responded. "Remember, the local meteorologists were on strike, so no teams have any weather reports available." "Well, I've got some drops on the windshield, here," Balto put in. "How bad is it?" Kurt asked his driver. "It's not very bad so far," said Balto, who by now was near the Mulsanne Kink. "Maybe it's the tire wear I've sustained so far that's making it worse." "I don't know," said Kurt in a worried tone. "If you think it's getting bad enough, then pit." Balto rounded Mulsanne Corner before replying. "Mulsanne is bone dry," Balto radioed back. "I think it's just the north end of the circuit that's a mess right now." "Yeah, we've got some moisture in the pit area," Kurt informed his driver. "That's what I thought," Balto added as he reached over to make a brake bias adjustment, the only real such adjustment he could make from the cockpit. "It's-" ZAP! Suddenly, everything went black. Sparks flew inside the cockpit. And not in a good way. "Ah, shit! Shit!" Balto exclaimed as he pulled his left paw back and winced slightly from the pain of the shock. Noticing that the radio went dead, he panicked. "Come back! Come back pit lane! I've lost contact with you!" But Balto's troubles were far worse than the radio blackout. Everything used for illumination - instrumentation gauge panel lighting, headlights and taillights - had short-circuited. "Balto, come back! You're unreadable now!" Kurt frantically exclaimed. He had no luck getting through. Rhinehold's luck wasn't any better. "Come back pit lane!" Balto exclaimed with the same frantic tone that Rhinehold and Kurt had. "Got some major problems here! Gauge illumination lights: gone! Headlights: OUT! I cannot see anything! It's completely dark out here! Come back pit lane! I'm in serious danger now!" Balto had just reached the braking zone for the right-hander before Indianapolis Corner when the lights went out. He made it through Indianapolis Corner with no problems, but was now at a crawl on the run down to Arnage. As Balto tried to negotiate the turn, he was rammed from behind by a lapped C1 car and knocked into the tire wall right even with his pit board. The collision blocked the already narrow track. The public road sections of the full Circuit de la Sarthe are rather narrow, which can make overtaking, both for positions and lapping slower cars rather tricky. "Just when I thought this couldn't possibly get any worse," Balto mumbled before trying to maneuver his now noticeably mangled car out of the barrier. "Son of a bitch!" During all that, he pounded the steering wheel in frustration. Meanwhile, the pit board holder for Balto's #9 Porsche, whose radio was not affected by the blackout on board the car, radioed the pits about the problem. "Joest pits, be advised, car #9 has lost its lights," the pit board holder radioed the pits. "Lost its lights?" Reinhold asked. "Both the headlights AND taillights are out," the pit board holder replied. "They're absolutely not working. He's also probably got some suspension damage at either end of the car." Balto proceeded to drive slowly back to the pits, relying on following the taillights of other cars as they came speeding past at frightening speeds considering his predicament. He couldn't go very fast because not only had he lost his headlights, but he had also suffered a left front puncture when he got shunted into the tire barriers. Steering through the Porsche Curves, Maison Blanche and the Ford Chicane was gonna be very challenging due to the flat left front tire. Fortunately, he got through with no problem, despite holding up a few cars even though he tried to stay off the racing line as much as he possibly could. Eventually, Balto brought his slightly mangled Porsche back to the pits. The crew was in a state of absolute disbelief. Kurt couldn't believe it what he saw. Hans and Bob couldn't believe it, either. Neither could Reinhold. When Jenna saw the state of Balto's car, her jaw dropped and her arms hung limp at her side. "What happened?" Reinhold asked as Balto took off his helmet and unbuckled his safety harness. "I don't know," Balto responded, shaking his head. "All I remember is reaching down for the brake bias adjustment knob to make an adjustment to that. Next thing I know, ZAP! Everything just shorted out right there in the cockpit. The illumination lights for my gauges were gone, my headlights were gone, everything. I'm surprised that the short didn't affect the engine in anyway." Immediately after pulling onto the garage, the mechanics began working on the #9 962C. Further diagnosis revealed that water had somehow gotten into the wiring for the lights on the car, causing them to short circuit. The entire wiring setup for the lights would have to be replaced. Oddly, the ECU for the engine wasn't adversely affected. The impact with the tire barrier had also damaged the front bodywork of the car in addition to the damage done by the punctured tire. As the crew went to work on the car, Balto could only stand and watch with his head hanging down. Once again, a race that appeared to be in the bag had gotten away from him as a result of circumstances that appeared to be out of his control. He could not believe his rotten luck. His chances of a podium finish appeared to be dying right in front of him. "What did I ever do to deserve this?" he asked himself to no avail. The car was eventually repaired and sent back out with Bob Wollek at the wheel. But they had lost a huge amount of time - over 30 minutes - and were now seventh overall, 9 laps down on the leading #63 Mercedes C9. Worse yet, before Balto had his problems, the #7 Joest Porsche of Frank Jelinski, Pierre-Henri Raphanel, and Louis Krages, had dropped out after completing 124 laps due to a crash that resulted in terminal suspension damage. They now had a fight on their hands to get back in the hunt. With one car out, and the remaining two too far back to be of any threat, only attrition could help them advance back through the field. The #8 car, in the hands of Henri Pescarolo, Claude Bellot-Lena, and Jean-Louis Ricci, had already lost several laps due to mechanical problems in addition to the fact that it was the "tortoise" in the Joest lineup, meaning it was the slowest of their three cars.   Chapter 14: Day Two   Bob Wollek and Hans-Joachim Stuck had been making up time and positions all throughout the night following the mysterious electrical short that struck exactly at midnight while Balto Wolf was at the wheel during his nighttime stint. Balto himself was due back in at around 3:20 AM. By this point of the race, a new opponent emerges to make the race a far greater challenge: exhaustion. Drivers, mechanics, flag marshals, everyone is affected in one way or another by this foreboding adversary. They may catch some sleep every now and then, but their nerves are still strung tight, always on the edge. So while they may find time to recharge, it's not a very peaceful time for them. Because of the time they had lost in the garage due to repairs, Bob, Hans, and Balto were able to push a bit harder than normal race pace because the fuel consumption pressures were relaxed due to the time spent in the garage. By the time Balto began his third stint in the car, they had gained back one of the laps that they had lost. It was still wet out, as during Bob's most recent stint, it rained rather heavily. Tom Walkinshaw Racing, who fields the works Jaguar XJR-9LMs, said that they feared what these Bob and Hans were capable of in the wet the most, and were expecting a big challenge from the #9 Porsche in the event of a rain shower. By the time Balto began his next stint, the rain had let up, although the track was still damp in the more open areas that weren't surrounded by trees. The wooded areas, on the other hand, remained thoroughly soaked. And with sunrise not for another two hours, the track wouldn't fully dry out for quite some time. One problem with a long track like Le Mans is because it covers such a large area, the weather can vary greatly around the circuit. It can be raining hard at one end, yet completely dry at the other. All long road courses can have this problem, which really complicates race strategy. And can make for some really crazy races. For a really good example, look no further than the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix on the old layout of Spa-Francorchamps, which back then was an 8.77 mile long, roughly triangular shaped connection of public roads touching the villages of Francorchamps, Malmedy, and Stavelot. The cars accelerated away from the starting grid in dry conditions, but a quarter of the way around they hit a wall of rain and nearly everyone went off. In all, only six cars completed the first lap. The rest were in ditches or, in Jo Bonnier's case, teetering over a precipice. Most of the field was eliminated in a succession of minor accidents, but Jackie Stewart's BRM had the biggest shunt of the all when it crahsed into the basement of a woodcutter's cottage adjacent to the Masta Straight. He was trapped in the wrecked car and soaked in leaking fuel until he was rescued by fellow competitors Graham Hill and Bob Bondurant. This experience was the spark that ignited Jackie's career-long commitment to safety in motorsports, which is still being felt even today. Balto had opted for full rain tires, or wets, due to the fact that the wooded areas remained thoroughly soaked. And a good decision it was. Unfortunately, everyone else was also on wets, so Balto wasn't making up much ground on the track. He did, however, make up places due to other cars having problems. Among them were the #1 Jaguar XJR-9LM and the #62 Mercedes C9. As

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