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ON THE ROAD TO NORMANDY, France — One might be surprised at how many Brits attend the 24 Hours of Le Mans — and while this writer has no official numb er — all you have to do is look at all the cars heading for home and the ferry in the Normandy region.

More than that it is also one heck of a car show with virtually every car of your dreams on the road in a variety of configurations. These include the noble late model Bentley, about every flavor of Porsche you can imagine, including many that have the full roll-cage treatment, and any number of Ferraris as is pictured at left.

Driving  through the rain on the way to Normandy it was also possible to see that there were some folks in convertibles who were putting on the “stiff upper lip” as they motored through the moisture.

Strangely, a large number of these cars also are showing the 24 Hours of Le Mans Beer Disposal sticker — and judging by the number of empties that are seen in and around the race track this is a real if unjudged contest.

LE MANS, France  (With four hours complete) — If you are wondering if the Peugeot’s are for real — they are. The Peugeot team has attacked Circuit de la Sarthe with a vengeance, with memories of near misses here and earlier this year at Sebring urging them onward. On the course the Audi’s look slower — perhaps not as slower as it was last year — but slower never the less.

What is not clear at this writing is whether this is by plan — last year the Peugeot’s were equally quick but were unable to seal the deal when the rain and   other troubles beset them and the Audi pulled off an incredible victory. Even at Sebring it appeared as if the Peugeot team had finally gotten the monkey off its back only to have the Audi superior tactics  steal a victory in the last 15 minutes of the race.

Walking by  pits the body language does not seem very positive, though we did not see any of the principals of the team to know what the real scoop is. Stay tuned our visit to the garage later.

Here are the top 10 at the end of four hours for each division:
 

Pos	#	Team	Driver in Pit	Laps
1	8	Team Peugeot Total	BOURDAIS Sebastien	77
2	1	Audi Sport Team Joest	CAPELLO Rinaldo	76
3	9	Peugeot Sport Total	WURZ Alexander	76
4	2	Audi Sport North America	LUHR Lucas	76
5	007	AMR Eastern Europe	CHAROUZ Jan	75
6	008	Aston Martin Racing	VERSTAPPEN Jos	75
7	17	Pescarolo Sport	PAGENAUD Simon	75
8	3	Audi Sport Team Joest	BERNHARD Timo	75
9	14	Kolles	LOTTERER Andre	74
10	15	Kolles	BAKKERUD Christian	74

Pos	#	Team	Driver in Pit	Laps
1	31	Team Essex	POULSEN Kristian	72
2	5	Navi Team Goh	KUNIMOTO Keisuke	72
3	33	Speedy Racing Sebah	LEUENBERGER Benjamin	71
4	25	RML	DYSON Chris	69
5	41	G.A.C. Racing Team	GOSSELIN Claude-Yves	69
6	35	OAK Racing	LAHAYE Matthieu	68
7	32	Team Barazi Epsilon	BARAZI Juan	68
8	30	Racing Box	PICCINI Andrea	68
9	24	OAK Racing	NICOLET Jacques	66
10	26	Bruichladdich Bruneau	GREAVES Tim	65

Pos	#	Team	Driver in Pit	Laps
1	76	Imsa Performance Matmut	NARAC Raymond	66
2	82	Risi Competizione	KAFFER Pierre	66
3	92	JMW Motorsport	KIRKALDY Andrew	66
4	80	Flying Lizard Motorsport	NEIMAN Seth	66
5	78	AF Corse	BRUNI Gianmaria	65
6	97	BMS Scuderia Italia	RUBERTI Paolo	65
7	83	Risi Competizione	KROHN Tracy	65
8	85	Snoras Spyker Squadron	JANIS Jarek	65
9	89	Hankook-Farnbacher	FARNBACHER Dominik	64
10	84	Team Modena	RUSINOV Roman	64

LE MANS, Fr — The numbers are in and Peugeot has once again set the top time in qualifying and holds four of the top six positions on the grid for the start of the 77th 24 hours of Le Mans — but the question that has to be on everyone’s mind — and most specifically those of the Peugeot team is do the numbers tell the full story.

While it is true that the No. 8 Peugeot with Stephane Sarrazin at the wheel set the top time in qualifying (3:22.888), and while it is also true that his driving mates, Sebastian Bourdais and Franck Montagny were faster than all of the Audi team except for Allan McNish — Le Mans is a 24 hour race — and this just a small slice of time in the grand scheme of things.

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