"We are the innovators."
Stefan Huewe, Pit Setup and Refuelling Team, ADT Champion Audi 
By Kate Shaw
Photos courtesy David Babcock

LA SARTHE, France (June 10, 2004) – Stefan Huewe started out racing motocross in South Africa on a 250 cc bike, but his love for cars began around the age of 5 in his father’s garage. “I decided to stop racing on bikes,” he said, “because racing on bikes involved too many knee operations!” He ran his own racing team for 8 years in South Africa, and is a Master Mechanic.

Huewe was born in Germany and grew up watching the 24 Heures du Mans, idolizing the drivers and imagining what it would be like to become involved in the biggest race in the world. But he never imagined the amount of work that goes into the preparation of a racing car.

“Our preparation begins in January,” he said, “when we make out our lists of equipment to be taken with us to Le Mans. This doesn’t only include tools and car parts; it also includes such things as mechanics’ gloves and gear. If you forget these items and you’re at an American track, you can easily pick up more – there are always vendors on the circuit who can sell you what you need. However, this is not the case in Europe. We look through our entire inventory and if we have one, we buy another; if we have none, we buy two. In addition, each department head submits a complete inventory list of everything he has and everything he needs, to Jerome Freeman, so that when we arrive at Le Mans, we need only unpack and begin.”

The pit setup for ADT Champion Audi is standardized – and they set the standard. “We are the innovators,” said Huewe. “Others watch what we do and copy it. We were the first to use 15” monitors, then 30”, now 42”. But the electronic pit boards, well, we copied those from someone else!”

There’s a lot more work to setting up the pit garage than is evident to the casual eye. Pre-Qualifying was only one day of running on the track; Huewe and Freeman arrived at the track a week beforehand to set up the garage and hospitality, and wire up the cable TV, timing and scoring, laptops, networking and wireless, making sure that when the trucks arrived, they could move straight in. The garage was spotless and perfect by Test Day – and after one day of running, it all had to be taken apart and carried back to the factory in Germany! Such is the level of intensity and attention to detail evidenced by Huewe and his team.

During the race, his work becomes even more important. You may recall the hapless Audi driver (not from Champion) who ran out of fuel during the second hour of Le Mans 2003. Well, Huewe’s job, along with Ben Zimmerman who monitors telemetry, is to ensure that this never happens on his team. There are two calculations involved, which balance one another: Marcus calculates the distance the car has run since its last pit stop, and Huewe the amount of fuel on board. These calculations have been so precise that in two instances the two figures were only .01 litre apart. Huewe pointed out that you can’t go by what amount you think might have been put in the car, even if the fuel is splashing out at fill-up. It’s important to have the numbers, and you can only get them by calculating them.” With confidence in their fuel load, the drivers can make their own calculations and concentrate on running the race.

I asked him if he’d ever thought about driving, and what car he’d like to try if he could have his pick. “I’d like to drive the Bentley,” he decided. “Or a 962. Those were beautiful cars.”

It was easy for Huewe to answer the question “What draws you to Le Mans?”

“For so many years I watched it on television,” he said with a smile, “and I loved seeing the drivers winning the best race in the world. And now I’m getting to have a part in doing it!”

Even looking on from the outside, it’d be hard to argue with that.