Motorsport is a very rewarding environment to spend both working and leisure time. You are surrounded by excellence on both personal and professional levels with experts galore both in things you could never do, and other things that, in theory at least, you might wish to try!
Those goals and goalposts move with time, and this writer, now into my seventh decade, has, as you’ll soon find out, been taking time to look at my own priorities for the remainder of my working life.
It’s something of a jarring shock then to encounter an individual close to 20 years older trying out something that, quite honestly, feels way beyond my capabilities.
So welcome back to the paddock, Dominique ‘Dom’ Bastien, now 79 years young. Dom turns 80 next month.
He turned out at the (in his case somewhat ironically named) ELMS ‘Rookie’ Test on Sunday with something extraordinary in mind, to try out an LMP2 ORECA!
Dom is already the oldest ever starter and finisher at Le Mans; he raced there twice, both times for Proton Competition, in GTE Am in 2020 and 2021.
2020 saw a delayed non classified result but the following year, with the US-naturalised Frenchman aged 75, he scored a finish, 13th in class, alongside current Porsche Hypercar driver Julien Andlauer and Lance David Arnold.
It’s a truly inspirational story; but his racing didn’t end there. Dom has featured in the 24H Series and Porsche one-make racing since, and it was a delight to reconnect in Portugal.
I asked a few questions, he gave a few answers, but rather than an interview, Dom suggested copying me in on a note he was sending to friends and colleagues documenting the experience. That arrived this morning, and with his kind permission, it is reproduced in full below.
Enjoy!
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You know the feeling: Cruising along I-95 (or any hellish highway of your choice) when a juiced-up Honda Civic blows past at 90mph.
That’s exactly what it feels like at Le Mans in a GT3 car (a race car that looks like a production sportscar). You are flat out at 180 mph down the Mulsanne straight, when a Le Mans Prototype car, either LMP1, or its slightly tamer LMP2 sibling, blows past at 215 mph, leaving you standing still.
I muttered to myself, as I was being passed in 2021 for the 100th time by the winning red Toyota LMP1: One day, Red Baron I’ll have my revenge!
One day, I will be the obnoxious guy in the Civic.
That day was October 19th 2025.
A month ago, out of the blue, thanks to my friend Tristan Vautier, I got the opportunity to drive an LMP2 in the ELMS (European Le Mans Series) Rookie Test at Portimao (Portugal) with Proton Competition.
Tristan is a FIA Gold professional driver, winner of the 12H of Sebring, currently running an LMP2 in the ELMS series.
Proton is the (great) team I ran with in the 2020 and 2021 24H of Le Mans. They now run the full gamut of Le Mans cars, including LMP2s.
How exciting! I fly to our winter place in Florida to log simulator laps (my wife Carol has banned the contraption from our New York apartment). I run hundreds of virtual laps; I dissect each frame of Tristan’s onboard video from last year’s race; I go to sleep doing laps around Portimao.
By the time I board the plane to Lisbon, I’m ready. And pepped up! Red Baron, your day has come! My pace will devastate you and your minions. That lap of Tristan? Ah, ah, I can do that in my sleep.
I get to Portimao three days before the test and hang around the track while the ELMS season finale is being run.
I bump into my racing friend Rahel Frey, FIA Gold driver—hugs, reminiscing. ‘You’re running the Rookie Test? In an LMP2?’ Her look of disbelief lingers in the back of my mind.
I bump into Steven Palette, another pro. “Well, Portimao is not exactly the place to try out an LMP2. A roller coaster, all those blind corners. Good luck!”
Other problems come up: The sardine-like cockpit; the brakes that feel like you are pushing against the wall; the steering that punishes your shoulders; the high G forces that kill your neck, the constant shaking that makes you feel like a piece of underwear in a drying machine.
Oy Vey.
Three days to ruminate on all those things.
By the time I get in the car for my first stint, I have shrunk a couple of sizes.
Earlier, Tristan had set up a reference lap of 1:33.7.
Forget lap times! My revised goal is to bring the car back to the pits in one piece.
Seven laps in, I clock a 1:42.6 — Tristan seems pleasantly surprised, not bad at all for ten minutes in the car. Eleven more laps and I dip to 1:40.3. Traffic blunts my third stint, but Tristan’s data and video debrief set me straight. Then Ben Tuck, 28 and frighteningly fast, lays down a 1:33.4. My final stint: nine laps, and a 1:38.8 as the checkered flag falls.
Et voila, nothing to it.
Tristan is now really impressed. Christian Ried, Proton’s owner, gives me a “ooh la la, magnifique” rolling motion of the hand.
Five seconds off top pros–who operate in an entirely different cosmos– isn’t bad for a first day. There is easily another 1 to 1.5 seconds available with more seat time.
With that said, I am dead last in LMP2. Not a problem with that mob. But the beauty of the LMP2 is that my 1:38.8 puts me 23rd of 72 drivers in the overall standings. The slow pokes behind me just happen to run cars that are 5 to 10 seconds slower than mine.
When I ran in GT at Le Mans, I stood out like a sore thumb–one of the slowest drivers in the slowest car in the field, putting me at the very bottom of the time charts, almost in the appendix section. In an LMP2, I am basking in the anonymity of the mid-table.
At the beginning of the season, I told Carol that this year would be the breakout year in my racing career. I felt it in my bones. Fortuitously, in January, also at Portimao, I ran into Joe Warhurst, a 19-year-old racing whiz kid. I said to myself: He’s almost 20. I am almost 80. Whatever success I achieved in business was built on the 80/20 principle and dumb luck. There was a clear fit. Joe became my first-ever coach at the track.
A resounding success. Thanks to Joe, I set record lap times in my Porsche Cup 992 at Portimao! At Imola! At the Red Bull Ring! At Monza!–a glorious finale to the season with a best lap time of 1:51.7, only 2 seconds off the Porsche factory drivers. Even more glorious, a 9th place finish out of 22 in the Porsche 992 race, holding off Patrick Dempsey for the last 4 laps with savvy racecraft. (OK, Patrick is not a top tier driver; still, in 2015 he finished 2nd in Le Mans and 6th in the world endurance championship.)
The best part: With LMP2, I can now double my chances of getting into the 2026 Le Mans 24H–however minuscule they may be.
