Race Day
Race day, Saturday, June 16th, started exceedingly early, with a 45-minute warm-up session. The grounds and surrounding area were utterly jammed with humanity. Considering the changing weather, which in the past day had gone from bright, clear, and sunny to heavily overcast with drizzles, it seemed as though every team was testing setups with intermediate and rain tires, as well as "cold track" (normally for nighttime running) rubber. And during that abbreviated period, No. 64 pulled off course and parked with zero oil pressure, just past the Dunlop curve and the famous "Tyre" bridge, and less than a mile from the pits. The dead Corvette was flatbedded back to the garage, along with one of the Panoz LMP07s (which had gone offroad at the Indianapolis curve about 2 miles before the finish line) when the officials called a full-course yellow.
The problem on 64 proved to be an errant oil pump drive belt (the C5-Rs use dry sump engine lubrication systems with external pumps). Rather than take a chance on the engine being wounded, the crew immediately went to work removing the "old" engine and readying a backup Katech 7.0-liter LS1 for fitment.
Meanwhile, at 11 a.m., after the track clear following the warm-up session, there was a Le Mans first, a vintage race. Included were 55 veteran Le Mans race cars of widely disparate vintages. The most notable driver present was Sir Stirling Moss, who received an astounding ovation from the crowds packed solid in the stands along the pit straight.
Finally, at 12:15 p.m., the 2001 competitors were rolled out and positioned trackside along the inside of the course, tails against the pit wall, as the official starting ceremonies and rituals began. A few minutes before 4 p.m., the field headed out around the circuit for a warm-up lap, led by the black Cad Seville pace car. And as if an omen of what was to come, things got screwy, quickly. For reasons as yet unexplained, the Callaway was back in its garage when the cars took to the track and instead of starting the race from the GT class pole, it was relegated to waiting at the pit lane exit for the entire field to pass before assuming a position at the back. And as the rest of the field circulated around the track, two cars, the No. 82 GT class Porsche and the No. 62 Saleen (the Ray Mallock entry) spun off course.
At roughly 4 p.m., the 69th 24 Hours of Le Mans was started, and within 10 minutes, chaos reigned supreme, as the threatened rain materialized in a torrential downpour over vast portions of the track and surrounding environs-with all but a handful of the 48 racers trying to maintain some semblance of control on slicks. The pits quickly jammed as the cars came in for changes to rain tires, and the conditions were treacherous enough that a full-course caution was called, bringing out the pace car just minutes after the contest began.
Over the next three or so hours, it continued to rain intermittently, at times very heavily. The pace car was called out a second time to lead the field during another full-course caution. The intense rain was beginning to cause various electrical glitches on numerous race cars. During the media dinner in GM's pavilion, No. 5 Cad LMP driver Max Angelelli stopped in to chat after finishing his first driving stint and offered a unique insight into racing conditions in the rain when he casually described how the car was aquaplaning on some portions of the track, on rain tires, because the water was so deep on the racing surface that, while the "wet" tires would knife through the water, the flat bottom of the racer would literally begin floating or skimming over the water! All the while, as two of the four Vipers retired after crashes and a third was experiencing electrical woes, and one of the three Saleens had broken and been withdrawn, the two C5-Rs ran away from the remainder of the GTS class