TOM KRISTENSEN I FEEL I HAVE BEEN BLESSED IN MY CAREER
Picture an Audi at Le Mans, and the driver most likely to feature in that image is Dane Tom Kristensen. The record-holder in terms of outright victories in the French classic has a place in motorsport’s most famous race’s history books that can never be taken away.
As Kristensen himself points out, his success at Le Mans probably typecast him as a sportscar man, but it hadn’t always been that way.Apromising junior single-seater career helped him to claim F3 titles and he progressed to the cusp of Formula 1 and took part in several grand prix test programmes.
But the top table never beckoned, and his adventures in sportscar racing, and most notably withAudi and Le Mans, cemented his place in the record books forever. Winning the twice-around-the-clock race at Le Mans once is hard enough. Doing it nine times is remarkable.
There was not only success in sportscar racing, but he was a winner in tin-tops all over the globe including a stint in the DTM and the British Touring Car Championship.
Kristensen has recently had time to look back as he has co-authored a book detailing his racing career and his achievements. We caught him in reflective mood.
Question: How did the motorsport passion get fired in you? Where did it come from?
John Charles Via email
Tom Kristensen: “I watched my dad, Carl-Erik, race when I grew up. They were working on his touring cars and later his rallycross cars at the workshop and I was taken to the circuits when I was wearing nappies. My mum was floating around with me in the buggy.
“I was extremely proud of my dad, he was a very aggressive driver and he was very fast, so that powered my adrenalin in that direction. He didn’t have good material, they were working on it themselves and he didn’t have a lot of budget so he retired many times, but it was this atmosphere of what happened at the workshop, travelling to the tracks and then enjoying these lovely sounds.
“I remember for one race he had a BDA engine, and that sound sort of implanted in me when I was young. During these races I found fascination for karting.A few of the asphalt races we went to there was karting and that’s where I realised I found my foundation from when I was
