In four short years, David Heinemeier Hansson has made quite a name for himself in the world of sportscar racing. The Dane, who dreamt of competing at Le Mans since watching his countryman Tom Kristensen win there in 1997, will this year be making his second visit as a competitor to La Sarthe.
As part of OAK Racing’s talented FIA World Endurance Championship driver line up, the Chicago, USA resident will be sharing the cockpit of the No.24 Morgan-Nissan with Olivier Pla and Alex Brundle and the trio has LMP2 class victory firmly in their sights for the 90th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on 22nd/23rd June.
Heinemeier Hansson, a software engineer and entrepreneur, only started racing sportscars in 2009, developing his skills in both Europe and the USA over the next two years before competing full time in the 2011 American Le Mans Series. He won two (LMP2) races and finished runner up in the championship – earning himself plaudits along the way and the notice of many in the business.
After a 7th place finish at Le Mans last year David is very much looking forward to using his 2012 experiences to positive effect: “It’s always so exciting going to Le Mans. Last year, my first year there, we were doing so well early on but got taken out of contention by punctures so feel there’s unfinished business there. This time we have a strong enough team, car and line-up that we believe we’re going to be able to fight for the win. I haven’t been driving sportscar for long at all and, being in that sort of line-up, is for me an extraordinary privilege. Last year I had no expectations so the fact that we got to lead our class for 12 laps was amazing. But you always get greedy and always want a bit more! Now we want to win it.”
David believes that the broad range of experience he’s been able to gather over the last few years of competition will all have a part to play at Le Mans. “In the ALMS you learn street-fighting skills, how to slice and dice through the traffic, which will be useful at Le Mans; in WEC you learn more about true endurance – it’s all well and good to be fast over one lap but if you have contact you can lose massively because there aren’t the frequent safety car interventions that they have in the USA, you have to learn to dial it back a notch. In the ELMS I learnt a bit of both – there were a few less cars than the ALMS but a slightly longer race and on a slightly longer track so it was a good mix of everything.
“Endurance racing is what OAK Racing does; they are based five minutes’ walk from the Le Mans track so I couldn’t ask for a better team to be there with. Especially now: they’ve had a couple of years to build up and this year the quality and reliability in every area is the best it’s ever been. If we’re going to win it, it should be this year!”
Fiona Miller
Photo: SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS CIRCUIT (SPA, BELGIUM), WEC 6 HOURS OF SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, PRACTICE, FRIDAY 3RD MAY 2013. David Heinemeier Hansson shares the No.24 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan with Olivier Pla and Alex Brundle.
