{"product_id":"mr-le-mans-tom-kristensen","title":"Mr Le Mans Tom Kristensen","description":"\u003cb\u003eBetween 1997 and 2014, Tom Kristensen won the world’s toughest motor race, the Le Mans 24 Hours, a record nine times and finished on the podium on five more occasions. Every time his car made it to the finish, in fact, he was in the top three. It is no wonder that this great sports car driver is known as ‘Mr Le Mans’ to motorsport fans around the world. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Now retired from racing, Kristensen shares in this book his deepest personal reflections and \u003cb\u003einsights from inside and outside the cockpit\u003c\/b\u003e. He looks back on more than \u003cb\u003e30 years spent striving for perfection\u003c\/b\u003e in racing and \u003cb\u003etells of the battles and setbacks\u003c\/b\u003e that sometimes seemed impossible to overcome, including a terrible accident in 2007. \u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eClimbing the racing ladder, from karting into Formula 3 single-seaters, including championship titles in Germany (1991) and Japan (1993), then Formula 3000 and a Formula 1 testing role with Tyrrell.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWinning as an underdog on his first visit to Le Mans, in 1997 driving an elderly Joest-run privateer Porsche in which he impressed all onlookers with a night-time charge to vanquish Porsche’s factory-entered favourite.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHis second Le Mans victory came in 2000 on his maiden drive for Audi in the R8, a car that was to become all-conquering.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKristensen won the next five editions of Le Mans, four times with Audi and once with Bentley (in 2003), his last victory in this sequence taking him past Jacky Ickx’s previous record at the Circuit de la Sarthe.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHis eighth win came in one of the all-time classic contests at Le Mans, in 2008, a rollercoaster of a race in which his ageing diesel-powered Audi was never expected to beat the fancied works Peugeots.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOne more victory with Audi in 2013 sealed his reputation as a true legend of Le Mans.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHis story includes exploits at other racetracks all over the world, none more prolific than Sebring, home of America’s long-established classic endurance race that Kristensen won six times.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePersonal reflections together with contributions from notable observers — including English journalists Gary Watkins and Charles Bradley — complete a truly rounded portrait of the man and his achievements. \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e Voted ‘Sports Book of the Year’ when originally published in Kristensen’s native Denmark, this thoughtful memoir is now available in English.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57305657344382,"sku":"NW9788797260302","price":26.92,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9788797260302.jpg?v=1778711994","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/products\/mr-le-mans-tom-kristensen","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}