Contact: Ed Triolo
Dick Barbour Racing
Director, Communications
De Radigues Fourth Quickest in LMP 675 Qualifying At Le Mans
Le Mans, France (June 14, 2001) – In Thursday evening's final qualifying sessions here at Le Mans, Belgian driver Didier de Radiguès put his Dick Barbour Racing Reynard 01Q-Judd 4th in the Le Mans Prototype 675 category and 24th overall for the start of Saturday's 69th running of the world famous 24 hour endurance contest for racing sportscars. De Radiguès, who is co-driving with Germany's Sascha Maassen and Japan's Hideshi Matsuda set his fastest lap of 3 minutes, 46.008 seconds near the end of the first qualifying session of the evening. The top two category grid spots – 14th and 17th overall respectively went to the works backed Lola-MGs.
Despite beating last year's category pole (also set by a Reynard), de Radiguès' run this evening was not without problems. Less than an hour into the evening run, de Radiguès noticed a vibration from the engine and shut it down on the pit straight. "I pulled off not far from the pit exit and I was hoping the marshals would allow me to roll back to the pits, but unfortunately, I was stuck there for the rest of the session", Didier reported. Thus, a fresh race engine already slated for installation on Friday, went in one session earlier than planned and the team made no attempt to run in the night session between 10 pm and midnight.
For Milka Duno, John Graham and David Murry in the #37 Dick Barbour Reynard, the best time was 3 minutes and 57.257 seconds. Canadian citizen Graham, a Le mans veteran and winner of the LMP category last year, hopes to make this race his second consecutive trip to the victory circle at the famed Circuit de La Sarthe, but in true team spirit he seemed most happy for his teammates Duno and Murry. "Milka has done a phenomenal job here as a rookie", noted Graham. "She'd never before driven this fast at night and she's taken to this sometimes-scary circuit like the total professional she is. All of us are within a second or so on pace, and that pace is about six seconds faster than what our best qualifying time last year, so I'm really excited about our chances. We know we should be able to triple-stint our tires and our fuel economy advantage should pay off over 24 hours. The team is doing a great job, so I'm in a far better position than I was at this time last year. Of course our Reynard friends from the ROC team will be quick and so will the Lola-MG, but somehow I have a good feeling about our chances!"
Tantalizingly for Dick Barbour's chances, de Radiguès related how he was able to run in the draft of Frank Biela's Audi on the Mulsanne straight, alluding to the great top speed and aerodynamic slipperiness of the Reynard-Judd combination. "After (Frank) Biela passed me", said Didier, "I could easily stay with him all the way to the chicane and then I actually closed right up on him again with our better braking. Only coming out of the slow turns did he pull away with the Audi's superior power. They may be running 3:33s with qualifying tires, but tonight's pace where they were running in the 3:40 range will be more like the race pace, so I don't think we will be that far off."
The race will be covered live on Speedvision so check local listings for broadcast times and tune in to watch the culmination of the Dick Barbour Racing European Tour 2001.
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