Working toward one shining moment

ADT Champion Audi prepares for Le Mans
By Kate Shaw
Photos courtesy Margot Orenchuk and Champion Audi

TORONTO, Canada (May 22, 2004) – Those who line the track at Le Mans, or who lean close to their television to follow the progress of the cars, no doubt have a certain appreciation for the beauty, dash and drive of the car, the driver and the event as they meld into a beautiful whole. But nobody can match the feeling shared by the “team around the team” watching the culmination of a job that began before the eau de champagne from last year’s race has completely left the air. “Le Mans,” says Champion Audi Technical Director Brad Kettler, “is the Holy Grail to us. I want to prove to the world just how good a racing team we are!” And very hard work it is, too, as complex as choreographing a ballet or putting together the mass of detail that go into the making of a blockbuster movie. Here’s just a taste of what goes into putting Champion Audi on the winning track at Le Mans.

Planning begins early; literally, the planning for 2004 began the minute the 2003 event had ended. The entire team was debriefed and all comments were solicited as to what worked and what didn’t – and what worked, but could be improved upon. This is not done to criticize any person’s work, but to make the organization and the logistics even more efficient and tighter than they already are. Remember that not only are Champion Audi preparing for the Big Show in France, but at the same time they are preparing for a full season of ALMS racing – and there are times when these two aims can collide, or at least come closer than an Audi overtaking a Porsche at Mulsanne Corner. One refinement that has come from these debriefing sessions is that Champion Audi has two complete sets of pit equipment – one for North America and one for Le Mans/Europe. Naturally, this means two complete sets of everything to inspect, label, categorize, mark, pack, file and ship. During what non-racers fondly call “the off season”, their two Le Mans transporters were completely overhauled: new paint, new stickers, rebuilding of the interior; at the same time, the support bus used by catering and PR was receiving the same treatment, with the addition of wireless routers and other modern equipment. Once they were rebuilt and repainted, they had to be packed, inventoried, prepared for shipment and shipped out by March 10th, 2004. And you’ll note that this came right at the time when the team were preparing for the 12 Hours of Sebring! The team left for Sebring on March 14th, just at the time the Le Mans equipment was sailing for Bremerhaven, Germany. And Technical Director Brad Kettler had to organize both these campaigns simultaneously. It’s a wonder he doesn’t meet himself coming round the corner more than once a day.

The secret to making this kind of campaign work out is having enough people, and not only the right number but the right people. Champion Audi typically travels with about 35 people: all their regular ALMS staff plus extra caterers and European staff such as interpreters and weather forecasters. These people travel to and from Europe in stages, depending on what their responsibilities require. For example, the “build crew” (Kettler and a core group of logistical and core mechanics) travelled to Audi Sport on Easter Sunday to prepare for the April 25th test day. This was made even more challenging when you consider that they faced a brand new, completely unbuilt car that had to be brought up to speed. “The challenge here,” explained Kettler, “is to co-ordinate all of the spares, supplies, specification of parts for a car you have not worked with before. We had to match all of the paint, graphics, and mechanical parts to the pieces we prepared and shipped on March 10th. This was no small task and took a lot of planning.” When the car arrives at Le Mans, it will be ready to rumble: every body part and spare will be pre-fitted, measured, polished etc. “The 2004 car is very good, better than I expected,” said a very pleased Kettler, adding with pardonable pride and just a smidgen of a challenge, “Even though the aim of the organizers was to slow the car down we are 4 seconds faster than last year.”

And in fact, the Build Team will be departing today for Germany to do it all over again! They will remain there to build, test and hone the car, and practice pit stops and various “disaster scenarios” (not that an Audi team ever has a disaster!) before accompanying the trucks and support vehicles on their trip to Le Mans, meeting up with the rest of the team on June 4th. The team will stay in the same hotel, and be fed and looked after by Audi Catering from Sunday, June 5th until the last drop of champagne is washed out of the drivers’ hair on Sunday the 12th. [Catering is another “team around the team” and we will be detailing the enormously important job they do in an interview from Le Mans.]

And is it all worth while? You bet it is! In closing I give you a final quotation from Audi’s Technical Director that will prove it.

“Last year during the warm up the car was on circuit in the early morning light. There was a jumbo screen at the end of pit lane. I could see our car as it came through Tetre rouge on to the tree lined straight which leads to the first chicane on the Mulsanne.

“At that moment JJ Lehto who was driving the car came over the radio and said, “The car feels excellent boys; I think we are going to have a good day”. It choked me up. All of the hard work, build up, hype was over. It was time to race. As I write this, thinking about that moment strikes me the same way. One shining moment that infuses each crew member with the power and focus necessary to be their best on that day.”

If his is not the hardest job in the run-up to Victory Lane, it is certainly one of the hardest. But as you can tell, to Brad Kettler and the team he works with, it’s worth it the minute the year of work crystallizes into that one shining moment like a jewel in their memory – a memory to live on as they began the planning for Le Mans 2004.

This is only the first in our series on Champion Audi at Le Mans.  Be sure to check back frequently and follow their progress from beginning to Victory Circle in June.