Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Evening With A Legend: Patrick Long

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Evening With A Legend: Patrick Long · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Evening With a Legend is a series of presentations exclusive to
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legends of the famous 24 hours of Le Mans giving us an opportunity
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to bring a piece of Le Mans to you.
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By sharing stories and highlights of the big event, you get a chance
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to become part of the Legend of Le Mans with guests from different
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eras of over 100 years of racing.
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Tonight we have an opportunity to bring a piece of Le Mans to you sharing in the
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Legend of Le Mans with guests from different eras of over 100 years of racing.
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And as your host, I'm delighted to introduce Patrick Long, widely recognized
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as one of America's most successful endurance racers with an impressive
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legacy at the 24 hours of Le Mans.
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As Porsche's only American factory driver for many years.
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Patrick competed in 15 attempts from 2004 to 2019 at the helm
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of a Porsche GT class entry.
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He achieved class victories in 2004 and 2007, showcasing his
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skill, consistency, and deep understanding of endurance racing.
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Known for his smooth driving style and strategic mindset.
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Patrick became a staple presence on the Cir d Losar, representing Porsche
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with distinction and helping solidify the brand's dominance in GT racing.
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His Le Mans's career reflects not only personal success, but also his vital role
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in strengthening the presence of American drivers on the world of endurance racing.
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And with that, I'm your host crew chief Eric from the Motoring
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Podcast Network, welcoming everyone to this evening with a legend.
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So Patrick, welcome to the show.
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Thanks, Eric.
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It's a pleasure to be here.
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And yeah, when I had that email and ACO comes up, that's an
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acronym that's very, very close to my heart and special in my life.
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So it's great to be here and to reminisce a little bit about such a
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special race and a special racetrack.
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Well, we got a lot of ground to cover as racers.
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We like to talk stats a little bit here, so let me kind of put things in context.
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We've had the privilege of interviewing all sorts of legends on this show.
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So let's go from the bottom to the top.
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Andretti and Jordan Taylor.
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Nine attempts at Le Mans Hurley Haywood, 13 attempts at Le Mans.
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You're clenching the second spot right now with 15 attempts right
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behind David Hobbes with 20.
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That's a lot of things to cover in a single episode.
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So how about we just focus on the big ones, and everybody likes
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to know about the first, right?
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Because your first impressions or lasting impressions, so talk about.
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What you remember about your first time at Le Mans?
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Yeah, that's a great sidebar for me to just quickly mention that.
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In 1999, I was a young Go Karter from Southern California and Elf Fuels had
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stood up as the supplier of our carting series that ran nationally and said we
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were gonna send a few Americans to La Fre, which was an academy from the French
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Federation of School, and be based and live at Le Mansr in the techno park and.
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Compete in the French Championship one Make Formula campus.
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What that all meant was that I was vying for a seat to live full-time in
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Le Mans and I actually did that in 1999 as a a young aspiring professional.
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So fast forward only four short years, and that was my first time
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showing up to compete at Le Mans.
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And I never would've envisioned that I would get maybe three attempts
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at Le Mansll, let alone 15 in a row.
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An amazing, amazing memory.
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But yeah, the first year that I showed up, a daunting racetrack, a big learning
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curve, and big shoes to fill because the good and bad news was I was in one
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of the two lead Porsche entries, Roland Kuzma, the legend and icon of so many
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decades at Le Mans was my engineer and my teammates were Porsche's veterans.
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Factory driver, Sasha Mossett and Urick Berg Meister.
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So very, very overwhelming from beginning to end and it just made it that much
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more incredible that that year we ended up on the top step of the podium in
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the single GT category at that time.
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We've heard different stories in the past.
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You know, people talk about how they learned Le Mans.
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First practice lap out.
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They've never seen the track before.
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Others have said it was their first European circuit that they ever raced on.
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Was that the same thing for you as well?
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Had you raced other places in Europe and when did you learn
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that first lap at Le Mans?
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My time in Europe started in 1996, racing carts in the summer, in
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the world championships, and then it became a full-time affair in
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1998 with a year of carting, and then it moved to Le Mansr for 1999.
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And from there I sort of traversed through Europe looking for opportunities
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to cut my teeth and race against the best from all over the world.
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And you know, in that era, I think British Formula Three was really the
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pinnacle of single seater categories and drivers looking to make it
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to Champ car, to Formula One two.
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Le Mansr and I never had the funding to get.
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Quite two British F three.
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I remember testing just before I had a phone call from Red Bull to go
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through the Driver's Academy for the inaugural Formula One driver search
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to get an American Formula One.
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And although that story I've told many times didn't end up as the ideal or the
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end goal for me, that is where I met.
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Porsche and Parley a, an amazing career of 18 years with them.
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And today, you know, some four years after my full-time retirement
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from racing, I still work for Porsche as a brand ambassador and
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as a consultant in Motorsport.
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So no, very much not my first time racing in Europe, not my first time at Le Mansr,
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and not my first time attending the race.
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I had been to the race three times prior as sort of a fan and
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just loved the experience of it.
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My first year was 1999 when I was living there.
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Know that was a wild race, and specifically with the Mercedes
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episodes and Peter Rech and Mark Weber going upside down as so many
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remember and probably attended.
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Scary stuff, put it all into perspective.
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But the way I really sized up my first 24 hour experience,
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that being the 1999 Le Mans was.
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I spent 12 or 14 hours at the racetrack, went home, had a barbecue, had a full
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night of rest, woke up, had breakfast, came back, and those same crazy drivers
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were still going around the racetrack.
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And it really put it into perspective just how grueling it is for man
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and machine and what a fast and dangerous racetrack that was.
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So safe to say I was hooked.
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Just have loved it every single time I've been back since.
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So you've mentioned throughout this, you know, the special qualities of Le Mans,
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how big it is, how daunting it is, the grueling nature of the race itself.
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How do you compare that to some of the races in the United States or other ones?
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'cause it isn't the longest track compared to, let's say the Berg Ring 24
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or some of the others that are out there.
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So when you compare and contrast some of the other places you've been,
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is Le Mans still the most special?
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Is it, or is it the keystone in all the tracks on your list?
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I think it is the most special as a racetrack and how it flows, how quick it
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is, but also just how much rhythm there is and how much different challenges
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and layouts of corners there are.
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And it's evolved in the time that I've been there.
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Certainly changed in some ways, but you know, the Porsche
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curves remain some of the most.
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Fast blind and challenging set of corners in all of Motorsport.
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I think I would liken the Porsche curves to a street track only.
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You're going about three times the speed that you would be going at
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Long Beach or Detroit or Monaco.
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So just a wild, wild place.
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To answer your question a little more specifically, I would say in 2004,
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when I first drove some laps there in the pretest, it was the most daunting.
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It was the fastest it, it did seem like the highest risk track I had
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ever competed at or driven around, but certainly nerve gring and Bathurst
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for that challenged to me and my driving and my nerve as much as Le Mans.
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I think Le Mans became a second home to me.
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I felt like a specialist there because I was.
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So fortunate to get to compete so many years in succession that I just was
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always first one out of the plane and on the way to the track because I couldn't
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wait to get out there for qualifying.
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I couldn't wait to start the race and battle in that first hour
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stint because the whole world's eyes were on the television or
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there live watching that race.
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So just an amazing energy that I didn't feel at any other sports
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car race I ever competed in.
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And it's funny you say that because a lot of folks try to compare.
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Let's say the Daytona 24 to Le Mans, and it's like apples and chainsaws, right?
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You can't really make that comparison.
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But I will say there's other wonderful tracks in the United States with natural
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elevation like Laguna Seka, Watkins Glen, and you pick it, you name it.
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But after my first visit to Le Mans, I suddenly understood why Petite Le Mans
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exists at Rhode Atlanta because it is sort of a miniature version of Le Mans.
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So do you get that same perspective having raced on all these tracks,
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even across the United States?
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Yeah, I would say so.
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The elevation of a lot of domestic racetracks is pretty unique.
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I mean, you get a lot more elevation at road Atlanta than you do at Le Mans,
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at least from a driver's perspective.
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Maybe not from a topography or engineering side, but I would be willing to venture
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out and say that, you know, going to most port or anywhere in North America Road
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America, they have a lot more elevation and Le Mans feels flatter as a driver.
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You know, the Moozon straightaway is so much scale and such high speeds
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coming from Arage all the way back to Indianapolis feels dauntingly
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narrow, especially when you're trying to coexist with three different
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classes and three wide moments.
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So Le Manss still challenges you to be so precise and to never let your guard
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down because the average speed is just.
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So high and the stakes are so high, but the prestige, and again, I'll
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keep referencing it, the energy of the fanfare and everything that comes
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along with the race in its spectacle is still untouchable, in my opinion.
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So let's go back to your first Le Mans 2004, and you said yourself, you'd
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already been there a couple years, so now you're resident of Le Mans, or
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you know that's your second home.
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What was it like at the end of that race?
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Getting up on the podium after all that time and all the work and the
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effort and working with Porsche?
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You look down at the crowd and you go, I'm on the podium at Le Mans, did you
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feel like you had just landed on the moon or what was that like for you?
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It was surreal.
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I certainly didn't expect it.
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I really couldn't believe that we had won our class in a pretty.
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Tough fight with another Porsche and it went down to the wire.
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But I remember, well that this was a cusp of GT racing where when we
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qualified, we were still running a synchro H pattern gearbox.
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And you know, this car still had three pedals and was very bare and
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inside very few driver aids and much different than where I ended up at the
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end of my career competing at Le Mansll.
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So you really did have to take care of the car and you did have to battle back.
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From adversity and spend time in the garage and come back from many laps down
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as someone else hit some troubles and had a mechanical issue or an off on the track.
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And those are my fondest memories.
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That was endurance racing at the core, and I felt like I caught the
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tail end of that traditional man and machine, where later down the road.
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Everything, the tires, the brakes, the gearboxes, the engines, the
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competition, everything was so robust that it absolutely was just pure
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qualifying laps from beginning to end.
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You hit every curb in sight.
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Every single shift was a red line.
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So I really love and respect and remember fondly that.
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Age old endurance race where you still had to take care of the car, take care of your
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competitors and your teammates, and we had a throttle cable issue, if I remember
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correctly, and maybe even a clutch issue, and seeing the team go to work being
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pushed backwards into the garage and getting out of the car actually, well,
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you know, under green flag conditions and still being able to win it lent itself to
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huge emotion because you, you had a little bit of surprise that you actually still
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won the race with everything that you saw and went through in that 24 hours prior.
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I wanna dovetail off of something you said there.
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You mentioned that you were at the tail end of that analog generation of
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cars, repeals, H pattern, all that.
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So when you stood up on the podium and you look back at all the drivers
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and legends that came before you, was there somebody who had inspired you,
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somebody you thought of as you're standing there, you're like, I'm standing
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in the same place that so and so.
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Who drove a nine 11 or drove a Ferrari or something like that.
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Who was your inspiration?
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Yeah, there were so many people that helped me and inspired me
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who had competed at Le Mansll.
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Danny Sullivan was a huge, huge help in my career.
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He's still such a close friend and a mentor, and obviously he had great
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success at the racetrack with Porsche.
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I also thought about Andre Pesca.
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You know, he would've been there that day, but Andre was really the.
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Mentor of the Elf La Phillie Air program that I had gone through,
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and Anri was just a no frills guy.
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He said what was on his mind, he wasn't a man of many words, but he treated
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everybody equally and with respect and gave good, solid, direct advice.
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And he of course, had so much presence at that race, not only
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as a driver, but as a team owner.
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And so a long list.
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But those two guys were definitely on my mind standing up there, as was
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my own father who, you know, really was a, a humble natured carpenter and
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surfer from Southern California that put so much on the line to give me
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the opportunities to even get a chance at racing professionally one day.
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So it was, uh, an emotional day.
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I'm sure a lot of folks wanna hear more specifics about the
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nine 11, which we'll get into.
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But before we do that, I wanna ask you sort of one more question
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about your time at Le Mans, and this is where it gets difficult, right?
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We got 15 attempts at Le Mans, which years and races stuck out to you.
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I mean, I could pick some and throw darts and we could talk about specific
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years, but there's gotta be some memories, maybe memories or mishaps.
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That really stick out to you in those 15 attempts that made one year or one
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season stick out more than the other?
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Yeah.
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I mean, obviously the successful years where the end
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result was P one are amazing.
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I'll briefly touch on oh four.
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I was the rookie, I was the liability and I had mentors as
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team teammates and team members.
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A few short years later, 2007, I was the elder statesman in the car, the one
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with the most experience, the one that had to qualify and start the car and
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lead the team with set up and direction.
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You know, only in a few years, the Le Mans felt like very much like a
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home for me, and I felt a different sense of emotion when we won that
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race and driving for IMSA performance.
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Matt moot a French team from Ruen just up the road with a big insurance company
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from France on the side of the car.
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It was a, a much different feeling than winning with Peterson White Lightning
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in 2004 with a, an All American crew.
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So it was kind of the bookends and a great, great memory.
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Many years with flying lizard there.
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We never had a victory, but we had great fights, great times,
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and yeah, gave it our all.
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And then I guess I'll finish off with a high point of three years
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with Patrick Dempsey and everything he brought to that race and brought
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to the energy of Laal and just.
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A lifelong friend.
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We didn't win in 2015, but we finished second and we fought our way up onto
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that podium, and that was Patrick's lifelong dream was to stand on the podium.
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So that second was as emotional and as happy as any victory, and a lot
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of it was secondary to seeing someone else realized their dream and all
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that that came, and all the emotion that he was having and the pressure
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that he had faced in the years and.
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Days and hours of time that we spent preparing for that to get him to a
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point where not only could he hold his own out there, but put in the
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hours to get up onto the podium.
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I have a couple of memories of tough, tough moments at LA
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Mall, and scary moments as well.
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You know, danger is always present in Motorsport and certainly at Le Mansll.
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In 2011, my junior teammate from Porsche, Mike Rockefeller, had a massive
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crash on the back straightaway in a Audi, I think it was an r. 10 or 12.
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And, uh, I came through that incident and I didn't know who had been
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in the car, but I just remember driving slowly through carbon fiber.
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There was really nothing left of that car.
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And luckily Mike was over the barrier, a little dazed and confused,
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but had crawled out of that wreck.
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And that was a scary moment.
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And there were a few more that were maybe more tragic and more
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memorable for the wrong reasons.
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But without going in too much detail, Le Mansr taught you to respect it.
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It taught you that every time you were out on track, you had to be at the top
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of your game and that the danger was always clearly and presently there.
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There's so many different ways we could take this whole different threads here.
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So let me ask.
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Some audience favorites.
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First, let's just jump right off of where you stopped and you were kind of
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leading towards oops moments, and for a lot of drivers, those oops moments
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aren't the ones you see on television.
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They're not on camera.
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They happen behind the scenes.
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In the pit box.
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Is there a. Funny sort of oops moment for you and all your time at Le Mans.
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Quite a few.
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I remember maybe the second attempt I was back with Peterson White Lightning
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driving with Yrg Burmeister and Team Oard, two Porsche Legends and great friends.
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And I remember Yrg was.
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Ill.
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And so my second time at Le Mans, Timo and I, back to back stints all the
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way through pushing hard on a very hot race with an overheating car.
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So the cockpit temperatures were high, and I just remember being
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so fatigued at the end of that.
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And luckily I was in my twenties, so I had plenty of reserve energy,
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but just being so sore and my bottom side being so sore that I couldn't
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sit on a chair, I was just ruined.
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But laughing about it and getting through it another time, Patrick Dempsey was.
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He was drawing fans.
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I mean, we couldn't go anywhere in that town without a frenzy of at least
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a couple hundred people trying to run each other over to get a glimpse of him.
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I mean, his show, Grey's Anatomy was bigger in Europe than it was in
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the us and I didn't know any of this and I had never really traveled with
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a big celebrity or star like that.
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But I had fought my way in 2013, my first time driving with him.
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We had fought our way up and we were in a pretty solid lead in our
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class, and I remember the German engineer coming over the radio.
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Could have been Jim Jordan, actually from the US who was translating for the team.
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But one way or another, the team said to me, look, you're gonna pit this lap.
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There is a amazing amount of journalists and fanfare around the pit box.
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It's live on Eurosport and it's.
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Twilight and everybody's here, so just be careful as you come in the pit box.
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Well, I pull into the pit box and I couldn't see the crew.
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I couldn't see Patrick.
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I just saw flashbulbs and the entire pit box was covered with traffic.
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And so I got out of the car and I made eye contact with one of my young
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mechanics, and he looked over at me and shook his head like, I can't get
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to the car to even change the tires.
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It was pure instinct, but I just started ripping journalists and photographers and
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anybody who had access to the pit lane.
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One by one, just pulling on their lapels, their necks, anything that I could get
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ahold of to rip them out of the way.
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And I remember there was a wide shot of the pit lane of me sort of
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clearing human traffic so that we could get a team onto the car and
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maintain our lead in the class.
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So just all kinds of wild times like that.
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I mean, coming back, being stranded out in the middle of Moozon in
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the middle of the night, and the crew not even knowing where I was.
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And of course, having to retire.
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Hitchhike back to the town that we were actually pitted in.
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So yeah, that's one way I kind of put into perspective racing at Le Mans
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is you travel through three or four different villages in a lap, so
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you get different weather patterns and all different types of things.
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So yeah, it's, it's always an adventure and always have enjoyed it.
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Well, you've done some name dropping throughout this.
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And a lot of the fans like to hear about who was your favorite teammate.
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So you mentioned Dempsey, you mentioned Borg, Meister, and Timo.
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Who is the best to drive with?
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Oh man, that would be a tough one to pick.
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Just one, and this is gonna sound political, but what I learned is even
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your greatest enemies and arch rivals sometimes ended up as your teammates and
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when you were as competitive as pro racing drivers seemed to be and were in my time.
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Instantaneously.
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You are one and you are a unit and you really do pull all in the same direction.
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And you know the week later when you go back to A LMS and you're
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competing against each other in rival cars, you might not talk anymore.
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But I didn't have a teammate that I didn't enjoy at Le Mansr.
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I think you spend so much time together, not only in the lead.
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But the schedule is something that I always tell people who go to Le Mans for
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the first time is really study how the schedule works and where you have to be
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in your prime and pace yourself because you can wear yourself out all the way
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through the week with late qualifying in practice and then Friday not being
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in the race car and all of the different things, the drivers parades and things.
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But I might have done as many Le Mansr with Yrg.
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I don't remember all the stats.
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They certainly drove with him more years.
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In my career than anybody else, probably eight out of 10 years,
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a certain period of time.
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Yorg Berg Meister was just a wild man and, and somebody that on paper, him
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and I were about as opposite as they come, but we had such a bond, such
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a trust and such a mutual respect.
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And then of course, Patrick Dempsey is a big name and he is a recognizable
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face and, and he is all those things.
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But beyond all that.
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He's such a historian of the sport.
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He's such a racer at heart.
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He has so much love and so much optimism that it reminded me not to be cynical,
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not to take things for granted, not to let the result disallow you from
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looking around and realizing what a special opportunity we had to even.
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Be at Le Mansr, let alone competing or ending up on the podium.
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And it sounds cliche, but you know when you're that hyper-focused, sometimes you
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don't see the forest through the trees.
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It's just the next session, the next problem, the next lap time, the next need.
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And sometimes Patrick reminded me and just would put his arm around
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me and just say like, this is so incredible and this is such a gift.
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And you sometimes need somebody like that, especially when you can be as intense
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and goal-driven as I was in my prime.
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Intense and goal driven, I think is the middle name of the Porsche team.
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Right?
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I mean, that's what they're all about.
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We've heard that from other people in the past.
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They're very to the point, very exacting.
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So let's talk a little bit more about that unique relationship
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with a team with a factory and an engineering group like Porsche.
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Obviously, your whole career is built around that.
21:54
Even your career after your career is very Porsche focused.
21:57
Tell us about being one of the few American factory drivers at Porsche.
22:02
What was that like?
22:03
It's a huge responsibility.
22:05
It's of course, the coolest car company in the world, in my humble opinion.
22:09
And as long as they were willing to have me on the team, I was gonna stick
22:12
around because I believed in the product.
22:15
I believed in the culture.
22:16
I loved the history of the company and the way that these
22:20
cars looked and felt and drove.
22:22
I think there was a complete aura around Porsche and everything they've done at
22:27
Le Mans, and you really have that sense of the crest that you carry and what that
22:32
means and what you're expected to do.
22:34
And as an engineering company, as a design company, and as a racing
22:39
company, have always been present in Motorsport, but specifically at Le Mans,
22:44
if you think back to their first class victory with the 3 56 sl, I believe
22:48
in 51, it's a long run for them.
22:51
And.
22:52
Every single car that has that Porsche badge on the hood has a
22:56
a large part of their history.
22:57
And that was always sobering for me as a driver, but it also inspired me
23:02
and it bred confidence because they're loyal, they're prepared, they're
23:06
intense, and they're reliable and quick.
23:09
And that was the ultimate dream for a young kid to be driving
23:13
for not only, um, a car company.
23:16
And a group of individuals who stand for those things, but an entire brand
23:20
worldwide in what it stands for.
23:22
Given your illustrious racing career and the opportunity to drive all sorts
23:26
of other cars along the way, was there ever a car that you walked away from
23:30
and said, that's as good as a nine 11?
23:32
You know, I think that it would be unfair for me to say that.
23:36
I didn't enjoy or look at other cars or drive other cars that I
23:41
didn't have tremendous respect for.
23:43
I love the grunt of a V eight.
23:46
I love cheering on all different brands in what they do, both in
23:50
racing and outside of racing.
23:52
But there is this allegiance in this attraction that I had, not just
23:57
because Porsche ended up where I made my living, but I was a Porsche
24:00
fan long before I ever drove one.
24:02
And the.
24:04
Connection of the driver and the car, I think starts at a young childhood in how
24:09
it smells and how it feels, what sounds it makes, and the squat of a nine 11, the
24:15
small cockpit and the sound of a flat six.
24:18
Those are all things that I have boyhood memories of.
24:21
And then from the racing standpoint, I always believed that I could red
24:25
line shift and break as late as possible and rub fenders and doors.
24:29
I just believed in the product that it was not.
24:32
Fragile.
24:33
I respected it, but I also believed that the Porsche way in the engineering and
24:38
the Porsche intelligent performance meant that I had a rock solid tool to do my job.
24:42
And what else could I ask for?
24:44
You know, I was a pretty aggressive driver and I would
24:47
curb that in the 24 hour races.
24:49
At all costs, but there were times where you didn't have that choice.
24:53
And I loved that aspect of just how hard I could push the Porsche product,
24:57
whether it was a LMP two car with a V eight in it, or a flat 6, 9, 11.
25:02
There's great, great times with all the different types of product,
25:05
you know, driving all the different generations of not only nine elevens,
25:10
but of mid-engine prototypes and all the different types of race cars
25:14
that Porsche engineered and designed.
25:16
Some of the coolest parts of the job and still is, is that you get
25:19
to sample things that were from decades long before my career.
25:23
There's this common thread through each one of the cards, whether it's
25:26
the ergonomics of how they fit and feel, or when you crank the engine, and
25:30
that part of it is just super special.
25:32
Your 15 attempts at Le Mans Cross.
25:35
Over the evolution of the nine 11 during the period of the 9 96 through the 9 92.
25:40
So out of all of those, is there one you prefer over the other?
25:43
Is it the first one, the 9, 9 6 with the manual transmission?
25:45
Or is it one of the other nine 11 variants?
25:48
I had a pretty big soft spot for the 9, 9, 7, especially the narrow
25:53
bodied cars in the nine elevens.
25:55
I would say sort of.
25:56
2000 7, 8, 9. I loved those cars because they were still relatively
26:02
analog and you know, it wasn't full paddle shift, it wasn't
26:05
mid-engine, it wasn't too much tech.
26:07
But at the same time, they made proper downforce and they had the speed,
26:13
you know, once we started pushing well below four minutes with some
26:16
small modifications to the racetrack, but it just felt like an arms race.
26:20
I remember being south of the four minute mark and then it seemed
26:24
like every year we were going three or four seconds a lap faster.
26:27
So it really did progress there through the middle part of my career.
26:30
And those were the fun days because every single year we went there, it was
26:34
development of new parts and wherever the homologation might have been and
26:38
the cars didn't stay the same very long.
26:40
Let's talk about perceived rivalries.
26:42
You mentioned, you know, rival drivers.
26:44
That you competed with an A LMS and things like that.
26:47
For those of us that are fans watching Le Mans three plus thousand miles away
26:51
or more, if you're in California, you watch it on tv, there's always
26:54
this perception, Porsche versus Ferrari, Porsche versus Corvette.
26:57
For you driving at Le Mans, was that a real thing or was it different than that?
27:01
Or was there an actual rivalry between Porsche and Ferrari
27:04
and Porsche and Corvette?
27:05
And if there was, which one do you think was the harder one to really beat at
27:09
the end of the day or keep off your tail to make sure you locked in the podium?
27:13
Yeah, my memories of the Porsche Corvette rivalry were much more
27:17
stateside for one reason or another.
27:19
I don't remember having too many hard locked in battles with Corvette,
27:23
and that might've been because of the different class overlap and the
27:26
timing of what car and class I was in versus where they were entered.
27:30
But certainly Ferrari, especially in the early first half of my career at LA
27:35
Mall, that's who we were gunning for.
27:37
And I remember that REI being a US-based team, would put one
27:40
of the best efforts out there.
27:43
They were tough.
27:44
There were so many battles between Porsche and Ferrari and specifically
27:49
Re and we knew if they had a perfect race, they were gonna be tough to beat.
27:53
And, and they knew that about us at Porsche and it was always respectful.
27:57
It was tough.
27:58
There was little gestures and elbows up jokes that were made and
28:02
had, but we always understood they were just straightforward and were
28:07
there for the same reasons as us.
28:09
So very fond memories with.
28:10
Rick and Giuseppe and all the drivers that they had that came through there.
28:14
That red car was, was a tough one.
28:16
So let's talk about the prototypes for a moment.
28:19
Was there ever a chance to drive the nine 19 or were you just
28:23
happy with the production cars?
28:24
What was your plan within Porsche?
28:26
Or did they have you sort of boxed in?
28:28
My opportunities with prototypes came pretty early 2006, sort of couple
28:34
years into my factory driver stand.
28:38
I started with Daytona prototypes in the Grand Am at that time, and then not
28:43
long after that with Roger Penske and RS Spider Program stateside in in the
28:48
American Le Mansll series and in imsa.
28:50
In 2008, that was my one full season in LMP two, but that year I was
28:56
called up to drive a GT car at LA Mall, although there were a couple of
28:59
customer efforts with the RS Spider and very successful ones at that.
29:04
So never raced a prototype at the 24 hour Le Mansll, but grateful for
29:09
those opportunities in the prototype categories racing for overall wins.
29:14
And for people like Roger Penske, I mean, that still goes down as a huge highlight
29:18
for me, not only to have that name on your overalls, but to have Roger himself
29:23
calling every one of my races in 2008.
29:25
You know, there was an intense respect between us and we spoke openly at
29:29
all times, but it was clear Roger was there to win and it all focuses.
29:34
So, um, yeah, still running to Roger and like I mentioned in the pre-show.
29:39
Beginning to drive his latest 9 63 RSP this past weekend.
29:43
It, it's been, uh, a longstanding relationship with those guys and just
29:47
a huge amount of respect for them.
29:48
What do you think of the 9 63?
29:50
It's wild.
29:51
I mean, the, we touched on it.
29:52
I'm kind of old school at heart.
29:54
I like an ignition button and a break bias.
29:57
Yeah, you strap into the modern LMP cars and it is an intense amount of
30:02
different protocols, levers, lights.
30:04
I mean, just to put in perspective, the steering wheel had three paddles on each
30:08
side, so I had six different paddles.
30:11
There was probably 20 buttons on the steering wheel and another
30:14
20 buttons off to my right.
30:15
And this isn't a pretty small cockpit.
30:18
And there were a lot of different cadences to the combustion engine
30:22
and the hybrid engine communicating.
30:23
The simplest one.
30:25
In my first time when I drove the race car back in 2023, I had some lapse at
30:29
Laguna Seca during Rensport was how do I even get this thing outta the pits?
30:33
And of course you get the 130 page log on how to operate it, but in
30:37
the end, you really just ask your fellow drivers and they give you
30:39
the quick direct route to it.
30:41
So you start.
30:42
In electric power mode as you leave the box and then at a certain point
30:46
you get a display on your dash that says bump start ready, and that's
30:50
when you release the proverbial clutch and then the combustion engine fires
30:54
up and that's when the fun starts.
30:55
So it's, yeah, just incredible to touch all different types of tech.
30:59
But in this day and age, the 9 63 is is a very complicated car.
31:03
So knowing what you know now and looking at the last couple of years of Le Mans,
31:07
the GT classes are pretty well sorted.
31:09
The balance of performance is there, you know, there's some really
31:12
great competition, there's some really great racing at that level.
31:15
But up at the top, it's getting interesting.
31:16
More and more brands are getting involved.
31:18
You're hearing things about Hyundai and Ford's coming back, and I
31:21
mean, just everybody's coming out the woodwork to run an LMP.
31:24
In your opinion, what's missing from the 9 63?
31:27
What's holding it back now that you've driven one, you've been
31:30
around them, you know about them.
31:31
What's the magic thing that they gotta do to make that car win at Le Mans?
31:35
If I knew, they probably would want to hear it from me, but I, I. I think that
31:41
clearly 2025, they gave it a heck of a run and to finish second, and to have
31:46
as clean of a race as they did with a great, solid strategy was inspiring.
31:50
But Ferrari's been tough.
31:52
They have had it covered and it's.
31:55
Playing your cards correctly, you have gotta build a car.
31:58
That's great for the entire WEC and IMSA season.
32:01
And Porsche's proven to be ultra strong on the full season and
32:05
I think that's a big focus is winning the championship outright.
32:09
Naturally, everybody wants Le Mans as well, and I'm sure they're working hard on that.
32:14
I don't have that answer.
32:15
When I go back to my own career and my own experience, the hardest part about
32:20
setting up a car for Le Mansll is that you have to be quick in the straight lines.
32:24
There's so much straightaway at Le Mansll, but you can easily get
32:28
focused on that one lap pace.
32:30
And then forget that you've gotta last an hour in a stint and that you need
32:35
your tire underneath you and you need to be quick through the Porsche curbs and
32:39
you need to be good in breaking and all the things that downforce bring to you.
32:42
But of course, that's a balance of drag.
32:44
So it's making efficient downforce, uh, where you're slippery and quick
32:48
in a straight line, but still have that tire underneath you and, and
32:52
the driver's confidence to go really quick through the Porsche curve.
32:55
So, yeah, all speculation from my side, but I'll just come and say it.
32:59
I've had perfect, perfect races at Le Mans.
33:02
We have never slipped up or lost a second in the pits or had anything go
33:06
wrong and finish outside the top five.
33:08
And that's because there's balance of performance.
33:11
There's adversity in weather and other things outside of your control.
33:14
So even having a perfect race and having three drivers that are all
33:18
identical in their perfect pace doesn't guarantee you anything at Amal.
33:22
At least not anymore and and that's why it's so great to watch.
33:25
Well, I'm glad you went there and you mentioned strategy and
33:27
how important that is to racing.
33:29
I wanna know more from the perspective, not of the team strategy, but of
33:33
what you as a driver have a role in shaping the decisions from the cockpit.
33:38
And I bring that up because you hear about this more and more when you watch
33:41
Formula One, you get Max and Charles going, leave me alone, just let me drive.
33:45
Right?
33:45
They got the engineer parroting something in their ear all the
33:48
time, which is distracting.
33:49
Does that relationship exist at the 24 in the same way?
33:52
And if so, how did you influence the engineers and the pit box to say, Hey
33:57
guys, this is what I think we need to do.
33:58
Yeah, it comes back to a few things that are really like that home court advantage
34:04
knowledge of how the racetrack evolves.
34:07
Because what happens naturally is that you go to the pretest, which used to
34:11
be a couple weeks before the race, and the track is pretty green 'cause of
34:15
course the majority of it is public road used and there's sand and you
34:19
know, there there's a lack of grip.
34:21
And then, uh, you sort of find a baseline set up and then you come back a couple
34:24
weeks later, which of course is less time now as the schedule is a lot tighter, but.
34:28
Still that evolution of the racetrack and really understanding how much
34:32
grip is going to come in the racetrack over 24 hours of those roads being
34:37
closed and the race being run.
34:38
So you have to be focused on qualifying, but not really other than bragging rights.
34:45
I think qualifying has a little to do with the end of the race results.
34:48
Maybe catching a safety car or something where you really do
34:52
need to be starting up front.
34:53
But in our days, I don't think that.
34:56
Qualifying really meant anything.
34:58
And therefore you really have to think long term about
35:00
how that car's gonna drive.
35:01
You know, at the end of the race, after two or three stints on a tire, we didn't
35:07
always have the ability to change to a new set of tires every single stint.
35:11
And then again, taking care of yourself and as a driver, making sure that
35:16
you're not just chasing that one fast lap in practice or qualifying.
35:20
But that you can sustain 12 of 24 hours behind the the wheel.
35:24
I mean, that was, uh, as big of a factor as anything was the ability
35:28
to have that focus and that physical endurance to put those many laps in.
35:32
And, and nowhere did I ever put as many laps in a 24 hour period as at Le Mansll.
35:37
And when I say as many laps.
35:39
As many minutes in a race car.
35:41
And so yeah, it's, it's a little bit of everything, but I'll touch on it again.
35:44
I think that's why I'm so fond of the era of when I got to drive at
35:47
Le Mansr, because it still had that endurance aspect to it, where today
35:51
it's outright full on sprinting.
35:53
So when we look at your start in 1999 at la.
35:57
Carting and living there and all that all the way through 2019.
36:00
So a 20 year run.
36:02
You saw a lot of change at LA Mob.
36:05
Now, when we compare that to Legends that came before you, they talk a lot about
36:08
the old days where the Molson didn't have the bus stops, and you know, this was this
36:12
way and the pit boxes were certain way.
36:13
The big changes sort of happened in the nineties.
36:16
And so you come on the scene, but you have a 20 year window.
36:19
So what are the things that stuck out to you the most, whether it was
36:22
atmosphere, competition, or technology that evolved at Le Mans in your 20 year run?
36:27
I think the town, of course, grew, uh, in, in different ways and,
36:32
you know, public transportation in different ways to bring more fans.
36:36
The racetrack itself operated and felt a lot differently, especially the pits.
36:41
In the beginning, it felt like you very much had a pit lane and the overhead
36:45
suites, but through the years there just was an abundance of development and new
36:50
buildings and new fan areas, and so yeah, it felt bigger from beginning to end.
36:56
It felt much more electrified with technology, and I think that
37:01
in the end, the racetrack did.
37:03
Evolve with different curbs and safety aspects, but only for the positive.
37:08
I, I don't think that there was anything that really was big enough
37:12
change that the racetrack drove differently in those 20 years.
37:16
And so that was the part I was always most focused on and and most grateful
37:20
that we were able to preserve that.
37:22
Obviously the chicanes and Moozon came long before I did, but the track
37:26
that I knew really only changed for the better with runoff and safety,
37:30
but the layout and the driving.
37:32
Emotion of the track always was retained.
37:35
All right, Patrick, we're gonna switch to some crowd questions.
37:38
We oftentimes have folks write in or send us questions ahead of time that they would
37:42
love for our legend to answer on air.
37:45
This one I have to preface a little bit because she is one of your.
37:49
Former pupils.
37:50
So take you back to team USA at mid Ohio, and apparently you said
37:54
something to Miss Sabra Cook at the time that stuck with her.
37:58
And so her, first of two questions for you is, did you retire from
38:01
racing to focus on your social media?
38:04
No, definitely not.
38:06
But yeah, Sabra is a, a tremendous driver and, uh.
38:09
Wow, what a, an ambassador for the sport and for her sponsors and her objectives.
38:14
I, I always think that if I knew social media like her and some of the
38:19
drivers that I mentor, I might be in a lot better place with endorsements
38:23
and things of that nature, but.
38:24
Driving and calling it quits on a full-time career was a
38:27
difficult decision for me.
38:29
But at the same time, I've never looked back.
38:31
I just was so fond of all the opportunities I had, and in this day
38:34
and age, ironically, I look after many social media accounts, mainly
38:39
for my company, lul and Air Water, two different experiential shows that we do.
38:45
Around the world telling stories of race and street, both vintage and
38:48
modern, and all centered around Porsche.
38:51
So to add to that, she said, do you still believe, to quote you from Mid-Ohio,
38:55
if I see you posting on social media during the day, that means you're
38:59
not training or focusing on racing.
39:00
Is that still true after all these years?
39:02
Are they now hand in hand racing and social media?
39:05
I think so, and to answer that question, no.
39:08
I feel like in this day and age, drivers are almost expected to cover
39:14
their day, whether it's business trading or driving on track.
39:17
It's an interesting debate because as we see drivers.
39:21
Evolve generation to generation.
39:24
There's certainly so much more out there.
39:26
There's so many more cameras, there's so many more opinions.
39:29
There's so much more that you have put out there, but also that people
39:32
have a platform to speak about.
39:34
And I think it does in some ways change the driver comradery and,
39:38
and the way that drivers are.
39:39
And, and you look back and even when I started as a factory driver,
39:43
there wasn't any social media.
39:45
Different these days.
39:46
And, and I think it's, it's not easy, but I do think it gives the fans a new
39:51
way in, and everybody is kind of the director and star of their own little
39:55
mini TV documentary of course, that everybody holds in their handheld phone.
39:59
So that's the good news.
40:00
You get to dictate, uh, how and what you share.
40:03
But I must have had some choice words for Sabre and some of the young drivers
40:07
when they were coming through Team USA in regards to social media behaviors.
40:11
I can't recall.
40:11
That's a good answer.
40:13
And for those listening at home, they might not know this.
40:15
You had a cameo in Brad Pitt's most recent Formula one movie, and she wanted
40:20
to know, are you taller than Brad Pitt?
40:23
I don't think I ever stood back to back with Brad, but uh, yeah, we're
40:26
probably very similar in our seat position because I shared the race car
40:30
with him quite a few times in different scenes and also in preparation for
40:34
the F1 film and what a guy, I mean for the amount of stardom that he has.
40:39
Just so humble, so.
40:41
Easygoing but real.
40:42
I mean, he wanted to know about the race car, about the racetrack,
40:46
about how it all took place.
40:48
And we shot a lot of that first opening scene for those of you who've seen the
40:52
movie during the Rolex 24, right in the middle of the night, stint of 2024.
40:57
And I took him next door 'cause we had a pit box set up for us
41:01
on Pittling during the race.
41:02
Just for shooting, but next door was our parody car in the
41:06
right motor sports entered car.
41:08
And so we sat up on the pit box and put a headset on him and he just
41:11
couldn't believe how intense it was and how much banter there was
41:14
between the engineers and the drivers.
41:16
And it was a super fun moment.
41:18
And it just showed how passionate he was to learn.
41:21
And it wasn't just about shooting a film, but that he really took his downtime
41:25
to enjoy endurance sports car racing.
41:27
Do you think he's gonna do something like Dempsey did and go racing himself?
41:30
I don't know.
41:31
I think he's had great amounts of seat time shooting, both in the
41:35
formula cars and the sports cars, and you know, he sampled the McLaren
41:38
Formula one car after the movie released, but no intel from my side.
41:43
I think that he'll probably drive some race cars and
41:46
certainly show up at race tracks.
41:47
But as far as going at it in any, any way, shape or form like
41:51
Patrick did, I wouldn't bet on it.
41:53
But you never know.
41:54
The gentleman driver is still a thing at Le Mans.
41:56
It's one of the few places where you can still do that.
41:58
So maybe we'll see Brad Pitt at Le Mans one of these days for real, behind
42:01
the wheel of a maybe a Porsche, right?
42:03
Yeah.
42:03
The first day we went out, we had a GT three RS Street car, a cup car, and a
42:07
GT three R, which of course is the main car that races at Le Mans for Porsche.
42:11
And we spent about an hour in the street car, we skipped the cup car
42:14
and we went straight to the race car.
42:16
I just believe in immersing somebody in the environment that
42:19
they need to get up to speed.
42:20
And he had a, a real good feel and he was very trusting and listened.
42:25
Yeah, all those laps at Daytona, I was honored to be guiding him around the
42:29
racetrack, not just from the pit lane and, and on the radio, but in another
42:33
car in front of him during those scenes.
42:35
And the scenes came out amazing and there's been just great reception and so
42:38
many messages that people really enjoyed the racing scenes, especially at Daytona.
42:42
So very proud of that.
42:44
Scott writes, what was more stressful preparing for Le Mans or preparing
42:48
for your annual Luka cult events?
42:50
Well, I used to think that being a racing driver was a huge amount of prep
42:55
and a huge amount of responsibility.
42:57
But once I started promoting my own events and running my own business and having
43:02
a, a team and logistics and budgets and protocols and safety briefings, I realized
43:08
how fortunate I was and, and how fortunate so many pro racing drivers are because.
43:12
You show up last, you leave first.
43:14
Everything's set up and built.
43:16
You have representatives who stand next to you and tell you
43:19
where you have to be schedule wise and book your flights for you.
43:22
And so, yeah, I had to learn the entire backside of movie magic or putting
43:28
on a race team or an race event.
43:30
And Luol is a, is a static display of cars.
43:33
But what it is and what it represents, that a parallel to racing is, is that
43:38
you have the preparation, the buildup, the logistics, you have the performance.
43:42
You have that time and day where everybody's gonna be there,
43:45
whether you're ready or not.
43:46
You don't push deadlines, there's no extensions, and then you
43:49
have that celebration or defeat.
43:52
You know, you have that aftermath and that feeling with your team.
43:55
Going out and then starting all over and preparing for your next show.
43:58
And so I think in many ways it's been an amazing gift for me to have a, a focus
44:04
beyond just driving race cars fast.
44:06
And, uh, I try to add as many different elements that I learned
44:09
in racing to Luka cold and to air water and to these Porsche events.
44:13
And.
44:14
I think we've sort of opened up a new segue to entering or allowing a portal for
44:19
the younger generation to get into racing and into cars, and that's always the goal,
44:24
is to do something that makes an impact.
44:26
So super fun and it's certainly never boring.
44:29
So, uh, I wake up and I'm as charged up as I ever was as a driver.
44:34
Troy writes, how much do you think BOP pre-select a winner?
44:38
Do you think BOP is a good thing?
44:39
And why?
44:40
I don't think BOP selects a winner.
44:42
I think BOP stems from taking manufacturers streetcars.
44:48
And trying to take a heavy, high horsepower car and a light low
44:52
horsepower car and make them battle closely on the racetrack.
44:55
As far as ground up prototypes, the goal is that everybody has a shot,
45:00
and what you really want is the ability for teams to fight it out with
45:04
strengths and weaknesses on the track.
45:06
With driver strategy and things of that nature.
45:09
But you know, I'm past the point of being employed as a racing driver, so
45:12
I'll probably be willing to speak a little bit more on this than someone
45:15
who's in it in the center of it.
45:17
I think that there's a little bit of gamesmanship depending on what
45:20
the ultimate focus is, and a lot of things, you know, you have to decide
45:25
when to play your cards and when to.
45:28
You know, not player cards, but with torque sensors and with the
45:31
evolution of technology, there really isn't the ability to sandbag.
45:37
There really isn't the ability to hide performance.
45:39
And, and that's why you have such hard races with so many cars, so
45:44
close from different manufacturers.
45:46
But I think what we all want is a fair fight.
45:49
I think that as a fan, you wanna see the ones who work the hardest,
45:53
uh, who develop the best product.
45:55
To have an edge.
45:56
It doesn't always have to be fair straight across the board.
45:59
So I think the officials have a very, very tricky and difficult
46:04
challenge to monitor all of that, and it's a very thankless job.
46:08
You only hear from the people who aren't happy with the outcome of a race.
46:11
You never hear from.
46:12
The people that respect and admire just how much effort's put in.
46:16
So it's a subject.
46:17
They will long be debated, but if you look at where current prototype racing
46:21
is, there's more manufacturer support.
46:24
There's more depth of field in GT and prototype racing than I've ever seen.
46:28
So you certainly can't argue that the formula is working.
46:31
All right, Patrick, one more crowd question before we go
46:34
into our wrap up segment.
46:36
Christopher asks, do you enjoy visiting a track and watching a
46:39
race or does it still feel a little bit too much like a day at work?
46:43
You know, personally, when I go to a track, I enjoy just like I did as a
46:49
kid watching a good hard fight, but all the days leading up to the race.
46:54
If I have a focus, I love being there.
46:56
I love the environment.
46:57
I love seeing colleagues.
46:59
I love the energy, but just to be hanging out on vacation or as a
47:04
fan now, I'd probably be at home.
47:06
But the example being we spent three and a half weeks at Daytona
47:10
shooting F1 the movie during and before and after the 24 hours.
47:15
And, and I loved that because I was working in.
47:18
To the teams, different focuses, different goals, but being in that
47:22
atmosphere and in that environment with a destination and with a focus,
47:26
it was the best of both worlds.
47:27
So still lots of love for the racetrack.
47:30
Now that you've stepped back from full-time racing, how do you
47:33
reflect on your Le Mans's legacy?
47:35
What does the race still mean to you today?
47:37
And when you think back over that, do a little retrospective
47:40
analysis, what did Le Mans teach you?
47:42
I would say that Le Mans humbles you.
47:44
It is such a prestigious event, and it is such a big name in the world
47:52
of sport, but when you're out on the racetrack going 200 miles an hour in the
47:56
middle of the night, you're all alone.
47:58
And at that point it can be eerie.
48:00
It's you against the racetrack, and that's where you have to have that
48:03
humility in that respect for what's going on with other competitors, danger.
48:08
Focus on human performance and on performing and getting
48:11
the most out of yourself.
48:12
So I think it teaches you to be calculated, and because you're going so
48:17
fast, you really do have to be precise.
48:21
All of it was a rhythm and a flow.
48:23
So I would just say humility, precision, and uh, respect.
48:27
You do a lot of historic racing now.
48:30
I've seen you at the Monterey Historics.
48:32
You've done red sport, a lot of other events now that Le Mans Classic
48:36
is in full swing, starting with this year, they're gonna do one
48:39
every year alongside of the 24.
48:42
Do you see yourself participating at Le Mans Classic, and if so, is there
48:45
a car that you'd like to run there?
48:47
Particular era of endurance racing.
48:49
I have not attended the race before nor competed.
48:52
I do have a goal of being there.
48:55
I don't know what the race car would be if I was to choose one right now.
48:59
Maybe a a 9 9 3 era, GT two Evo or an RSR only because.
49:05
I think that that was the generation just before me.
49:08
It was also the generation of nine 11 that was racing when I
49:11
first attended the track in 99.
49:14
Just one of my favorite street cars.
49:16
So that's one.
49:17
The group C cars and GTP Cars of nine 60 twos 9 56 is, is just.
49:23
One of my favorite race cars to drive.
49:25
So that would be another one high on the list.
49:27
You know, 9 62 of last generations and twin turbos and more evolved
49:32
brakes is, is a car that was just many decades ahead of itself, at
49:35
least from a driving perspective.
49:37
And so, yeah, one day maybe we'll get the chance.
49:40
Lastly, what's next, Patrick?
49:42
Well, I'm sitting, uh, in, in our planning office and team office, and
49:46
there's whiteboards all around me and everything is about our upcoming
49:50
show in Durham, North Carolina.
49:52
We do an annual air cooled gathering.
49:54
This year is our 11th.
49:55
Edition and, uh, first time on the proper east side of the country.
49:59
So time has flown.
50:00
I obviously started this brand and, and this gathering and celebration
50:04
reunion, it's not just for car owners, but 85% of the people
50:08
who come are not Porsche owners.
50:09
And that's, uh, one of the big parts of my focus these days.
50:13
I also have a seven and a 10-year-old, so they're at home excited and eager for
50:17
me to come back and hang out with them.
50:19
And it's just a super fun age, just a different cadence of
50:22
life than it was when I was.
50:24
200 days a year on the road, but Porsche and Motorsport is all around me in my
50:29
everyday life still, and for that I'm grateful and just continuing to get
50:33
to ride this wave of taking my passion since I was three years old and 41 years
50:38
later, still getting to play with cars.
50:40
Well, we've reached that part of the episode where I'd like to
50:42
turn the microphone over to an a CO representative, and so David
50:46
Lowe, president of A-C-O-U-S-A, is gonna have some parting thoughts.
50:49
Patrick, on behalf of the Automobile Club, Dilla West and our A-C-O-U-S-A
50:53
community, I'd really like to thank you for sharing your story with us tonight.
50:57
It's an honor to celebrate your journey together.
51:00
Thank you very much.
51:01
Thanks, David.
51:02
It's been a great time.
51:03
Thank you.
51:03
That wraps up tonight's evening with the legend.
51:06
We took a fascinating journey through the legendary Le Mans experiences of Patrick
51:10
Long from his first time racing on the hallowed grounds of Circuit D Losar
51:14
to his class victories with Porsche.
51:15
Patrick's story is one of talent, precision, and unwavering dedication
51:19
to the art of endurance racing.
51:21
His impact on the sport, especially as the only American Porsche factory
51:24
driver of his era has left a lasting legacy, both in the paddock and in the
51:28
history books to keep up with Patrick and his continued work in motorsports,
51:31
including his involvement with Luka Cult and other Porsche centric projects.
51:35
Be sure to follow him on Instagram and Twitter at pl motorsport, and
51:39
you can also visit his official website@www.patricklong.com for more
51:44
updates, appearances and insights into his career and current ventures.
51:48
And with that, we hope you enjoyed this presentation and
51:50
look forward to more evening with a legend throughout the season.
51:53
And Patrick, on behalf of everyone here and those listening at home, thank
51:57
you for sharing your stories with us.
51:59
I appreciate it.
52:00
It's been, uh, a great time, very fond memories, and I'll be looking forward
52:03
to listening to your next episodes.
52:16
This episode has been brought to you by the Automobile Club of the West and
52:20
the A-C-O-U-S-A from the awe-inspiring speed demons that have graced the
52:24
track to the courageous drivers who have pushed the limits of endurance.
52:28
The 24 hours of the Le Mans is an automotive spectacle like no other.
52:31
For over a century the 24 hours Le Mans has urged manufacturers to
52:34
innovate for the benefit of future motorists, and it's a celebration of
52:38
the relentless pursuit of speed and excellence in the world of motorsports.
52:42
To learn more about or to become a member of the ACO USA, look no further than
52:47
www.Le Mansn.org, click on English in the upper right corner and then click on
52:53
the a CO members tab for club offers.
52:56
Once you've become a member, you can follow all the action on the Facebook
52:59
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53:03
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53:15
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