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Home » Blog » Allan's Blog » Allan McNish Returns to Motor Racing Legends Dinner
24 February 2009 | Posted in Allan's Blog
The Motor Racing Legends Annual Dinner, on Friday 13th February at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, saw the return of Allan McNish as guest speaker. McNish gave a thrilling from-the-cockpit account of Audi’s victory in the 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours. The roomful of guests was held spellbound as McNish described the challenge faced by Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and McNish himself – along with the whole Audi team – in setting their three-year-old Audi R10 TDI sports-prototype against the might of Peugeot. “At the Test Day,” he explained, “Peugeot turned up with a beautiful, slick new aero package and, in a nutshell, they were five seconds a lap faster. So we thought about it laterally: we had to try to wear them down over the course of 24 hours. “For the race itself, I qualified fourth on the grid, with three Peugeots ahead of me. At the start, I took a big risk because I had to be ahead of at least one of them by the start of the Mulsanne – for no other reason than to put down the marker: to say that for 24 hours we’re going to be here, we’re going to be nagging at your heels…” In a dialogue with Master of Ceremonies, Tony Dron, McNish described the early hours of the race, when one Peugeot had a problem, then another dropped out. “In Hour 3, I saw the pit board: P1 + 20. I thought then that if we did everything perfectly – 100% spot-on – every pit stop, every driver change, every decision, then we’d be in with a shout. At 4am, my rain dance finally worked and that’s when we had them. Because that was Peugeot’s one weakness; whatever they did to make that car fantastically quick in the dry, in the wet it didn’t work.” Genuinely modest, McNish played down his role during that wet spell, though he admits that his driving stint from 6am to 9.20am was “one of the hardest drives of my life”. And then, 15 minutes before the end of the race [McNish was now in the pits], “The heavens opened again and Peugeot made the wrong call…When the chequered flag fell, we had beaten the faster car with a clever strategy and good teamwork.” “And some really amazing driving…,” added Tony Dron. The Motor Racing Legends Annual Dinner has a history of fascinating and high-profile guest speakers, but this was the first time that the previous year’s Le Mans-winning driver shared his story. It was a great privilege and pleasure for everyone who attended. We wish Allan – and the new Audi R15 TDI – the very best for Le Mans 2009. New Motor Racing Legends Identity The annual black-tie dinner is always a highlight of Motor Racing Legends’ year and, as well as welcoming such a prestigious, fascinating – and remarkably modest – guest speaker, the evening gave Duncan Wiltshire the chance to share the latest news of the 2009 historic racing calendar. To mark the occasion, he was able officially to launch the new Motor Racing Legends brand ‘identity’. “Motor Racing Legends has come a long way since its origins in 1982,” explained Wiltshire, “and especially in the last seven or eight years. Our new, fresh identity reflects those changes and sets us up for the future; but, identity aside, there will be no changes to the way we operate, our dedication to the service we provide nor our enthusiasm for historic motor racing.”
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