As the 90th staging of the famous 24 Heures du Mans on the semi-permanent Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans in North-West France where after the dust was settled, the Audi team of Loic Duval, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish reigned supreme over the spirited challenge of the Toyota team of Anthony Davidson, Stephane Sarrazin and Sebastien Buemi to take their 12th Le Mans win in 13yrs. But this race will be hardly remembered for Audi’s 12th win at the Sarthe, the death of Danish driver Allan Simonsen was the main talking point post-race after he crashed into the barriers on the route to Tertre Rouge corner 10min into the start of the world-famous 24hr endurance race.
However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, Karun Chandhok, taking a step down from LMP1, to the Irish-based LMP2 team Murphy Prototypes drove a quite exceptional race with his team-mates Brendon Hartley and Mark Patterson to come through in 37th place after a spin and finish 7th in their class which you could say for a former F1 driver like Chandhok, whose career never really took off in the open-wheeled formula is quite an achievement. Chandhok said post-race “We were quick which made it more irritating. At night, I was quickest on the track in the wet and dry and Brendon was fastest on track this morning. We dragged ourselves back up to seventh in class and 13th overall from nowhere.”
If asked about if he wanted to do the Le Mans experience again after having a Le Mans experience unlike any other motorsport series, he said “I thoroughly enjoyed the experience once again and can’t wait to come back year after year.” This statement by Chandhok means that we may see not only him in the 24 Heures du Mans, but in other endurance series such as the World Endurance Championship where soon-to-be retired F1 driver Mark Webber, will make his long-awaited return to sportscars with Porsche. With that being said, the future of sportscar racing is healthier than ever. F1 beware!
By Umar Hassan
