Perry McCarthy is out in the woods with a broken car and it is getting a bit tricky because they have lost radio contact, so they are sending a mechanic out to 'help' ... actually all he will do is tell Perry to give it a bl**dy good kicking since it is now virtually impossible to do any more damage to the poor old thing. If they can frighten it into gear it will be able to stagger home for repairs.
An eventful story about the Audi R8C at the race:
Lst a few gears in the first hour of the race. Andy Wallace reported it was a gearbox problem. Then it was pushed straight into the garage for repairs.
Came out in 38th.
After 7pm, James Weaver said: "We lost second gear then a couple of the others till we only had 4th. I was too
slow on the straights with only 4th so I thought I'd better come in!"
Before 9.30pm, Perry McCarthy goes off at Indianapolis.
The Audi is back again in the pits, there seems to be a brake problem and the wheels are locking up.
Around 11pm, it climbs up to 11th but with 15 laps behind but but at least it hasn't needed another gearbox yet...
Andy Wallace: "The car's going very well. The balance is pretty good, and we'll probably pick up the pace again when it gets light. The gearbox feels great now... It'll probably break down no I've said that! We think the car lost some cornerweight because I flat-spotted a tyre the same as Perry did. We changed the tyre and switched the brake balance to the rear."
Comes in for an unscheduled stop for a flat tyre.
In again before midnight and there are mechanics looking at the rear end of the car. Something seems to be loose and may be associated with the gearbox so maybe Andy Wallace should have kept quiet...
Around 12.20am, the Audi is being pushed into its garage, is the gearbox playing up?
After 1am, the Audi is out and about again with a new gear box and Perry McCarthy at the wheel.
The #10 is back out again after a long stop after 2am.
back in yet again, the Audi having a seriously troubled run so far.
Andy Wallace said: "It's not going exactly to plan. We've got some more parts back here so we'll just keep bolting them on if we need them." They are now on their third gearbox.
Perry McCarthy said: "We're making some progress now. I'm fairly happy with the car. There's a couple of little things we've done with the gearbox - Blast! I meant to tell Andy [Wallace] something... he's not answering his radio right now."
At 5.30am, The Audi is back again too.
24th overall at 6am.
22nd overall at 8am.
The Audi seems to be gradually returning to component form' out in the country and heading home to the pits where it will be greeted by a new front panel, new front tyres, rear body work is off, left rear wheel is a bit hard to get off, front body work replaced. Quite what flew off remains a mystery. It seems that it was a puncture after all.
25th overall at 9am.
27th overall at 10am
Are Audi still running the same car that they started with? It's had so many bits replaced that it could probably be described as a completely different car. For sheer courage in the face of adversity it would be hard to beat their example. They're certainly superb gearbox changers now though I'm sure they would prefer not to be...
The #10 car has had a full exhaust system change and various other repairs after 10am.
28th overall at 11am.
THEN it finally retires before 12pm after 20 hours of repairing and racing as the video clip shows!
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