MOTORSPORT: Le Mans 'extremely special' for Brabham

Aussie spearheads privateer against Audi and Toyota
David Brabham is 46 but at Le Mans next week he'll be celebrating "turning 18". Brabham will line up for his 18th start in the world's greatest sports car race, France's Le Mans 24-Hour. He won it outright in 2009, driving for Peugeot's factory team, and is a multiple class winner there too.

On the other side of the Atlantic, he's been a champion in the American Le Mans Series. This year the veteran expatriate Australian, youngest son of Australia's triple Formula One world champion Sir Jack Brabham and who had two cracks at F1 himself, goes into the French classic with the JRM Racing team of British entrepreneur James Rumsey.

JRM is fielding a petrol-engined Honda Performance Development ARX 03a against the might of Audi and the returning Toyota in the LMP1 category.

Audi, which has dominated Le Mans over the past decade, is fielding two new hybrids as well as two turbodiesels while Toyota is fielding two new, unraced hybrids.

Brabham's co-drivers will be Scotsman Peter Dumbreck, who had a similar spectacular crash at Le Mans in a factory Mercedes in 1999 to the two of Australian Mark Webber in an identical car, and Indian ex-F1 driver Karun Chandok.

"Le Mans is extremely special," Brabham says. "Even as a kid [when Sir Jack was racing in F1] I loved the idea of Le Mans and used to read all the magazines and watch the Derek Bells and Jacky Ickxs of the world going round the track.

"When it came to doing my first [Le Mans] race, in 1992, just going there and feeling the experience of the place was mind-blowing. In a sense that feeling hasn't changed, even though this will be my 18th time at Le Mans.

"I still get the same chill going through my body when I arrive at the track -- it's such a historical event. The track [the 13.6km Circuit de la Sarthe] is amazing -- and the prestige in winning the event is something else."

JRM, in its third year of motor racing but its first in LMP1, has already contested the Sebring 12-Hour in America and the Spa Six-Hour in Belgium this year – and was unlucky not to notch a podium at Sebring.

"We'll be pleased to finish and happy to be the first non-works team," Rumsey said ahead of Le Mans. "I think that our drivers are the strongest line-up outside of Audi, which I hope will be the extra factor in winning the World Endurance Championship privateers' class this year.

"David is a consummate professional and his vast experience at Le Mans and in racing sports cars is a big help. He knows the car very well from his time in ALMS. In addition to his obvious racing talent and experience, his knowledge of the small things surrounding Le Mans make a big difference to the team."

JRM (website http://www.jrm-group.com ) is managed by Nigel Stepney, who was at the centre of F1's "Spygate" scandal in 2007 -- when lots of Ferrari information found its way to rival McLaren -- but was central to Michael Schumacher's enormous success last decade, including five world titles with Ferrari.

LMP1 cars will cover more than 5000km in the 24 hours of the race on June 16-17 -- the equivalent of 18 grand prix distances, or almost a whole season of F1 in one day.

Chandok is set to become the first Indian driver to start the great sports car race. His countryman Narain Karthikeyan qualified for the 2009 Le Mans but did not get to drive after wrenching his shoulder while getting over the pit wall.

"Narain and myself have spent the last 10 years telling everybody in India how mega F1 is and I think in many ways we glossed over the fact that there are other high-level categories and championships and good races out there like Indy [Indianapolis 500 in America] and Bathurst and Le Mans," Chandok said.

"To be the first out of 1.3 billion Indians to race at Le Mans will be quite nice. When you go to a place like Monza [Italian GP venue] it's really quick, but when you are doing more than 300kmh four times on the lap at Le Mans it's a pretty mega feeling.

"The circuit is also narrower than you think, because you've got the trees and barriers quite close by."

Brabham, whose eldest brother Geoff won Le Mans in 1983, also with Peugeot, said that, as a newcomer to LMP1, JRM had been drawing on all his experience.

"I am very happy to be able to guide them," he said. "We are learning all the time, in races, on the simulator and getting every single factor up to speed.

"I've been able to contribute a fair amount, but this year is a learning curve and we are all very much aware of this."

The other Australian racing at Le Mans will be 27-year-old Queenslander John Martin , driving an Oreca Nissan in LMP2, while Allan Simonsen -- a Danish international racer well known to Australian fans from competing here regularly --  is to drive for Aston Martin Racing.

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