Lehto & Werner Interview at Le Mans

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Lehto & Werner - New Teammates Ready for Le Mans and Rest of ALMS Season

Doug Kelly 6-11-2004

Up much of the night and sleep during the day.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans offers challenges of all types, not the least of which is that the drivers and crews each do a significant majority of their work when the moon is out and the sun’s nowhere to be found.

JJ Lehto and Marco Werner will pilot the Champion Audi entry in Saturday’s race, which will be televised in North America on SPEED beginning at 9:30 a.m. (EDT) . Each driver spoke with ALMS.com on Thursday while waiting for the evening practice to begin as preparations continued for the world’s most well-known sports car event.

Doug Kelly (DK): How’s your week been so far?

JJ Lehto (JL): “It’s raining right now, but we have had pretty good conditions all week. It’s good to get a little rain now, and not during the race.

“The Champion Audi’s running well. We had a little understeer at the beginning, but I think we’ve gotten that corrected. We ran a pretty good time, but all of the Audis are very close. To me, we’re not that worried about the qualifying. The thing is to be fastest in the race.”

DK: You have gone from not racing in a while to having the bulk of the ALMS season shortly after Le Mans. Are you ready?

Marco Werner (MW): “I believe, after the preparations we’ve made for the twenty four hours, we will surely be ready for the next race at Mid-Ohio.

“For me, I’m really looking forward to the season because I have three new tracks to go to, Mid-Ohio, Lime Rock and Portland. Last year, every track was new, and it’s going to be interesting to have some new places along with some that I know a little bit about now.”

DK: Marco, JJ is a new partner for you. How’s that going?

MW: “It’s going well. To team up with him is very fine for me. I believe I can help him win the (driving) championship and obviously our goal is to win the championship overall as a team.”

DK: JJ, what is more strenuous, Sebring or Le Mans?

JL: “If you can handle Sebring, you can do Le Mans. Sebring is physical and demanding, both for the driver and the car. It is always very good practice (to get ready) for Le Mans. If you can survive that, you can survive here as well.

“There is nothing really like the spectacle of Le Mans, though. It is truly something to see.”

DK: What are your thoughts on Mid-Ohio and the remainder of the ALMS season?

JL: “It’ll be nice to get to Mid-Ohio. I like that track a lot. I did the CART race there, and I won the GT class once in a BMW. You’ve got some uphills and downhills, and I’ve been told that they have resurfaced the corners with new concrete. So that’s going to be a little different for us as well.

“As for Lime Rock, it’s a new track for both Marco and me. We are looking forward to going there, because there is a lot of early interest in that race in terms of the tickets already sold.”

DK: What’s the schedule for the rest of the day?

JL: “Le Mans is different because you always have a long evening. Last night, we practiced until around midnight, had our meetings afterwards, and didn’t get to bed until around three this morning. Then you sleep until lunchtime, get a bite to eat and get ready for the evening again. Your body clock has to adjust.

“We’ve got a lot of new things in the car. The guys worked overnight to get it ready. We may try and qualify it one more time and that’ll be it before Saturday.”

MW: “I think we’re ready to go. The whole team has done a fantastic job. We would certainly like to get a win here and set the tone for the rest of the season.”

DK: Post Le Mans, how soon before you come to the U.S.?

MW: “I plan to go to Switzerland for a few days, and then I’ll head for the States.”

JL: “I just hope it stops raining here!!! No, I’ll likely go home for a bit and then go over. We will be racing a lot in the next few months and Marco and myself are looking forward to it.”