TEAM CADILLAC AND CORVETTE RACING HAVE PROMISING START TO LE MANS 24 HOURS
LE MANS, June 12, 2002 – Team Cadillac and defending Le Mans GTS Champions, Corvette Racing, had a promising start to the 70th Le Mans 24 Hours in the first qualifying session tonight. Italian Max Angelelli qualified the Cadillac Northstar LMP 02 he shares with Wayne Taylor and Christophe Tinseau well inside the top ten overall, bettering their Open Test time by some five seconds. Briton Oliver Gavin put the Corvette C5-R on second place in the GTS class, just two tenths off provisional GTS pole.
"The Cadillac Northstar LMP 02 is a completely different car now," Angelelli said. "It is well balanced and smooth to drive and I'm sure I could have gone a lot faster without the traffic I encountered on my fastest lap." To prove his point, the sister car of Emmanuel Collard was third fastest through the speed trap, at 317kph. The second part of the first qualifying session was spent working on the fuel economy of the cars.
While the Corvettes were five seconds off the fastest GTS time at the Open Test in May, they now reduced the gap to just two tenths. "It looks like this GTS race is going to be very competitive," said Joe Negri, GM Racing Group Manager. "Our two Corvettes and the Vipers and the Ferrari are all running relatively close times. We really didn't get any very good qualifying laps in tonight because of the red flag at the end. At the start of practice the set up on either Corvette was not quite what we wanted but the crew got them tuned in and we were doing some good laps on long runs at the end. As a matter of fact, our quickest time of today in the No. 64 Corvette car on full tanks."
Qualifying resumes tomorrow, Thursday, at 7pm.
70th Le Mans 24 Hours - First qualifying session
| 1. | Capello/Herbert/Pescatori | Audi R8 | 3m30s347 |
| 2. | Biela/Pirro/Kristensen | Audi R8 | 3m30s701 |
| 3. | Lammers/Hillebrand/Coronel | Dome-Judd S101 | 3m31s057 |
| 4. | Krumm/Peter/Werner | Audi R8 | 3m32s531 |
| 5. | Bailey/Blundell/McGarrity | MG Lola EX257 (1st LMP675) | 3m33s254 |
| 6. | Montagny/Minassian/Sarrazin | Dallara-Judd | 3m34s053 |
| 7. | Lamy/Comas/Beretta | Dallara-Judd | 3m34s244 |
| 8. | Angelelli/Taylor/Tinseau | Cadillac Northstar LMP 02 | 3m35s042 |
| 9. | Bjork/Derichebourg/Cottaz | Courage-Judd C60JX | 3m36s942 |
| 10. | Van de Poele/Wallace/Leitzinger | Bentley EXP Speed 12 | 3m38s036 |
| 12. | Bernard/Collard/Lehto | Cadillac Northstar LMP 02 | 3m38s181 |
| 16. | Reid/Hughes/Kane | MG Lola EX257 (2nd LMP675) | 3m42s835 |
| 20. | Daoudi/De Fournoux/Bouvet | WR-Peugeot (3rd LMP675) | 3m47s967 |
| 28. | Rydell/Menu/Enge | Ferrari 550 Maranello (1st GTS) | 3m56s730 |
| 29. | Fellows/O'Connell/Gavin | Chevrolet Corvette C5-R (2nd GTS) | 3m58s491 |
| 30. | Belloc/Cochet/Treluyer | Chrysler Vipet GTS-R (3rd GTS) | 3m59s302 |
| 33. | Pilgrim/Collins/Freon | Chevrolet Corvette C5-R (5th GTS) | 4m02s097 |
| 38. | Luhr/Bernhard/Buckler | Porsche 911 GT3-RS (1st GT) | 4m11s486 |
| 40. | Maassen/Bergmeister/Dumas | Porsche 911 GT3-RS (2nd GT) | 4m12s698 |
| 41. | Riccitelli/Drudi/Rosa | Porsche 911 GT3-RS (3rd GT) | 4m14s644 |
|
