Home » Blog » Allan's Blog » AT LAST MY SECOND LE MANS VICTORY IN WHAT WAS A TRUE “CLASSIC” RACE

24 June 2008 | Posted in Allan's Blog

Sorry for the delay in sending this out but hopefully you will understand that since winning the Le Mans 24 Hours, it’s been pretty hectic. I think that anyone who witnessed this year’s Le Mans race, either trackside, watching it on Eurosport or listening to it on Radio Le Mans, will agree that it was one of the best races in the history of the race and motor racing in general, although I’m biased, it was a titanic battle for 24 hours between two big guns in sportscar racing.

To have been involved in this race was one thing but to ultimately come out of it as a winner was one of the most superb moments in my career – there can’t be many events that can top the feelings and emotions I’ve taken away from that victory. It had everything, Hollywood could make a film of it! It had intrigue, strategy, the underdog element, the weather coming through, including the last 15 minutes, it just had a little piece of everything – amazing!

From qualifying when the Peugeot was dominant, there is no other way to put it, Sarrazin’s 3min 18sec lap around Le Mans was absolutely stunning. I lost 10 Euros because after the pre-Test when he did a 3:22, we sat down for our debrief, my engineer predicted a 3:18.7 and that was the case. After qualifying many people were saying Audi’s chances were over. We had absolutely no chance. They would disappear into the distance in the race. But we’d changed our game plan around a little. We knew we couldn’t get anywhere near them in qualifying and it would be Peugeot 1-2-3 on the grid.

So we concentrated 100% on race set-up. We compromised the perfect time to achieve qualifying times at Le Mans when the quickest laps are set on both nights to fully exploit our race preparations, to determine absolutely precisely the best time of day to switch from a daytime tyre to a night time tyre. To determine the exact boundaries of everything. All three drivers in each of the three Audis ran with full tanks, empty tanks, in semi darkness and full darkness, every scenario we could find ourselves in, we wanted to make sure we were ready for it.

So when it came to the start we knew we had limited opportunities, and if and when arose, we needed to be in a position to take them. At the green light I was ducking around Minassian’s Peugeot. He defended the inside line at the first corner so there was a little bit of a switchback manoeuvre which allowed me to have a run into the Esses which I took. It wasn’t a case of making a reckless move minutes into a 24 hour race but it showed Peugeot immediately that we were going to take the fight to them. We weren’t going to cruise around or take anything lying down. We were going to give it everything we’d got and we’re in for a long haul.

The first stints were a long haul indeed. We’d decided on an aggressive strategy and so I drove for four stints straightaway lasting around 2hrs 45mins. As I was reminded afterwards, the complete race duration of a normal American Le Mans Series event. It was also critical that we took one extra lap out of the Peugeots on fuel stops. This was another aspect that put them under pressure. Even if they were able to pull away at such a rate, although it didn’t necessarily compromise the overall result, it was just something else to niggle a way at the back of their minds down the pit lane.

Our pit-stops were better, all of the Audi drivers were capable of mixing it up and doing very, very long stints straight from the start, and we had a better fuel economy package which allowed us to keep in contact with them. So we were still in contention which had been a game plan.

Then, at around 4am on Sunday morning, when the #2 Audi was a bit ahead of our ‘sister’ Audis and while I was having a little sleep, it started to drizzle then heavier rain. And that was our moment. We’d seen from the pre-test at Le Mans that when it rained, we were much more competitive. We pushed really hard at that moment. Tom did a fantastic stint and got us back in basically equal contention with the lead Peugeot. Then at 6am I got back in the car for what turned out to be my final run which finished around 9.20am. Let me tell you, 3hrs 20mins in those conditions, wet track, spray, treacherously slippery track surface, but needing to maximise our advantage in those conditions, was one of the hardest stints I have ever driven in my life.

I was pretty happy to get out of the car after those four stints but even happier to hand over to Dindo with a three minute plus lead. On some laps we’d been able to pull out 4 or 5secs over the Minassian who is an extremely quick driver in wet or dry conditions. From then on until the end of the race we were able to maintain the lead but coming into the last hour it was going to absolutely nip and tuck as to who won the race. I kept on walking in to our lap time prediction guy and asking him “who is going to win, who is going to win?” and was told that if the Peugeot kept catching us at the current rate, it could go either way, so I was very, very tense – I couldn’t keep still.

But the weather was to play another important role and with around 30minutes to run, it started raining again, but only on one section of the circuit – the other section being completely dry. I then remember looking at our weather forecast which said at 1439, 21minutes until the finish, it was going to rain heavily. Peugeot must have had exactly the same weather forecast because at 1439 they were 1min 40secs behind us, catching quickly, they switched onto full wets, but the rain didn’t come.

So we won, Audi’s eighth Le Mans win, Tom’s eighth win there, Dindo’s third and my second – but my first with Audi. What made me particularly proud was that it was the first Le Mans win I’d shared with Tom and Dindo. We’d been so close last year – 2006 could have been ours too – but both of those slipped away. But 10 years after my last Le Mans win, we managed to pull it off this time around and it was a major, major moment for me. It was a victory achieved because every single member of the Audi team was on top of their game, 100% concentration throughout. If anyone ever needs to do a case study for team work then Audi Sport at Le Mans this year is what you need. Absolute perfection.

Ten years since my last Le Mans win and how times have changed crikey me. After my previous win in 1998, I drove to Hockenheim on the Monday morning after the race. For three days, my mobile just rang and rang with people wishing to congratulate me. This time, I had almost 300 text messages on the Sunday evening alone and around 250 emails up until Monday evening – and only 30 telephone calls. How people’s communication tools have changed.

Although I haven’t been back to the UK, I understand that there was very good coverage in the National newspapers on the Monday morning after the race with reports in the Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Sun, Independent and The Times. I even did an interview on BBC Radio Five Live on the Monday morning.

I recovered very quickly last week. In previous years, I’ve returned home to Monaco physically pretty good but emotionally 100% drained. But obviously winning makes that side of things easier because having had a couple of days feeling a bit tired, every time I looked at the trophy or looked at the Rolex Daytona watch, which is very nice by the way, it was a real pick-me-up. Now, as I get to terms with the win, I can’t wait to get back behind the wheel of an Audi R10 TDI. Unfortunately our next race is not until the middle of August at the Nurburgring – then Silverstone in September and I’m already looking forward to seeing many of you there.

I’m heading back to Scotland on Thursday to visit Team DBT McNish for their awards ceremony at Dalbeattie High School. They had a stunning week while I was at Le Mans, heading to Silverstone to defend the National Formula Schools Model Car Championship title. The boys and girls worked fantastically hard and if it hadn’t been for one small little component, they would have returned to Scotland as double champions. However, they won the Bodywork & Aerodynamics category. They should be very proud of their achievements and I’m looking forward to seeing them again.

I have a sponsor event for Unipart in Birmingham next week and will then call in to Silverstone for a day to see some old chums at the British Grand Prix. I’m off to Japan for Audi the following week where they’re launching the fabulous R8 roadcar. I know Japan very well and am looking forward to going there again where I have many friends. Indeed Audi Sport Team Japan won the 2004 Le Mans race. I hope to then be at Goodwood on Saturday 12 July as will be our actual Le Mans race winning R10 TDI that will be on static display.


You can listen to this blog which is split in 4 parts on http://www.allanmcnish.com/output/podcasts.asp

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