24 Hours of Le Mans

Epsilon Euskadi: We’ll be back!

© Planetlemans - Gabriel Portos

To finish in your first attempt at the Le Mans 24 Hours is something close to impossible as motorsport history shows. We were 5 hours short of it…but 2008 is over and we look forward to 2009 already. It was a titanic effort but not an undefined one, the effort had names and faces, those of the more than 40 people the were part of the Epsilon Euskadi etam at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

We got very far. First we passed the challeneg of arriving to the night racing period, an achievement altogether. The first hours of Sunday were demolishing for mechanics and engineers, exhausted after a week of hard work with 20-hour days. Saturday 7 o’clock in the morning the whole team was on pitbox 20 of the La Sarthe circuit to get everything ready for the start at 15.00.

Just after 19.00 the gearbox of car number 21 gave up. However, instead of throwing the towel, the mechanics worked for 7 uninterrupted hours to rebuild it. A huge workload that had its reward when the engined roared again after 1.00 in the morning. Around midnight car number 20 started experiencing a fuel leak, a problem that usually ends up in a retirement 99% of the cases but not this time around. Five hours later, after detecting and fixing the leak, the car was back on the track.

After 9.00 and within a 15 minute period both gerboxes failed. Number 21 made it to the pits but number 20 stalled outside on the circuit. At 9:54 and with a disappointed gesture the team manager signed the official retirement closing the first outing of a Spanish car at the Le Mans 24 Hours with only 5 hours to go.

Le Mans is the toughest race in the worls. We were prepared to finish it and we almost made it thanks to the dedication of all the team combined with an extraordinary motivation. This has only just begun: Epsilon Euskadi’s commitment and intention still is to bring Spanish motorsport into a new era, that of the creation of a great Spanish racing constructor which did not exist until now. And obviously also to proudly represent Spain on international motorsport.

The support given to us by the Spanish fans at the circuit, at the pitbox and from the grandstands is our most precious fuel. Even more motivated by this we’ll be back next year at Le Mans. Many thanks to all our supporters!