Great Dane

We hitch a ride with the big dog of le mans, nine-time winner Tom Kristensen, one of the greatest racing drivers the world has ever seen.

- Scott Newman

TOM KRISTENSEN immediately spots the two eager faces poking beyond the pit wall catch fencing, left arms extended, smartphones poised to capture the sight and sound of an Audi R8 V10 Plus blasting past at full noise.

The Bend Motorsport Park’s long, long main straight gives the endurance racing legend ample time to line up his approach; from the passenger seat I can see just how little room exists between the pit wall and the R8’s left mirror as we ‘buzz the tower’ like a land-based Maverick and Goose. Mischief managed. Cue Kenny Loggins.

Kristensen is hooning around Australia’s newest racetrack thanks to his role as an Audi ambassador. Audi Australia has hired the track for Audi Sport Week, to cycle punters through its performance models and ‘Mr Le Mans’ is on hand to tell stories, shake hands and give hot laps to customers. MOTOR, in typical style, has jumped the queue.

To call Tom Kristensen the greatest Danish racing driver of all time sells him short. Kristensen’s resume puts him in an elite category occupied only by those with historical achievements, drivers like Michael Schumacher and Sebastien Loeb. He is inarguably the greatest endurance racer of all time, his record of nine wins at the Le Mans 24 Hour almost certain never to be matched.

From 18 starts at the French classic he scored 15 podiums, while his six wins at the 12 Hours of Sebring is also a record. Other highlights include the 2013 World Endurance Championship and the 2001 American Le Mans Series title, but to pigeonhole the 51-year-old Dane as a long-distance specialist is misleading. Kristensen has won races in a wide variety of machinery all over the world, but his first major success came as the 1985 Nordic Karting champion, beating a certain Mika Hakkinen.