With no entry since August I had every intention of writing another after the 6 Hours of Nurburgring, probably entitled 'The blue army marches on' or something like that, but we'll call that the overly optimistic post that never was! If you have a career in motorsport it tends to consume almost all of your time, and I mean ALL of your time. But that's ok because I love racing. If I'm not racing I'm watching it, or reading about it, or talking about it with others. If I'm not doing that I'm teaching younger drivers to race, watching races from the past or looking at what's coming in the future. Or I'm training for it, preparing for it, and of course the endless travelling to participate in all of this. It's been this way largely for about 15 years, I'm an old school racer, Formula Ford-no nonsense bred, a calm and relaxed person off track and in general it takes a lot to p'ss me off in this sport. It's a good thing, if not I'd have given up long ago! But this year so far has been the ride of a lifetime and aside from getting extremely p'ssed off recently it's about to get even more interesting.


The Nurburgring was a great race for KCMG. Nick Tandy and I grabbed the pole position thanks mainly to him (my lap was rubbish) and we went on to dominate one of the hottest races I've ever done. With no cooling of any sort in the coupe prototype the air is very warm and the Nurburgring gives you no time to rest, a tough way to spend 2 hours in 32 degree heat. We lost the lead only once after the first driver changes, but I retook it after closing down on Rusinov in the #26 G'Drive (our championship arch rivals), and then Richard Bradley and Nick finished off the job, a satisfying and dominant victory to extend our lead in the LMP2 World Endurance Championship. We didn't expect the Nurburgring to suit our car, it's narrow (to conform to 2017 regs) and low drag meaning great top speed but a touch less overall downforce, and winning there shows how much our engineer Greg Wheeler and Oreca had brought the 05 along. Remember we only started running this car from concept, to build, to race, earlier this season. It also showed how hard KCMG had worked on pit-stops and strategy. G'Drive, Onroak and the Ligier had been soundly beaten.


I've got huge respect for G-Drive/Onroak. As a team they're the benchmark in LMP2, they build fast cars, and are ruthless in every sense. They also have in the #26 car three excellent drivers. I have a lot of respect for them too. Roman Rusinov and I raced last year and on form he's bloody good, Julien Canal just gets faster and faster and Sam Bird is probably one of the best LMP2 drivers at the moment along with Ryan Dalziel. No mistakes and fast as f''k, these are the guys who set the mark for the rest of us, and it's a challenge the likes of Richard and I have so far risen to. All of this was proved correct when G-Drive beat us at COTA in Austin. The scene of our first FIA WEC victory as KCMG in 2014, Richard Bradley and I grabbed the pole position having had only 9 minutes to do it, probably one of the better laps I've driven under pressure. The car had broken down exiting the pit lane and whilst we recovered to the pits and then did our thing, a penalty relegated us to the back of the LMP2 grid. I'd broken down into the steep uphill turn one, and whilst I didn't move a mm while cars were on track, after the red flag my car rolled as I tried to get started. We need the clutch depressed and some level of throttle so holding the car still is tricky.


Despite retaking the lead during the race and beginning to dominate once again thanks also due to the return of our Le Mans winning team-mate Nico Lapierre, G-Drive played the full course yellows well and with a touch of luck out-maneuvered us. Fair play to them, by the time I was wheel to wheel on track with Sam I couldn't compete with him, defended as long as I could but ultimately lost out. Sometimes you're competitors just beat you, and with that team and those drivers I expect they will never give up and losing only makes them try harder. We're trying to win a championship so 2nd place was great and we focused on learning from our mistakes and moving on to the Asian part of the season in Japan and China. We bid a sad goodbye to Nico Lapierre, as the mega Nick Tandy returns for the rest of the season. I hope we'll be team-mates again, Nico is one of the best drivers I've been around and one of the nicest and funniest too, I wish him well in WTCC and anything else he gets in. You can be sure it won't go faster!



We arrived at Fuji Speedway confident of our strength again, particularly in straight line speed. We usually have 5-6km/h on our main rival G-Drive in the draggy Ligier and we need it, as they certainly out perform us in the high-downforce sections. This is the standard trade-off of drag/aero in a homologation formula where development is only allowed every so often. To our surprise in Free Practice at Fuji Speedway, G-Drive had found their missing straight line speed down the 1.1km straight and with no negative effect around the rest of the lap. This puzzles us to this day, the speed difference to all the other chassis and team has remained the same, but the #26 in qualifying and #28 all weekend was faster than us. It shouldn't be possible but that's what we've got, unfortunately we can't find anything in the corners without changing aero spec and that is not allowed. We qualified only 4th after a dramatic qualifying but Nick and I were only ever battling for 3rd place behind the G-Drives. Luckily in the race rain brought us back in the game. The Ligier seems to struggle in the wet and straight line speed and aero balance become less critical. Nick got us into a healthy lead, and I picked up the battle with Canal in the #26 and handed over the car still in the lead albeit we were slightly out of sync with G-Drive. They also played the full course yellows well again, but Richard jumped in and quickly closed a 10 second gap to Rusinov and passed him to retake the lead once again. The two raced very close and eventually we were hit and the G-Drive gained damage. The full course yellow brought out to recover the debris, a plastic headlight cover from the Ligier, worked perfectly for them as we had just pitted and they came in to stop losing little time while we were under the 80km/h limit. Race for the win over, ok 2nd place it is, maybe next time...


What happened next in my view is the #28 sister G-Drive got very involved where it shouldn't have. First making contact with us while a lap down and giving us a puncture, then putting us out of the race for good with four minutes to go. Fast and recovering though they were, the driving from their side was overly-aggressive, a bit clumsy and ultimately dangerous. It wouldn't be tolerated in a junior championship. The fact it cost us the championship lead and the team who's car was involved gained a huge benefit from this, will be up to you to interpret. So we head to China 12 points behind and focused on winning the last two races, we certainly have the capability to do so, and as you'll understand are more fired up than ever. Racing isn't always fair, but racing should always be safe, and what I've seen here really p'ssed me off. The LMP1 and GTE classes were awesome to watch, Audi and Porsche were mm apart at many times but no contact, the same in GTE with Ferrari and Porsche. There was no need for what happened in LMP2 and the people involved just need to hold their hands up and admit fault, or at least change their ways for the rest of the season. Whether this will happen remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure, after all the high quality, on-the-limit and sporting competition of 2015 so far, that isn't a way I would want to win a championship, ever.

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.

Nothing about motorsport is easy. Sprint racing, endurance racing, Formula, Touring or GT cars, at International level the human challenge is relentless. The risk to yourself, yeah it's very real but you deal with that when it happens, there's not much you can do about it. The risk of failure, that's constant. Every race weekend, every lap, every corner. But if it was easy we wouldn't do it. Challenge is what we in motorsport live for, when we're not doing it all we think about is the next time we will. Whether that makes us 'different' I have no idea, I don't know anything else! The 24 Hours of Le Mans is to motorsport what Mount Everst is to climbing. Hiking up even the smallest of mountains is an immese achievement. But to really test yourself, cement something in your memory and leave something marked in history, you climb Everest. Not many people can or will ever. Winning in Le Mans, LMP1, LMP2 or GTE, against a group of equally obsessed and well-prepared professionals therefore is the ultimate Everest. That's what's in it for us. We prepare physically and mentally months in advance. I'm writing this a week before the race and I'm already feeling it. Something massive is about to happen.


So what's so damn special about the Le Mans 24 Hours? It's attended by up to 250,000 spectators on race day alone, a motorpsort pilgrimage for petrolheads from every corner of the globe making it officially one of the biggest standalone sporting events in the world ever. Fun fairs, rock concerts, clubbing, it's part festival part motor race. But what to us drivers? Four times longer than a normal race for the team, car and drivers this is extreme. Drivers rest inbetween 2-4 hour stints, the team try, the car never stops (well apart for fuel every 45 mins or so). We race through dusk, the pitch black of night and into dawn before a new day. But it's not just the distance, there are other 24 hour races. Le Mans is an 8.4 mile lap, you can be over 3 miles away from the pits and this means multiple weather systems in a single tour. And it does have a habit of raining around this part of France in June! Much of the circuit is on public road, pretty unique in modern racing and it's all very, very fast. Much of the lap is spent full throttle at around 200mph. When it goes wrong it goes wrong very fast. LMP1, LMP2 and GTE all trip over each other from time to time, and managing traffic, especially in the dark and wet with zero visibility, is a large part of winning or losing. We drivers can make mistakes at any given time, and Le Mans gives us so much more opportunity. If it's 4am, dark and you're on slick tyres and a dry line, having to move onto the wet to overtake a GT's, well you have to do it losing as little time as possible. Did I say we enjoy challenge?


So high speed survival it is, if you make it to 20 hours then the race can start. You can't rush and risk crashing, but if you cruise and drop a lap to the leader you may not get it back. That's why as much as any race we work hard to make the car and team operation as fast and slick as possible. Testing begins two weeks before the race, being public roads on the outskirts of a town it's not open very often! In 2015 we arrived at the test with our Oreca 05 ready to make her Le Mans debut. Most of our competitors have raced their cars here, to us it was a complete unknown. This is KCMG's and my third Le Mans, Richard Bradley's second and Nico Lapierre's 8th. So we know what to expect, mostly, and with a LM-spec aero kit to test the first laps of Le Mans this year were all about getting the basics right, handling balance, ride height and how this season's tyre compounds are working on a very different surface to usual. We had terrible weather for most of the day, a brief dry run in the morning and afternoon, the rest mixed conditions, the worst as it's not wet but it's not dry either. Very risky, but what we may have in the race so we did as many laps as we felt necessary.


The car was immediately feeling very good, an improvement on the Oreca 03R we succesfully led the LMP2 class in during the early stages of the 2014 race. P3 in the dry and blistering pace in the damp/wet means KCMG already have an excellent package to fight for LMP2 victory. Not everybody will have shown their hand but neither have we. The car and team ran smoothly so the boys could focus on rebuilding the car before race week. There's two days of qualifying the Wed-Thurs before race weekend and the car has a complete new engine and rear end for the race, which we shookdown days after the official Le Mans test. This makes sure the car is fresh as possible for 24 hours of abuse. Scurutineering takes place in the town centre of Le Mans, where the fans can see us and the cars close up. Monday pit-stop practice (well almost every day is pit-stop practice), Tuesday autograph session, two days of qualifying and then the driver's parade again in Le Mans town on Friday makes for a totally unique build-up to a totally unique race. So we head into the race confident but not underestimating the challenge ahead. We will give it everything. EVERYTHING.


Many thanks to all of you from the FIA WEC fans forum for your questions, they were interesting and occasionally hilarious! Find the answers below, looking forward to meeting some of you there!

Shaun Morris - How draining is high speed night driving?
It's certainly more draining as part of the circuit is lit and part complete darkness. This means you have a little tunnel of light form your headlights and lose a lot of your usual points of reference. It also feels a lot faster, especially Porsche curves! However the brake markers are reflective so the rest is just getting used to adapting without so much forward vision. The hugeforest spotlights on the Mulsanne sometimes freak you out as you go past as they illuminate your mirrors and you think it's another LMP1 approaching your gearbox!

David Short - Pitstops, look forward to or dread?
For drivers they're just routine, although driver changes we have to make sure we careful loosen the belts and unplug everything ready to change over. Especially when you're tired through the night or in the morning you have to do a mental checklist so as not to rip your radio plug because you've forgotten to take it off. The rest is down to the pit crew, I think they probably dread them!

George Wilson - What feeling do you experience when you hit the track at Le Mans?
It's very special, particularly on Mulsanne for the first time, past houses and restaurants and high speed is not a common feeling in racing these days. That and every lap you've got the awesome Porsche curves to look forward to. The first few laps of night driving are one of the most intense feeling I've experinced, you're racing at Le Mans and know you're doing something incredible many people will never get to experience. It's like a dream!


Neil Verden - How do you feel about the Mulsanne chicanes?
I think they add variety, braking for high speed in varied conditions or on the limit in the dry is a nice challenge where sitting on the straight at 200mph is not. It offers good overtaking opportunities too.

Richard Harris - What's going through your mind when you hand over the car mid-race?
Firstly it's important you report to the engineer or mechanics anything relevant, then get the hell out of there and go rest or sleep! It's easy to hang around chatting and before you know it you're back in the car. I was warned about this in 2013 and it's very true. Keep it brief and go get some rest.

Paul Hammond - Best time to be in the seat?
Last lap of the race, in the lead at 23 hours and 59 minutes! I'm not sure really it's all pretty intense, you'd certainly maybe rather not be in the seat when a monsoon arrives at 2am and you're on slicks, but it's Le Mans, it's always an amazing time being in the seat!


John Daniels - Do you ever struggle with GT traffic?
Yes, GTE's can be pros or amateurs and you can't really tell as the closing speed is quite big anyway. Pros give you no room you know that much, amateurs can do anything and maybe haven't seen you so it's a balance of being aggressive but without hitting anything. It's probably the biggest challenge in endurance racing to get that balance right. You don't want to end your race hitting a GT, but if you're too cautious you will lose time and maybe the race.


Barry Skinner - How daunting are the speed differentials at night?
Some Gt drivers seem slower at night so we do see bigger closing speeds, the LMP1s have crazy bright headlights so we rely on them to get past us safely (nott always filled with confidence on that one) as all we can see is a bright glow. There's not much distance or speed percepiton in your mirrors so being passed is more of a worry than passing. As I said before, with GT's you just have to be fast but sensible.

John Bidwell - How do you measure your concentration during the race?
I remember in 2013 at about 7am I went off in the Dunlop Esses and through the gravel and had no idea why. I guess I was just tired! It's not possible to measure, we prepare by being as fit as we can, having a physio who helps with sleeping and eating helps here too. It's important you drive on auto-pilot as much as possible and relax into it, if you think you're tired and try to concentrate more you'll probably make more mistakes. We monitor lap times and fuel consumption so as long as you're hitting those targets you're fine. If you're not you can radio the team for sector information and make adjustments where needed.



Oliver Andersin - How does it feel to be part of the driver's parade?
Yes for usre this is one of the best feelings in motorsport, you feel like royalty parading down the streets with crazed spectators on each side crying out for free merchandise! There is nothing else like this in racing, so all drivers love it, even though it's a long, drawn out day and risk of sunburn is high! It's a cool way to get charged for the race! Plus we can jump off at anytime and go see the fans, sign autographs or chat with them. It's a brief enounter, but special.

John Boling - Do you get the ladies?
Haha well John, I do ok but whether that's the racing or my charming personality you'd have to ask them! But gone are the days of saying 'I'm a racing driver' and having knickers thrown at you. I guess the nicest girls are the ones that don't care what you do, but 'yeah so I race at Le Mans' can be a good ice-breaker..although saying I sometimes chat to Patrick Dempsey work way better.

Sarah Rigby - What are your favourite parts of the circuit to drive?
Le Mans has two different characters, the high speed Mulsanne straights aren't challenging, it's just nuts, 200mph next to trees and building feels amazing. But it's the Porsche curves which are my favourite. 5th gear, 140mph plus all the way through and no margin for error, especially tricky as we run very low downforce compared to usual. They've changed it a little since 2013 even, with more run off and it feels more open, but I hope it doesn't change much more it's great the way it is.

The serious business of racing began in April at Silverstone in the UK for Round 1 of FIA WEC 2015.  Fast and flowing with several high speed corners and complexes, I don't know many drivers that don't love it. Compared to some of the modern, stale car park circuits around the world Silverstone is old school, and where protoypes like the Oreca 05 were born to race. In qualifying Maggots-Becketts is taken flat in 6th gear at 160mph and sees us exceed 3 lateral G. Boys sort of grow up, but never grow out of toys. They just get bigger and more dangerous...with minimal testing we didn't really have the car sorted for these long, sweeping corners and mixed conditions in testing slowed progress. Nick Tandy and I qualified the car in 3rd behind both G-Drive Ligiers which were working well, so a mega team effort in the car's qualifying debut. Nick is fast as f''k and also one of the best racers I've ever seen, so I knew we'd be getting everything out of what we had on Sunday. He's also an avid Nascar fan but we won't hold that against him.


Nick drove a blinding first lap to lead and held the Ligiers at bay for much of the first stint, before dropping back with what turned out to be a damaged radiator reducing performance. New cars are an unknown in terms of reliability, and despite otherwise running perfectly the radiator would need changing and dropped us well out of contention. We gathered good data in the race ending 5th at the finish, an eventual 4th after a post-race disqualification ahead of us. The highlight of the race for me was the fierce Fassler-Jani Audi-Porsche LMP1 battle coming past, I had the best seat in the house for a lap as I watched them scraping door handles. F''k I love my job...other than that, even when you're not in the race for the win it's business as usual and you just focus on going as fast as your car and tyres will allow. You never know what can happen in a six hour race.


We got a decent snapshot of what 2015 will likely be all about. G-Drive vs. KCMG...Ligier vs. Oreca...we were fierce rivals in 2014 and it really is the best motivation to have them there. The Ligier is 8 months ahead in development (LMP2 is cost-capped so develpment is minimal and mostly setup refinement), but that just means we must work and fight harder to bridge the gap. G-Drive are flawless in pit-stops and strategy, and with two top driver line-ups I think both sides relish the challenge. Like the LMP1 Audi and Porsche fight at Silverstone (shame Toyota weren't among it) it's what we all go racing for. And what the fans watch for. Sam Bird in the leading 26 G-Drive and I go way back in Formula BMW UK as we battled for the 2005 championship, and I hope we go wheel to wheel again this season, I'll enjoy it every bit as much now as I did then. Sam has since been a top level single-seater racer, GP2 winner and F1 tester, and in Endurance racing has been so far formidable. In that Orange Ligier, there's no better benchmark. So whilst we're seeing an immense fight in LMP1, don't forget LMP2 has all the ingredients for an epic fight all year long.


As if Silverstone wasn't mega enough for us drivers Round 2 took place at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. It's pretty well common knowledge it's one of the best circuits in the world, 4.3 miles long and barely changed since the old 14 mile circuit closed. Eau Rouge-Radillion is totally unique, flat out in 6th gear at 170mph in a prototype and totally blind, with a steep climb and bizarre compression G that takes some getting used to. It rains randomly at Spa almost inevitably, making Eau Rouge much more of a challenge along with the rest of the circuit. Nico Lapierre joined us for his first race at KCMG and brought all his LMP1 experience along with undoubted speed. The weekend started badly when Kazuki Nakajima sustained fractured vertebrae after being hit by Oliver Jarvis in the spray at Bus Stop chicane. It is a fact in heavy rain visibility is non-existent especially as prototypes create huge rooster tails of spray from their underfloors. It's not pleasant at all, pure blind driving and just one of the unavoidable downsides of high performance racing. Driving in the wet is actually awesome and I love it, the FIA has since introduced brighter rain lights and all we can do is minimise the risk. On a positive note the cars involved kept the drivers largely protected, so this shows the designers and crash tests are doing their job.


Mixed conditions again made us feel we just couldn't get ahead with this car, never having two session back to back to evaluate changes. However our engineer Greg worked magic and we were able to make huge strides in a one hour session to set the second fastest time, eventually qualifying a close second to the 26 G-Drive and proving how much the Oreca 05 was catching up. Sadly we incurred a 30 second start penalty from the pits after a scrutineering infringement, leaving us once again to battle for whatever may be left after six hours of racing. No safety cars to help us and an issue with tail lights costing us two minutes made it complicated, but myself, Nico and Richard fought back to finish 10 seconds off the podium. Shit just got serious. We're fast and we know it, all we need is a little luck. Our main rivals suffered an engine failure but they'll bounce back and we head to Le Mans just 1 point behind them in 3rd in the championship. The other G-drive Ligier of Derani-Yacoman-Gonzalez lead and they too make for a strong line-up and a tough season. Richard and I are learning fast having Nico around so we're becoming stronger than ever before, and with two strong team performances in the pits and blitzing through mid-race repairs, KCMG can arrive at Le Mans as one of the teams to beat.

2015 and three years in to world championship racing, it's a new dawn at KCMG. Firstly for those of you new to my blog, welcome! I'm a driver, driver coach and motorsport fan and a highly opinionated one at that. I'll frequently share my views on racing in general, I'm not especially known for my tact or ability to keep things brief, so you've been warned! For this post I'll concentrate on LMP2 and KCMG which should get you familiar with my world. I've been with Hong Kong-based KCMG since they began as a team in Asian F3 in 2007 where we runner-up in the championship, onto several years of Japanese F3 2011-2012 and into FIA WEC and their first Le Mans start in 2013. I'm the first generation KCMG 'development' driver, current team-mate Richard Bradley and previous team-mate Alex Imperatori also came through the system and we all survived Asia's corruptions (well mostly..). Alex now drives for Rebellion in LMP1 and together with Richard we are multiple winners in the LMP2 class in FIA WEC and led the Le Mans 24 Hour convincingly in 2014 before a suspension failure forced us into retirement. It would seem then that the system works...


So 2014 was the year KCMG truly arrived. Third place in the FIA WEC LMP2 championship with three wins in the USA, bahrain and Brazil aboard the Oreca 03R marked us as one of the championship's leading teams. It also means 2015 is about unfinished business, not to mention KCMG still hasn't made the chequred flag at a Le Mans 24 Hour. 19 hours in 2013 and 6 hours in 2014 means this year is all about delivering on promise. We want the world championship, and we want that LMP2 win at Le Mans. With Alex moving on myself and Richard (the orignal racing trainspotter) continue, welcoming Porsche LMP1 star (and Nascar-hick fan) Nick Tandy, along with French racing legend (and all-day, anywhere for no reason karaoke singer) Nicolas Lapierre to share the season with us. That means everywhere we go we have a formidable driver line-up. No team personnel changes, we continue with the excellent 4.5 V8 Nismo-tuned Nissan and maintain our relationship with Dunlop. But our win in Sao Paulo, Brazil at the end of last season was to be a victorious farewell to our beloved Oreca 03R.


Probably the biggest news of 2015 for KCMG was the move to the brand new and Oreca 05 coupe. A car which just so happens to be a breathtakingly gorgeous stone-cold fox! Designed with the 2017 regulations in mind, it solidified our excellent partnership with Oreca and has given us drivers and my engineer Greg Wheeler the chance to get stuck in to some proper development, with a manufacturer and car that mean business. Greg was a designer in the 90s and 2000s in BTCC, Endurance racing and Formula 1 so he's used to new machines every season. For me it was a fresh challenge to run a car which had never turned a wheel and be part of making it go fast. And fast it goes. Very fast! It is a good step forward on the 03R straight out of the box, and with more development is proving to be miles ahead in potential. Stephane Sarrazin dropped in from Toyota to be team-mate for the shakedown and the car performed perfectly, giving excellent straight line speed immediately and proving to be much kinder to it's tyres. It was initially strange driving with a roof and a windscreen, but you quickly adapt and we have wipers and a heated screen to keep things clear in the rain. We haven't done much testing, but every time the car runs it takes leaps forward, so everything you see now is just the beginning. It's only going to get better, and better....


When you look at the opposition it damn well has to be. LMP2 is a 'customer' class, budgets are similar and the winning comes from getting the best out of your chassis and tyres, the rest down to drivers and team performing on the day over 6 or 24 hours. That's mega racing..2015 sees an excellent field of LMP2s, Orecas, Ligiers and Morgans, with the Dome thrown in for good measure. LMP2 now also has many top line drivers, ex-LMP1, GP2 and Indycar racers as well as the best drivers from GTs joining us established up-and-comers in trying to make a mark in Endurance racing. These teams and drivers set a very high level. KCMG's main rivals in 2014 G-Drive-Ligier are as strong as ever and still the benchmark, but Signatech, Morand and ESM can all win races. The first official test at Prologue, Paul Ricard showed the KCMG Oreca 05 would certainly be a force to reckon with, but heading to into Round 1 at Silverstone, the Ligier showed just how big a fight LMP2 is going to be this season..