Toyota: If Only It Was the 23:57 of LeMans

Published on 20-Jun-2016 by J Square Humboldt

Motorsports    Motorsports Daily Update

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Toyota: If Only It Was the 23:57 of LeMans

This was not the way to finish an endurance race.

There Toyota sat, three minutes away from becoming the first Japanese auto maker in a quarter-century to claim the prestigious 24 Hours of LeMans.

But that's the problem: there Toyota sat.

Kazuki Nakajima was dead in the water, right in front the finish line for all the world to see. Especially the Porsche team.

Bizarre.

Instead of one crew celebrating the end of a 25-year victory drought at LeMans -- Mazda is still the only Japanese manufacturer to win here, back in 1991 -- another team took the honors in that regard:

Ford GTE wins LeMans

253,000 spectators were on hand to witness a little bit of everything in this race, which included a slippery beginning:

This included the Audi R8 safety car adding some spice to the sideshow:

Conditions were still dodgy as the sun went down, with Toyota and Porsche dueling through the night:

So, after dealing with all that, it's easy to imagine what Nakajima was feeling when his car lost power:

Somehow, the bromides like that's racing and we'll get 'em next year just don't cut it.

Others do, but it's best to leave those to the pros, like hackers who are driving ISIL/ISIS/Daesh crazy.