An Audi Affair At Silverstone
Copsy Curvy Day At The Home of British Motorsport

The background to this item is possibly well known to many of you. DSC’s Editor, Malcolm Cracknell, was taken ill after the FIA GT event at Silverstone in April, and other than half a day at Brands Hatch for British GTs in July, he’s missed virtually the whole of the season. It was always hoped that he’d be at Silverstone for the final Le Mans Series race, and it was Audi UK’s press man Martyn Pass who made that possible. MC takes up the story….

Whether someone really does choreograph these things I couldn’t say – but on the evidence of Sunday September 14, at Silverstone, perhaps someone does? An invitation from Martyn Pass to be taken to Silverstone, in a chauffeur-driven A8, with a friend, to be able to sit in the Audi grandstand at Copse, to be witness to two of the three major incidents of the race (at Copse), to enjoy Audi’s fine foods, to grab some time with Allan McNish mid-race, to see Peugeot’s race unfold so catastrophically, to see the R10s so competitive anyway, to see the joy on McNish’s face as Dindo Capello passed beneath the Scot’s pitwall perch just after taking the flag .....

..... and then for the assembled press to be asked by McNish in the press conference, “I don’t think any of you expected this result, did you?” …well, yes, I was… perhaps not expecting it, but I had a feeling in my water, Allan….

And of course the upshot of an Audi 1-4 was that Audi took the P1 manufacturers’ title, Mike Rockenfeller and Alexandre Premat are the P1 drivers’ champions – while poor old Peugeot went away from Silverstone with nothing (except four LMS wins). Exactly three months on, the Le Mans winners did it again – and as Audi have been the underdogs this year, and everyone loves an underdog, it really was very special being present to see it unfold at Silverstone on Sunday.

Was the official crowd figure really 53,000? It didn’t look quite that many, but whatever it was, there was a crowd, a big one, at a Le Mans Series race – presumably the biggest ever? Dennis Potter was driving the A8, with old pal Ronnie Smith and I enjoying the comfort in the back of this long wheelbase, diesel-powered beast: had I had any inkling of the queue to get into the track from the A43, I would have suggested a back route in. Queuing – to get into a Le Mans Series race? Unheard of, until now. Well done Peugeot, for giving away tickets and getting potential new fans into the track. Did they know that they would need a radio to follow all the nuances of endurance racing though?

The V6 A8 was totally, awe-inspiringly, impressive. On the way home, Dennis found the settings to provide an instant fuel consumption figure, and between 30 and 35 mpg at motorway speeds was confirmation that diesel limousines are the ones to have in these cost-conscious (saving fuel) times. Dennis’s son actually runs a three year-old A8 (which he managed to pick up at an artificially low price), and he’s thrilled with it. I should think so too.

Two weeks ago, I was actually mildly concerned that I’d have trouble getting through a long day at a race track. This ataxia thing that I’ve got left me really struggling in May, June and July. I’d been having to pace myself at everything: no energy, no stamina, feeling dizzy if I made any sudden movements, mentally confused to the extent that I could lose track of a ‘phone conversation – and the neurologist had made it clear that I wasn’t expected to get any better. But at the end of August, suddenly I was feeling better. Not great, still dizzy if I rushed at something, but more stamina – to the extent that I began to get stuck into preparing the old MGB (a GT, not a Herr Ullrich-type roadster) for a re-spray. I wasn’t exactly going at it hammer and tongs, but I began to get some of the panels ready – and now I was really looking forward to September 14.

The DSC cricket match helped, I’m sure. August was such a crap month weather-wise in the UK, that I was getting depressed – lazy even. Even the antics of Usain Bolt only briefly stirred me from my torpor. But cricket (I had no idea I was being driven to a cricket match – I thought it was to a lunch gathering) and then the prospect of a Le Mans Series race….

Audi didn’t manage to organize the weather to their advantage – but the beautifully clear skies suited everyone else at Silverstone, and with a typically huge grid, the scene was set.

My own scene-setting took place in the paddock in the hour or so before the start. Old friends emerged from trucks, hospitality awnings, the media centre, everywhere – DSC’s host at Le Mans, Marc Laffeas, was overcome with emotion when he saw me. Drivers shook my hand and welcomed me back – journalists stopped by for a natter. Hey, I was back in my world – and it was an absolute joy. Did I want to help John Hindhaugh with the commentary? Well, not really: I wasn’t feeling that confident. And my eyesight has suffered this year, to the extent that I have even more trouble reading car numbers as they pass by. The Peugeots are easy to differentiate, but the IMSA Porsches and Oreca Courages, with a 5 looking like a 6 to me, really aren’t.

It turned out that Ronnie suffers in this respect too – but we could follow the opening laps dramas anyway.

Copse, part 1. “They (the Peugeots) covered the inside so I went for the outside,” explained Allan McNish. “I don’t think Nic saw me. I think he tapped the nose of his car into the middle-back of mine.”

And that was Minassian down to 12th, and hustling back through the top ten.

McNish had been doing what he’s been doing all year: pressuring the Peugeots whenever he’s had even half a chance. Pressure is what he’s so good at. If there’s one driver who excels at this stuff, it’s McNish. He’s a wizard at putting in fast lap times (race, qualifying, any time), at finding the optimum route through traffic – but he is the master at putting pressure on his rivals, and at Silverstone, that pressure produced the race-defining moments.

Not in the rest of the first stint though. Lamy eased out a five second lead, while McNish was coping with “tyre pressures that went a bit mad”.

“After the pit stop we were able to get on with the programme and I think if the second stint had carried on, we’d really have been able to harry them.”

That second stint included Nic Minassian’s frightening accident on the Hangar Straight. Pressure from the ever-present Audi threat? Maybe, maybe not. The #7 Peugeot clipped Richard Lietz’s Porsche, and both crashed heavily. The Peugeot very nearly flipped, sideways – at what, 170 mph?

That feeling in the Cracknell water was coming true – even more so when McNish admitted that he’d seen fluid escaping from the Lamy / Sarrazin car. With the Minassian / Gene car out, the drivers’ title suddenly seemed destined for Premat / Rockenfeller in the #2 Audi – and now it was Dindo Capello’s turn to apply the pressure, on Stephane Sarrazin.

Copse part 2, immediately after the re-start: “When we both spun (in front of the Audi guests of course, at Copse) I thought that the race was over for both of us,” explained Capello. “I would say 101% that it was not my fault. I did not expect him to make such a sharp manoeuvre in such a fast corner.”

Dindo was in the gravel and “we lost two laps, but we got one back with the Safety Car and then we pushed like hell.”
Oh how they pushed like hell. When I eventually got to the media centre (where the real DSC workers were hard at it on day 3 of the meeting), two DSC photogs. came in to report that McNish (quite late in the race now) was visibly faster than anyone else at Bridge and Copse.

This had been a classic fight back to the front for Allan and ‘Dingo’. The remaining Peugeot was out of it, stuck down in 30th plus position after repairs from the Copse spin, while champions to be Mike Rockenfeller and Alexandre Premat didn’t need to win. Allan McNish did need to win: he’d had only one victory this year (it was Le Mans though) and this was his last chance (in Europe) to take a second one.

Mid-race, he’d even taken the time to give me some advice on how the right mental attitude can help overcome handicaps – which is what he’s been doing all year. It was entirely fitting that he and Dindo won this one, it was fantastic to see them fight back for it, and it was amusing to watch Dr. Ullrich provoking a slightly subdued looking Premat and Rockenfeller after the press conference. These two would have made it a clean sweep of podium finishes in the LMS this year, but for their two delays in the last hour (another lap would have meant third place for them), and they’d been the perfect foil for McNish and Capello. As at Le Mans, Audi had had the better tactics over the long haul, and Audi is the best team.

“Our goal was to score points in every race,” explained Mike Rockenfeller. “For sure we didn’t have the quickest car, but we won both championships.”

A subdued Michel Barge did have the grace to appear at the press conference, but couldn’t conceal his disappointment. His team didn’t welcome press intrusion during the race though – “No media”, DSC’s Martin Little was told, in my presence. OK.

But perhaps what Audi has in addition to all that experience, race craft etc. is one Christian Mittermaier, the team’s chef. The food available to team and media was just out of this world…

“We came here with a clear objective – to win,” summed up Allan McNish. Could they have won without Peugeot’s (self-inflicted) problems? Quite possibly. Could they have won both titles? Possibly not. But motor sport – especially endurance racing – throws up the unexpected, as even F1 managed to do on the same day.

GT1 presented the unexpected too, with the Lamborghini on pole and coming home second, despite brushes with McNish and Pompidou (a distinct lack of dive planes on #1, above and right), while LMP2 and GT2 went to the favourites. Virgo’s team manager Chris Warne was smelling of champagne again afterwards, while Rob Bell was chuffed with another win and another title – and a late fastest lap, on low fuel and fresh rubber. Back in P1, the Lola Aston Martin scored a fine second place, the best result of the year for Mucke and Charouz, who ended up just two points behind Lamy and Sarrazin.

This was a great day for endurance racing. Jean-Christophe Boullion may have had “an ‘orrible season” in the Pescarolo, while Juan Barazi has “never known a year like it” (just one point), but some processional races this year were rounded off by a classic – and the weather, the crowd and the late-race dramas reminded one of the ALMS event here in 2000.

2009 will undoubtedly be different (the petrol runners will be hoping and praying that they can get near the diesels, while the LMP2 runners will be desperate to claw back lost performance), but this was a great way to end 2008. Alexandre Premat had wondered “what the **** is going on” in the last hour, and that’s more or less what I was thinking in April, but I feel well enough to have decided to give the Britcar 24 Hours a go this coming weekend. I might sleep through a chunk of it, but I’ll be there. Now that one really is wide open.
MC