By Bill Oursler

NSSN Correspondent

LE MANS, France — In a race that didn’t exactly follow the script, the drivers standing in victory lane were predictable, as Emanuele Pirro, Marco Werner and Frank Biela — all former winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the famed Sarthe Circuit — added to their resumes.
Giving the diesel-powered Audi R10 its second-consecutive victory and the sixth for the manufacturer since 2000, the driving trio capitalized on the misfortune of the team car driven by Rinaldo Capello, who was eliminated in a high-speed crash.
According to forecasters, the 75th running of the event would be largely run in the rain. It wasn’t. The wet weather largely stayed away until the final two hours. Still, the anticipated battle between the Audi and Peugeot diesels failed to materialize, the French never quite being able to keep up with the Germans.
“Le Mans is always very, very difficult,” Biela said. “The most recent result is always the sweetest one. Every single time I get to come here is an honor. If you win it’s even more special. I definitely want to come back and do this again next year and many more times.”
Only 29 of the 54 starters were running at the end, with the winners completing 369 laps of the 8.45-mile road course.
“This is the best race in the world, and one of the hardest and most difficult,” Werner said. “I didn’t expect this at midnight. But Le Mans is Le Mans. Our crew did very good work, and we needed that support.”
To the surprise of everyone, Capello out dragged Sebastien Bourdais’s pole-sitting Peugeot 908 at the start in a contest of turbo V-12 diesel horsepower. And while the Peugeots were never far behind, they were unable to match the Audis and keep them at bay. In the end, both Peugeots encountered minor overheating problems as the race wore on.
For Boudais and co-drivers Stephane Sarazin and Pedro Lamy, however, the first signs of trouble Saturday didn’t come from rising coolant temperatures, but rather the rear-wheel bearings on their sleek little coupe. By the time repairs were made, the trio was far behind the leading Audis and teammates Nicolas Minassian, Marc Gene and Jacques Villeneuve, who, despite a change of nose sections, were the principal challenge to Capello and his partners Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish.
For Biela, Pirro and Werner, who had a few minor problems along the way, obscurity was the order of the day as Capello, McNish and seven-time Le Mans winner Kristensen dominated the race.
But, perfection is fickle at Le Mans, and shortly after sunrise Sunday morning, Capello’s left-rear wheel came off the car as he was approaching the famous Indianapolis corner at almost 200 miles per hour, sending the car head-on into the tire barrier. Fortunately, Capello was uninjured. The Audi was out.
Biela, Werner and Pirro, who had been running second with a four-lap lead over Bourdais, Sarrazin and Lamy, were there to take over and hold off the Peugeot threesome.
In the end, the Audi crossed the line in pouring rain that had swept over the track in the final two hours, and which had seen all but 12 of the last 60 minutes run behind the pace car — 10 laps in front of the Peugeot.
As for Minassian, Gene and Villeneuve, their race ended earlier Sunday when their engine blew.
Third was the Judd-powered Pescarolo of Jean Christophe Boullion, Emanuele Collard and Romain Dumas, which had the distinction of being the first gasoline-engine car to cross, while the similar Pescarolo Judd of Martin Short, Joao Barbosa and Stuart Hall was fourth.
Claiming fifth in the outright standings and first in the GT1 division was the Aston Martin DBR8 of Darren Turner, David Brabham and Rickard Rydell, which was one of a fleet of the British cars to square off against the factory Corvettes.
And, although the Astons had their problems, the Corvette squad lost one of its two C6R entries early on when the driveshaft shattered on the Olivier Beretta, Oliver Gavin and Max Papis entry. That left Ron Fellows, Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen to the lone Corvette fighters.
Ultimately, however, they just couldn’t catch the Astons, finishing more than a lap down with the DBR0 of Christophe Bouchut, Fabrizio Gollin and Casper Elgaard taking the GT1 show position.
In GT2, the once-dominant Porsche 911 GT3RSR brigade, now whittled down to just four entries, were expected to have a hard time with the faster Ferrari 430GTs, the Italian list headed by the two of Houston-based Risi Competizione, which has yet to lose in the American Le Mans Series.
And, while the Risi entry of Mika Salo, Jaime Mel and Johnny Mowlen dominated for three quarters of the affair, ultimately they found themselves sidelined by cooling issues that occurred after the car toured the grass beside the track, forcing the team to replace the front radiators. Also lost to cooling woes was the pole-sitting 430GT of Scuderia Ecosse Andrew Kiraldy, Chris Marchos and Tim Mullen that had taken over the class lead after the Risi entry retired.
All this led the French-entered IMSA Performance Porsche of American Patrick Long, Raymond Narac and Richard Lietz firmly in command over the second Risi 430 GT driven by Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson and 18-year-old Colin Braun. Third went to the Autorlando GT3 of Lars Erik Nielsen, Pierre Ehret and Allen Simonsen.
Finally, in the smaller LMP2 prototype class, it was the usual mechanical mess, with the only car left running at the finish that of Scottish American Bill Binnie, Chris Buncombe and Allen Timpany around to collect the first-place honors along with their their Lola-Zytex.