Pictures from
The 24 Hours of
Le Mans

Contact: Ed Triolo Dick Barbour Racing Director, Communications Dick Barbour Racing Team's Le Mans 2001: Courage Under Fire Le Mans, France (June 18, 2001) – A category win and podium finish at the Jarama round of the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) pointed the way to great potential for the Dick Barbour Racing Team at the 69th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend, but while the potential remains, successful results at Le Mans succumbed to bad luck. After reaching as high as 6th overall after less than two hours, Didier de Radiguès was forced to retire the #36 Dick Barbour Racing Reynard 01Q in spectacular fashion after 10 hours. At exactly five past two Sunday morning, De Radiguès was nearly to the pit straightaway when he spotted an orange flare in his mirrors. "I'm on fire!, I'm on fire" he shouted over the radio. "I'm coming to the pits, I'm coming to the pits!" While most drivers would pull off immediately and bail out, Didier knew that if he did that the entire car might have been consumed by the time the fire marshals reached it. Instead he raced down pit lane calling over the radio to the Dick Barbour team to prepare to extinguish the blaze. The crew responded instantaneously and within moments, a potential disaster was avoided with full credit also due the pit fire marshals without whose help the damage would have unquestionably been greater. Didier escaped completely unharmed, but the DBR Reynard will need an entirely new rear end. Lady luck was no less kind to Milka Duno in the team's sister car. Unfortunately for Milka and her teammates John Graham and David Murry, the race was much shorter than for Didier, Sascha Maassen and Hideshi Matsuda. The Le Mans forecast was for drenching rains about an hour after the 4 PM race start. Indeed at 4:20 PM the skies opened up over Arnage while the north part of the circuit was enjoying nearly full sun. This caught out even teams like Gulf Audi who started on slicks and suddenly ran into full hydroplaning conditions. With good foresight, Milka chose to start on Goodyear's intermediate wet tires. Unfortunately, conditions broke out so horribly wet so quickly, that while the intermediates provided some margin of safety, they were no match for the river of water the circuit had become between Arnage and Porsche curves. The chain reaction started when Stefan Johannsen's Gulf Audi hit the "wall" of water. Three or four other cars lost it at the same place, turning Arnage into carnage. Milka approached cautiously, having already radioed in that she was pitting for full wets. Coming onto the scene, cars, water, oil and gravel were everywhere and as she braked to pass through, the front end lost grip and slid into a barrier, cracking the nose cleanly off her car. At first it looked as though the car would have to be retired. But working with Reynard engineers, the team determined that the structural damage could be safely repaired and they set about to fabricate what they needed to return the car to the fray. Four hours and a completely new front end later, the team was beginning to button up the repair when the word came down from the Automobile Club de L'Ouest, - the Le Mans sanctioning organization. The car would have to be retired since in the ACO's opinion such extensive repairs would require a virtual re-certification of the chassis. It was a devastating decision for a crew that used all its creativity and sweat to give Milka, John and David a car that could carry on. When the rains had begun, the ACO sent out the safety car to slow the field. Everyone pitted for full wet tires under the caution period, but few teams pitted for more than one tire change, opting to run with full wets even as, around 5 PM the circuit began to dry. At 4:37 Didier came in again under caution to change to intermediates as the rain abated. That turned out a brilliant move as he cut through the field on optimum rubber. By 5 PM he advanced to 16th overall. Ten minutes later he was in 8th place. In another two laps he gained another position. Finally, just before his first fuel stop at 5:30, Didier was 6th overall and leading the LMP 675 category. It all seemed to be going perfectly for the Dick Barbour team but weather was to intervene again. With Hideshi Matsuda now at the wheel, the skies opened up even worse than before. Now, there was horrible flooding all over the long Le Mans circuit. Matsuda pitted for a precautionary check after a snap spin. Then the car suffered hydroplaning even on full wets at the first Mulsanne chicane. By the end of his stint, Matsuda had dealt admirably with no visibility, hydroplaning and cars spinning all over the circuit. It was Sascha Maassen's "turn in the barrel" at around 8:30 PM. Sascha gained back some of the positions lost under the horrendous conditions and indeed impressively began lapping at times comparable to the Chrysler Bentley and Audi prototypes that had since settled into their long-distance running pace. Maassen had the bit between his teeth, slashing from 22nd overall to 16th place in under an hour. Shortly after ten PM, Maassen called in that the clutch was gone. Half an hour later, and despite a broken clutch, he had gained another 3 places driving in steady rain and shifting without a clutch. It was an impressive drive, but the car had to come in for a clutch replacement or risk being stuck out on course. At 10:45 PM they rolled the car into the garage. A clutch change meant pulling the gearbox, so it was not until 12:30 AM that Didier saddled up and rode out into the pouring rain once again. At that point the car was 22 laps behind the category-leading French Roc team Reynard. Despite a stirring drive, it was to come to a flaming end after 95 laps, however. Clearly, the team had shown the potential to race with the 900 prototypes. Maassen, Matsuda and de Radiguès had shown that they could fight with the very best even under conditions that were among the worst. Finally, the men –and ladies – of the Dick Barbour Racing team showed their best under fire... most literally.