Auto Racing: Life in Fast Lane

Ok, for anyone interested here 
are the rules: 

    * 1 beverage ante

    * Choose 3 cars from LMP1, LMP2, GT2.
      Can only have two of the same "make" 
      per class (ie 2 Audi, 1 Peugeot)

    * Points are awarded as such:
          o 5pts - 1st in class
          o 4pts - 2nd
          o 3pts - 3rd
          o 2pts - 4th
          o 1pts - 5th
          o -1pts for Not Classified car 
            (must complete 70% of race 
             and take checkered flag)
          o -2pts for DNF

    * Tie breaker:  Choose one non-Audi, Peugeot, Aston in LMP1.  Highest finisher 
      breaks tie.

    * Supplemental rules:
          o 1 wager per person
          o Attendees may place an additional two bets on the behalf of others provided 
            the person meets one of the following criteria:
                + Human, under the age of 18
                + Alive but not of the homo sapien species
                + A non-homologated vehicle of at least 2.1 liters for which you can 
                  produce the title
                + Anything deemed NOT under protest by Peugeot
          o Points tally will be calculated following the race once the organizer 
            sufficiently recovers from staying up all night.
          o All entries must be submitted by Saturday June 13th by 9am or thereabouts.  
            We accept email, print outs, chicken scratch, smoke signal and stone tablet.
          o Late entries will be assessed a 3 pt penalty for every hour after the start 
            of the race.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans or http://www.lemans.org/ 
or entry list and details.

As always I'll be following the 24 Hours of Nürburgring this year in a lead up to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a few weeks. For a third year Radio Le Mans returns with English language coverage however thus far I've been unable to find a suitable video feed. The following are links to Nürburgring related pages which will be updated throughout the event:

Official & participants:

Official Site of the ADAC Zurich 24h-Race
Official Live Video Feed
Fast & Smooth Video Feed
Live Car Tracker (Powered by Google)
Radio Le Mans 2009 'Ring page
Audi's Live Feed
Live Timing & scoring

Other Items:

Potential video feed
2009 Nurburgring 24 Hours TV AudiR8 Practice Highlights

Special thanks to twitter oneighturbo for many of the links. Also check out the nurburgring

Keep up with the action via Live Timing and on Speed. This year's event started at 3 and runs well into Sunday. Keep tabs on all of my commentary via Tumblr and Twitter.

Updates:

Interesting fact: Last year's race winning Ganassi car spent a total of 18 1/2 minutes in the pits. That was 25 pits stops over 24 hours. Everything is set up for quick change: rear end assemblies, suspension, brakes, and even radiator.

Looks like Dempsey's team is going to need some spares. Jep Thorton puts it into the tire barrier and brings out the first caution 2 hours 50 minutes into the event.

Daytona 24 morning report

Settle in, have some breakfast and get ready for eight more hours of racing. Overnight both Michael Shank Racing and Krohn Racing DPs are out. Penske, Brumos, Ganassi, on the lead lap and in contention overall. Farnbacher leads GT and is eighth overall followed by The Racers Group at a mere 1:02 deficit.

Stay out of the pits

Lesson for the night brought to you by the #99 Gainsco team: Never change out hardware (gear cluster) when a sensor will suffice. The driver reported shifting problems so the team set about replacing the entire transmission gear cluster. The work put them many laps down but before they could return to the track they found that they *also* had a problem with a sensor that allows the driver to shift without lifting the throttle. Speculation is that this sensor could have been the problem and that changing the cluster unnecessarily put them further in the hole than they needed to be.