by Russell Atkins
David Brabham has said his Le Mans 24 Hours success last month is something that will remain forever etched in his memory, after Aston Martin finally vanquished Corvette in the French round-the-clock endurance classic.
The Australian – sharing one of the GT1 class Prodrive-run DBR9s with tin-top aces Darren Turner and Rickard Rydell – had finished respectively third and fourth in class in 2005 and 2006, and second outright with Bentley back in 2003, but until this year he had never tasted victory champagne. It was, he admitted, a magical moment.
“It was an absolutely amazing result,” he told
Crash.net Radio during Prodrive's open weekend at its Banbury headquarters. “Three years' hard work went into it, and the preparation leading up to the race was excellent, the best I'd ever seen.
“The expectation was probably the highest it had been too, and rightly so because twice we had the chance to win but didn't. We all went there feeling very confident we had everything we needed to actually pull off the result, but at the same time we had the attitude ‘we have to win this race – there are no ifs or buts, this is our race'. I think it helps to have that mentality, because it means you go there in the right frame of mind and tackle every situation with that in your head.
“We just had one of those perfect races. We never had one issue with the car or made a mistake out on the track, and the guys in the pits gave us very good pit-stops every time. That's what was really needed to win because Corvette had the same race as us but we just had a faster car; that's what it took to beat them after they had won the class for the past three years.
“I'm extremely happy for both the team and Aston Martin. It's pretty cool for any driver to actually drive for Aston Martin at Le Mans, and for me personally crossing the finish line at the end to win was something special.”
