Photo by: Eric Gilbert
The German sports car pilot Stefan Mücke aims on a podium placing at the 24 hour race of Le Mans – Aston Martin works driver on start in the Vantage in the GTE Pro Class
Berlin/Le Mans (rol/ot) Starting for the sixth time and still a new challenge: The German sports car pilot Stefan Mücke wants to score a podium placing in his class this weekend (16th/17th of June) at the 80th run of the famous 24 hour race of Le Mans. That would be the first at the hardest car race of the world for the 30 year old, who had his debut there in 2007 as best rookie and his best placing so far has been overall position four in 2009 – being the best German in the fastest petrol car of the LMP1 sports car prototypes. Now the Aston-Martin works driver is on track at the 13,6 Kilometre long course in North Western France together with his team colleagues Darren Turner (Great Britain) and Adrian Fernandez (Mexico) in the Vantage GTE.
„This s a totally new challenge“, Stefan Mücke said, who is the first and still the only driver from Berlin since 2007 at the 24 hours of Le Mans. The anniversary issue is the third run of the new FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) same time, where Mücke & Co are on track in the GTE Pro Class. „Certainly, there is a big difference to be on track at Le Mans in a GT- or LMP1 race car, for example because of the totally different brake points just right before the curves. And now I have to look through the rear view mirror more often as usual“, Stefan Mücke said.
The hope for a podium placing in his class is founded on progress, „that we made with the new Vantage so far this season. And at the pre-test to Le Mans at the beginning of June we were quite fast on the high speed track“, the Berlin explained, who is in France already since Sunday. „I am optimistic to reach the podium at the season highlight, even with the fact that this GTE-Class is very hard and there are the very strong Corvettes and Ferrari as well. The main goal this time as usual will be to reach the finish line after the 24 hours.“
Stefan Mücke is a Le-Mans-Pro by now, but he is still crazy about the atmosphere every time with more than 200.000 visitors on track. „The whole week there are thousands of fans already here on track to watch the different activities. This atmosphere gives goose flesh, especially at the traditional driver’s parade across the city on Friday.“ On Wednesday and Thursday (13th/14th of June), practice and qualifying runs are scheduled for the Berlin. And almost his whole family is giving the 30 year old support in France, because his wife Annette and his daughter Lucie are already in Le Mans. His father, Peter Mücke, the team principal of German team Mücke Motorsport, will be at place on Friday. „I am happy about this support and of course I am happy about all the fans that will cross their fingers for me at home or anywhere else“, Stefan Mücke underlined.
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