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Le Mans, France —

Dear Mr. Mulally:

I am writing to you as President and CEO of the Ford Motor Company because you are someone who I believe understands the value of competition. I believe this because of what I saw you do to help the Boeing company achieve success when it was in a down cycle against European competition.

This afternoon at the 24 Hours of LeMans, one of the greatest automotive events in the world of motor racing, I walked through the pit area and wondered to myself where are the Americans. I do not wish to belittle the efforts of the American teams who are here — but virtually none of them represent an American brand. Corvette is here, but not backed by General Motors in the states. There are several other American teams here but not in the LMP 1 class where Audi and Peugeot will do battle tomorrow and not representing an American brand.

I am writing this to you as the “new guy” at Ford — someone who should also be looking to the roots of Ford to inspire both the members of the Ford team who will rebuild the company, and also inspire American consummers who would love for Ford to return its winning form.

When I say roots, I am speaking first of namesake of the company, Henry Ford, who virtually established the company on the premise of racing.

I am also speaking of the Ford Team who came to LeMans in 1967 with the GT40 to leave an indellable mark by topping Ferarri and carving for Ford a legendary mark in the annals of racing. The car under other leadership also won in 1968 and 1969. (Note: Ford also won in 1966, but not with a true Ford car.)

That first team included folks who would write their name in the pages of motor racing history their entire careers in the sport. Caroll Shelby, A. J. Foyt, and Dan Gurney to name a few.

I realize that Ford is hemmoraging money right now; I realize that your focus is on rebuilding the company; I realize that timing seems all wrong for any American brand to enter into the fray at LeMans — and in other venues as well.

But I also believe that Americans want a winner.

Leadership requires boldness. I know that like me, you remember JFK saying, ” We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. ‘

That in a nutshell sums up the reasons to remake Ford into an international brand which people look at and say “Winner”.

Can they say that today?

I hope that you will choose to make the same decision that President Kennedy made in the early 1960s, and choose to put the full force and might of Ford Motor Company into going to Le Mans and returning to the shores of the United States as the winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Le Mans, France — So I am officially ready for the race to start. At about noon today, they played The Star Spangled Banner over the PA system. It was a guitar rendition that could have been Jimi Hendrix — and sent goose bumps up and down my back. A nice applause by the large crowd that is on hand at the end.

Of course another thing that got the blood pumping was the ride to the track (at left) — we rode on a part of the track — and it was really a thrill to think of cars rolling along this very road at nearly 200 mph — and then hitting the chicane’s and going to around 60 mph. WOW!

So let’s look at what is going on here — as is the norm — who is going to win. First, let me note that I am not up to speed on the smaller classes — but only on the LMP1 where Audi and Peugeot are going head to head with diesel cars.

Peugeot has stolen a little of Audi’s thunder by grabbbing the pole position with the best time in qualification but even Peugeot still thinks that Audi is the favorite to win the overall title again — at least that is what they are intimating by speaking to their three-year plan. Of course Peugeot would love to to win the race and it is not like they won’t be trying with all their might — but there is an underlying thought that they are “just testing” this year. Still they are fast — but can they last for whole 24 hours.

I chatted with a French fan yesterday over a beer and he thought that the Peugeot was definitely faster than the Audi — and thought that they might lead for the first eight hours or so of the race but would never last. As an old friend of mine has said often “To finish first, first you must finish.”

The pits here are nothing like any of you boat racers have every seen. The Audi and Peugeot teams make our unlimited teams look like back yard racers. The Peugeot work area (seen at right and located behind the pit wall work area.) is completely hidden from the public and the Audi area is even more the picture of secrecy. Of course cubic dollars allow them to do that but still the presentation is really unbelieveable and there is very little that is seen by the fans or the competition unless the teams want them to be seen. Of course another thing that differs this race from any boat race is that they will have 200,000 plus paying fans tomorrow.

The thought that I have had is that perhaps Audi is laying back in the weeds and letting Peugeot have a little glory prior to the race — after all Audi has dominated the event since 2000 — and then drop the boom on Saturday and show Peugeot that they still have a ways to go.

Last night from our room we could hear racers getting their night practice laps in — much of the time in the rain — and it was a sweet lulaby to fall asleep to. It is just 1 pm here at the track and there has yet to be any action on the track. I guess that is one of the downsides of racing on public highways — you can’t have the track open 24 by 7.

There is plenty of action on the paddock (at left) which is open to all of the race fans at this time. Interestingly enough for the photographers in the crowd, on race day you can not be in the paddock area making pictures unless you are wearing a driver’s fire suit.

The weather here is Seattle-styled — with rain on the way to the track this morning and clouds and blue sky currently — and always it seems the threat of rain. If you don’t have a rain suit you will definitely get wet zat sometime during the day — and even with a rain suit the chances that you will get wet are pretty high.

More on the other classes a little later.

Stay tuned.

Le Mans, France — Well after 48 hours of travel I finally got to the destination. The flight from Houston went without incident, except for one small hiccup — we were an hour late leaving the airport due to weather — so instead of getting to Paris at 11:20 am I did not arrive until about 12:30 pm.

Of course the interesting thing is that one piece of luggage came from Newark and one came from Houston. So much for Continental rubric that your luggage will follow your ticket.

The train ride (at left) from the airport (CDG — Charles De Gaulle) was an easy two hours or thereabouts but since I had been up for about two days straight with a couple of cat naps here and there I was a little worried that I might sleep through the Le Mans stop.

So once to Le Mans (at right), I had a short wait until Joe showed up at the train station and then it was off for dinner and to our bed and breakfast.

We will post some pictures of the bed and breakfast a little later but for now it is zoom zoom time.