17:15: Alright, we have just jumped ahead 3-4 hours. The Audi #1 is still in first, with the Toyota #7 in second. The big news was the Toyota #8 got clipped by a Ferrari GTE Pro car, with both cars flying (in a very literal sense for the LMP1 Toyota) into a tire/metal barrier, approximately 30 meters away. (Ed. Note: I have no clue of what a meter consists of.) They talked to the team of the Ferrari (which was clearly and dubiously in the wrong) and they were defensive and short, leaving quickly. … The #79 class-leading GTE Am Porsche received a ton of damage and now is in pieces in the garage. Too bad, as I was pulling for the American-based Flying Lizard Team. … The #3 Audi (LMP1) crashed into a wall, wrecking the front suspension, but has fixed it all and is back on the track. … Overall, there is a full-course caution, meaning that all cars are going minimal speeds, as they fix the wall that the air-born Toyota took and Ferrari out with extreme prejudice.
17:45: Took the dog for a walk, Drink: poured a glass of wine and am ready for the next stretch.
18:09: The caution flag is raised (after an hour + break) and it takes no time for the Toyota #7 to make an aggressive move, attempting to move around the Batmobile, clipping it and the Deltawing darts into the wall. The #7 stops for a pit, replacing its rear wing, and loses a bunch of time. The status of the Batmobile’s ability to serve up justice is questionable.
18:22: The #7 is in third. I need to pick up my pace on this wine. I think beer is calling my name after this bottle of cabernet.
18:26: The #7 is in the garage, getting suspension work. It looks glum for Toyota. Audi is even more in the catbird’s seat. The rich get richer, just like the 1%ers. Damn capitalism!
18:39: Drink: Poured the final glass of cabernet (yeah, no 4.5 glasses per bottle for me). This experiment is hitting me harder than I calculated. I wonder what kind of hieroglyphs my will break into in the later hours.
18:48: Dusk is settling in. This night period will be tough on yours truly.
19:04: Dark has blanketed on the course. As this is not a track course (rather, made it is made up of civilian roads), the lighting on the route is sparse. It makes for some interesting/questionable racing, with the car providing their own illumination.
19:07: The Batmobile is officially out – too much damage on the front and rear suspension to repair. Crime will run rampant for the last… shit, how many hours are left? 16+ heures. Je suis fatigue.
19:18: Speed Network did a complete lap from the driver’s view in the #73 Corvette (GTE Pro) car. It confirmed everything that one would think was batshit crazy about running a car 200 mph (at times) on an unlit track. The lights of the vehicle do not reach too far ahead on the road and I imagine that memory of the route becomes the driver’s best friend. It was by far the most amusing coverage of the race, thus far – beating out a Toyota experiencing a brief take-off and landing.
19:24: The Toyota #7 is done. Japan may never get over the tsunami.
19:30: Drink: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
19:51: The #7 is back on the track! …and in 47th place overall, many laps behind any class leader. At this point, they are kind of just doing it for funzies.
19:58: Cool. Totally found out I could get the White Sox-Dodgers game on my second flat screen. Alex Rios just batted in a run! White Sox are up, 4-0!
20:03: Its funny that every time they have a break, they come back to their standard intro. It is a queer practice, as their major talking points in the intro are Toyota competing against Audi and the Deltawing/Batmobile, both of which are long extinct stories.
20:11: Drink: I did a shot of Wild Turkey Rye to wrap up this heures’ drink in a timely fashion.
20:15: The feed that we get is from French television and apparently, they take most of the night off. So there are few cameras available during the night heures.
20:16: The Dodgers came back and tied.
20:19: Another break in the coverage. One can only guess how many cars were jacked up when coverage resumes…
