Le Mans Series pictures, 13-9-09

[Keeper of The Kitten]

I attended the final round of the Le Mans Series at Silverstone once again, and lugged two cameras and various bits and pieces with me, ended up shooting over 2000 pictures! I'll post just a tiny proportion of those images here, starting with the customary top three cars in each category.

LMP1 and top three in overall classification:

First place, LMP1, first overall - Oreca 01-AIM, Olivier Panis and Nicolas Lapierre




Second place, LMP1, second overall - Lola Aston Martin, Andrea Belicchi, Marcel Fassler, Nicolas Prost




Third place, LMP1, third overall, and series champions - Lola Aston Martin, Jan Charouz, Tomas Enge, Stefan Mucke




LMP2:

First place, LMP2, eighth overall - Lola Judd, Jonny Kane, Benjamin Leuenberger, Xavier Pompidou




Second place, LMP2, tenth overall - Lola Mazda, Tommy Erdos, Mike Newton




Third place, LMP2, eleventh overall - Pescarolo Mazda, Jacques Nicolet, Richard Hein

[Keeper of The Kitten]

LMGT1:

First place, LMGT1, nineteenth overall - Aston Martin DBR9, Ryan Sharp, Peter Kox




Second place, LMGT1, twenty first overall - Saleen S7R, Roland Berville, Sebastien Dumez, Laurent Groppi




Third place, LMGT1, twenty second overall - Corvette C6R, Yann Clairay, Julien Jousse, Patrice Goueslard




LMGT2:

First place, LMGT2, twenty third overall - Ferrari F430 GT, Robert Bell, Gianmaria Bruni




Second place, LMGT2, twenty fourth overall - Spyker C8 Laviolette, Tom Coronel, Jarek Janis




Third place, LMGT2, twenty fifth overall - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, Patrick Pilet, Raymond Narac



....I'll post other miscellaneous pictures to this thread soon!

[Greg_S]

Some top quality shots there. What camera setup are you using?

[geryS2]

very nice pics, thanks, any audi in the race ? lol

[pixsaudisex2]

excellent pictures

[s2driveruk]

were a couple of r10TDI's from Kolles but not sure there was anything else. Whilst they are fast and efficient, they totally lack any aural emotion the TDi's - lucky if you hear a bit of compressor stall on the turbos' and thats it.

Great photo's I took a few but nbot at that quality, will post some up this evening if I get a mo. Took loads of video instead so will lob some up on youtube at some point, nice sequence of a porsche, AM LMP1 with that gorgeous v12 howl and followed with a corvett rumble...all nicely spaced so you can hear them along the Hangar straight. Endurance racing always seems to make F1 sound like a load of demented wasps . Got a great view over the fences above the straight and the sound reverbing off the bridge structure

Watched a nice refuel of the Pesca through the fence on the pitlane too...great when you get paddock access thrown in isnt it...

[Key Walshe]

Brilliant pics, I can't believe I forgot it was on. I was really hoping to go to this one. Looking forward to the next installment...

[s2driveruk]

here you go...little clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2WkMxiZRZ0

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Thanks guys! To answer you Greg, these shots were using Nikon D300 and a 70-300 lens, not a super duper piece but it does ok (I used it last year but didn't have the D300 at that time).

It's allowed me to get away with a little bit of cropping on the most distant images, although the closest views certainly didn't need that. I shoot mostly at 1/125 shutter speed to get the motion blur in the wheels and the background, which is a little bit of a test of panning skills (in fairness there's a little unsharp mask on a few images to tidy up, particularly as I wanted to ensure a picture of all the podium placed entrants).

I also shot a bit of video but my video camera decided to let me down a bit and the start from Copse has been lost, I am sure I got a good clip there while shooting stills one-handed! I've got photos and video from the Hangar Straight bridge as well, but me little video camera doesn't have the quality of what you've posted here Andy!

I'll stick a few more snaps up later tonight!

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Slightly later than I said, but I've edited a raft of pics to add to the previous lot! I'll keep text to a minimum, just a few comments here and there.

Problems for Mansell!! The LNT Ginetta Zytek actually qualified really well, up in fifth, but an overnight engine swap dropped it from the third row of the grid to the eighth row. That wasn't the end of their problems as this picture shows...



...Mansell was back out again later but ultimately the car finished last in the P1 class, 27 laps down

[Keeper of The Kitten]

The last car I was involved with, previously the Embassy WF01, now just WF01 ...the RTN company made the tubs, rollover structures and noseboxes:




(and there's Warren Hughes at the wheel, a regular test driver for the old TOM'S F3 team in the mid 90s!)

(...I also see the old factory is now going to be the base for the new Lotus team ....hmmm might have to drop them a line!)

[Keeper of The Kitten]

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Another of the old motors we did bits for! The R10s ran with updated aero to fit the newest rules (hence the narrower wing with the increasingly popular swan neck mounting) ....Narain Karthikeyan used to drive our old F3 cars, how time flies!

[Keeper of The Kitten]

The winning car takes the chequered flag...




...and the champagne moment!

[Le S2 Audi]

Great pictures....

What camera you using?