| A Victory in the French Endurance Classic Can Build Momentum for the Rest of the Season and Beyond June 8, 2022By David PhillipsIMSA Wire Service  DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – There are plenty of great motorsports events every year. But it’s rare where a race trophy – be it for a win or a podium finish – ranks as a (if not the) crowning achievement of any race driver’s career. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is such a race. Why else would two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso tackle the “La Ronde Infernale” at the tender age of 36 than to add some Le Mans hardware to his trophy case? At that, the Spaniard was a mere pup when he debuted at Le Mans compared to another World Champion named Mario Andretti, who last raced in the 24 Hours in 2000 at age 60? Better yet, ask some IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competitors who took red-eye flights from Detroit to France after competing in Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in order to participate in Sunday’s test day at Le Mans. “For me, Le Mans is one of the top three greatest races in the world,” says Oliver Jarvis, who finished fourth at Detroit in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-05 DPi and will drive the No. 23 United Autosport ORECA Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) this week. “It’s such a special event, with the fans and the atmosphere but also the prestige. Everybody wants to win that race. I’ve won it in class, finished second overall. … I’ve been on three or four podiums. I’d love to win it outright.” “Le Mans is a big deal,” echoes Alex Lynn, who finished third at Detroit in the No. 02 Cadillac Racing DPi V.R. and is teaming with Jarvis and United Autosport at the Circuit de la Sarthe this week. Like Jarvis (who captured an LMP2 win at Le Mans in 2017), Lynn has a class win in the 24 Hours to his credit, namely in the GTE Pro Aston Martin Vantage in ’20. Although he and Jarvis (along with co-driver Josh Pierson) will be gunning for the LMP2 class win this weekend, Lynn already has his eyes on the big prize next year when he will be part of Cadillac Racing’s LMDh lineup. “I always look forward to going back to Le Mans,” he says. “Next year we’ll be competing for the overall but, having said that, it was a very emotional thing to win a class victory and that’s certainly our goal this weekend.” Richard Westbrook seconds that emotion. He’s taking a break from his fulltime ride with the No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac DPi V.R. to compete for the overall win at Le Mans in the Hypercar class. This will be his second straight Hypercar start at Le Mans, after nearly a dozen outings in various GT classes. He says the motivation remains the same regardless of class. “It doesn’t matter what class you’re in, you just want to do well,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s GT or (Prototype). When you’re in the car you forget that. There’s a lot to be said for driving in the top class, but when you’re in the top class you’re not thinking about that at all. It’s a completely different way of driving because you’re overtaking the traffic instead of trying to stay out of the top-class cars’ way. So that’s what you’re thinking about rather than ‘I’m in the top class. It’s more important.’ It’s NOT more important. It just happens to be the top class.”Another dimension to the race that runs for the 90th time this weekend is that the momentum from a strong performance at Le Mans often carries through to the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, the next event on the WeatherTech Championship schedule. As Westbrook can attest. In ’16, he, Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon piloted the Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT to a third-place finish at Le Mans even as teammates Joey Hand, Dirk Muller and Sebastien Bourdais captured the overall GTE Pro honors. Although CGR faced an exhausting challenge of packing up and flying from France to New York to compete at Watkins Glen in less than a week, Westbrook and Briscoe came through to win at The Glen, then matched that performance a fortnight later at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. “To backtrack a bit, we kind of got the momentum going when we got the first Ford GT win (at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca) in May,” Westbrook says. “That gave us all a lot of confidence going to Le Mans, and then to get a good result there, that carried through to the rest of the season.”  Jordan Taylor can also vouch for the impact a good outing at Le Mans can have on the remainder of the WeatherTech Championship schedule. Taylor, who is piloting Corvette Racing’s GTE Pro No. 63 Corvette C8.R (with Nicky Catsburg and Antonio Garcia), says his class win for Corvette at Le Mans in 2015 was a major boost for the remainder of that season and beyond. “Le Mans is like an entire championship in one race,” Taylor said. “A successful weekend can really make your whole season. It can give an entire team so much confidence and momentum that when you go back to Watkins Glen, you feel like you’re on top of the world.” From there, Taylor echoed the “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere” refrain from the famous song “New York, New York.” “If you can be successful at Le Mans in such a competitive class,” he said, “you know you can be successful anywhere.” |
