Nine hours in, Audi's No. 2 leads at Le Mans - MotorSportsTalk

The No. 2 Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro of Tom Kristensen, Loic Duval and Allan McNish continues to pace the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but the 4-Rings’ early dominance has taken a hit as the darkness sets in at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

After leading early on, Audi Sport’s No. 1 car for Benoit Treluyer, Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer has re-joined the race after being forced to the garage to have its alternator replaced. The issue cost the No. 1 team 11 laps and it is now running 16th overall. As for the No. 3 Audi team of Lucas Di Grassi, Oliver Jarvis and Marc Gene, they have held on to fourth position after suffering damage to its car following a tire puncture. During a recent safety car period, the Audi Sport crew put multiple new pieces of bodywork on the No. 3, including a rear deck, front nose and right side pod.

The two Toyota hybrids continue to stalk the No. 2 Audi, with the No. 8 of Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi and Stephane Sarrazin running second and the No. 7 of Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima in third.

In the LMP2 category, two of the Oak Racing Morgan-Nissan machines are leading the way, with the No. 35 of Bertrand Baguette, Martin Plowman and Ricardo Gonzalez ahead of the No. 24 of Olivier Pla, David Heinemeier Hansson and Alex Brundle.

The GTE-Pro class is still being led by Aston Martin Racing, with the No. 99 of Bruno Senna, Frederic Makowiecki and Robert Bell leading its sister car, the No. 97 for Stefan Mucke, Darren Turner and Peter Dumbreck.

Finally, GTE-Am currently features the No. 88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Christian Ried, Gianluca Roda and Paolo Ruberti leading the No. 77 Dempsey Del Piero-Proton Porsche, which is currently being driven by actor Patrick Dempsey.

The “Grey’s Anatomy” star always draws attention, which manifested itself in the team’s most recent driver change from Patrick Long to Dempsey. When Long climbed out of the No. 77, he was compelled to push away some photographers who had crowded around the car, presumably to take a snap of Dempsey getting into the car.

In a continuing effort to help fans keep track of the on track action, SuperMotocross is in the process of developing and implementing leader lights for the unified series.

Currently Supercross (SMX) utilizes stanchions in the infield that are triggered manually by a race official. At least two stanchions are used in each race as a way to draw the eye to the leader, which is especially useful in the tight confines of the stadium series when lapping often begins before the halfway mark in the 22-bike field. This system has been in place for the past two decades.

Later this year, a fully automated system will move to the bike itself to replace the old system. At that point, fans will be able to identify the leader regardless of where he is on track.

The leader lights were tested in the second Anaheim round this year. An example can be seen at the 1:45 mark in the video above on the No. 69 bike.

“What we don’t want to do is move too fast, where it’s confusing to people,” said Mike Muye, senior director of operations for Supercross and SMX in a press release. “We’ve really just focused on the leader at this point with the thought that maybe down the road we’ll introduce others.”

Scheduled to debut with the first SuperMotocross World Championship race at zMax Dragway, located just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 3D carbon fiber-printed LED light will be affixed to each motorcycle. Ten timing loops positioned around the track will trigger the lights of the leader, which will turn green.

SMX’s partner LiveTime Scoring helped develop and implement the system that has been tested in some form or fashion since 2019.

When the leader lights are successfully deployed, SuperMotocross will explore expanding the system to identify the second- and third-place riders. Depending on need and fan acceptance, more positions could be added.

SuperMotocross is exploring future enhancements, including allowing for live fan interaction with the lights and ways to use the lighting system during the race’s opening ceremony.

Nine hours in, Audi’s No. 2 leads at Le Mans

SuperMotocross set to introduce Leader Lights beginning with the World Championship finals

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