Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Evening With A Legend: Ben Keating
Transcript
- 0:00Evening with the Legend is a series of presentations exclusive to
- 0:03Legends of the Famous 24 Hours of Le Mans, giving us an opportunity
- 0:07to bring a piece of Le Mans to you.
- 0:09By sharing stories and highlights of the big event, you get a chance
- 0:13to become part of the Legend of Le Mans, with guests from different
- 0:16eras of over 100 years of racing.
- 0:34Ben Keating is an American racing driver and business owner
- 0:37operating out of Victoria, Texas.
- 0:39He is the owner of 28 automotive dealerships across Texas as
- 0:43part of the Keating Auto Group.
- 0:44Since starting auto racing in 2006, he has competed in many auto races
- 0:48worldwide, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 24 Hours of Daytona, the
- 0:5212 Hours of Sebring, and most recently the World Endurance Championship.
- 0:57He has competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans nine times with two wins under
- 1:01his belt, one with Aston Martin and most recently with Team Corvette.
- 1:04He is the only American driver to have won multiple world championships.
- 1:08Ben Keating began racing in 2006 after receiving a weekend track driving course
- 1:13as a Christmas present from his wife.
- 1:15This Evening with a Legend was hosted by Ruben Sanchez of the ACO USA.
- 1:20I would like to extend a warm welcome to all the ACO members
- 1:23and our esteemed guests from the Corvette Club to join us tonight.
- 1:26Additionally, I'm thrilled to introduce our special guest for the evening, Ben
- 1:30Keating, the factory Corvette driver for the number 33 car for the WEC
- 1:34in the World Endurance Championship.
- 1:35Tonight he joins us to share the remarkable victory at the
- 1:38prestigious 100th anniversary of Le Mans, as well as securing already
- 1:42the World Endurance Championship.
- 1:44My first question, Ben.
- 1:46All right.
- 1:46This was your first time at Le Mans with Corvette.
- 1:49Can you share the differences between Corvette and your previous teams?
- 1:52I mean, what's unique about Corvette compared to the other teams?
- 1:55How do they prepare, et cetera?
- 1:58This was my ninth year to do the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in eight different cars.
- 2:04I think the only person who has matched my number of cars has been Rob Belth.
- 2:09I'm not a hundred percent sure on that, but I've driven almost everything.
- 2:13You know, as you compare the Dodge Viper to the Ferrari 488, the Ford GT, the
- 2:20Porsche RSR, the Aston Martin, and now the Corvette, clearly different cars
- 2:27perform better at different tracks.
- 2:29What I would say about the Corvette is it is.
- 2:35Maybe the most well rounded car that I've ever driven in comparison.
- 2:40So the one Lamar last year, also driving the Aston Martin, the
- 2:45Aston Martin might have been the easiest car at Lamar specifically.
- 2:50And I think that was because the long wheelbase really made it smooth and
- 2:55easy around the high speed corners.
- 2:58But the Aston Martin was terrible at Portimao, which is
- 3:02this tight and twisty track.
- 3:04What I really love about the Corvette, it's incredibly strong at Le Mans, but
- 3:10it's pretty doggone good everywhere.
- 3:12That's what you need in terms of winning a championship.
- 3:16We were lucky enough to win the championship last year with the Aston
- 3:20Martin, but it wasn't easy because it wasn't a great car at every single
- 3:25track, whereas In the Corvette, you know, coming in that you have a
- 3:30decent chance at every single track.
- 3:32Yeah.
- 3:33You asked about the team and what it was like going in with this Corvette racing
- 3:39factory team that's been running pro all these years, it's hard to underestimate.
- 3:44The value of that, even though, you know, we had a damper failure at the
- 3:48beginning of the race, went two laps down.
- 3:51The beauty of that is we changed the damper in 10 minutes.
- 3:54I think most other teams would have gone down three or four laps and would
- 3:58have been completely out of the race.
- 3:59Every pit stop.
- 4:01As a driver, I come in and I know that if I hit my marks, if I charge into
- 4:06the pit lane and I stop on the line on the board, if I do my job well, I know
- 4:12we're going to gain positions in the pits every time we come in for a stop
- 4:16because the team is just that good.
- 4:18And it's so nice to have that much confidence in the guys you're driving for.
- 4:24And I'll say these guys are more serious than Any other team I've ever raced for.
- 4:30And I appreciate that I've been racing in GTM.
- 4:33Most of the teams I've been racing for, I've been the customer.
- 4:37So I'm the guy paying the bills.
- 4:39I'm the guy that they're all catering to.
- 4:41So when I made a mistake, the response has usually been, it's going to be okay.
- 4:47We're going to overcome it.
- 4:48It's going to be okay.
- 4:49You know, no big deal.
- 4:50With these guys, when I make a mistake, they're all up in my business.
- 4:54They're all after me.
- 4:56I made a joke out of it actually, after the first couple of races, because I had
- 5:01a long driver change at one of the races and they were ready to drop the car and
- 5:05ready for us to go and I wasn't across the line yet, I cost us two seconds in a
- 5:11pit stop and the pit crew guys were in my face, upset that I cost them two seconds.
- 5:18On their stock and I'm making them look bad.
- 5:20I appreciate that competitive nature.
- 5:23I appreciate the fact that everybody wants to be the best at their job.
- 5:27It just doesn't exist like that at most of the other teams.
- 5:30You know, the old adage, you don't win LeMans, LeMans chooses its winner.
- 5:35Arriving at Le Mans, you know, winning at Sebring, you did it as well in
- 5:38Portimao, and then Spa, second place.
- 5:41I mean, the team had to have come in at a pretty confident level.
- 5:44I know you had some issues in the race, you had some issues in qualifying
- 5:47that I want to address here shortly, but what was the mood before Le Mans?
- 5:51Did you feel we got a really strong opportunity?
- 5:54I know you said before that it's a crapshoot, that you never
- 5:57know what's going to happen.
- 5:58I strongly believe that every car in a 24 hour race is a long shot.
- 6:05Anything can happen.
- 6:06An LMP2 car can lose their mind for a split second and run over you
- 6:11and take you out and it's all over.
- 6:13Has nothing to do with you.
- 6:14It seems like Lamont chooses you.
- 6:17I'm going to go back to Spa.
- 6:19I was the only GT driver who chose to start the race on rain tires.
- 6:23It was a bad decision.
- 6:24Everybody else was correct, except for me.
- 6:27And because I was losing so much time on the rain tires, because we had to come in
- 6:31for an extra stop, we went down a lap and we seemed to be out of the race for Spa.
- 6:37The way that all worked out extremely lucky got our lap back.
- 6:42We got the wave buyer, the pass around, which is this new thing for the W.
- 6:47E.
- 6:47C.
- 6:48for this year.
- 6:49We got that 3 times at spa and the way we ended up being able to get 2nd place.
- 6:54Was just miraculous.
- 6:56It almost felt like we were chosen in that situation as well.
- 7:00Clearly going into the race, we had to be one of the favorites because
- 7:05we were leading the championship.
- 7:07We'd gotten first place, first place, second place.
- 7:09Everyone was talking to us.
- 7:11Like we were one of the favorites.
- 7:13We felt like one of the favorites, but I won't allow anybody to feel
- 7:17that You can't let down your guard.
- 7:21You briefly touched on it.
- 7:23Nico let down his guard and had a big wreck right before qualifying.
- 7:28The team had to rebuild the car.
- 7:31We only got out to get two laps in in qualifying.
- 7:35It's really hard when you have co drivers named Nico and Nikki.
- 7:38One of the best performances of the weekend was Nikki driving a car that had
- 7:43a terrible setup on it and putting it within HyperPole that was just miraculous
- 7:49that we even made it into qualifying.
- 7:52Then I had the honor this first time in the history of the race
- 7:56that they required the bronze rated driver to qualify and hyperpole.
- 8:01I like the car set up differently than Nico and Nikki.
- 8:04The team made a bunch of changes to the car specifically for me
- 8:09for qualifying and the car was.
- 8:11Unbelievable, really strong.
- 8:13And I ended up doing three laps in qualifying that would have been the poll.
- 8:18And I think I ended up being something like I get the poll by 1.
- 8:223 seconds.
- 8:23So we start the race in front.
- 8:24We're racing in P1, 90 minutes in, Nicky comes on the radio
- 8:29and says, we've got a problem.
- 8:31The car is super difficult to drive.
- 8:34I don't know what's broken, but something's wrong.
- 8:36So we come in for an unexpected pit stop.
- 8:39I don't know what's going on.
- 8:40I'm just standing in the garage, watching the guys, the guy on the front, right?
- 8:45Just starts yelling broken, broken, broken.
- 8:47They put it on skates.
- 8:48They roll it in.
- 8:50They change the front right damper 10 minutes to change the damper.
- 8:54We go down for two laps.
- 8:56If you followed the 24 hours of Lamar at all over the last hundred
- 9:01years, you know that you don't get the opportunity to make up.
- 9:06When you're down two laps in the history of the race, it doesn't happen this year.
- 9:11For the first time ever, they've introduced this safety car and
- 9:15this pass around the IMSA dicing of turning wet into a little bit of IMSA,
- 9:21which I'm not a huge fan of, even though I greatly benefited from it.
- 9:25Because we had all been in the race for so many years, everybody in the team, the
- 9:30announcers on the television, everybody on the team, the drivers, the engineers,
- 9:34everybody felt like our race is over.
- 9:37Our day is done.
- 9:38You just don't get the opportunity to come back when you're two laps down.
- 9:42Then we had the first safety car right as the big rain came down.
- 9:48That was a pivotal moment for me in the race, but what a lot of people
- 9:52don't realize it was a big moment for us because we came in early, we
- 9:58put rain tires on, we went back out.
- 10:01Then the safety car came out, we had made the right call and we
- 10:04were going to get our lap back.
- 10:06We were going to get one of our laps back.
- 10:08I don't think anybody realizes this other than the people who are care about it.
- 10:13But when you come in for a pit stop, they're not supposed to let you out at
- 10:17the end of pit lane until the whole line of cars has passed our leader pitted.
- 10:22So we were going to have the leader behind us and we were going to get our lap back.
- 10:26Unfortunately, we had a Ferrari in front of us that chose to stay out on slicks.
- 10:31He could not keep the pace of the safety car.
- 10:34And so the guy at the end of pit lane thought that the line
- 10:37of cars had already passed.
- 10:38They let all the leaders out.
- 10:40And so the leaders ended up getting in front of us because the Ferrari in front
- 10:45of us couldn't keep the pace car pace.
- 10:47And so we ended up not getting our lap back, even though we argued with
- 10:52the race director for an hour and a half while we were under safety car.
- 10:56They did not correct it.
- 10:57We did not get our lap back.
- 10:58And then I was just angry.
- 11:00Then I thought, okay, not only did we have this bad luck, but now we
- 11:04got screwed by the race director.
- 11:06And I thought our race is really over now.
- 11:08I had to go back and watch the race to see really what happened.
- 11:12Cause I didn't really understand it.
- 11:14The fact is that we ended up getting one lap back under safety car because
- 11:19of the new rule, partly because Nico ran to the front and got in front of
- 11:24the leader, partly because we were lucky that the leader was behind us
- 11:28at that moment in time, the way the stints and strategy were working out.
- 11:32But we got one lap back that way, and then it's easy to say
- 11:35that we drove the other lap back.
- 11:38But as I've watched the race, what I now realize is that.
- 11:42Every single car in the race had a problem of some sort during the race, one by one.
- 11:49So out of 21 GT cars that started the race, only nine GT cars finished.
- 11:55That may not be unusual in the older races of Le Mans.
- 12:00With the modern day race cars, that is really unusual.
- 12:04There was a really high attrition rate, and even the cars that finished One by
- 12:08one, every single one of the cars had a problem of some sort, and that is
- 12:13really what allowed us to drive back to the lead, and it definitely feels
- 12:20like somewhere in the universe, Le Mans chose us, definitely feels that way.
- 12:26It felt that way last year.
- 12:28It definitely feels that way this year, more than any other time.
- 12:32I don't understand how we had the opportunity to win.
- 12:36Any other way than if we were just chosen.
- 12:38Like you pointed out, you were down to 21st by the six hour mark.
- 12:42Then I think Nico got you back up to 12 within the seventh
- 12:46hour with that one unlapping.
- 12:48I know you had the unfortunate with the pace card.
- 12:50It is what it is, but it doesn't matter because the result
- 12:52was we wanted anyway, right?
- 12:53But I wanted to get back to you when you mentioned qualifying, because
- 12:56I remember an interview you did with the WEC, where the car was
- 13:00six seconds a lap off the pace.
- 13:03And that's an eternity in racing when we're talking a tenth of a second.
- 13:06Sure.
- 13:06What the hell did they do to get that car that you got on the pole by a second?
- 13:11I mean, cause that's a huge spread.
- 13:12It's three different things.
- 13:14Nobody talks about the fact that all the cars play major games
- 13:18on performance until race day.
- 13:21Nobody wants to look too fast because they're afraid you.
- 13:24They're going to get slowed down.
- 13:25You know, if you don't play the game, then you're not in the game.
- 13:28Some of it is us playing the game, just like everybody else is playing the game.
- 13:33But I don't know why this car is different than last year's car.
- 13:37It's a different chassis.
- 13:39Everything should be set up the exact same.
- 13:41They're on the same setup pad, the same jig, everything should be identical.
- 13:46I can't tell you why, but it's not.
- 13:49And a big part of our issues all week long is that.
- 13:53The team just wasn't willing to admit that the car was different
- 13:59and needed something else.
- 14:00They were so committed to, we were leading the race when we got
- 14:04knocked out of last year's race.
- 14:06We've got a setup that everybody loved.
- 14:09You are going to love it.
- 14:10I promise.
- 14:11They were so committed to the setup that they ran last year
- 14:15that they were very slow.
- 14:17to move away from it.
- 14:18And the third thing, which is really significant, is GM has
- 14:24what they call a DIL simulator.
- 14:26They call it the Driver in Loop Simulator.
- 14:29That's actually where I spent all day today in North Carolina
- 14:32at the GM DIL preparing for Fuji, which is our next race.
- 14:36But we spent a lot of time preparing for Le Mans in the sim.
- 14:40What we noticed is that I like a car with a much more
- 14:45stable rear than my co drivers.
- 14:47My co drivers want a much more stable front.
- 14:50I believe that it is the fact that they are all left foot breakers and they're
- 14:56all on both pedals the whole time.
- 14:58hustling the car around a corner, they are carrying much more speed into the corner
- 15:04and trail braking and doing those types of things as they go around and they're
- 15:10instantaneously in between the pedals.
- 15:13I am still a right foot breaker, which means I have more time as I transition
- 15:18between the pedals and it also means that I'm still comfortable trail braking,
- 15:24just not as much as what they are doing.
- 15:26I like to get on the throttle earlier than they do, and I like a more confident rear.
- 15:32And driving on the Sim with my co drivers at the same time, it became really clear
- 15:38that I just like a more confident rear.
- 15:41One of the really nice things about the C8R GTE Corvette Is
- 15:46that it's an easy, simple, quick change to change the rear bar.
- 15:51What we did for qualifying and for the race is that every time I got in
- 15:56the car, they would go completely soft on the rear bar for me and midway on
- 16:02the rear bar for my co drivers, that was a significant change in terms of
- 16:07the handling in the car, but it was a really big change for me in qualifying.
- 16:13We were working on the car so much before we got to qualifying that we
- 16:17weren't really happy with it yet.
- 16:19And so not only did we make a big step in the setup of the car overall, but
- 16:24they also customized it for me, having it much more confidence in the rear.
- 16:29And golly, when I qualified in that car, it was the best car
- 16:33I'd ever driven at Le Mans.
- 16:34It was so easy to do an amazing lap.
- 16:37A second lead on qualifying.
- 16:39I mean, that's pretty unheard of.
- 16:41So you definitely came alive.
- 16:43That's for sure.
- 16:43Move forward.
- 16:44I know you weren't expected to drive at night.
- 16:46I like driving at the rain, but I guess I'm a little bit crazy.
- 16:49You did three stints at night in the rain.
- 16:51I mean, you definitely brought back that deficit you had.
- 16:54Throughout my history at Le Mans, prior to this year, you
- 16:57can't make up any lost time.
- 16:59In GTM, you got one bronze, one silver, and one pro.
- 17:02And everybody has to do a minimum of six hours in the car.
- 17:06My philosophy has always been if I'm one second a lap slower in the rain or
- 17:12one second a lap slower at night, then I shouldn't drive in those conditions
- 17:17because I don't want to give up any time that I don't have to give up.
- 17:20The plan was for me to not drive in rain and to not drive at night.
- 17:24One of the things that I bring to the table is that I'm comfortable
- 17:28driving for a really long period of time, especially at Le Mans.
- 17:32If they would allow me to do my whole six hours at once, I would do it.
- 17:36I'm really comfortable going for a long period of time.
- 17:38So after we put the new damper on the car, it was kind of like,
- 17:43okay, we're running in 21st place.
- 17:44We're down two laps.
- 17:46They put me in the car coming out of the garage.
- 17:48It kind of felt like, okay, this race is over.
- 17:51Let's just put Ben in the car, let him get his time knocked out.
- 17:54And so I went out and my first stint was great.
- 17:58It was daylight.
- 17:59Everything was comfy.
- 18:00Halfway through my second stint, I came out of Arnage, which is
- 18:04the slowest corner on the track.
- 18:06You're flat out all the way up into the Porsche curves.
- 18:11You're in sixth gear where you turn into the Porsche curves is where you
- 18:14transition from being on public road to being on the permanent track.
- 18:19Normally you would just barely break downshift one time and turn in.
- 18:24I'm going to guess that our minimum speed in that corner is about 150 miles an hour.
- 18:29I'm in sixth gear flat out down that straightaway right to the point where I
- 18:34should be breaking and downshifting and turning in and I hit a wall of water.
- 18:39One of the things that made Le Mans so treacherous this year is that
- 18:43You had a lot of rain, but it was a big heavy rain cloud over one
- 18:47corner over one section of the track.
- 18:50It would be over one chicane.
- 18:52And so I pull up into this area where it's suddenly downpouring.
- 18:57I think I literally prayed out loud.
- 18:59It may be the only time I've ever prayed out loud in a car.
- 19:05And I made the decision not to turn.
- 19:08I made the decision to stay on the public road, kept it in the crown of the
- 19:12road, hopefully having less water there, slowed it down slowly, slowed it down in
- 19:16a straight line, whipped it around once I got stopped, came back and tiptoed
- 19:22on slicks around the Porsche curves.
- 19:25I came on the radio and I said, guys, I'm giving up way too much time.
- 19:29We need rain tires on the car.
- 19:31I feel like I'm costing the team so much time because I'm
- 19:34looking at the Delta on the dash.
- 19:36And I've realized that I've just cost us 20 seconds, which is an eternity.
- 19:41I'm feeling guilty about the decision that I've made.
- 19:45So I come in, I get out of the car, Nico gets in the car on rain tires.
- 19:49And I look at the monitor and I watch every car that comes up to that same
- 19:54spot has decided to try to make the turn and they're into the wall, one after
- 19:59another, just piling into each other.
- 20:01I felt so guilty when I was in the car, it turned out to be a genius decision
- 20:06because we got to finish the race.
- 20:07And that is where some of our biggest competitors ended their race
- 20:11because they tried to make the turn.
- 20:13When I get out of the car, I talked to the strategist and I asked those guys.
- 20:18When do you want me back?
- 20:19They said, go get sleep, you know, wake up at 4am, get something to eat, get
- 20:24dressed and be down in the garage at 5am.
- 20:27Interesting fact about Lamar, they always have it.
- 20:30Whatever weekend is closest to the summer solstice so that you have
- 20:33the maximum amount of daylight.
- 20:34It gets daylight around 530 or so it starts to get daylight.
- 20:38And so I was expecting to get into the car about 530.
- 20:41I went into my hospitality room that I had where all my guests were there.
- 20:45And I stood up in front of timing and scoring, and I explained to all of them
- 20:49how seventh place would be the maximum result that we could hope for at this
- 20:55point, which is all funny now because we won, but tried to sleep through
- 21:00the fireworks, which was impossible.
- 21:02Sounded like World War three was going on outside my room,
- 21:06expecting to wake up at 4 a.
- 21:08m.
- 21:08At 1 a.
- 21:09m.
- 21:10They came and woke me up.
- 21:11And said we need you in the garage right now.
- 21:13Throw on a driving suit, driving clothes, I run down to the
- 21:17garage, literally run down there.
- 21:20What's happened?
- 21:20And they've said, we don't know exactly what's happened,
- 21:23but Nico is not feeling good.
- 21:26Nico.
- 21:27Passed out in the stairwell of hospitality.
- 21:31He's sick.
- 21:32We've got him at the doctor.
- 21:34We don't know what's going on over there.
- 21:35All we know is we need you in the car right now.
- 21:38And so, Nicky couldn't drive any longer because he just done a triple stint.
- 21:42I don't want to drive at night because my 51 year old eyes don't see very well.
- 21:47And because my most important job is bringing the car home
- 21:50safely, I don't take as much risk.
- 21:52So, I'm slower.
- 21:53I don't want to give up any time I don't have to give up.
- 21:55But you do what you got to do.
- 21:57So I get ready, I get in the car and I do a triple stint from 2 a.
- 22:02m.
- 22:02to 5 a.
- 22:03m.
- 22:03in the car.
- 22:04When you're driving the car, you have no idea what's going
- 22:07on on the track around you.
- 22:09I've got my engineers telling me what other cars are doing in terms of lap time.
- 22:14Now I can look back on it and say, I'm really proud of the job that I did at
- 22:20night during that three hour stint.
- 22:23And I believe it ended up being one of the reasons why we won the race,
- 22:28because most of the other bronzes had the same strategy of waiting
- 22:33until daylight to drive in the car.
- 22:35On Sunday morning is what we call happy hour.
- 22:38That's when the tracks all rubbered in, the temperatures are nice and cool.
- 22:41And you can see when all the other bronzes were in the car and still
- 22:45had to do the maximum amount of their drive time, we had our fast guys in
- 22:49there just killing them to the tune of.
- 22:52Anywhere from four to six seconds a lap.
- 22:54And when you're doing 15 laps in an hour, that's 90 seconds per hour of track
- 23:00time that you're making up on everybody.
- 23:02And so I felt like I was able to hold my own during the night and really
- 23:06put Nico and Nikki in position to get us back into the lead in the morning.
- 23:11Have you driven in Le Mans ever before at night?
- 23:14Oh, yeah, plenty of times.
- 23:16But as I said before, I've driven a bunch at night.
- 23:19I actually like driving at night, but I'm about two seconds a lap slower
- 23:24at night than I am in the daylight.
- 23:26And always before you don't get the opportunity to make up lost time.
- 23:30And so I don't want to give up two seconds a lap if I don't have to.
- 23:34From 2019 forward, I've always had the goal of trying to do all
- 23:41of my six hours of driving in the last nine hours of the race.
- 23:44I want to get in the car around 6am and knock it out on Sunday morning.
- 23:49Now with the new safety car rules, it's not that important anymore.
- 23:53And what was wrong with Nico?
- 23:54He's a 22 year old kid.
- 23:56Nico is younger than both of my children.
- 23:58He would say, I have no idea what happened because I have a little
- 24:02bit more experience than he does.
- 24:04I'll say, I think he had what they call a vasovagal response.
- 24:08I think he got up out of bed too quickly and fainted.
- 24:12I've only had it happen to me one other time.
- 24:14And I'll say, it's a scary experience.
- 24:16I thought I was having a stroke.
- 24:18I think it was a Bezo Bagel response.
- 24:20I think as he got up out of bed and started to walk downstairs, he fainted.
- 24:24And at 5 a.
- 24:26m.
- 24:26when they say, okay, pit now, come to the box for a driver change.
- 24:31My question was, who's getting in the car?
- 24:33When they said Nico was getting in the car, it made me feel good to
- 24:37know that we weren't going to have a problem with every driver getting
- 24:41their six hours of drive time.
- 24:42Because that's always a concern.
- 24:44If you have a driver who's sick and can't drive, Then you can be disqualified.
- 24:48It all worked out fine.
- 24:50He ended up feeling well for the rest of the race.
- 24:52And of course, when it came to the end, he felt better than
- 24:55he'd ever felt in his life.
- 24:58Of course, you know, crossing the line, but those density did also, I mean,
- 25:02he really crawled back to the lap down at the, in the moment and ended up
- 25:06one lap ahead at the flag, which is.
- 25:09At the end, it all depends on where the overall leader finished.
- 25:13We had about a two minute lead specifically because the 85 Porsche
- 25:17had to do a last minute brake change because I did so much of my drive time.
- 25:22I did an hour and a half on Saturday during the daylight before the rain.
- 25:26I did three hours at night.
- 25:28And so I'd already done four and a half hours of my drive time.
- 25:31By the time happy hour started in my experience, whoever drives From 6 a.
- 25:37m.
- 25:37to 9 a.
- 25:38m.
- 25:38on Sunday morning is going to put in the fastest laps.
- 25:41We put them in position to be able to gobble up all that extra time because
- 25:46almost every other car was running their bronze during happy hour.
- 25:50Nothing against bronze drivers, I'm the same way.
- 25:54But I get into a rhythm.
- 25:55If I'm driving a 3 minute 55 second lap, I will tend to just do that same
- 26:01thing over and over again like a robot.
- 26:03I might not always be able to find that one or two extra seconds of
- 26:10speed the way those guys will.
- 26:12And I really think that's what happened.
- 26:14You know, they got in the car.
- 26:15They found that extra time.
- 26:17Nico drove the fastest lap of the race of any GT car during that time.
- 26:22When the other bronzes were in the car, just kind of putting in their
- 26:25time and running their lap time.
- 26:27It did make a big difference throughout the last nine hours of the race.
- 26:31Well, reflecting back now that you won the championship, and you've been at Le
- 26:35Mans for the last eight straight years, what's the greatest accomplishment?
- 26:39Would you rather win Le Mans, or would you rather win the World Championship for WEC?
- 26:44Having won both, it's hard to answer that.
- 26:46If you gave me the choice at the beginning of the year, do you win the Le Mans
- 26:50or do you get to win the championship?
- 26:52I'd say Le Mans every time.
- 26:54In IMSA, if you gave me the choice of winning Daytona or
- 26:57winning the championship, I'm going to take Daytona every time.
- 27:00It's the big race of the year.
- 27:02It's the most historical value.
- 27:04Most people remember what happened in the 24 hours of Le Mans.
- 27:08Very few people remember what happened in the championship.
- 27:11It's a wonderful feather to have in my cap.
- 27:14I love the fact that I've done it back to back wins at Le Mans,
- 27:17back to back world championships.
- 27:19Those are really, really special.
- 27:21Those are something I'll have with me for the rest of my days.
- 27:24They're big accomplishments.
- 27:25But if you have the choice, you take Le Mans every single
- 27:28time because it's so hard.
- 27:33You only get one chance to win a 24 hour race.
- 27:36Every car is a long shot.
- 27:37You have to have luck.
- 27:39You have to have skill.
- 27:40You have to have a great team.
- 27:41You have to have no mistakes.
- 27:43It's just really, really hard to pull it off.
- 27:45It's an incredible accomplishment.
- 27:47All the diversity you had this year to come back and win.
- 27:50And for the Centenary, I mean, that's Definitely a unique trophy
- 27:54that's only won for this year that you have on your trophy case now.
- 27:57Let's move over to 2024.
- 27:59I mean, you've been among for the nine straight years with
- 28:01eight different manufacturers and LMP2 and in GTE categories.
- 28:05What's next for 2024?
- 28:07I have to get an invite, but it is my hope.
- 28:11So next year for the World Endurance Championship, LMP2
- 28:15will not be in the championship, but they will run at Le Mans.
- 28:18They have reserved 15 spots at Le Mans for the LMP2 class.
- 28:22I hope to be in LMP2 in the Pro Am class at Le Mans.
- 28:27I want to race less.
- 28:28You know, I'm doing a full season of IMSA in the LMP2 class.
- 28:32Uh, I'm doing a full season of the World Endurance Championship and right now I'm
- 28:37spending about four months of my year at a racetrack and it's too much for me.
- 28:42I am planning to race less.
- 28:44I expect to be an EMSA in the LP two.
- 28:47I hope to be at lama, which will be my 10th year in nine different cars.
- 28:51I'm hopeful to be a, uh, third year in a row winner in the class, but
- 28:56there's a lot of that that's yet to be seen, the future long term.
- 28:59Do you plan on continuing racing and for how long?
- 29:02I mean, I love it.
- 29:04So I do this for fun.
- 29:05I sell cars for my vocation and I race for my recreation,
- 29:09but I've bitten with the bug.
- 29:11I'm addicted to the drug, whatever you want to call it.
- 29:13I don't see myself leaving racing.
- 29:16I really love, I'm super excited in another three weeks.
- 29:19I'm going to race in a 24 hour race.
- 29:22A chump car race at VIR, that is as much fun as any other racing that I do.
- 29:28I expect to do Daytona for a long time.
- 29:31I expect to do more chump car racing.
- 29:33And I still have the Viper that I ran in 2015, the AMG that I won.
- 29:39Sebring in the Ford GT that I won and lost Le Mans in and I'll own this
- 29:44C8R Corvette at the end of the year.
- 29:47And so I hope to have time to go out and play with those toys in
- 29:51some historic racing or track days.
- 29:54It'll be a long time before I walk away from racing.
- 29:58It's just going to look a little bit different.
- 30:00It's going to be a different season.
- 30:01Once a racer, always a racer.
- 30:03It's hard to get rid of that out of the blood.
- 30:17This episode has been brought to you by the Automobile Club
- 30:20of the West and the ACO USA.
- 30:22From the awe inspiring speed demons that have graced the track to the courageous
- 30:26drivers who have pushed the limits of endurance, the 24 Hours Le Mans is an
- 30:30automotive spectacle like no other.
- 30:32For over a century, the 24 Hours Le Mans has urged manufacturers to
- 30:35innovate for the benefit of future motorists, and it's a celebration of
- 30:39the relentless pursuit of speed and excellence in the world of motorsports.
- 30:43To learn more about, or to become a member of the ACO USA, look no further than www.
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- 30:56Once you've become a member, you can follow all the action on the Facebook
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