Le Mans

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Vette driver Johnny O speaks of Le Mans and the move to GT2

Posted by September 7, 20091 comment

The No. 63 Corvette in the chicane at Le Mans.

The No. 63 Corvette in the chicane at Le Mans, leading a Ferarri.

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga — Johnny O’Connell and the Corvette team closed out an era of Corvette racing with a victory in the GT1 class at Le Mans and have dominated the field in GT2 in the ALMS.  With the win O’Connell became the only four-time American to win at Le Mans.

However the team is moving on to a new challenge as they take the vaunted ‘Vette from the GT1 class to the highly competitive GT2 class where the Porsche’s, Ferarris, and BMWs have been winners for decades. We caught up with Johnny between races and here is is what he had to say about Le Mans and the future of the Corvette in the GT2 class:

TRT: The 24 hours of Le Mans is a haughty adversaries it gives and takes as I am sure you have found out there. You won in your first trip the storied track and then this year as you closed out the CR.6 history at the track with a near perfect race. Can you reflect on the nine years that you have competed at Circuit de La Sarthe — the wins, the near wins, and what racing there means to you.

 Johnny O: I first raced Le Mans in 1994 with Nissan in the IMSA class they had and won.  Since then I have been back every year since 1998.    Winning there is the most important accomplishment any driver can achieve. Most drivers are just blessed to be in the race, and my memories there will always be amongst my best in racing. As the only American to have 4 wins there… I know it’s something that I will always cherish and consider one of my greatest accomplishments.

An Interview with Allan McNish, From Le Mans, to Music and everything between

Posted by August 22, 20092 comments

Editor’s Note: We had a chance to catch up with Audi team driver Allan McNish recently and talk about the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans as well as a host of topics from his racing heroes growing up to his taste in music.

TRT: Let’s talk about the 24 hours of Le Mans. Last year (2008) was a pretty emotional victory and so was the race at Sebring this year – are those your favorite wins? If not, which one is?

Allan: I think, in terms of wins in my career, thankfully I have had quite a few, and every one has been quite special for one reason or another. Though obviously there’s some that are a little bit more so, usually because of a tight battle. You know when you go off into the distance and you win quite easy, it is memorable, because you dominated, because you obviously were significantly better than the rest. I think at Sebring, and Le Mans in 08, then we had to perform at our maximum to actually achieve.

I personally would say Le Mans will be the one that was remembered because it is the bigger race, but my last two stints at Sebring I think were actually some of the best laps I have ever turned, because it was right at the end of a 12 hour race, and there was no way that I could win it, unless I drove every lap like it was a qualifying lap. When you add the traffic and everything else, I thought I did a pretty clean run of it. So from a purely personal point of view, I did enjoy the satisfaction of that Sebring win. However, Le Mans is Le Mans. In terms of my best Le Mans memory, well if you want to narrow it right down, the first time I stood on the podium in 1998, because the pressure we were under there was unbelievable. It was very, very different pressure then the way things are with Audi, there were a lot of question marks on if the program was going to continue if we didn’t get success at Le Mans, so from that side there were a tremendous amount of things riding on it.

And it was obviously the first one, but because I waited 10 ten years for the second one. Every time in between we had led, and it had all gone away from us at one point or another, especially in 2007. It’s that moment, more the moment of standing on the podium after it is done, because everything else is just a little too nail-biting for me. That moment of standing on the podium, I was able to relax, I was able to take it in a little bit, and just absorb it and realize what we had done, more then I think what I did in 98.
Allan: It is easy to look at that from the outside. I think Sebring was a little bit surprising to us, because we didn’t have any real technical failures on either car, because it was a brand new car, with a new engine. Ok still diesel, but it was a V10 instead of a V12 so it was a completely different engine philosophy. I personally was surprised, I thought that we would have something go wrong somewhere, but it wasn’t  the car ran flawlessly. It was kind of the opposite of Le Mans, because at Le Mans, we had quite a few things that went wrong.

Olivier Quesnel: After Sebring we knew our car would be better at Le Mans

Posted by July 30, 2009No comments

The Peugeot took the checkered flag at the 24 hours of Le Mans, easily outdistancing its closest competitor.
The Peugeot took the checkered flag at the 24 hours of Le Mans, easily outdistancing its closest competitor.

VELIZY, France — It’s not like the Peugeot brand has not been in the winner’s circle before — but the team’s victory at the 24 hours of Le Mans in June has to be one of the most satisfying victories for the French Lion in many years, considering what the team has had to endure over the last three years.

It came to Le Mans in 2007 and pulled of a miraculous third place finish; But in 2008 with easily the fastest car in the event (it turned laps in competition faster than its chief rival Audi did in qualifying) it was bushwacked by more teething problems and a rain storm that served the advantage back to the Ingolstadt Army.

This year at the prestigous 12 Hours of Sebring, the team led late in the race only to have the new Audi R-15 snooker them in the last 30 minutes of the race for the win.

But all of the heartache of the previous three years was washed away at  Circuit de la Sarthe when the team finished first overall and had a second and sixth place finish as well.

We caught up with Olivier Presnell the head of Peugeot Sport to get his take on the state of the Peugeot program after the sterling victory. Here is what he had to say about the win and the future of Peugeot and endurance racing:

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