Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Evening With A Legend: Bobby Rahal
Transcript
- 0:00Evening With a 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.
- 0:34Tonight we have an opportunity to bring a piece of Le Mans to
- 0:37you sharing in the Legend of Le Mans with guests from different
- 0:40eras of over 100 years of racing.
- 0:43And as your host, I'm delighted to introduce Bobby Rahal, best known
- 0:47for his accomplishments in IndyCar.
- 0:49He also made notable appearances at the 24 hours of Le Mans during the 1980s.
- 0:54Though endurance racing was not the primary focus of his career, Bobby
- 0:57showcased his versatility by competing in the iconic event multiple times,
- 1:01driving for teams like Porsche and March.
- 1:04Despite setbacks preventing a top finish, Rahal's participation
- 1:07highlighted his adaptability and competitiveness on the world's stage
- 1:11and his involvement in Le Mans reflects the broader scope of his racing legacy.
- 1:15Bridging American open wheel success with international endurance prestige.
- 1:20With that, I'm your host crew chief Erick from the Motoring
- 1:22Podcast Network, welcoming everyone to this evening with a legend.
- 1:26So Bobby, welcome to the show.
- 1:28Well, thank you.
- 1:28Nice to be with you.
- 1:29Everybody's got a superhero origin story, so let's focus in on the part
- 1:35of your career that surrounds Le Mans.
- 1:37What initially drew you to compete at the 24, and how did
- 1:41that opportunity come about?
- 1:42Some people who've known me for a long time would know that the early parts of
- 1:47my career were spent in sports car racing.
- 1:49That's where I started.
- 1:50Specifically with SCCA, but you know, my father raced at Sebring
- 1:54in Watkins Glen from 1969 to 1971.
- 1:57So we participated in the 12 hour and the six hour races.
- 2:02I grew up around sports, car racing primarily.
- 2:05I mean, yes, open wheel racing was what I, I wanted to do, but at the time as
- 2:10a kid, I was involved with his racing.
- 2:12I went where he went, so, so, um, in any event, racing in those years.
- 2:18I got the chance to watch the greats at Sebring Watkins Glen,
- 2:23and got to know my well later on.
- 2:25Got to know, but got to see my friend Brian Redmond, you know,
- 2:28raced the nine 17 Porsches.
- 2:30Of course, Joe Sifford, Peter Rodriguez, you know, all the great
- 2:33drivers that drove for Porsche.
- 2:35And then of course, you know, the Ferrari drivers Alfa Romeo.
- 2:38I mean, it was an amazing period of time.
- 2:40And so that really motivated me to a large degree.
- 2:43So really before I got to IndyCar racing, you know, I'd won Daytona 24 hour.
- 2:48I had raced at Le Mans.
- 2:49So racing sports cars.
- 2:50Was really, uh, something that was a, frankly a, a goal of mine.
- 2:55And to race at a place like Le Mans was a goal of mine.
- 2:58And I was fortunately, although not successfully, but fortunately,
- 3:01I was able to participate in your road to Le Mans also involves
- 3:05the partnership and friendship that you grew with Bob Garretson.
- 3:09Yes.
- 3:09How did that come about and how did he help get you to Le Mans in
- 3:13your first attempt with the 9 35?
- 3:15Yeah, well maybe go back a little bit in, in 78.
- 3:18I was racing mainly Formula Atlantic in the United States.
- 3:21I raced in New Zealand at January of 78.
- 3:24Came back.
- 3:25That's when I was introduced to Walter Wolf, who owned the Wolf Formula One team,
- 3:29which Jody Sector drove for and after.
- 3:31After the race at Long Beach in 78, Walter, he came to me and said, Hey, I
- 3:36want you to drive our Formula Three car.
- 3:38That was based at Dallara, the Dallara that we know of today.
- 3:42It was based at his small, small factory in Ano Italy.
- 3:46And with the idea that I would race certain Formula Three races in 78 with
- 3:51the idea of racing Formula One races at the end of that year, which I did.
- 3:55I moved to Italy, lived over there for about six months or so, began
- 3:59my relationship with this wonderful man named Dr. Del in GaN Lau.
- 4:04Great guy.
- 4:05Wonderful.
- 4:06Drove his first Formula three car ever.
- 4:08Of course, later on he would design and build cars that would
- 4:10really dominate Formula Three.
- 4:11And frankly, now, I don't know, a series in the world that doesn't rely
- 4:15on Dallara to a certain degree for providing automobiles to go to race with.
- 4:19But in any event, at the end of 78, I did the US Grand Prix, Canadian Grand Prix.
- 4:24You know, the hope was I was going to drive for Wolf in 1979.
- 4:28They decided not to run a second car, which meant that I
- 4:31was on the outside looking in.
- 4:33Of course, I, I then went to drive Formula two in 1979 for the Chevron factory.
- 4:38Great experience.
- 4:39Loved racing in Europe.
- 4:40I mean, I really loved racing.
- 4:41For me, even from the days I watched the movie Grand Prix, which had such
- 4:45a huge effect on my life to the idea of racing in Europe was, to me, that
- 4:49was like, that was, that was the goal.
- 4:52And, and of course I had heroes like Dan Gurney, who had done that for years
- 4:56and been very successful, you know, and Phil Hill, you know, many others.
- 4:59So, seven nine drove Formula two.
- 5:01Uh, halfway through the year I was hired by a fund named Herb Kaplan to
- 5:05replace George Fulmer and his Canam car.
- 5:08Did that.
- 5:08We were pretty successful in that car, but really my goal was still
- 5:12to race in Europe, you know, hopefully get back to Formula One.
- 5:15That, as I said, didn't transpire, but at the end of 79, I went to
- 5:19Daytona for the last EMSA race.
- 5:21And I went there purely to meet people.
- 5:24'cause I didn't really know, even though, you know, I'd come from
- 5:26kind of a sports car background.
- 5:28I didn't really know many of the people involved in sports car racing.
- 5:32Uh, in those days it was John Paul Sr. It was the Whittingtons.
- 5:35You had, of course the Garson team, Dick Barber, you know, in the 9 3 5.
- 5:39Porsche of course was really the car to have at the time.
- 5:43So I went to Daytona purely to just introduce myself
- 5:46to everybody, which I did.
- 5:47To be honest with you, I can't really recall the meeting I had with Bob
- 5:51Garson, but the next thing you know, I'm in Mountain View, California,
- 5:55which is where Garson Racing was based.
- 5:57And uh, we're there and here's this really awesome 9 3 5 Porsche
- 6:01with Apple computer all over it.
- 6:03And, uh, they hired me.
- 6:05It was, I think about six races.
- 6:06In fact, I think we only did six with that car.
- 6:09John Fitzpatrick was the primary driver for Garson, for Dick Barber racing Garson
- 6:14Enterprises, and he had the sax 9, 3 5.
- 6:16He won the championship in, in 1980, I believe, with that car.
- 6:20In fact, the car, that Apple car really was an amazingly successful car.
- 6:26It won Sebring as a 9 34.
- 6:28It won Sebring.
- 6:29I don't think we ever won Sebring with that car as a 9 35, but of course
- 6:33we won at Daytona with it in 81.
- 6:36And then maybe even more famously, in 19 79, 78, I think it was Paul
- 6:41Newman finished second in the same car at Le Mans, currently owned by
- 6:45um, Adam Corolla, who has it restored in the colors that Paul Newman drove
- 6:49in, but an amazingly successful car.
- 6:51So in any event, I'm trying to think.
- 6:53The first race we did with that car, I believe was Sebring.
- 6:55We did Riverside, a six hour Riverside race, did Sears Point, Watkins Glen.
- 7:00I was on pole at the Watkins Glen six hour race ahead of the works.
- 7:04Lance is, and you name it.
- 7:05Everybody in the world was there at uh, most part we raced it
- 7:08and I'm not quite sure, I can't remember the la the other race.
- 7:11But in any event, I just got this opportunity through Garson, through
- 7:14Bob and probably Dick Barber.
- 7:16I would assume it to some level.
- 7:18It was a great experience and I loved driving the car.
- 7:20And of course then a year after that we go to Daytona with Bob and
- 7:24Brian Redmond and win the 24 hour.
- 7:26So, you know, had a lot of success with that single car.
- 7:28You already had a bunch of experience driving in Europe.
- 7:32Yeah.
- 7:32But Le Mans was still one of the crown jewels.
- 7:35Yeah.
- 7:35You on your bucket list you wanted to race at and then you finally get there in 1980.
- 7:40Yep.
- 7:40Did it live up to your expectations?
- 7:42It, it was such, such an amazing.
- 7:44Event.
- 7:44You know, Le Mans it like they say, they say the three biggest races are
- 7:48Le Mans, Indy 500 and Monaco Grand Prix, and I think that's so right.
- 7:53Because the environment is just so unique and so amazing and so electrifying
- 7:58that with all due respect to all the other races around the world.
- 8:02You go to Le Mans in India, or Mon Monaco and I, I've raced at Monaco in
- 8:06the Formula three series with Dallara.
- 8:08You know, these are bigger than life, these events, and certainly
- 8:11Le Mans was no different.
- 8:13I mean, I've watched the Steve McQueen movie.
- 8:15When I was a teenager, 17 years old or whatever.
- 8:18Again, for me, because I wanted to race in Europe, to go to Le Mans was
- 8:21just a dream come true, and it didn't let me down in any respect at all.
- 8:25I mean, it was an amazing circuit.
- 8:27Of course, it still at that time had the original moles on straight,
- 8:30all three miles or so of it.
- 8:32It didn't have the original part that was like White House corner and, and
- 8:36things like that, but it was still pretty much the original Le Mans.
- 8:40It had the Dunlop curve, which was a fantastic coming up the front
- 8:43straightaway and we go underneath the Dunlop Bridge fast corner, very high risk
- 8:47corner, especially when it was raining.
- 8:49But yeah, you know, I, I really ticked that, you know, that little box on
- 8:53your bucket list or whatever to race at Le Mans, even though we ended up
- 8:57not finishing the race that year, we had been competitive and, and so
- 9:01disappointing not to finish, but so satisfying just to have been there.
- 9:04So, a lot of other legends that have been on the show and, and are within your era.
- 9:09Mm-hmm.
- 9:09There's like a 20 year span there.
- 9:11Talk about preparing for Le Mans, how difficult it was compared to today, where
- 9:14you have, every simulator has a version of Le Mans that you could race and try.
- 9:19How did you prepare for Le Mans?
- 9:20Did somebody give you notes or pointers or did you just figure
- 9:23it out on your first out lab?
- 9:25No, you know, in my day, as you say, you didn't have simulators.
- 9:28I don't remember people taking much in the way of notes about anything.
- 9:31I mean, it's not like today.
- 9:33No, it was on the job training.
- 9:35You would, uh, go out and do practice regardless of what track
- 9:39you were coming to, especially if it was for the first time.
- 9:41Your ability to be competitive was based on your ability to really learn the
- 9:45circuit quickly and to just have that ability to take it all in as quickly as
- 9:50possible and then take advantage of it.
- 9:52And of course, every session you drove, every time you went out, you were just
- 9:56building up that knowledge of the circuit.
- 9:58And that even held true during the race, during each stint that you drove.
- 10:01You know, there was just something else you would learn and you get better at it.
- 10:04So no, there was, there was no racing.
- 10:07There was no Jim Russell, there was no, uh, again, no, as you say, no simulator.
- 10:11No.
- 10:11It was just up to you and the team.
- 10:13And Yes.
- 10:14If you had, for example, I mean, I was so lucky to have to drive with
- 10:17Brian Reman on a number of occasions.
- 10:19Because Brian would kind of fill you in, Hey, you gotta
- 10:22look for this, look for that.
- 10:23But I would also tell you that most drivers, they didn't share that much.
- 10:27It was, it's up to you kid to learn.
- 10:29And so you took advantage of every second you had on the track.
- 10:33And again, tried to learn everything you could every time you were in
- 10:36that car and, and that's just kind of the way that was the way it was.
- 10:39So let's dig into the 1980 race just a little bit more.
- 10:42Mm-hmm.
- 10:42You touched on some of the highlights.
- 10:44As a private tier team, Garson Enterprises.
- 10:46Right.
- 10:46This wasn't a Porsche backed team.
- 10:48You guys were on your own.
- 10:49Right.
- 10:49You know, small operation.
- 10:50What was it like strategy wise compared to what you were used to coming from
- 10:55IndyCar, coming from other racing?
- 10:56How did you have to adapt?
- 10:58Challenges you had to overcome?
- 10:59Well, remember again, I hadn't been in IndyCar until 82, so when I went in 80,
- 11:04you know, my experience was mainly Formula Atlantic, a year of Formula three, year
- 11:08of Formula Two and two Formula One races.
- 11:10But Garson Enterprises was just a phenomenal organization, and
- 11:15yet it was really based on, yes, there were a couple professional
- 11:20people within that organization.
- 11:21Jerry Woods was pretty much dedicated to building the engines, and he was a
- 11:25great engine builder is a great engine builder, and of course Bob Garson,
- 11:29you know, he had been to Le Mans a couple times prior to my being there.
- 11:33He was a very studious guy, amateur, but very good driver and really
- 11:37kinda led the team not just on track, but off track and by example.
- 11:42Bob was a wonderful man who just passed away about three, four months ago.
- 11:45But that team was made up for the most part of weekend Warriors, and these guys
- 11:51and ladies were so dedicated to this.
- 11:54Even today, there's guys like Marty Roff.
- 11:56He, he was an IBM guy.
- 11:58In fact, I think he just retired from IBM.
- 12:00Only a year or two ago he spent, he's, like I told you, he always kidded him.
- 12:03He was the, the longest remaining employee of IBM.
- 12:06But these guys was just not Martin or Marty as we call him.
- 12:10You know his brother Mark and still is involved with him.
- 12:12So for many years, and Mark was involved a certain degree, but there was just
- 12:16a bunch of other people that were.
- 12:18Involved yet, you know, but very knowledgeable, very dedicated.
- 12:21These were amateur, these were weekend warriors that dedicated
- 12:25themselves to Garrisson Enterprises.
- 12:27I mean, they loved the racing.
- 12:28You know, they traveled all over the place and I mean, it was a
- 12:32phenomenal team that I would put up against any pro team anytime.
- 12:36I mean, that was just the nature.
- 12:37The quality of the people that were involved, some of whom are no longer
- 12:41with us, but the quality of the people, dedication and the knowledge.
- 12:46I mean, it just, it was amazing, which is what attributed to their
- 12:49success as a, as an organization and how they could beat very professional
- 12:53teams that came outta Europe.
- 12:54I mean, Garrett's an enterprises, they were as good as it got,
- 12:57regardless of who we were up against.
- 12:59And so, uh.
- 13:00You know when you went to places like Le Mans and in fact John Fitzpatrick
- 13:03that year with the 9 3 5 with that team was very successful across the board.
- 13:08I mean, when I drove there in 1980, it was raining at the start of the race.
- 13:11It rained for a lot of the race.
- 13:13I remember going at night, now we get to night and the road,
- 13:16you know, it was convoluted.
- 13:17The straightaway, there's dips and there's, you name it, and so you're
- 13:20going down there, you're thinking, is that a puddle or is that just a shadow?
- 13:23And you're going 200 miles an hour, and if you hit a puddle at 200 miles an
- 13:27hour and you're not really prepared for it, that might have bad consequences.
- 13:31I mean, it was a super challenge in the race.
- 13:34Fitzpatrick and I were running together.
- 13:35I think he was maybe a lap ahead of us at the time, but anyway, right.
- 13:39It was.
- 13:39Dry at this point, and I was right up underneath his rear wing.
- 13:43The headlights on my car are like bleaching out all
- 13:45the sign writing on his car.
- 13:47They're so bright, but in the back of his car is literally on fire in the sense
- 13:51that, you know, the exhaust system's glowing red, the turbos are glowing red.
- 13:55There's fire coming outta the turbos and outta the wastegate exhaust, and
- 13:59it was just the most amazing site.
- 14:01You're in the middle of the night, so it's black all around this.
- 14:03Cars all lit up like a Christmas tree.
- 14:06I wish John had a camera.
- 14:07I wish I could have taken a shot 'cause it, it would've
- 14:09just been an awesome picture.
- 14:10John was a tremendous driver, is a tremendous driver.
- 14:13But that team really is what empowered him to have the success he had.
- 14:18And I think he would agree with me on that.
- 14:19I had the benefit of the same people, so.
- 14:22It was a bunch of weekend warriors, but these guys were pretty damn good
- 14:26at what they did, and they could go out and compete against anybody.
- 14:29So let's talk about the 9 35.
- 14:31We had Rick Nup on, yeah.
- 14:33Last year.
- 14:33Who raced Kremmer nine 30 fives.
- 14:35Mm-hmm.
- 14:35Later evolution of the same car you drove, or similar car that you drove.
- 14:39Everybody that's talked about 9 35 say how unruly they are.
- 14:42They're just beasts that you got a manhandle for Rick, it sort of suited
- 14:45his driving style, but for you it was at its early stages of development.
- 14:49What did you think of driving the 9 35?
- 14:51Well, you know, in 1979 I won a a sports car race with Brian Redman in MidOhio, and
- 14:56a Canadian driver named Vic Heim, who was one of the real star of Canadian racing.
- 15:01He had a 9 3 5, but it was a single turbo, 9 35.
- 15:05I drove the car and practiced at MidOhio and I thought, oh my God, I don't know
- 15:09how you drive something like this.
- 15:10'cause the throttle leg in the car was so bad.
- 15:13One of those, you put your foot down and you count to like five, and then
- 15:16all of a sudden the power comes in.
- 15:18I elected not to drive that car That weekend.
- 15:20Drove with Brian.
- 15:21We won the race two liter sports car, but by 1980 now, they'd
- 15:25all gone to twin turbos and that changed that card dramatically
- 15:29because it now it had response.
- 15:31The 9 3 5 did several things very well.
- 15:34One.
- 15:34It went like a bat outta hell.
- 15:36You know, it had a lot of power.
- 15:37Two, the brakes were pretty good on it.
- 15:39All of that was mitigated by the fact that it was a basically a nine 11 chassis.
- 15:44I mean, we had a adjustable front roll bar on the car, and I swore that
- 15:47I could move the roll bar wherever I wanted to, and there'd be no difference.
- 15:50There was probably that much flex in the chassis.
- 15:52I mean, remember it had an aluminum tube roll cage, which
- 15:56you look back now and you think.
- 15:57Good thing.
- 15:58I never had an accident in that car.
- 16:00'cause I can't imagine a aluminum tube roll cage would do much.
- 16:03But the car was a flexi flyer.
- 16:05I mean, it is one of those deals that when you really drove the car, I mean you
- 16:08could drive it with some oversteer in it.
- 16:10Some of that was induced by power, but some of it was by tuning the car a bit.
- 16:14Was it the best handling car I've ever driven?
- 16:16No, but you know, at the time it was the most competitive car and so
- 16:21you wanted to be in a 9 3 5 Porsche.
- 16:23Great story was in, I think it was 1980.
- 16:25In fact, we're at El Car Lake and I'm in the car and John
- 16:28Fitzpatrick's in the um, Sox car.
- 16:31We're practicing and he's like, three seconds, four seconds faster than me.
- 16:35And I'm just like, there's no way.
- 16:37'cause I'm driving the wheels off it and there's no way he's
- 16:39four seconds quicker than me.
- 16:41And I, you know, I was told, oh, you can only go to 1.2 bar
- 16:44barometric pressure on the boost.
- 16:46Well, as you know, Elkhart Lake has three very long straightaways amongst
- 16:49other things, and I think it was before qualifying or, or right after.
- 16:53But one of the mechanics came up to me and said, you know, John's using 1.4 bar.
- 16:58Oh really?
- 16:59Yeah.
- 16:59Yeah.
- 17:00He's using 1.4.
- 17:01Hmm.
- 17:01Okay.
- 17:02That's good to know.
- 17:03Thank you for that.
- 17:04So I went out and, uh, in qualifying and of course you could raise
- 17:07the, there's a, I wanna say a little wheelhouse or whatever.
- 17:10You'd adjust the boost by down by the gear shift.
- 17:12So what the heck?
- 17:13I'm gonna see what this does.
- 17:14And I didn't beat John, but I got within a 10th or something of 'em.
- 17:18'cause now when you go 1.4 bar, now you're going a lot faster down the strai
- 17:22at one than you are at 1.2 and you're coming off the corners a lot harder.
- 17:25At 1.4 engine power was.
- 17:27Almost everything in that thing.
- 17:29So it was the best car to drive at the time.
- 17:31Uh, was it the best car period?
- 17:33No, but it was a great car and uh, we had lots of success in the car
- 17:37and if you treated it right, careful with the gearbox as we did at Daytona
- 17:42in 81, didn't get greedy with it.
- 17:44I mean, you could have great races in it, as we did at Daytona 81, and it was really
- 17:48a, at the time, just the car to have.
- 17:50So let's switch gears and talk about your second attempt at Le Mans 1982.
- 17:54Let's not.
- 17:56Porsche at this point had really stopped producing the 9 35.
- 18:01Right.
- 18:02Although they were continued in private tier entries for a couple more years.
- 18:05Right.
- 18:06They were focusing their attention on the 9 56 and then
- 18:10subsequently the 9 62 after that.
- 18:12Yeah.
- 18:12However, there was a big shift, especially at Garson Enterprises to move to a
- 18:17March group C car instead of sticking with Porsche and maybe doing a 9 56.
- 18:22Why was that decision made?
- 18:24Do you have any inside baseball on that?
- 18:26Well first, and you might remember this, that in 81 I drove with
- 18:29Jim Perro Moretti in the Yost.
- 18:31It was a Moby Dick car.
- 18:33Basically.
- 18:33It wasn't a factory car, but Yost had built his own version of the
- 18:36Moby Dick right hand drive, which, you know, all the nine three fives
- 18:40were left hand drive 'cause they're based on a stock nine 11 chassis.
- 18:44But this one was right hand drive.
- 18:45Of course, on road courses, most of those road courses go clockwise.
- 18:49So you wanna be on the, you know, on the inside of the corners.
- 18:51It was a left hand shift that took a little getting used to.
- 18:54But in terms of pure, probably speed, that was a very, very quick 9, 3, 5.
- 18:59We didn't have a lot of success with it.
- 19:01I think we finished second in mid Ohio with it and, and what have you, but it
- 19:04was an amazing car, so that was a thrill.
- 19:06But, so in 1981, it was clear that the 9 3 5 was pretty much at the end of its line.
- 19:12Lola had come out with a T 600 that Brian drove to a
- 19:16championship win in in IMSA in 81.
- 19:19And that was powered by a six liter Chevy, a normally aspirated stock block.
- 19:23Very strong car.
- 19:24Especially compared to the nine three fives or anything
- 19:27else that was out at the time.
- 19:28So Garson, Dick Barber, I think everybody was of the view.
- 19:32Why don't we combine the best of English designers, IE Lola.
- 19:36And with the best of what Germany could provide, which was 9 3 5 engines and
- 19:40gearboxes, they decided we would go to Le Mans with a Lola T 600 powered
- 19:45by a 9 3 5 engine 9 3 5 gearbox.
- 19:47You know, sadly, or whatever.
- 19:49It's like anything that just wasn't given enough time, perhaps not enough resource.
- 19:54But I remember flying, gonna go to Le Mans.
- 19:56I was on my way to Europe to prepare for Le Mans, and they
- 19:59said, come to Sears Point.
- 20:01And they called it in those days, and now it's Sonoma.
- 20:03Mm-hmm.
- 20:04And they said, come to Sears because we, we wanna do a test with the car before
- 20:07we put it on the airplane to go to Paris.
- 20:10So, okay, so I fly to San Francisco, drive up to Sears Point,
- 20:14get there and nobody's there.
- 20:16I'm there, but nobody else is there and I'm waiting, waiting.
- 20:19No transporter, no car, no nothing.
- 20:22Finally at like, I think it was two or three in the afternoon, I'd been there
- 20:25probably six, seven hours at the time.
- 20:27I called 'em up and I said, Hey, what's going on?
- 20:29Are we, does this test happen?
- 20:30He said, no.
- 20:31No, we're not gonna be able to do the test.
- 20:33So I drove to the San Francisco airport and flew over to to Europe.
- 20:37Well, you don't go to the Le Mans 24 hour with a car that's never turned
- 20:40a wheel prior to getting there.
- 20:42And that was the case with this car.
- 20:44If you looked at it, you say, oh, this thing, nobody stands a chance.
- 20:48But it had not turned a wheel, and it's, of course, now Brian Redmond
- 20:51and I are gonna drive the car.
- 20:52We get to Le Mans, everything's by all rights, looks like it
- 20:56should, you know, just dominate.
- 20:58Over the couple days, we couldn't build up any boost pressure in the car.
- 21:01The intercos leaked and God knows what all else.
- 21:04And again, it never turned a wheel.
- 21:06Frankly, we couldn't qualify the car because it wasn't fast,
- 21:09'cause it just didn't generate the power and it wasn't fast enough.
- 21:12I think probably in the end that probably was a good thing because if it had been
- 21:16running like a 9, 3, 5 engine car should run, it might have killed one of us.
- 21:20'cause frankly, you know, we'd have gone very, very fast.
- 21:23But very disappointing for everybody, I think.
- 21:25And, and the team had busted their butts working late nights.
- 21:29Again, remember this is semipro team.
- 21:31People working on the car also have jobs during the day, not just working on that.
- 21:35And these people were working all night long and.
- 21:37It was an experience that everybody looks back now and truly understands
- 21:41why it wasn't able to perform.
- 21:43You know, very sad.
- 21:44Could have been so good yet it was kind of so bad and in the end
- 21:47we didn't qualify and went home with our tails between our legs.
- 21:50So that was 81.
- 21:51That was 81 and 82.
- 21:5382. Again, it's clear that the GTP category is the category.
- 21:58It was in SA, I mean, we, we had a March 82, March, GTP cars to drive at Daytona.
- 22:03I said pole position, lap record with the car.
- 22:06Amazingly, we had a great engine, a guy named Franz Weiss.
- 22:10Franz was Jim Hall's engine builder at Chaparral.
- 22:13He built my engines in IndyCar, Mario Andretti's engines in IndyCar.
- 22:17I mean Franz Weiss and his company was, and especially stock
- 22:20blocks Can-Am stuff like that.
- 22:22If not the best, I'm not sure who had been better.
- 22:24Just produced great product.
- 22:26So we're at Daytona again, six liter Chevy V eight, normally aspirated.
- 22:30And I, I was on pole.
- 22:32I mean, I remember driving past, I think it was Fitzpatrick on the banking.
- 22:35You know, you think the nine 30 five's fast in a stray line.
- 22:38But this march with this engine, and of course it was a much smaller frontal
- 22:42area compared to a 9 35, of course, it had instant response with the stock
- 22:47block Chevy, again, set it on pole and amazingly we were like running, I think
- 22:51third overall or so with maybe an hour and a half, two hours at most to go.
- 22:55And finally the gearbox gave up the ghost.
- 22:58But the fact that it was that strong in the right, in the 24 hour and was fairly
- 23:03reliable, that caused us to all think a lot about what do you do at Le Mans?
- 23:07You know, we went to Sebring a month and a half later.
- 23:09So again, I set pole position, lap record.
- 23:11That still exists today on the 5.2 mile circuit.
- 23:14The gearbox was kind of the Achilles heel to the car, but
- 23:17we lost two of the four gears.
- 23:18I think we only had second and fourth.
- 23:20Even with that, and of course a testament to Franz Weiss's engines.
- 23:23'cause I go down the back straight at Sebring and it's like pegged
- 23:26at 8,000 RPMs or whatever.
- 23:28I mean, it, it is just, there was no fifth gear to go to and 'cause it was gone.
- 23:32And yet, I mean the thing ran and ran.
- 23:34We finished second to John Paul's 9 3 5 by, I think it was 18 seconds maybe,
- 23:38or eight seconds, something like that.
- 23:40You know, and sea ring was just so tough in those days, physically on the car.
- 23:43So.
- 23:43In any event, his car showed that it could be competitive with anything out there,
- 23:47so we went to Le Mans with it that year.
- 23:49At this point, you're also running Indy cars, right?
- 23:51So when you compare a group C prototype with Downforce and everything else, that's
- 23:56different than the Indy car, what were they like when you compare and control?
- 23:59Were they similar to drive or were they horses of a different car?
- 24:01Well, the Indy cars were faster, even 82.
- 24:04I mean, they had a lot of power, a lot of downforce lighter.
- 24:07Those cars still had a fair amount of throttle lag.
- 24:09The Indy cars did single turbo.
- 24:11You know, and of course, you know, on a road course, they were considerably
- 24:15faster than anything out there.
- 24:16The Indy car was just a faster race car than IMSA or GTP.
- 24:20But GTP cars were still great cars to drive.
- 24:23You know, as I tell people, I think the thing that always impressed me when I
- 24:26first started driving Indy cars in 82 was that the car never stopped accelerating
- 24:30no matter how long the straightaway was.
- 24:33Whereas in a sports car, a 9, 3 5 or a March or whatever.
- 24:36You know, you go to Moison at Lemo, for example, and it basically stopped
- 24:41about halfway down the street, you know, accelerating, just kind of sat
- 24:44there, but, you know, different cars.
- 24:45It's just the reality.
- 24:46But yeah, the, the March again, you're talking about a car
- 24:50built by March Engineering.
- 24:51Much more sophisticated than the nine three fives, the chassis design,
- 24:55the componentry, you know, the 9 3 5, in many respects was still a,
- 24:59a well-developed nine 11, whereas a march was a pure racing car.
- 25:03And so consequently the performance of the two were different.
- 25:06But in the end, especially in endurance racing, the the nine, the Porsches, the
- 25:10nine three fives had, you know, years of experience, they had reliability.
- 25:15The engines were super reliable.
- 25:17Gearbox was, as long as you were good to them, super reliable brakes were good.
- 25:22But that's what made the difference.
- 25:23Whereas the march was really a car that was meant to go at most
- 25:26six hours and to ask it to do more was probably asking too much.
- 25:30For those that don't know how 1982 ended, is that how it ends
- 25:33for the March story at Le Mans?
- 25:34Well, you know, we split a fuel tank at Le Mans.
- 25:37Disappointing.
- 25:38Yeah, we got there.
- 25:39We had run outta money.
- 25:41We no longer had Franz license engines.
- 25:43And of course the mul on Straits A along straightaway, if you don't have
- 25:46any power, you know, we went there and we just didn't have any grunt.
- 25:49The engine manufacturer we had who will go unnamed, the
- 25:52engines just weren't good enough.
- 25:54You know, arrow wise, maybe the march carried a little too much drag in
- 25:57it compared to the Porsches, which you didn't really necessarily see
- 26:01a place like Daytona or Sebring, but you'd see it at Le Mans.
- 26:04In any event, you know, we qualified, but not that well.
- 26:06And of course, in the race, the fuel tank split after about three hours and.
- 26:10That was, that we were done.
- 26:12We, we did run the car, uh, numerous SA races following Le Mans.
- 26:16You know, one of the things we found after Le Mans, which was that Seabring
- 26:20had basically destroyed the chassis.
- 26:22You know, the rivets had in the cock had been loosened up or fell out,
- 26:26or, I mean, the car was not prepared well, again, financially, it wasn't
- 26:30garson, it was the sponsor of the team.
- 26:32Ran outta money, and so the maintenance of the car suffered as a result.
- 26:36And of course the different engine builder, all these things
- 26:38contributed to not really having a competitive proposition at Le Mans 82.
- 26:43Of course, then again, the fuel tank splits and very disappointing.
- 26:46I'm not sure we would've been as competitive as say
- 26:49we were at Daytona Sebring.
- 26:51We should have been more competitive than we were in.
- 26:53In any event, we went back to the states, ran a few more races again,
- 26:58with not very good engines, again, suffered the consequence of that.
- 27:01So the glory races for that car for us at least, was Daytona and Sebring.
- 27:06Now the next year with creepy crawley, they're the ones that put a 9 3 5
- 27:10gearbox boxing engine in a march and dominated Daytona and won a lot of races.
- 27:14And then of course, later on in 84, now I'm driving Bruce Levins 9 6
- 27:192 Porsche, one of the first ones.
- 27:21We're racing against Randall Lanier in the Whittingtons in a march
- 27:23Chevy, and that car had been fully developed and that was the car to have.
- 27:27So the, the March chassis was the right chassis.
- 27:30It's just we didn't have the resource to really run it properly
- 27:33and we suffered as a result.
- 27:34Did your Le Mans's journey stop in 82 because of your rise in IndyCar,
- 27:40or were there other attempts to go back to Le Mans over the years?
- 27:43Oh, well, for the most part, yes, because of IndyCar.
- 27:47The Portland IndyCar race used to always be on the same weekend or
- 27:50thereabouts as Le Mans in June.
- 27:53One of my great what ifs with my great friend, Jochen Moss, who he and I won
- 27:57Sibr together in 87 with the 9 6 2, is that he asked me to drive with him
- 28:02and in the Saber, the Mercedes and I think it was 1989, you know, 'cause
- 28:06we had obviously won Sebring together.
- 28:09We became friends, you know, good co-drivers together, good relationship.
- 28:13I had to say no.
- 28:13And of course that's the year he won Le Mans, or one of the years he won Le
- 28:16Mans with the Mercedes powered sober.
- 28:18As you can imagine what ifs, right?
- 28:21The thing that kind of disappoints me in myself is that when I started
- 28:26to focus more just on IndyCar racing, I think probably around
- 28:2919 90, 91, that was a mistake.
- 28:32Having had the success, I'd had an IndyCar, I'D won the 500.
- 28:35By that time, I'd won a couple championships.
- 28:37I had won Sebring in 87, a number of other SA races in 87.
- 28:42And I don't know why, but I thought, uh, I just, I'm, I don't wanna
- 28:44travel that much or something.
- 28:46And I decided not to, to get out of sports car racing.
- 28:48And I really think I lost opportunities that could have perhaps enabled me to
- 28:53win Le Mans because I really think that would've been great to say, you know,
- 28:58you want indie, you, you want Le Mans.
- 29:00Never won Formula One World Championship.
- 29:02But, you know, those are two pretty good championships to win.
- 29:04In any event, I, I look back and I think, you know, I shouldn't have
- 29:08done that because as I say, I think I had, I would've had opportunities,
- 29:11but it is what it is, you know?
- 29:12Now for me it's really about, you know, I want RLL Raul Letterman
- 29:17Lanigan racing to go to Le Mans.
- 29:18Well, I may not be able to win it as a driver.
- 29:21I can win it as a team owner, and that's certainly something
- 29:23that I've been disappointed over the last several years with BMW.
- 29:27We weren't asked to do that.
- 29:28But you know, maybe one of these days we can go there as
- 29:31a team and, and win the race.
- 29:32That won't maybe be quite the same as winning as a driver,
- 29:34but it'll be pretty nice.
- 29:36Since we're talking about lessons learned, one of the things that a lot
- 29:40of the pro drivers that we have on the show talk about is how Le Mans's.
- 29:43Profoundly changed them as a driver and the things that they
- 29:47took away, the memories obviously, that they created that enthusiasm.
- 29:51They reached their bucket list.
- 29:52Yeah, there's a whole new experience.
- 29:53How did Le Mans change you?
- 29:55What did you learn from it?
- 29:57Lessons, memories that you took back with you to IndyCar
- 29:59maybe made you a better driver?
- 30:01Well, I think that.
- 30:02Yeah, Le Mans, especially in the, with the 9, 3, 5, you know, remember
- 30:05it didn't have a rev limiter.
- 30:06I mean, it was a synchronous transmission.
- 30:08It wasn't straight cut gears.
- 30:10It wasn't like today where the gearings electronically or
- 30:13hydraulically motivated, or, I mean, it was a conventional gear box.
- 30:17It was conventional brakes, and Brian Redmond was really a
- 30:21great teacher for me about this.
- 30:23Is that, you know, this is how you have to drive the car in order to get it
- 30:27to the end of the race, whether it's Daytona, Sebring, Le Mans, whatever.
- 30:31And it really did teach me how to get the maximum out of the car.
- 30:35Having minimum, I don't wanna say consequence, but you know,
- 30:38get the most feet outta the car at the least price to the car.
- 30:42In other words, taking it easy on the brakes, careful on the
- 30:45gearbox, making sure when you make the shift that you're in gear.
- 30:48I mean, all these things because you didn't have the
- 30:50protections that you have today.
- 30:52You know, I remember Redmond telling me that one year he and CFR were.
- 30:56Pretty much ready to win Le Mans maybe in two hours to go and sit.
- 31:00Missed a gear shift on the front, straight over rev the engine
- 31:03in the nine 17 and it blew up.
- 31:04And that was that.
- 31:05You know, that was the same with the 9 3 5.
- 31:07I mean, you had to be sure of everything you did and you had to be careful
- 31:11everything you did and you had to drive it carefully as you could go
- 31:14and yet as quick bay as you could go.
- 31:15And that later on with Indy cars and everything else, I drove 9 6 2, whatever
- 31:19that later on was, gave me great experience, great lessons to learn from.
- 31:23It gave me the success that I had in later years.
- 31:26Alright, Bobby, so before we transition into our last segment here,
- 31:29wrapping up this episode, there's a couple crowd questions for you.
- 31:32Sure.
- 31:33So first off, Ron Meyer writes, can you please ask him
- 31:36about the Otter Pops sponsor?
- 31:40Well that was IndyCar.
- 31:42Yeah.
- 31:42Paul Pope owned a company called Otter Pops, that's frozen popsicles, right.
- 31:47He regrettably passed away a few years ago, but just a great guy.
- 31:50Had a great time with him and he got hooked up with Maury
- 31:53Cranes who owned Kraco, who was the owner of the Kraco team.
- 31:56I went to drive for Kraco in 89.
- 31:59Otter Pops was one of the associate sponsors.
- 32:01Yeah, we were very popular in the paddock area 'cause we had all
- 32:04the Otter pop bars for everybody.
- 32:06But yeah, I guess one of the best things about racing over the years for
- 32:10me is uh, and I tell people this, is that you meet really fabulous people.
- 32:14Some aren't so fabulous, but frankly, most are.
- 32:17And Paul was certainly one of those.
- 32:18Maury Cranes was certainly one of those, and I was fortunate to count
- 32:22them as friends and fortunate to drive for them, and fortunate to
- 32:24have a lot of experiences with 'em.
- 32:26Bob Varsha, oh boy.
- 32:27The Bob Varsha wants to know, what advice would you give your son Graham
- 32:32about continuing his driving career when everything else is going so well?
- 32:37And do you see yourself running a Le Mans's Classic with him?
- 32:41So first off, in 2005, Graham was running, what do they call it?
- 32:45Uh, Mazda Super Mazda or something like that.
- 32:47He finished second in Montreal for the Montreal Race Grand Prix.
- 32:51And we got on a plane.
- 32:52I said, we're gonna go to Le Mans.
- 32:54I really was pushing him to say, one of these days, you've gotta
- 32:57go run Le Mans, you gotta do it.
- 32:59So I took him over there now in 2005.
- 33:01So in oh five he was 16 years old.
- 33:03So we flew over and we didn't stay for the race, but we flew around and we
- 33:07walked around the track basically, you know, we're hacking through the bush.
- 33:11I said, I want you to go down, we're gonna go down to this place called Re, which is
- 33:14halfway down the Mulsanne Strait, right.
- 33:16And there's a bar on one side restaurant and, and I said, I want you to go
- 33:19down, we're gonna go down there.
- 33:20And we got through the bush.
- 33:22Watched the cars go by at 200 miles an hour.
- 33:24Then we went back to the paddock, went up in the Ferris wheel.
- 33:27Very kind of emotional kind of thing, you know, that all of these sensations
- 33:31that I had experienced over my years that I wanted him to get a feel for and
- 33:35appreciation of, and got up in the Ferris wheel there right by the last chicane and.
- 33:40At night practice.
- 33:41And you know, as I've always told him, and I still tell him,
- 33:43I said he's still a young guy.
- 33:44He is 36 years old, so he's got plenty of time if he wants to go there.
- 33:47But there race and Le Mans.
- 33:48What a great experience it was for me.
- 33:50I hope he does it one day.
- 33:52'cause I think he'll feel the same way as far as the, uh, Le Mans Classic.
- 33:56I've done that twice.
- 33:57Brian Redmond, I, I had a nine 17 Porsche in 2002.
- 34:00The first Le Mans Classic.
- 34:01He and I drove that car there.
- 34:03I thought, who better than to get Brian Redmond to co drive with you
- 34:06at, you know, in a nine 17 Porsche.
- 34:08We had mechanical issues, so we didn't finish, but still a great experience.
- 34:12And later then I went and raced in a three liter Lola prototype.
- 34:16Three or four years later, I'm, I'm done racing, you know, my day's over and I
- 34:20don't think Graham's ready to, I think he always thought I was crazy doing
- 34:23these races with these old race cars.
- 34:25'cause there's certainly no safer today than they were in
- 34:27the day, which wasn't very safe.
- 34:29Right.
- 34:29So.
- 34:30I doubt I can get him into one, but yeah, that, that's a great event.
- 34:33You know, Le Mans's a great event.
- 34:34Le Mans classic's a great event, especially if you love the old historic
- 34:38cars and, and you see many of them.
- 34:40And, and I was very fortunate.
- 34:41I drove a Fellow's two 50 LM Ferrari one time there at the Le Mans Classic.
- 34:46The Lola T 2 86 was a three liter DFE Cosworth powered car.
- 34:50Of course the nine 17 and others.
- 34:52So, I mean, Le Mans is Le Mans, it doesn't matter what's driving
- 34:55on the track, it's a hell of an event and a hell of an experience.
- 34:57So since you brought up classic, that would've been the new track format because
- 35:01yes, it started way after the redesign.
- 35:04When you compare driving Le Mansn now, let's say in a classic event
- 35:07compared to then, what do you think of the evolution of the track?
- 35:10Well, you know, I'm a traditionalist in a lot of ways.
- 35:13I can understand maybe one of the chicanes, um, za, I'm not sure about
- 35:18two, but I can understand that.
- 35:19I mean, I was fortunate and I feel fortunate to say to people today, oh
- 35:23yeah, no, I drove the real moan, rait.
- 35:26There is no question that the risk factor was high, no question about it.
- 35:31Maybe I feel less concerned about it because nothing ever happened
- 35:34to me on that part of the track, but for sure a lot of risk.
- 35:37I'm glad we, I experienced that, so I understand why they made the chicanes that
- 35:42Le Mans, but frankly, I think they caused more incidents than they had before.
- 35:46The most disappointing change for me at Le Mans today compared to when
- 35:51I drove is the Dunlop Curve coming up, the front strait, going up the
- 35:54hill underneath the Dunlop Bridge.
- 35:56It was a, a fast bend that then led down to that left hand corner.
- 36:00I can't remember the name of it.
- 36:01I'm not, I'm gonna say Tet Rouge, but I don't think it is.
- 36:04And that was an amazing corner, you know, fast and yet, you know, really
- 36:08attest, you know, not horribly risky, I would say, but still, just some
- 36:11really great corner and a great sight on the track arcing over the the hill.
- 36:16And turning right slightly.
- 36:18And that's gone.
- 36:18And what they've got now is, you know, I'm not a big fan of it, but the rest
- 36:22of the track is really not a whole lot different than when I drove it.
- 36:24In fact, when I drove my nine 17 there, you know when you went and
- 36:27came through Mulsanne Corner and went towards Indianapolis, that's pretty
- 36:31much the same as it was 1970 or 71.
- 36:34And, and so when I told people, I said, when I went through there,
- 36:37you're going there 200 miles an hour.
- 36:39And I went through, you know, there's two kinks, right between Mulsanne and,
- 36:42and Indianapolis and the second one has a little bit more elevation to it.
- 36:46And you go through there, you don't just squint too much to think it was 1970,
- 36:50it was really right out of the movie Le Mans there, you know, the rest of
- 36:53the track is not a whole lot different, but as I said, I kind of get Mulsanne.
- 36:57But I really disappointed about the changes they made at, at.
- 37:01So, Bobby, earlier you talked about what ifs, a lot of thinking about what ifs.
- 37:04So what if we could transport Bobby Raha 1980 to 2025?
- 37:10What car would you jump in to run the 24 hours of Le Mans this year?
- 37:13I think you'd have to say it's gotta be a Porsche.
- 37:16You know, the odds are pretty good if you're in a Porsche.
- 37:18My dad raced at Porsche Carrero six.
- 37:20We had an Elva Porsche, of course I drove the nine three fives, drove 9 6
- 37:242, which I did five races in 87 in Imon.
- 37:27I won three of 'em with the 9 6 2, and then I won two other races with 9 6 2.
- 37:31So I mean, it was an amazing car.
- 37:33And I have the feeling that driving the current Porsche is
- 37:35not a whole lot different, which is why they win a lot of races.
- 37:38'cause if there's a company that understands endurance
- 37:41racing, it's Porsche.
- 37:42If I'm gonna go back and if there's a car, for sure, a manufacturer would be Porsche.
- 37:47So looking back, how do you think your participation in Le Mans contributes to
- 37:51the broader story of your racing legacy?
- 37:53Well, I think there's just the fact that I did it again, I wasn't successful doing
- 37:57it, but you know, I, I was willing to try just about anything to further my career.
- 38:02And for me, clearly because of my father's experience racing at Seabring and Watkins
- 38:08Glen, my being there from a gopher to a weekend warrior mechanic, teenager, to
- 38:13seeing the racing, I mean, sports car racing was always very important to me.
- 38:16Still is last 17 years or 18 years, for me, some of the best
- 38:20has been associated with BMW.
- 38:22In their sports car racing program.
- 38:23We've won Daytona twice, won sea ring a couple times, a lot of other races.
- 38:27I mean, I just love sports, car racing, you know, it's like anything, I don't
- 38:31think I made Le Mans in any way.
- 38:32I think it made me in in certain ways.
- 38:35You know, it's disappointing not to go back to be able to drive there or be
- 38:39a team owner there, at least for the moment, but clearly one of these days.
- 38:42And just being able to tell people my experience going down the mos on straight.
- 38:46Or my experience of going through Indianapolis or any, or the Dunlop Curve.
- 38:50I mean that to me that I have an experience that few people have,
- 38:54and that's something that I treasure and it's something I think has value
- 38:57for people when they're interested in talking about great events like
- 39:02the Lamo 24 Hour, what's next?
- 39:04You kind of hinted at a couple things.
- 39:05What's going on?
- 39:06Well, I mean, I'm hopeful.
- 39:07Next is us as a team running at Lamo one of these days.
- 39:10That's the big goal.
- 39:11Mean, obviously we still want to go win Indy again.
- 39:14We've won that three times as a team and for me once as an owner,
- 39:18so four victories at at Indy.
- 39:19Wanna do more of that?
- 39:20I mean, anything we enter, we want to win.
- 39:22But I would love to be able to go back to Le Mans as a team and competitively
- 39:27race against the other teams and.
- 39:29You know, potentially win that race.
- 39:31Maybe I'd hang it up after that.
- 39:32I'm not sure.
- 39:33'cause F FDA won India, Daytona and Le Mans.
- 39:35Kinda like, well what else is there?
- 39:37Right.
- 39:37On that note, it's time for me to pass the torch to our A-C-O-U-S-A
- 39:42President for some final thoughts.
- 39:44Bobby?
- 39:45Thank you so much.
- 39:46It's been an honor and a pleasure on behalf of the a
- 39:49CO, the A-C-O-U-S-A community.
- 39:51Thank you.
- 39:51You're so gracious with your time.
- 39:53Thank you.
- 39:53Thank you.
- 39:54Well, it's great seeing you and you know, this is an important
- 39:56event for all of us, right?
- 39:57And, uh, I love talking about it.
- 39:59Wish I could talk more about it.
- 40:00Wish I had more experience, but I love talking about it.
- 40:03And uh, as I say, one day maybe we'll be back there.
- 40:06We look forward to that.
- 40:07Thank you, and that's the finish line for this evening with a legend where
- 40:11we took a closer look at the endurance racing chapter of Bobby Ray Hall's storied
- 40:15career known to most as an indie car legend and team owner Bobby's Ventures
- 40:20into the 24 hours reveal, a driver eager to push boundaries and compete on
- 40:24the world's biggest motorsport stage.
- 40:26Bobby's experiences behind the wheel and lessons learned in the grueling
- 40:29environment of Le Mans adds yet another layer to his already remarkable legacy.
- 40:33So to keep up with Bobby's ongoing work in Motorsport, check out ray hall.com or
- 40:38follow Ray Hall Letterman Lannigan Racing on your favorite social media platforms.
- 40:42And we hope you enjoyed this presentation and look forward to more evening
- 40:46with a legend throughout the season.
- 40:48And on behalf of everyone here and those listening at home, thank you
- 40:51Bobby, for sharing your stories with us.
- 40:53My pleasure and thank you so much for giving me the time to chat
- 40:56with everybody and with yourselves and, and it's been a real pleasure.
- 40:59And on a personal note, it has been an absolute honor to interview you tonight.
- 41:03So thank you.
- 41:03Watching you growing up on tv, all those kinds of things.
- 41:06Absolutely amazing.
- 41:07Thank you.
- 41:08Take care.
- 41:20This episode has been brought to you by the Automobile Club of the West and
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- 41:35For over a century the 24 hours Le Mans has urged manufacturers to
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