There are few places on Earth that make Darren Turner happier than the cockpit of an Aston Martin while charging flat-out down the world famous Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans. This year the three-times 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner was able to experience that in two very different but familiar machines; the pre-war Aston Martin LM4 and the mighty 6-litre V12-powered DBR9 (with which he won the GT1 class in 2007), as he made his Le Mans Classic debut last weekend.
The Le Mans Classic brings together a magical collection of racing cars that have competed through the event’s 100-year history. Divided into six Plateaus, or grids, of cars from different periods, each is given three 50-minute races through a 24-hour period on the full Circuit de la Sarthe. One on Saturday afternoon, the second through the night, and the third on Sunday.
Turner was invited to join Jonathan Lupton, the owner of the glorious Aston Martin LM4 built in period to contest the 1930 24 Hours of Le Mans, and now prepared and run superbly by Ecurie Bertelli. Even in her heyday, cars such as the LM4 were outgunned and outpowered by the mighty Bentleys and Alfa Romeos, so the organisers of Le Mans introduced the Index of Performance which was a handicapped system that balanced out the varied performance of the different machinery and created an overall winner. In this spirit, Le Mans Classic runs a similar system.
And even though there were nine classes in Plateau 1, Turner and Lupton managed to qualify the little OS2-classified LM4 13th on the grid for the races.
“Jonathan started all three races and he did a great job,” explained Turner. “Especially since he had all these ‘big bangers’ charging down on him on the Mulsanne. It’s not easy to stay out of the way, out of trouble and not lose lap time – and we were sharing the track with 80 or so other cars!”
Once Lupton completed his stints, Turner would then jump in and use his experience to bring the car back through the field. In each of the three races, the duo won their class and their combined performance ensured that when all the results were added together LM4 was crowned the overall Index of Performance winner for Plateau 1.
But the victory was only part of the magic for Turner, who had an “absolute ball” all weekend both in the main Classic event and the two supporting Endurance Racing Legends races for 1990s and 2000s machinery.
“Thanks to Francois Perrodo, who brought six of his cars to the event, I was able to experience the DBR9 again that I won the 2007 race with – and that was just magic and the difference between the two cars I drove was completely weird!
“Every corner was just a completely different sensation. The entry speed for the braking zone into the first chicane on the Mulsanne was a 90mph difference, but having said all that the reference points were similar, because the braking on LM4 was so much less efficient to the modern DBR9. The biggest contrast was the gearshifts. In the DBR9, it was shift, 100 percent throttle and a lovely crack of the engine noise when it clicked in. Whereas with LM4 every single gearshift was an adventure!”
“That blew Jonathan’s mind,” said Turner. “In 18 months, he’s gone from a complete novice to a winner of one the most important classic motorsport events in the world.”
It didn’t take long for Turner to snap into the old routine with DBR9 and, even while matched against cars in a faster class such as the Toyota GT-One and Pescarolos, he was able to race up to third overall in the wet 50-minute pitstop race on Saturday morning. As the track began to dry, Turner slipped back to fifth, but that was enough to finish top of the GT1B class. He followed that up with a second place in class in the last race of the meeting on Sunday afternoon.
All in all, Turner, along with Lupton, won all three Classic Plateau 1 races in the OS2 Class, as well as the Index of Performance. And then added to that a victory and a second place in the DBR9.
“I was very grateful to Francois for letting me race the DBR9 again,” said Turner. “It’s an epic car and driving around that circuit is the best feeling in the world. And I was delighted for Jonathan and Katie with the result for LM4 and Ecurie Bertelli. They have done a huge amount of work bringing that car up to the performance it’s got and the journey that the owners are on is lovely to watch.”
Would he do it all again? “Definitely, but I need to figure out how to get some sleep! The way the Classic works, by the time you’ve finished the race and sorted yourself out, it’s time to get ready to go racing again! But I loved it.”
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