Media Release: Brabham Makes Highcroft Racing’s Le Mans Debut
London, UK – Thursday, June 10th, 2010: David Brabham kicked off his mission to make it four wins in a row, opening his 17th 24 Hours of Le Mans account on Wednesday, June 9, with the fastest LMP2 time in first practice while the debutant Highcroft Racing car finished preliminary qualifying second in class.
After three years partnering Highcroft Racing in the American Le Mans Series it was apt for Brabham to pilot the HPD ARX-01c on its debut Le Mans practice laps and help glean valuable data from the car’s first run complete with new Le Mans aero bodywork. Despite a 45-minute delay due to a minor oil leak, Brabham soon settled into champion mode to clock up the fastest time in LMP2 within a matter of laps and his eventual best time of 3:38.691 remained unbeaten in class. Reigning ALMS champions, Brabham together with teammates Marino Franchitti and Marco Werner continued Highcroft’s solid first showing on French soil to record the second fastest class time of 3:37.202 in the preliminary two-hour qualifying session. “The whole purpose of today was to gain valuable set-up information for the race and that’s exactly what we achieved,” said Brabham. “Practice was good and when running on full race fuel in qualifying we were only one second off the Strakka car, which was running on qualifying tyres, so I’m happy with that. “We’ve learnt a lot and made some good moves to give us solid direction with the car. We’ve shown that our package is in the ball park, now it’s all about getting the car up to race speed for 24 hours, not just a qualifying lap. “Our focus is completely on the race. That’s the way I’ve handled Le Mans each year and it’s proved to be pretty successful.” It’s been a busy first few days for Brabham building up to the first track action. In a long standing tradition of honouring the previous year’s race winners, on Tuesday Michelin presented Brabham and his 2009 Team Peugeot teammates each with a 100cc kart. “I’m stunned and can’t thank Michelin enough for this sensational gift,” said Brabs. “It was unbelievable to win Le Mans last year with such great teammates, who are also good friends, Peugeot, and of course Michelin who I share a long racing history with. My son Sam has just started karting so you can imagine the battles we’ll have at home to race it.” The 2009 race victor was further honoured, alongside Alex Wurz and Marc Gene, at a special ceremony on Wednesday morning to officially unveil their race winner’s plaque in Le Mans town centre. A delighted Brabham commented: “The official presentation of the plaque today is the final, historic, part of winning Le Mans outright. It’s pretty special to see my plaque join that of my brother Geoff’s following his 1993 win and it really caps off the victory.” The final qualifying session ahead of the 78th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours takes place on Thursday, June 10, from 7pm to 9pm and 10pm to 12midnight local time. The green flag will fall to start the 2010 race battle at 3pm on Saturday, June 12. Live race audio is available online at www.radiolemans.com while full event information can be found at www.lemans.org. -Ends- Please click on the thumbnails below to download the images. For further information on David Brabham, including his career history and biography, visit www.davidbrabham.com David Brabham Media Contact: Emma Spearing, Hazel PR Tel: +44 (0)1202 862411 Mobile: +44 (0)7736 341828 Email: emma.spearing@hazelpr.com
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