Monday 15th June 2009

PistonHeads Winners At Le Mans!

Six PH competition winners tour the Aston Martin pit garage on Le Mans race night

Aston pits, while PH watches

It wasn't just Peugeot who were winners at Le Mans this weekend. Six lucky PistonHeads winners got a guided tour around Aston Martin Racing's pit garage during the race.

Despite a brilliant overall fourth place for the lead Aston - best of the petrol-powered entries - the AMR squad was certainly busy along the way, with the 008 car losing an hour with a gearbox problem early on Sunday, and the 009 eventually crashing out.

As our six competition winners were ushered into the garage on the Saturday night (along with a couple of Team PH members tagging along - who could resist an opportunity like this!), a couple of Aston mechanics rushed past carrying a dirty-looking nose section.

Number 008 Aston had become too closely acquainted with one of the GT1 Corvettes, the result being a reasonable amount of damage to the front of the car. "It's caused quite a lot of damage," one of the pit crew told me. "It needs new uprights, wishbones, brake discs. Should take about 10-15 minutes..."

On TV, and in the metal...

He was right, too, and winners James Warren, Justin Rule, Johnny Beaumont, Brad Fincham and Martin and Ewen Macrae (as well as those members of Team PH best at blagging) were treated to the awesome sight of a top-flight Le Mans pit crew in action.

Sure enough, all was fixed in the time it would take for your average road-car mechanic to suck his teeth and say "ooh, that'll cost you", while Aston and Prodrive boss David Richards looked on.

It was great to see the Aston crew hard at work, and that eventual fourth place was clearly well deserved. Let's hope next year the AMR guys will be climbing the top step of the podium...

Click here for a full run-down of the 2009 Le Mans 24 hours results