Tom Kristensen to retire after last world endurance race
From Audi Sport
The driver with the record for the highest number of wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Tom Kristensen, will contest his last race as a professional race driver in Sao Paulo, Brazil at the end of November. The 47-year-old Dane will be retained by the brand with the four rings as a representative and partner of Audi Sport.
Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich got the Dane to join Audi at the end of 1999. Together with Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro, Tom Kristensen, in the 12-hour race at Sebring in March of 2000, achieved Audi’s first victory in a sports car race, plus the brand’s first victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours in June of 2000. In the Audi R8, the trio Biela/Pirro/Kristensen was the first driver team in history to win the world’s most famous endurance race three times in succession. With Bentley and two Audi customer teams, Kristensen, from 2003 to 2005, celebrated three more wins at Le Mans, marking six consecutive wins. In 2008 and 2013, the Dane took two more victories, in the new Audi R10 TDI and the Audi R18 e-tron quattro. With a track record of nine victories in total, Tom Kristensen is the most successful Le Mans driver of all time. |
||||