Glory for Gulf at Le Mans
Gulf celebrates Aston Martin racing's superb GT1 victory.
Gulf has celebrated the 40th anniversary of its first win at Le Mans in the finest possible style, with an incredibly hard fought victory in LMGT1 going to the Gulf-sponsored Aston Martin Racing DBR9, number 009, driven by David Brabham, Darren Turner and Antonio Garcia.
In front of the assembled ranks of Gulf affiliates from all over the world, the blue and orange factory Aston Martin race cars successfully defended their GT1 title at Le Mans. In doing so, they created another memorable chapter in Gulf’s long and glorious motorsport history, something that David Brabham was quick to mention in his victory interview on the winners podium.
The Le Mans 24 Hours forms the opening portion of Gulf Oil International’s 2008 Global Convention and its theme, “Winning Then, Winning Now, Winning in the Future” could almost be the story of the weekend.
“It is an incredible weekend for Gulf,” comments Gulf Vice President International, Alain Dujean. “On Friday we commemorated the 40th anniversary of Gulf’s first and Pedro Rodriguez’s sole win here in 1968, with a beautiful tribute from the Scuderia Rodriguez (the family and friends of Pedro) as they handed on their “racing colours” to Aston Martin Racing. Now we have this fantastic result to celebrate with our racing partners.”
David King, Head of Product Communications at Aston Martin Lagonda, is also delighted with the way the partnership and, of course, the weekend, have developed. “We are absolutely thrilled with the victory. We really thought we had a tough task on our hands to win here this year and the whole team has been fantastic. The atmosphere, with all of the guests from Gulf and our other racing partners has been excellent and the Gulf relationship is really working well. We had fantastic coverage in the media all over the world before the event, and now we will all look to capitalise on what is an absolutely brilliant result.”
RACE
From the start of the race, it was obvious that the competition was going to be as close as the testing and qualifying times had suggested. The leading GT1 contenders swapped places on pitstops in the opening hours but, by the evening, the blue and orange 009 car had established the slenderest of leads. This it held to the finish, coming home to victory by less than a lap at the end of 24 hours. The factory Chevrolet Corvettes took the finish right down to the wire, they too running at almost exactly the same race pace as the Aston Martin Racing DBR9s throughout the 24 Hours.
The race had started in bright sunshine on Saturday, but as it went on, conditions changed and much of the second half was contested in the rain, making driving conditions extremely tricky. The leading four GT1 contenders – the Gulf-liveried DBR9s and Chevrolet’s Corvettes - all had to stay out of trouble, as the slightest mistake from any of them would have handed victory to one of the others. As cars were spinning out everywhere, incredibly, all four GT1 leaders barely missed a beat, ensuring that nobody could relax, all the way through to the end.
The Gulf-sponsored 007 Aston Martin of Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Karl Wendlinger and Andrea Piccini finished fourth, only missing out on a GT1 podium place by two laps – the time lost during the night when they had problems restarting at a pit stop – on what was an amazing team performance.
SUMMARY
Gulf Oil International’s Alain Dujean sums up this epic weekend for Gulf, “Huge congratulations are due to David Richards, Dr Ulrich Bez, the Aston Martin Racing Team and everyone at Aston Martin Lagonda. They have done a superb job and can be truly proud of what they have achieved. They have worked tirelessly both on and off the track to make this Le Mans an excellent one for Gulf and I am sure that I speak on behalf of all of the Gulf people here this weekend when I say that they have truly given us a race to remember.
“Gulf’s presence at Le Mans this year has been a major step forward on years gone by. The partnership with Aston Martin Racing has given the Gulf brand huge global media exposure and a massive international boost. Here at Le Mans, the Dakota stores selling Gulf clothing have been extremely busy with legions of Gulf fans making the Gulf presence at the track extremely visible, as a result. Gulf is also proud to have sponsored Radio Le Mans, whose work continues to excel. But this weekend truly belongs to the Gulf-sponsored Aston Martin Racing team. With our Gulf affiliates from all over the world present here this weekend, there will be a celebration of global proportions in the Gulf ranks tonight!”
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