A Le Mans dream come true

A picture speaks a thousand words...it's funny how the Le Mans 24 Hour in 2015 was a microcosm of my entire career, in that whilst I'm on the podium basking in the glory, all of this is very directly down to so many other people who help and have helped along the way. To the point where you can almost feel guilty stealing so much of the limelight. It's tricky to cover my 'entire career' in one post, so let's talk about Le Mans and those who were responsible for one of the most dominant victories you'll ever see at La Sarthe, in LMP2 or otherwise. KCMG were out of this world. My team and I led 349 of 358 laps (that's 97.5% of the race) on our way to a new LMP2 distance record and lead at every single hour for 24 hours. The car had a small gearshift issue requiring a steering wheel change, the number panel needed replacing which cost us a couple of minutes and I had a terrifying moment as we were struggling to keep the windscreen clear in falling light. I've never driven at 200mph blind and I don't intend to do it again. Beyond that there wasn't so much as a loose nut, well apart from Richard Bradley. Our gorgeous blue car looked brand new when it finished topside and underneath, in part thanks to us drivers as we endeavoured to keep the car away from kerbs and heavy impacts on the suspension. All this from a car first built less than 6 months ago, a huge credit to Oreca and the KCMG team for running this car at the front of the world's biggest race, with not one mechanical problem to speak of. Pretty remarkable.


It's worth noting 2015 was the largest and most competitive LMP2 field there has ever been at Le Mans, with first rate teams and drivers throughout. My team-mates the legendary Frenchmam Nico Lapierre, and fellow Brit Richard Bradley with who I've shared so much success in FIA WEC, were phenomenal. Richard delivered a stunning pole position lap, and Nico and I showed the KCMG car was always the fastest when on track at any other time during qualifying. We all made mistakes in the race at some point, I overshot at a pit-stop, Richard and Nico both overshot on track, but when it mattered we held our nerve and delivered under enormous pressure from a fighting JOTA and G-Drive. They had the advantage of being able to drive all-or-nothing, and when we needed to respond in the closing stages of the race we did. Our plan was to lead from the start and control the race and never did we imagine we'd execute that plan so well. Once the team settled in the pit-stops were like clockwork, so what you were watching was not only a well organised team and strategy, but a group of human beings giving it their all and rising to the biggest occasion in motorsport. I rarely saw the boys (and girls) sleep and not once did I hear them complain (the Oreca 05's reliability definitely helped there!). But there was a feeling the whole time that there, on that weekend, this was our time. We were going to win, and any obstacles in our way would be dealt with calmly and methodically. As it happens there were few obstacles, and all the hard work done by Oreca back at the factory and our engineer Greg Wheeler's development of the handling made sure we had the car speed required to make everything seem so 'easy'.


So what did it feel like to win the Le Mans 24 Hours? Well first of all the majority of drivers dream of such a moment for most of our lives. With that in mind the hours towards the end of the race are totally bizarre as you try to come to terms with what's happening. Are we really going to do this? Am I going to be a Le Mans champion? How the hell have I got this far? How different will my life be after this? If I keep thinking like this will the car catch fire? Until that chequered flag flies at 3pm on Sunday absolutely anything can happen. I did my first 3 hour stint at around 8pm and another which began around 5am during which time I wasn't able to sleep, I was just far too focused on the job in hand. This race is a monumental challenge wherever you are and exhausts your mind, body and soul even if you finish in 10th. But when every time you jump in that car and you have a lead to keep, and a lead you can lose, and the entire world and your family, friends, sponsors and supporters are looking on, well that adds a different dimension. Not to mention how much you want this for yourself. That's why I couldn't sleep...


However at 8am having not slept for over 24 hours I went off to the motorhome to get some rest, only to be woken by the circuit commentator shouting (in French) about the number 47 (our car) in what can only be described as a frantic manner. Your heart jumps, sinks, spins and somersaults. As it happened this was merely the car overshooting and stopping before continuing, and it was to be repeated again several hours before the finish, this time I witnessed the car parked at Indianapolis, but all was well and the No.47 marched on in the lead. None of this is good for your nerves though..I also had the pleasure of doing a couple of live interviews with Quest TV and Louise Goodman, one at the race start and one an hour before the end, and whilst I have no memory of what I said I know I was asked what it would mean to us to win. And I also remember not wanting to answer that question, you genuinely don't want to think about it until the race is over. But once the race was over, all of those thoughts can come rushing out. So how does it feel to win the Le Mans 24 Hour. Pretty god damn, mind-blowingly, fist-pumplingly, life-changingly f''king incredible!! A combination of 15 years of ups and down, followed by 24 hours of ups and down, and throw into that physical, mental and emotional exhaustion and you've got a natural high of epic proportions. I stood on the pit wall with Nico and KCMG boss Paul and watched Richard bring the car over the line, a moment I will never, ever forget as long as I live.


The podium was just like everything else, totally surreal and beyond expectations. It seemed like we waited forever, it was cool to chat with other drivers about the race, and my old Formula BMW sparring partners Oliver Turvey and Sam Bird were both on the LMP2 podium, the first time we shared one since Brands Hatch in 2005 ten years earlier, a seriously cool little fact. I've never seen so many people looking upo at me in my life, there were spectators as far as the eye could see and all energetically shouting and waving like they hadn't just watched 24 hours of racing themselves! Standing up there with your team-mates and team boss, with whom I'd started along this venture with KCMG back in 2007 in Asian Formula 3, gave me a feeling I can't really describe so I won't even try. But in some way it was simply, 'mission accomplished'. There's a lot both myself, my team-mates and KCMG want to achieve, this season and for years to come, but in that little moment we knew we'd done something nobody could take away from us, and that would remain in the history books forever. As a driver it's amazing to think you've touched the sport's history in whichever way you can. After all those deep and profound realisations everything gets a bit blurry, as podium champagne and a tired, empty stomach meant a slightly pissed Matt and Richard at the press conference. We held it together but it was hard work, everything was just hilarious and Nico is one of the best I've ever met at making you laugh!


There's more..whilst all this was happening our erstwhile team-mate Nick Tandy was inning in LMP1 with Porsche, so we enjoyed a beer with him at Porsche hospitality, still not really understanding what's just happened. I have endless respect for Nick, he's a fellow Formula Forder who came up with no real backing so our stories are similar to that extent, pure talent and totally fearless and he really was one of my heroes even before he won Le Mans. It was 8pm on Sunday, the adrenaline is flowing out so beer is the only fuel now, and Richard, Nick and myself stood at the bar with our first beer and said 'cheers, here's to winning Le Mans..'. Then none of us said a thing, just smirked and thought wow that sounds good. That's the moment it sunk in for me, and of course things have felt different ever since, what a bloody achievement! A few more beers and a visit to my family in the Blue campsite over the road where we had a chat with some enthusiastic spectators and let them hold our trophies, and it was back to the UK on Monday to recover. It was particularly funny that on the two hour drive back to Paris CDG aiport, the normally talkative Richard and I had nothing to say to each other. Our brains were totally finished and would need significant rebuilding as there was great danger of throwing a rod. And back we went to London to celebrate some more. All week in fact. I needed another week after that to recover from the celebration.


And what next? During all of this KCMG took the lead in the LMP2 World Endurance Championship and at the beginning of the year that sat at even higher priority than winning at Le Mans. So with five rounds to go, Germany, USA, Japan, China and Brazil, we aim to extend our lead and become World Endurance Champions, becoming the first Asian-run team to win a World Championship race series, and my first World Championship after finishing third last year. None of this will be easy, our main rivals G-Drive and the rest are making this the strongest LMP2 FIA WEC season yet, and they'll fight until the end. We had an encouraging test in the Nurburgring last month, and with Nick Tandy back and a car full of Le Mans winners running with a Le Mans winning team, we're confident we'll be hard to beat for the rest of the season. Thankyou to the whole KCMG team, my team-mates Nico and Richard, team boss Paul Ip, engineer Greg Wheeler, Ryuji Doi and all the guys TK Khoo, Denis Touchais, Mark Paulin, Warren Tyrell, Rishanth Kumar, Ferdous Hadi, Mark Hicks, Cyril Rodriguez, Paul Nicoli,  Kev O'Hara, Toshi Hayakawa, Ed Knaus, Shotaro Swkiya, Walt Meschenm, and last but not least Cristina Villar and Ringo Lee. Thankyou for making my dream come true.