Friday February 22nd saw the Motor Racing Legends Annual Dinner, at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, welcome Jochen Mass and Allan McNish as guest speakers.
These two outright Le Mans winners talked of their victories in the 24 Hours, and of the challenges and anecdotes surrounding the world’s greatest endurance race, in a dialogue with Master of Ceremonies Tony Dron.
First to speak was Jochen Mass, who opened with a graphic description of being trapped in the pile-up during the terrifying accident at Silverstone in 1973. He went on to describe his experience in F1, his early years in Porsche sportscars, through to his outright Le Mans win in 1989, driving the fearsome Sauber Mercedes. Mass spoke of the agonising build-up to the race, when the gearbox broke in qualifying, and spoke with typical modesty of his part in the win. When Tony Dron suggested that it was Mass, who drove 157 of the 359 laps – and in particular his night driving – which clinched the victory, the self-effacing German claimed (to much amusement from the audience, including Allan McNish) that he was only fast because it was too dark to see his braking points.
Jochen also described driving on the Mille Miglia retrospective in the Moss/Jenks 300SLR – until recently, the regular seat of Sir Stirling Moss, who was himself among the dinner guests. Jochen explained that his passenger, one year, had bought the ride in a charity auction on eBay!
Closing with his thoughts on Group C historic racing today and how he could, perhaps, be persuaded to drive in the Motor Racing Legends Group C historic support race at the Le Mans 24 Hours this June, Jochen Mass stepped down and left the floor to Allan McNish.
While Motor Racing Legends has had many illustrious guests over the years, this was perhaps the first time that the Annual Dinner welcomed a speaker with a very real chance of winning Le Mans in a few months’ time. McNish claimed victory in 1998 at the wheel of a Porsche GT1, and in June will be sharing the Audi R10 TDI sports-prototype with Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen: part of the three-car Audi works team which is going for a third win with its phenomenal diesel racer… If successful, it will be Audi’s eighth Le Mans win since 1999.
McNish talked with energy and enthusiasm about the physical effort needed in modern sportscars, and the special Audi winter training the drivers undergo – including a night sprint up a black ski run, wearing boots. Dron asked how he had first viewed Audi’s decision to run a diesel Le Mans car and McNish replied, “At first, I thought they were mad. We all did. But then Frank Biela came back from the first test run with a huge grin on his face…” He spoke of the car’s tremendous torque but also the added weight, which changes the cornering characteristics and requires different driving skills.Allan also talked about night driving – and how the cool night air increased the car’s performance during the hours of darkness: or so he had thought till Jochen Mass explained that it was just that it was too dark to see your braking points…
McNish went on to describe other racing experiences, including the ALMS of which he is reigning Champion, and his recent NASCAR outing at Daytona. Here he was less complimentary about the Riley-Pontiac he drove and the audience had the distinct impression he was not in a hurry to go back. He concluded with a description of driving the 1937 Auto Union Grand Prix car down Singapore High Street… the huge power, the sheer size of the car stretching out behind him, and the difficulty of seeing out!
It was certainly a night to remember.
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