying position.
The first half hour of the earlier of the two qualifying sessions saw torrential rain and this kept all the cars in the garages, minimising the risk of an accident due to the extreme conditions. As the rain eased, the team started their third session of practice time.
A wet track demands grooved tyres and results in slower lap times, so Yoong, Jan Charouz and Stefan Mucke used the session to test the car set up in wetter conditions, in the event that the race itself features rain, as is forecasted. The challenging track is also much more difficult for the drivers in these conditions, particularly for Yoong’s team mates who are making their debut in this year’s race. The session gave them invaluable experience of the Le Mans track in the wet and how the car handles in this situation, while the more experienced Malaysian put in a longer, eight lap run to gather data on tyre wear in these wet conditions.
The CRS Lola Judd LMP 1B07-17 prototype sports racing car is likely to be set up for dry conditions to optimise the car’s performance, yet with changeable weather predicted during the 24 hour period of the race, driving in the wet proved productive for Yoong, Charouz and Mucke..
A short break between the rain delayed early session and the evening qualifying session gave the teams little time to make changes to the car and after a change of drivers, refuel and checks of the car, the CRS entry was ready for the final pre-event practice period, with the team anxious to make use of the drier conditions which followed after the earlier rain. This period was shortlived with rain arriving to dampen spirits and produce another very wet track. At the end of the final two hours of running the three drivers of the Charouz Racing team had all had further, wet, experience of the Le Mans circuit.
Yoong said after the sessions, “With the weather conditions today, we couldn’t go for a quick lap time, so the team gave each of the drivers as much track time as possible. We did some long runs to gauge fuel consumption and tyre wear, but apart from that we can only prepare for the eventuality that we’ll get these conditions on Saturday or Sunday and be prepared as we can be.
“It’s the crew’s turn for all the hard work now. They’ll be stripping the car and replacing much of it, with a new engine gearbox, suspension, brakes and so on, ready for the rigours of running non-stop for 24 hours. Now, it’ll just be one more lap for each for us in the warm up and we’re straight in to the race. I’m just hoping that it won’t rain all the time.”
Yoong will be back in the race car on Saturday morning during the short 45 minute warm up session. Tomorrow is a non-driving day for the Le Mans pilots, but after two hard days of running the team will be kept busy with final car preparations, briefings and strategy meetings. Friday is traditionally the Fans Day at Le Mans, with complimentary access to the circuit and pit walks throughout the day for spectators to see the cars up close and watch the crews work on the cars. In addition, fans will congregate in the Le Mans town square for the annual Drivers Parade with open top cars transporting Yoong, his team mates and rivals through the town in a special Le Mans ceremony.
