28. 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours
The Peugeot attack finally paid off in 2009 – Audi had cut back their race programme with the new and aerodynamically radical R15 and it showed – It was far from plain sailing though for the team from Velizy, but their super powerful, aero efficient coupes finally got the job done at the race they really wanted to win.
It was a first overall win for David Brabham, and a second for Alex Wurz, with Marc Gene on the top step of the podium a year after a shunt that would, not too many years previously, have ended his career at best!
Elsewhere it was a second consecutive (and final) win in LMP2 for the Porche RS Spyder, this time the Team Essex car bringing it home – Corvette won again in the death throes of ‘old’ GT1 ad Risi grabbed a win double at Le Mans in GT2.
A highlight was the move over to LMP1 for the Aston Martin Racing team their howling V12 engined, Lola Aston Martins became massive fan favourites – anyone who heard one of these things take off from the pits will never forget the sound! the #007 car came home an excellent 4th overall.
There was a low point in the race doled out by the JLOC Lamborghini team, this the same squad that had retired very early in the ’08 race after being allowed to replace their car on Race Morning!
The ’09 effort was frankly shambolic – and the sight of the team celebrating after retiring after a single lap had been completely rankled more than just the purists.
The moment here though goes to an heroic effort from a team we expected very little from – Kolles Audi had fielded a pair of ex works Audi R10 TDIs unimpressively in the Le Mans Series thus far. and came to Le Mans with a reshuffled pack.
Amongst the driver line-ups was Indian single seater star Narain Karthikeyan and as Narain went to the grid pre-race he opted to jump over the pit wall, lost his footing, and dislocated his shoulder!
He was out of the race and that left the #14 crew with just two drivers. What followed was an epic run from Charles Zwolsman Jr and some bloke called Andre Lotterer – They brought the car home in an astonishing 7th position overall , on the same lap as the delayed #7 Peugeot – seen below after its early and car damaging puncture (itself with a hero aboard, Nic Minassian was epic throughout the race)!
29. 2009 Nurburgring 24 Hours
It was Manthey’s year again, with Marcel Tiemann scoring a record breaking fifth win as part of the #1 Porsche team once again.
For a time though it looked like Audi might grab the honours at a race that it was already clear they wanted to add to their motorsport roll of honour – The Porsche though was closing in before the last bullet in the Audi gun proved to be a blank.
And the moment here – It lasted for an hour and it was again at the very start as Dirk Adorf in the GT3 Ford GT held off Marc Lieb in the Porsche – “It was like watching the world’s longest, scariest Police chase,” said John Hindhaugh of Radio Le Mans – and he was dead right!
30. 2009 Spa 24 Hours
It was a hard fought win for Peka Racing and their Corvette C6.R, Anthony Kumpen finally grabbing the result he had wanted for so, so long. The Vette ran fast and reliably whilst the remainder of the GT1 pack, including the ‘new GT1’ Ford GT and Nissan GT-R didn’t!
The seemingly invincible Vitaphone Maseratis meanwhile crumbled after leading from the start in line astern, mechanical problems and on-track incidents put them on the back foot and tempers were getting frayed – Never more so than when the final undelayed car of three that were entered) finally hit trouble and was garaged for major attention.
Peter May was despatched to grab the shot and was in nobody’s way whatsoever when a coupe of wound up team mechanics pushed Pedro across the pit lane and into the fast lane with the car’s front bodywork! That was a pretty shocking way to behave and sadly to this day it’s the moment I remember this race for.
There was a brief and pointed conversation later in the day between yours truly and the Team Manager on the matter – along the general lines of his team needing to learn to lose as well as they had learned to win!
And as a marker things to come, third overall was a Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS, albeit in Nordschliefe spec rather than a BoPed GT3 – it did though beat a very professionally crewed AF Corse Ferrari to the final step of the podium!
