Le Mans: Audi wins – Vorsprung durch heartbreak

Survivors. (Photo: Audi)

The 24 Hours of Le Mans does strange things to a team.  After losing two of its cars to scary crashes in the early hours of the race, the dominating Audi squad became underdogs.  Against three Peugeot 908s, a lone Audi – the number 2 machine driven by Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer – took victory just 14 seconds ahead of the leading Peugeot.

Le Mans reminded us of many things.  First, that persistence pays off.  Audi dominated Le Mans in the late 1990s and early 2000s, before Peugeot emerged with its successful 908 diesel.  Audi returned this year with a closed-cockpit car, the R18.  Audi never expected that its dominance would be shattered in massive shunts suffered Allan McNish and Mike Rockenfeller.  Audi kept its focus amidst the emotion, played the late Sunday rain perfectly, and emerged with overall victory.

We were reminded again of why Le Mans is more entertaining than F1.  We love the wide-open formula, which encourages innovation and brings a wide variety of machinery to the grid.  There are diesels, closed- and open-cockpit prototypes, production engines and the exotics that resonate with the average fan.  After one complete rotation of the planet, Peugeot and Audi were separated by less than a minute.  Audi made its point about F1 before the race, when motorsport director Wolfgang Ullrich noted that F1 gives very little back to Audi’s core business, whereas Le Mans delivers on its investment year after year.

In a similar vein, watching Le Mans reminds us of that the American Le Mans Series has truly fallen on hard times.  Much of the grid at La Sarthe never makes it to American shores.  Audi and Peugeot participate only in major races such as Sebring.  There  are no live race broadcasts planned this year.  The ALMS seems diminished by comparison.

We also remembered that France has racing.  Since Bernie Ecclestone killed the French Grand Prix (remember that?), it’s easy to forget the great tradition of French motorsport.  Le Mans, Peugeot, Henri Pescarolo, Hugues de Chaunac (ORECA) – all reminders that our sport has its roots in France as much as any other nation.

Being American, we loved plucky Robertson Racing finishing the race on its first trip to Le Mans.  We’re astonished by the consistency of Corvette, which never fails to disappoint at the Circuit de la Sarthe.  Doug Fehan’s ‘Vette operation is a bright spot for racing in the Motor City.  We’re also impressed with Flying Lizard and its efforts in the GT class.

For Audi, Le Mans meant victory from heartbreak.  For Peugeot, it meant pure heartbreak.  For us, it was 24 hours of great racing.

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