LE MANS, France, 14 June 2004 — Denmark’s Tom Kristensen joined the legendary Jacky Ickx as a six-time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hour Race on Sunday when his Japan-backed Audi Team Goh stormed to victory in the classic endurance race. Seiji Ara of Japan was behind the wheel at the time of victory with teammates Kristensen and Italy’s Rinaldo Capello celebrating on the pit wall.
It was also the first win for a Japanese team since 1995.
Their Audi took the lead at about 0530 GMT on the 279th lap when the all-British team of Johnny Herbert, Jamie Davies and Guy Smith in the Audi Sport UK care had to stop to fix their suspension. The all-British team, which finished second, had been in the lead since an hour after the race began.
Kristensen has now moved ahead of five-time winner Derek Bell of Britain to join Ickx of Belgium as a record six-time winner.
The Audi 1-2-3 was completed when the car of Germany’s Marco Werner, Emmanuele Pirro of Italy and JJ Lehto of Finland finished third.
It was a remarkable recovery by the team after their car had collided with the Audi of Allan McNish in the early stages of the race on Saturday in an incident which led to the Scotsman being taken to hospital for a check-up after he collapsed in the team garage.
Lehto, Werner and Pirro had clawed back 40 lost minutes to take third spot from the Pescarolo Judd of France’s Erik Comas, Soheil Auyari and Benoit Treluyer.
