"The most important part of Le Mans is the final 24 Hours."
Kaye Wilson, Team Coordinator, ADT Champion Audi 
By Kate Shaw and Margot Orenchuk
Photos courtesy Margot Orenchuk

LA SARTHE, France (June 9, 2004) – “I call myself Team Coordinator,” says Kaye Wilson. “It’s kind of difficult to know what to call me, because I look after the drivers too and a TC doesn’t look after the Drivers. I don’t really have a title.”

If ADT Champion Audi could give Kaye a title, it would probably be “Your Majesty.” There isn’t anything in the team that she can’t handle. She began at the team in March 2001, as coordinator and major problem solver, working with everything from the needs and requests of the drivers to the VIP program of the sponsors. In addition to ADT Champion Audi, Kaye coordinates the Porsche VIP program and the whole of the Michelin panoply of racing – F1, Superbikes, 500cc Grand Prix, Le Mans and the Rallye Race of Champions. Here we find out how she got started and what makes her so valuable to ADT Champion Audi.

The Beginning

Many of us with day jobs wonder, how does one get into the Public Relations business? Well, for Kaye an opportunity came while she was a racing fan. She was at Silverstone at the invitation of a German team, in 1985, and during the course of the race they asked if she could do some negotiating for them in English, there being no fluent English speaker on their team. She obliged and found that she quite liked it. The next step was to take a course at Silverstone in timing and scoring so as to learn how to keep a lap chart; and while she was there, she was approached by another non-English team, in the FIA GT, with the need for someone to “team manage” for them. They explained, “Our normal team manager can’t be here, and we don’t have anyone else that can speak English, and it’s important we have someone that can speak English to communicate with the FIA.”

“They asked me to do that one and I said “Where is it?” and they said, “In silverstone,” she reported. “So I took a long weekend from my job and I did it; and the next time they called, I assumed it would be Brands Hatch or somewhere in England – but it was in Montreal, and the next time after that it was Mexico. I was employed full time at a non-motorsport job at the time and this was involving serious time away.”

As she looked more deeply into the job of “Team Coordinator”, she discovered that her contacts and connections with various Blue Chip companies such as Cable & Wireless and GKN, where she had met and worked with people at very senior levels, were helpful to her not only in dealing with marketing boards and how the budgets were set up, but enabled her to assist the teams in the right way to go about getting significant sponsorship money. Eventually she gave up her day job and became a fully fledged Team Coordinator, a position she pursued for the next 11 years. (Interestingly she has never worked in the UK, which is her home base.)

As often happens in the business world, once Kaye had begun her motorsport career, one door opened into another. “I was responsible for getting the Gulf sponsorship. I put that whole project together and formed the team when we ran the Gulf McLarens,” she said. “And then after Nigel Mansell won the F1 championship and then went to the States and won CART, I thought it would be kind of neat to put him in the World Sports Car Championship. So I introduced him to Porsche and tried to get him into a Porsche, but it didn’t actually happen. But that resulted in Porsche asking me if I’d then coordinate their Works program.” In 1998 she was at Le Mans with the four car Porsche works team – two prototypes and two GTP cars – and that was of course the year they won. Shortly thereafter the program closed down; however, Kaye was retained for another year in case they decided to start up again.

When it became obvious the Works program at Porsche had truly folded, Michelin came to her and she looked after them for two years, in all their various enterprises from Porsche (who left Pirelli) to Ford and from Moto Grand Prix, World Superbike and Race of Champions to Formula One. “So,” she concluded, “I’ve done Formula One for the last three years as well as Le Mans, Bikes and everything else.”

Beginnings with ADT Champion Audi

While all this was going on in her life, Mr. Maraj, owner of ADT Champion Audi in Florida, decided he wanted to compete at Le Mans, and he hired Thierry Boutsen, the Formula One and Works Porsche driver. Boutsen broke his back here at Le Mans four or five years ago,” Kaye remembered, “which put an end to his racing career. And the following year Mr. Maraj wanted to do Le Mans, and use Thierry as his Team Manager to coordinate it for him. Thierry called me and asked me if I would do all his logistics. I said I would, so then I became involved with Champion here at Le Mans. And at the end of Le Mans, Mr. Maraj asked me if I would go to Petit Le Mans as a present for having helped him here. And I said, “I’ll come to Petit Le Mans providing you give me a job! I can’t bear standing around at race tracks; I’m not a ‘come and watch’ type spectator person.” So he said “Well, we’ll find you something to do, but do come and join us.” So I went, and while I was there, he asked me if I would come on board permanently, to look after his team. I’ve been with him now 3 years.”

Le Mans

For a team coordinator Le Mans, says Kaye, is the hardest race in the world. “I’ve done just about every 24 hour race of any prominence: Spa, Daytona, Nűrburgring, and nothing compares to Le Mans. Because it’s run over a period of weeks.

“I begin to prepare for next year’s Le Mans when I leave here next week. There are certain seats you can’t get if you don’t book them immediately, there are all kinds of things, and certain ground work that you do as soon as you leave here, before you come back again.”

Champion Audi arrived at Le Mans on June 1st, nearly two weeks before the cars actually take to the track. “We’ve been here a week and a day now,” Kaye pointed out, “and we haven’t turned a wheel yet!”
Kaye is always the first Champion Audi team member on the Circuit, although this year she had Jerome Freeman and Stefan Huewe, chief members of the pit and paddock crew, with her. Her first priority when she arrives is to set up the Hospitality so when the team arrive they can eat – not to the last detail, but it has to be functioning. The next priority, which Freeman and Huewe coordinate, is that the Pit has to be set up and running, so that when the trucks arrive they can unload the car and the equipment straight away. So well organized is Champion Audi that the trucks are designed to fit precisely into the space they know they will have.

The challenge

The real challenge, says Kaye, is making sure everything to do with the team logistics runs smoothly and invisibly. “At the end of the day I’m here to co-ordinate the team’s wishes and requirements, and that's what it’s all about. Solving peoples’ problems. I’ve decided if I can do that, everything else will run smoothly too – that's the biggest challenge I have. My telephone is never switched off. I start getting my phone calls from Champion in the afternoon, because of the time difference. I get phone calls from Champion at 11 and 12 at night, if they think of something. The dealership is open til 7:00, which is midnight my time.”

The reward

“The hardest part of Le Mans is the last 24 Hours. Because that's what it all comes down to. You have to pace yourself. Because if you’ve worn yourself out before the race even begins, you might as well not begin at all.

“At the end of the day, there’s nothing like winning a major race. I’ve been with the team that has won Le Mans. I have to tell you, winning Le Mans is like nothing else in the world. When I was at Porsche and we won Le Mans, the hospitality tent was invaded! Everybody wants to speak to the winners – it’s kind of like being a rock star.”

And it’s obvious that her vision is not unique – as we approach race day it’s clear that everything dreamed and everything done by all the team points toward the day this experience will come to the whole team at ADT Champion Audi.