24 Heures du Mans: Sunrise Update

One of the cooler moments of any 24-hour race is the hour or so where the sun lights up the sky, then clears the horizon. After many hours of watching anonymous headlights floating down the roads of central France, it is fantastic to see the cars emerge from the darkness carrying the battle scars of many hours of night racing.

Of course, some battle scars are larger than others. Here's a run-down of what's been going on in the first 14.5 hours of action:

-Audi #3, being driven at the time by Premat, overcooked it on the approach to the Indianapolis corner in the opening laps, parking it in the barriers and cracking the front end. The car was repaired, but lost a ton of ground.

-Peugeot #7, with Pedro Lamy at the wheel, was sent out of the pits in the path of Pescarolo's Peugeot, who stuck one of its various front winglets into the left-rear of the factory car. The #7 car's tire was busted before it reached the Dunlop Bridge and it shredded, taking the entire left rear part of the car with it. The safety car was deployed, as bits of rubber, carbon fiber, and mechanicals were strewn all over the track. The car was fixed and on its way, but much time was lost.

-Audi #2, under the direction of Lucas Luhr, appeared to have a flat left-rear tire. The replays were inconclusive, but the result was not: the car was stuffed into the barriers at the start of the Porsche Curves. The back end of the car was entirely wrecked and, despite protestations from Luhr, the officials would not let him limp back to the pits because of the sheer amount of fluid leaking from the car.

-Several mechanical things took place as day turned to night and night dragged on, but one incident takes the cake. In the 14th hour, the #17 Pescarolo Peugeot ended up parked next to the barriers at the Esses in complete tatters. There were no replays, but the car was so completely destroyed that there was no question that something catastrophic happened. Benoit Trulyer was yanked from the car and taken off in the ambulance, but all reports say he's awake and, most importantly, alive.

At this point, two of the factory Peugeots are leading the one remaining Audi of any concern. The Brabham/Wurz/Gene car has been leading for quite a while and is still looking good. Still, even though the sun is on its way up, there are still nine whole hours left in the event. There is plenty of time for things to go entirely wrong and, being the home stretch of the Le Mans 24-Hours, something certainly will.

The sky is turning a happy pinkish-orange over the La Sarthe district of France and we will be racing in full daylight before too long. Nine hours, 17 minutes left to go. Full review coming when day hits in North America.