le mans: the pundits have their say...

["Dave Eaton" <Dave.Eaton@clear.net.nz>]

from the wire...
dave
'95 rs2
'90 ur-q
'61 mb fintail 

------------------------
With the 67th Le Mans 24 hour race drawing near, most believe
that this year's edition of the endurance classic is going to be a
battle between Toyota and a host of determined German
manufacturers, with the ungainly new Panoz LMP Spyder best
placed to upset the form book. 

Toyota is the clear favourite to win the race. The team is fielding
three cars with a mixture of top drivers. 

ITV F1 pundit and former-F1 driver Martin Brundle went fastest in
pre-qualifying and is joined by ISRS stars Emmanuel Collard and
Vincenzo Sospiri. 1998 winner Allan McNish leads the second car. 

Mercedes, BMW and Audi will provide the main competition. 

The new Mercedes CLR was quick in pre-qualifying, while the BMW
proved victorious at the Sebring 12 Hours in March. 

The Audi effort has been disappointing so far, the new R8R neither
reliable nor quick, but it would be foolhardy to write off a
manufacturer with such a fine motorsport pedigree. 

A more daring bet would be the new Panoz. Virtually untested, the
bizarre looking prototype has been sensationally fast to date, and
has two superstar drivers in the form of David Brabham and Jan
Magnussen. 

In the lower classes, expect the ORECA Vipers to blitz GTS easily,
and the Manthey Porsche 996 to dominate effortlessly in LMGT.