Nice guys finish first
Watching the birth of (now) a 2-time Le Mans championship team; and
Hurrah!! for Petersen Motorsport/White Lightning Racing.
By Margot Orenchuk
Photos courtesy Margot Orenchuk

VANCOUVER, Canada (June 23, 2004) --  It all started with an innocent, and highly informative tour around the ALMS paddock by PR person extraordinaire, Tom Moore of Petersen Motorsport/White Lightning Racing in September 2003.  (Please see his interview to be found deeper on this special link page).  

As he tried to explain to me how this one team member did this and this one did that, he explained that although he and most of the team didn’t go last year, the car won at Le Mans in 2003...and the quickest way to see that is this ACO sticker on the top of the car. “We aren’t taking that off” and I thought... hum. This is fascinating stuff. I spoke to my editor and said “wouldn’t it be great to be able to follow a team and show the world just what is involved in getting a team ready to win this race?” Little did I know how prophetic those words would be, indeed! So we started sketching out a plan to do just that - to bring to the fans a glimpse behind the scene at the massive effort it takes to bring this Big Show to fruition. And everyone and everything involved. And little did we realise it would take 8 months of prep work and every waking moment God sends to get us ready… and yet we still didn’t get everything we wanted to get accomplished! 

But I have to say right off that it never could have been done if it hadn’t been for the unswaying support by Mike Petersen and Dale White, who showed us every confidence we would be able to carry out our jobs in such a fashion that we would not interfere with the smooth operation of the team when at work. And Tom absolutely went above and beyond the call of duty for RFM, and I can’t thank him enough. For driver quotes, I want to thank the very talkative Jörg Bergmeister, newcomer to the ALMS and highly-talented Patrick Long and of course, the ever-professional and stretched-to-the-limit Sascha Maassen; no matter how tiring or repetitive it must have been for them they always had a smile on their faces when seeing me coming. Gracious thanks to all the Petersen team members that gave so generously of their time to step into the limelight no matter how much it glared in their eyes; (and who also gave of their chairs to sleep in!) If you had no concept of the teamwork involved before this race I sure hope you stand back in awe of it now. Petersen/White Lightning should be listed in the dictionary under the words “teamwork” and “laughter”. They came to win, and they worked harder than anyone else on pit lane to accomplish that goal. And it paid off. But they had fun the whole time they did it. So for every driver/Team Owner/spy that wandered down in their pits trying to glean their secret, you don’t really have much to learn… I can tell you now. Work Very Hard… and Laugh a Lot. And, in the end, it’s all about teamwork! 

Nice guys don’t always finish last.

Dinner isn’t at 630PM. Well, it might be, but you will eat it in the pit! You want to see Le Mans?? Excellent!!! Come In February. Our little narrow tiny focus is this pit about 20 feet wide if that… and you see everyone in there. Late at night, first thing in the morning. You never saw the P/WL pit closed up at 7pm. 

One of my special bonuses for covering the team from stem to stern was accompanying them up to victory podium. WHAT a thrill!

Rushing up those stairs of the ACO tower, with Jörg and Patrick and Dale and Mike (Sascha hadn’t got out of the car yet) well, I felt like some sort of rock star! I was allowed into this little perch that only 4 other camera people were in, and they were all there with Audi. So when Our Boys got there I had the clean shots I needed. But to see those masses, the crush of people there, you can’t imagine it and I can’t describe it. And I was SO very proud. The little engine that could, after that broken cable at 2AM, having to drop back after leading the entire race, who would have thought they could come forward to win it after all? 

I’ll tell you who did. Tom Moore, that’s who. He never swayed. All through RFM’s updates, sometimes when I went down to the pits I would try to cheer up the junior members of the team that hadn’t been thorough an enduro like this before. Because it’s hard if you have never worked these types of races, and you do get discouraged. But Tom always had a great line, or a smile and a quote to cheer everyone up. Even when we were doing quotes right after Sascha had just gone out for that last stint and all of a sudden he gets this look of terror and has to bolt – because they had this tire vibration…with 35 minutes to go in the race!! – he’s back within minutes and letting me know everything is OK and I had better darn well get back to accompany him up to VP in less than 30 minutes, because I’m at Le Mans, and It’s my first time, and I better be there!!! He never felt discouraged. EVER.  

If there was a lesson I learned at Le Mans 2004, it was this; while RFM set out to show everyone that it takes more than “just” a driver to hop in a car to drive a car to victory; even we who cover the series day by day can be humbled. And this reporter was brought to her knees in humility this last week. From tire changer to mechanic to Doctor to driver; the saying “one hand washes the other” never rang so true. It just can’t happen without a whole TEAM.  

And probably one of the most memorable moments, as odd as this sounds, was at around 3:45 a.m., in Vanessa’s Hospitality. As we were taking a short break to grab a bite, just myself, Kate Shaw, a few other night owls and Jörg. It was oddly quiet, except for the sounds of the cars going by every 4 minutes or so. The tent was darkened. We asked Jörg what had happened out there, and he calmly told us about getting stuck in 4^th gear (after leading the entire race for almost half of it) and shrugging his shoulders and saying “everything will be OK”. And indeed, it was “OK”. Sascha “brought his baby home” after breaking the track record and battling the Orbit car earlier in the day. The “Ho” car- as the whole team affectionately call the Westward Ho Casino-sponsored machine- did what it had set out to do… win the 24 Heures Du Mans. Hurrah! 

It doesn’t get better than that.  And we are proud and happy that we were able to bring it all to you.