We, GM's guests, had been invited by the ACO to view the race from their pavilion on the inside of the Mulsanne corner, at the end of the nearly 4-mile-long Mulsanne straight, at the far south corner of the circuit. It was a strange sensation to be sitting in a covered grandstand, being served champagne, while it rained and race cars screamed out of the night toward the roughly 110-degree righthander, braking hard and downshifting multiple times, then exiting as hard as possible in the wet, skittering around as they tried vainly to lay down some power and kicked up incredible roostertails as they accelerated into the darkness. No. 64 was solidly in the lead for GTS and had moved up to 9th overall, followed by 63, the 60 and (much further back) 62 Saleens, and a lone Viper.
Some time around midnight, we headed back to the pit and garage area. Most of the group got rides back to the various lodgings (GM had corporate and guests put up at two different hotels and two chateaus). I couldn't get enough of the experience and instead headed up to the GM suite directly above the Corvette garages and pits, finally calling it quits after 2 a.m. It must have been the adrenaline, because I was still pumped up and had yet to crash and burn from jet lag.
Sunday morning, June, 17th. Somehow, I'm up by 6 and, after a quick but incredible breakfast (a dollop of fresh fruits, Norwegian smoked salmon, and a small portion of scrambled eggs with caviar, washed down by a couple of dinky cups of unbelievably strong-and black-French coffee) I'm off to the track by 7 a.m.
The rain has stopped, momentarily. During intervening hours, the 63 and 64 cars had swapped the GTS lead several times. No. 64 had on off-course excursion that resulted in a punctured tire and an unscheduled pit stop, and 63 had also spun off course-at the same time and place as the No. 2 Audi R8, with no contact or damage to either car. And, disappointingly, after looking great and intermittently running impressively well, the Callaway C12-R had been withdrawn.
Then, Frank Freon courts disaster in No. 64. First it's a 15-minute pitstop thanks to a starter failure. Once he's back on track, Freon spins 64 twice, at two different sites, within a couple of laps. Concurrently, 63 seems to be performing flawlessly, with Fellows, O'Connell, and Pruett in 6th overall; one Saleen is left (No. 62 parked with an engine failure); and No. 58, the last Viper of the four that started, is in its garage while the Larbre crew try to patch it together enough to finish the race.
About the time the surviving racers have all gone back onto slicks, the rain returns. The Corvettes seem to be unfazed; Fellows in No. 63 leads GTS and has the C5-R up to 6th overall. The No. 60 Saleen is holding onto 2nd in GTS and 10th overall, and the 64 Corvette is 3rd in GTS, a couple laps back of the S7-R. The factory Audi team (cars 1 and 2) is utterly dominating the race; the sole surviving Bentley is 13 laps back, in 3rd, and the lone Cad LMP is hanging on in 9th, but losing precious minutes on each stop due to a starter problem.
Shortly after 1 p.m., the last Saleen nosed into its garage, trailing heavy blue smoke and sounding as though its 7.0L V-8 was firing on six or seven cylinders. The field is down to 21 cars still officially in the contest, and that includes the Team Larbre Viper and the Speedlab No. 60 Saleen.