13. 2004 Le Mans 24 Hours
Bentley’s three year plan was done and dusted – and it was, guess who was back in the driving seat? Yup, Audi,though without official factory team representation, the customer cars though were well supported with each team selecting their engines by blind draw!
It was the Audi UK cars, Champion Racing and the Audi Japan Team Goh R8 that were looking ominous – but Henri Pescarolo was in his pomp too, his cars developed year on year and getting quicker and more reliable at every turn.
In the GT classes Corvette bit back after the Ferrari win of 2003 despite the efforts of Colin McRae aboard one of the Prodrive cars (the late lamented Scot here with another of his countrymen)
And there was plenty of further evidence that the ALMS had become a key part of the story at Le Mans – Petersen White Lightning’s Porsche took the class win.
LMP2 melted down to a result that saw just two survivors at the flag, Bill Binnie’s Intersport entered Lola finally taking the spoils and there was a feel good story in GT when both Chamberlain Synergy TVRs came home after heroics from all concerned, including a delighted but exhausted Hugh Chamberlain.
Diesel power was to dominate at Le Mans all too soon but the pioneer was Ian Dawson, he fielded the Taurus Sports Lola Caterpillar (VW) after spotting the potential – A good call but the effort fell short.
The Audis managed four cars in the top five, with only the Pescarolo denting the domination – The Japanese entered car took the win, the first for a Japanese flagged effort since Mazda’s win in 1991, and the first privately entered overall winner since 1994.
It also saw an astonishing fifth straight win for Tom Kristensen, a streak which meant that he matched Jacky Ickx’s record of 6 wins – It wouldn’t be the last though for TK!
The moment of the race though also involved the Audis – and it came as early as the second hour with Allan McNish in an Audi UK car and JJ Lehto in the Champion R8 both crashing in the Porsche Curves after hitting a veritable slick of oil from an expiring PK Porsche. It was a big hit, and we became used to seeing R8s arrive in pitlane as a loose collection of parts only to emerge remarkably quickly looking showroom fresh! McNish’s recovery to the pits was of particular note, the wee Scot had taken a bang on the head and was diagnosed with concussion – he still brought the car back though – The pic below came as, to add insult to injury, the car’s extinguisher went off in the garage as repairs began! Add to the moments too the big off in the Porsche Curves for Martin Short, well up the order in his Dallara Judd, but having taken a punt just a little earlier from an impatient Sebastien Bourdais – Shorty was lucky to escape with an injured ankle.
14. 2004 Spa 24 Hours
It was a Prodrive Ferrari that took this one – with the very welcome notable fact that the four person crew featured a lady aboard, Lilian Bryner, Sabine Schmitz has taken wins at the Nurburgring in past years but this, so far at least, was the first and only time that a female driver has been on the top step of a podium for an overall win that this writer has witnessed in 24 hour racing.
It was again a race of attrition and incident, Saleens, Ferraris and Listers hitting trouble (and each other!) and the N-GT Porsches climbing up the order again!
It was the 24 Hour GT racing debut too for a team that would become much more important in future years as Bob Neville fielded an NGT class Nissan 350Z.]
Freisinger would come home with an overall podium to add to their overall win in ’03 (above with all three cars coming home) but the moment of the race for this writer came in the middle of the night and involved one of a pair of factory run BMW M3 GTRs, the cars running to a spec that put them on pace between the two major classes, but there was little doubt that an overall win was being hoped for. After trouble early on for one car there (it would recover to a top ten finish) the other M3 was battling hard in the top 5 but hit trouble in the wee small hours – This writer was despatched by Editor Cracknell to find out why Antonio Garcia hadn’t come around and it wasnt long before a tired and clearly emotional Spaniard made it back to the pits – on foot!
Having waited for some minutes for Antonio to download what had happened – total electrical failure and a 20 minute fruitless battle to restart the car – I stepped forward to grab a quick comment – only to be literally elbowed out of the way by a rather rude BMW PR lady. “I will speak to my driver first!”
I waited again, spoke briefly to Antonio and went back to the press room, encountering the same young lady on the walkway back. I explained politely but firmly that her behaviour was unacceptable, that she had been standing next to me for some minutes and needed only to ask politely rather than adopting a ‘hands on’ approach – Suffice to say that it wasn’t long before the ultra professional Annie Bradshaw was at my shoulder in the pressroom asking politely what had occurred – I explained and never saw the same PR at another race again. Annie though is happily an ever present whenever BMW is running.
