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Preview: A Hong Kong team is considered favourite for victory at this weekend’s Le Mans 24-hour race in France. Sam Li’s Veloqx Motorsport has entered two Audi R8s in the classic around-the-clock endurance event which starts at four o’clock on Saturday afternoon. After technical eligibility scrutineering for the 48 cars on Monday and Tuesday there were eight hours of qualifying sessions spread over Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Today [Friday] the drivers will parade through the streets of the town which, together with the Monaco F1 Grand Prix and the USA’s Indianapolis 500, is considered home to one of the world’s best known motor racing events. Since its debut in 2000, the Audi R8 has an extraordinary record of 41 wins from 50 races started since including three victories in a row at Le Mans, before Bentley’s success last year. Based near the Silverstone racing circuit, north of London, Veloqx is a newcomer to the prototype class but has already won two major events with their two R8s this year. A one-two finish at the Monza 1000 kilometres in May followed the fifth consecutive Audi victory at the Sebring 12-hours - the USA’s oldest sports car endurance race. In this weekend’s race, which is likely to cover almost 5000 kilometres, the cars will carry the lucky numbers 8 and 88. The former, as victorious Sebring, will be handled by former Toyota F1 driver Allan McNish together with triple Le Mans winner Frank Biela and relative newcomer Pierre Kaffer. There’s a similarly impressive line-up in the other, Monza-winning, car headed by triple Grand Prix winner Johnny Herbert. The 39-year old was previously victorious at Le Mans in 1991, for Mazda – the only time a Japanese manufacturer has won. Sharing the driving duties are fellow Britons Guy Smith and Jamie Davies. Smith won last year’s race with Bentley whilst Davies took class honours in a Veloqx-run Ferrari.
Indeed Ferrari look strong to repeat their GTS class win this year – and again with a Hong Kong connection: the Barron Connor Racing team was founded with help from Chip Connor whose global sourcing business is based in Hung Hom. Like Li, Connor has two cars, his driver line-up including former Indianapolis 500 winner Danny Sullivan. Qualifying: Lucky 88 will start on pole position at Le Mans today for Hong Kong’s Team Veloqx. The team monopolised the front row of the grid with their two Audi R8s. The pole-sitting number 88 car was driven by former Grand Prix winner Johnny Herbert who won the race in 1991. Herbert will share the car with fellow Britons Guy Smith and Jamie Davies. “I started from GTS class pole here last year and won that class in the race – and in car number 88,” said Davies yesterday, “so the omens are good!”
Veloqx are this year battling for overall race honours. Number 88’s main opposition in qualifying was their team’s other car (number 8) driven by Allan McNish together with Germans Frank Biela and Pierre Kaffer. McNish’s attempt at pole position was interrupted by a fuel pump problem necessitating an engine change. “It’s funny,” said the Scot yesterday. “The engine we ran on Wednesday was the one we used at Le Mans last year, at Sebring 12-hours in March, and at the Monza 1000 kilometres in May. It just ran and ran without a problem. We changed it for a new race engine on Thursday and had this small problem.” Another new 550-horsepower unit is already in the car and the team is confident that it will perform faultlessly in the race which starts at 4pm today (Central European Time).
Sam Li Feature: It’s Friday and Hong Kong’s Sam Li has just been awarded with the plaque for pole position at the Le Mans 24-hours. “I’m glad they gave us one each,” laughs his driver Johnny Herbert. The Briton, formerly a winner of F1 Grands Prix with the Benetton and Stewart teams, is wearing joke double-sized running shoes and sunglasses with England flags painted on the lenses. “I thought I’d have to fight you for it - do some of the Hong Kong Phooey stuff.” Herbert cuts the air with a kung fu chop. “I already have a space on my wall for this,” says Li. Last year, on their first visit to Le Mans, his Veloqx team won a similar plaque for victory in the GTS class. Li planned ahead when mounting it. “My ultimate ambition is to stand on the podium here at four o’clock on Sunday afternoon as overall winner.” Veloqx’s two-car Audi team are widely considered favourites for this weekend’s race and the qualifying results fitted the form. On the front row of the grid, alongside the number 88 car of Herbert, Smith and Davies, is the second Veloqx car of Allan McNish, Frank Biela and Pierre Kaffer. If the pundits are right, Li will need a new target. “The future depends on the commitment of Audi Sport,” says Li “We have tremendous mutual respect. It’s up to them what we do next.” Li is charming and modest in the way you expect from somebody well-raised and educated. Watch and listen for more than a moment and it’s easy to see the sharpness of his competitive edge. “I built the team from scratch,” he says. “Personnel is the most important component which is why I wouldn’t just buy someone else’s operation.” Many others have entered motor sport and spent considerable time and money without achieving the success he has in just two years. Li grins and shrugs his shoulders: “You’d better ask them what they did wrong!” Despite hailing from a wealthy family with an established business, the 33-year old has a desire for personal success and recognition. He’s the only team owner, for example, to join the drivers on their parade through the streets of Le Mans before the race. Li becomes bored at the slow pace of the train and takes a short cut back to his commercial director John Newman. They begin plotting the rest of the weekend. It seems the classical reaction of Hong Konger. “I think my nature comes from Hong Kong. We look for competition and want to be the best in the world,” says Li. It’s a surprise to learn that his family aren’t aware of the success he is achieving. “They may know but we never talk about. Most people in Hong Kong don’t understand racing; don’t know that it’s a huge industry with serious technology behind it. Many wouldn’t know what Le Mans is.” At this point, Li’s phone rings and he excuses himself. “It was my father,” he says, slightly bemused. “He’s somehow found his way here. I had no idea.” Behind the spectator barriers, blending in with the crowd, is the man who runs the Li family business. “The Veloqx name came from a student project I did in Hong Kong,” Li explains. “We made it up: velocity; a ‘q’ for quality; ‘x’ for hi-tech; ‘v’ for victory. You know, all the meanings the kids like. If we had been cooking we would have mixed peanut butter with ketchup!” Li uses the name for his property business in Japan as well as the racing team. “I use it for everything I do – it brings me luck.” “I am actually not that superstitious, but 88 has won everything we have tried to do.” Li crosses his fingers and thinks ahead to Sunday afternoon. Race report: Hong Kong’s Team Veloqx finished second in the Le Mans 24-hours after leading over half of the race which was held in hot and dry conditions. The two-car Audi team was favourite for victory after monopolising the front row of the starting grid. The pole-position number 88 car of Johnny Herbert, Jamie Davis and Guy Smith led from the start until a rear suspension problem shortly after seven o’clock on Sunday morning forced a seven minute pit-stop. The trio fought back over the next nine hours and Herbert finished just 30 seconds behind the similar Audi R8 of Seiji Ara, only the second Japanese to win this most famous of sports car endurance races. Ara’s co-drivers in the Japanese Goh Team were Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen who has now won the event six times – including the last five in a row.
The second Veloqx car of Allan McNish, Frank Biela and Pierre Kaffer was involved in a heavy crash when McNish hit an oil slick early in the race. Repairs took over an hour dropping the number eight car to 46th place. Suffering from the effects of the impact, McNish was unable to drive any further and the Biela-Kaffer duo had a tough job driving back to fifth place at the finish.
For Sam Li, the owner of Veloqx, the combination of exhaustion – he hadn’t slept for almost 36-hours – and the emotion of the event resulted in despair. After pacing around the pit wall for the final hour of the race, this highly-motivated individual just stood and wept as the chequered flag fell. “To come so near and not win is immensely disappointing,” said the 33-year old. “It’s very hard to talk about next year at the moment, but we’ll have to come back and do one better.”
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