Mark Patterson is going to be furious!
Why? Because after years of preparation and working towards his oft-stated goal of being the oldest driver to start the Le Mans 24 Hours he will finally pass that mark this year. In September he will be some months older than previous record-holder Jack Gerber (68 years, 110 days old) who not only started the race in 2013 but finished on the GTE-Am podium. Patterson will eclipse that mark by 164 days on race day this year, but he won’t be the oldest!
That’s because he’s been pipped at the post by a ‘newcomer’!!
Dom Bastien will start the 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours at the fine age of 74 years and 295 days!
Born on 25 November 1945 and raised in Dunkirk, his earliest memory of the race came at the age of 9 years old, in June 1955 when he walked into the room as his parents were listening to the news of the disaster that claimed the lives of 83 spectators and poor Pierre Levegh.
“I remember the look on my mother’s face very well!”
Dom has lived in the United States since his late teens and, after a successful career importing specialist and gourmet food, came around to indulging his passion for motorsport in his 50s through the Skip Barber School in the USA.
Ironically he met Mark Patterson there “Yes, back in 2003, a really nice guy, we went through the school system and he went off to do bigger and better things as I went my own way.”
Dom’s own way has included several seasons in Skip Barber Racing and, rather more recently, no little endurance racing too including 24H Series action with Cor Euser Racing and latterly with Speedlover in a Cup class Porsche and GT4 AMG. Those campaigns saw regular class wins with class victories at Brno, Imola, Monza, Silverstone, CoTA and in the 24 Hours of Barcelona.
He’s therefore familiar with the challenges of long-distance racing, his cv also includes the Nürburgring 24 Hours too, with two starts, in 2013 (above) and 2014 (below), and two finishes in what is likely the most demanding 24 Hour race of them all.
“That was very special, I race with the Audi Race Experience programme, it was amazing to be at such a special race surrounded by top professionals.”
Both races saw top 20 finishes for the Audi, both too involved another 2020 Le Mans racer, Rahel Frey. Dom is seen below with another member of the team, Felix Baumgartner, “The man who jumped from space!”.
“It’s quite amazing to think that I will be racing at Le Mans, I have to thank Stuart Radnofsky and Project 100 for making it happen. Stuart has looked after my racing in Europe for a number of years but this was something I truly did not expect to happen.
“I’ll be doing the Porsche Carrera Cup support race too which will help me to understand as much as possible about the circuit. I’ve been doing hours of sim training since the idea came around but you cannot do better than the real thing!”
It won’t though be his first race start at Le Mans, “No, I did the Aston Martin one-make race there back in 2015 but the race was red-flagged after an accident very early on, I think I did four laps!”
That experience lit the fire but also provided the motivation to return.
This year though he’ll be in a very different machine, the #88 GTE-Am class Porsche 911 RSR from Dempsey Proton Racing alongside Belgian driver Adrien de Leener who raced for the team three times at the end of 2019 and will also make his Le Mans 24 Hours debut, and Porsche Junior Thomas Preining who will make his second appearance at Le Mans after racing in the Gulf Racing UK Porsche last year.
The trio will test at Spa in two weeks time with Bastien making his way to Europe today, and with an appointment for his Le Mans ‘Rookie’ sim test on Thursday.
Mark Patterson meanwhile will finally have the opportunity to break the record – in 2027!
