Press Release N° 15
Midnight to 02.00

Neither the Panoz nor the private Audis will cross the finish line
Sunday, June 17th, 2001
Although we are well into the night, things have calmed down a bit and the cars are running like clockwork under the impulse of the two official Audis.

The two private R8's may be out now that Champion Racing n°3 has withdrawn too, but the officials are still in the lead without the slightest problem. Behind them, on the other hand, the rankings are permanently changing.
Sébastien Bourdais' n°17 Courage Pescarolo, which spent a short moment in 3rd  position, has experienced some gearbox trouble. Bourdais preferred to make a pit stop before matters got any worse. Panoz have announced the withdrawal of both cars, within the space of a few minutes. N°11 skidded off the track while Gary Formato was at the wheel, and n°12 had to abandon the race because of an electronic failure.
The n°8 Bentley, which was among the group of leading cars, also suffered some trouble with its electronics. It seems the dampness had made the system unstable, but after the mechanics' intervention, the LM GTP was able to resume the race in 4th position.
Under such circumstances, one can say that things are going pretty well for the Chryslers, as their three cars are still in the race. Yannick Dalmas, Stéphane Sarrazin and Franck Montagny's n°15 is even in third position. The two other  LMP900s presented by Oreca are also in the top ten.
Despite a small incursion in the gravel trap, Roc Auto's Reynard n°38 was in 8th position, and still leading the provisional ranking in the LMP675 category. The most threatening car for the n°38, which was team Dick Barbour's Reynard n°36, went back to the pits as it caught fire. It should take a long time to put the little "proto" back on the track.
But one of the most noteworthy performances of the night goes to Johnny O'Connell, Ron Fellows and Scott Pruett's Corvette n°63. The car even took the 6th position in the overall ranking. One must not forget that this C5R had already won the 24 Hours of Daytona in awful weather, where all the prototypes failed.
In the GTS category, the n°64 is leading the race, followed by the two Saleens n°62 and n°60.
Team Seikel Motorsport's Porsche n°83 is keeping a good place, and is still leading the way in the GT category, with an honourable 13th position in the overall ranking.