# On Location: 24 Hours of Le Mans, Scrutineering Day 2



## [email protected] (Apr 9, 2004)

At eight in the morning in the Le Mans city center, the sun is still low in the sky and crowds haven’t yet amassed to admire the fine machinery or accost drivers in the eternal quest for autographs. The morning sun begins to evaporate the dew from the grounds as vendors pull their covers from their wares and the first of the team transports begin to arrive.








At the top of the scrutineering docket on this second day of Le Mans week is the Dutch-built Spykers. Like their roadgoing equivalents, these exotic open-top GT2 class racers feature Audi V8 engines along with a new paint scheme by team sponsor SNORAS Bank. 








Not far behind Spyker we catch former Audi driver Pierre ****** doing the interview circuit in the media tent as his Farnbacher Racing Team F430 GTC makes its own rounds in the scrutineering chute.








Not long after, the Russian fielded Interprogressbank Lamborghini Murcielago makes its own showing at scrutineering. Like last year’s Japanese Lamborghini Owners’ Club (JLOC) black Murcielago, this white Russian will contest in the GT1 class. 








Late in the day, the title match contendees arrive. First is Audi Sport, whose silver and red team transport slips into the parking lot outside and ejects its three Audi R10s from deep inside. Drivers filter in at the wheel of several team fleet cars – a new A4, A8, A3 and the like. 








Entering the media tent, the Audi driver crew is swamped more with reporters and photographers than any other team we observe all day. Some ham it up as you can see in a photo provided by our friend and former Audi Sport North America photographer Regis Lefebure (who also has his work published in Automobile Magazine). That’s Audi’s Allan McNish doing his best Stephen Colbert and showing us his Peugeot friend. 








Of course most of the time here is spent fielding questions and talking about the race. We overhear a conversation between Radio Le Mans on-air talent John Hindhaugh as he interviews Tom Kristensen and points out that both Audi and TK were going for eight this year. Tom was unaware of the shared record, though it doesn’t hurt that he’s part of likely the fastest and most consistent team in the Audi squad – good chances indeed.








Next-to-last team of the day is Peugeot. We notice a former Audi driver amongst the French manufacturer’s squad – Franck Montagny was one of the star drivers of the #4 Team Oreca Audi R8 that ran in 2005. Franck and his teammates being fastest on the track this year, Audi knows it’s going to beat Peugeot on consistency and reliability if it’s going to win this year.
Check out more photos from Le Mans here: 
* Photo Gallery *


----------

