Xavier Maassen
Darren Turner
Guy Smith
Oliver Gavin
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Xavier Maassen
LE MANS. Clinching a podium in your first outing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the hardest endurance race in the world is not given to many drivers, but Xavier Maassen has managed to do it. In the Corvette C6.R of the French Luc Alphand Aventures team he drove together with Julien Jousse and Yann Clairay into second place in the LM GT1 class, following a trouble free race. Just after three o'clock Xavier Maassen went over to the legendary Le Mans podium, where in front of the international media he was able to voice his absolute joy: "What a debut...!!"
Wednesday 10th June: pre-qualifying & Thursday 11th June: qualifying sessions
On Thursday for the first time in his career Xavier Maassen qualified for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. During two whole days he was able to become acquainted with this mythical circuit during the free practice and qualifying sessions. "It's a circuit just like any other, but somewhat longer", he joked during an interview with the world renowned reporters of Radio Le Mans.
Later on in the evening he looked back on the two days of hard work: "On Thursday we concentrated mainly on the car's set-up to ensure we had a well balanced car for the race. We are really after clinching the third place, the official Corvette cars being in a class of their own, but we're a match for the other competitors. In order to reach that objective you have to be as well prepared as possible before the start. And I believe we have achieved this. Now it's the countdown to the race and in the meanwhile we're going to enjoy the great atmosphere and more especially the parade through the centre of Le Mans which will be packed with spectators."
"But it wasn't an easy run up to the event. On Wednesday we hardly had any driving time due to a clutch problem and so we started out on Thursday being one day down and didn't get out to secure the qualifying time. But OK, Le Mans is Le Mans and not a race run over two or six hours. We'll see how it works out on Sunday at 15.00hrs-.."
Saturday, 13th June and Sunday 14th June: the race
"Up until now the race is actually going perfectly", a physically fit Xavier Maassen told us on Sunday midday under a leaden heat. He had just driven a double stint and during his lap had registered a keen time of 3.58, making him the fastest driver of the Corvette-trio. "The car is extremely good, the tyres are very constant and I'm feeling in really good shape. But at the moment we're lying in third behind our colleagues from Pratt & Miller, the Corvette works team and we'll just have to wait and see."
Early afternoon Maassen moved up one place. "We were second as the result of problems experienced by one of the official Corvette cars. After that it was a question of driving with great regularity, not losing our place and defending that brilliant second position. This result is truly fantastic, and with thanks to my team-mates, my team, my sponsors and the entire entourage. Following our difficult start on Wednesday and Thursday our race was quite simply brilliant. We just drove, drove and drove, with double stints, fantastic tyres and without a single forced stoppage." "This podium in Le Mans is definitely one of the high points, if not the highest peak in my career and at the same time it's a springboard to higher things. Because in fact my ambition one day is to be able to follow in the footsteps of Gijs van Lennep and Jan Lammers..."
Unfortunately Xavier Maassen will not have much time to celebrate and rest, as Maassen will be taking part in the third round of the FIA GT with Alphand in Oschersleben next week. Maassen will be defending his third place in the championship standings.
Darren Turner
The fairytale didn't quite come true for Darren Turner at Le Mans this year but the extraordinary achievements of the entire Aston Martin Racing team will go on record as one of the best ever LMP1 debuts. Darren's 008 car ran as high as third during the race but ultimately finished in 13th position, after a night-time scrape and some mechanical troubles. The sister 007 car finished in fourth place, taking the fight to the factory diesels of Peugeot and Audi. The Aston Martin LMP1 programme is still in its infancy so to even get two cars home after 24 hours is an epic achievement.
Darren started the race at 3pm yesterday from ninth on the grid and triple-stinted straight away to gain the maximum advantage. When he finally came in from his trouble-free run he handed the 008 car over to Jos Verstappen in fifth place.
For all three 008 drivers their first run in the Le Mans race was the longest time they had spent in the car, reminding everyone how new this project is. The car ran smoothly for the first eight hours of the race but shortly after 10pm the troubles began when Darren had unavoidable contact with a GT1 Corvette at Tetre Rouge. The Aston Martin bore the brunt of the impact on its front left corner and Darren had to make a few visits to the pits before the resulting vibration was cured. Once back on track though he was able to maintain his previous pace before he came in just after midnight to hand over to Verstappen.
While Darren got some rest, Jos completed his run and then handed over to Anthony Davidson, who worked his way back up to 10th before it was time for Darren to get back onboard 008 in the early hours of the morning. After the dramas of his last outing, he was delighted to have run with no major problems.
Verstappen took over again and 008 was still running fast, but he had to come in for two unscheduled stops, to fix a gearbox issue and then a brake problem that had been caused by the earlier gearbox problem. The Aston Martin mechanics could be seen working hard and fast to get 008 back out on the track with as little time lost as possible.
Against all the odds
008 was still running fast and strong as the race entered its final hour. The Aston Martins had proven to be the fastest of the petrol-powered LMP1 cars and to get two of them across the line of the toughest race of them all is incredible. Darren crossed the finishing line in 008 in formation with Tomas Enge in the 007 car, creating a sight for all the tired eyes of the Aston Martin fans who had made the pilgrimage to Le Mans.
"I'm over the moon for the Aston Martin Racing team as today's result is a great reward for all the work they have put in, both before and during the race," said Darren. "In the 008 car we had some dramas that ultimately cost us a top position but well done to the 007 crew who took it all the way to fourth. Considering this project only got the green light six months ago we can all be very proud of what we achieved here at Le Mans."
Guy Smith
Beverley's Guy Smith suffered disappointment in the Le Mans 24 Hours last weekend (13-14 June).
The 34-year-old Yorkshireman together with co-drivers Olivier Pla (F) and Miguel Paes do Amaral (Por) drove a British-built Ginetta-Zytek 09S sportscar in the twice-around-the-clock encounter.
Smith began the race from fifth place in LM P2 but lost 30mins in the opening hour when the Portuguese Quifel-ASM team were forced to repair a broken fuel line.
Guy resumed in 53rd position overall, 11th in class, but with just over three hours on the clock, co-driver do Amaral crashed off at Arnage causing extensive right front corner damage which could not be repaired.
"Some braking issues had started during the warm-up on race morning," reflected Guy.
"We fitted new brakes for the race but something wasn't quite right. I encountered a fuel problem early on and with that repaired, was running well apart from a lack of straight line speed.
"Miguel [do Amaral] took over from me but went off the track, got going again only to immediately 'lock-up' under braking again and hit the barriers hard. He managed to get the car back to the pits but the damage was too extensive.
"I'd love to return to Le Mans again in a LMP1 class car -- like the sportscars I drove to first [Bentley] and second [Audi] places overall in 2003 and '04 respectively.
"Perhaps the team that I race for in the American Le Mans Series, Dyson, will come over with it's Lola-Mazda team."
Smith returns to ALMS action when he contests the fifth round of the ALMS series at Lime Rock Park on 18 July. Guy currently lies second in the class standings after three top-three placings.
Oliver Gavin
Northamptonshire's Oliver Gavin suffered at the cruel hands of fate in this weekend's 77th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans when his No. 64 Compuware Corvette C6.4 was forced to retire in the 22nd hour with an apparent gearbox problem. As Gavin and his team mates, Olivier Beretta and Marcel Fassler had been leading the GT1 class at the time, and were hoping to consign the car to the history books with their name against the victory, it was a devastating blow.
"As always Le Mans is a real story, a real drama," says Oliver. The fact that the class was small and that we were only racing our team mates and the Luc Alphand Corvettes didn't detract from how intense it was and didn't mean that we weren't pushing all the time.
"Right from the very start I felt that things weren't necessarily going to work out our way. We got stung by safety cars twice and lost out against the No. 63 car each time and, by the time it happened a third time, we really felt we were fated.
"Whether it was as a result of debris from all the accidents around the track or what we don't know, but Olivier, Marcel and I all had punctures. Pedro Lamy managed to distribute quite a bit of his Peugeot around the track when he had his blow out in the pit lane! Fortunately the sensors which are monitored in the pits meant we were called into the pits before the cars could become wrecked. It might have interrupted our strategy and meant we had some slow in laps, but we were safe.
"Through the night things seemed to turn more our way. Olivier drove fantastically through the night, and so did Marcel. It's harder for him as he doesn't know the car as well as Olivier and I do, and he had a spin early on and took it through the gravel at the second chicane, but it really showed his character as he knuckled down and started driving extremely fast and didn't make another mistake the whole time. He really started to put it all together, and Olivier was at his very best. He was always thinking about what we had to do to get in front of the other car, and it was he that managed to get ahead into the lead on Sunday morning after having a great battle on track with Antonio Garcia.
"Marcel was in the car two hours from the end, and it was looking like I'd get into the car and do one more stint. As he was coming round with four or five laps to go, he radioed in to say he could smell gearbox oil in the car and it was starting to slow down. He lost all drive as he came into the Porsche Curves and managed to coast from there and stopped agonisingly short of the pit lane so the car was stuck and we were out.
"It's the hardest result I've ever had here. We had so many hurdles thrown in front of us throughout the race and we kept coming back and jumping over them. We never gave up, fought back and back and got in the lead and then this freak gearbox problem happened. We had no contact, didn't go off, and had no warning so it's cruel. It just shows that at Le Mans you can never count your chickens; you've got to be praying that things hold together and you get a little bit of luck.
"It wasn't the ending that any of us had hoped for and the guys on our car had done such a great job, we feel cheated. But at Le Mans you have to be running for 24 hours, you've got to be there at the finish, and the No. 63 ran faultlessly and they all drove smartly. I think it's the first year we've done Le Mans and neither car has been hit by another which is extraordinary considering some of the driving in the middle of the night! You wonder how you get through that unscathed...fortunately Corvette Racing's No. 63 did. I'll have to just try again another time with our new GT2 car."
Oliver's next race will be with the new Corvette Racing GT2 car at Mid-Ohio on August 8th.