I am currently one of the happiest men alive. Why? I’m a sportsman and I’ve won something significant? No not yet. I’m earning a lot of money? Lord no. I’m tall and handsome? Well sure that helps, but mainly it’s because I get to do what I love for a living. Racing does not currently provide a living but I am fortunate to work as driver coach to the next generation of young drivers. As part of my duties with Fortec Motorsport, I look after drivers who win races and championships in Formula Renault Eurocup and Northern European (NEC) championships, and also independently with drivers in Formula 3 and Porsche Carrera Cup. I’m in my 7th year of coaching at this level, and still learning and deriving as much satisfaction as when I started. It makes me a better and more rounded driver, I’m more open-minded, critical of my performance and generally in touch with what the best drivers, engineers and team managers in the world are like. It pays to listen and learn. I enjoy the success of my young drivers and seeing their progression as much as I enjoy my own, and that is the truth.

All of this said there is nothing better than being back in the seat of a racing car yourself, and with the KCMG WEC and Le Mans 24 Hour campaign I finally feel like a professional driver. We have a strong driver line-up and myself, and my team-mates Alex and Ho-Pin have an excellent relationship. We welcomed Greg Wheeler as Chief Engineer recently at our pre-Le Mans test at Magny-Cours and he has gelled very well, bringing a huge amount of experience and a zero tolerance for driver bulls”t, which we are ALL guilty of at any time, with no exceptions. The 2-day test at Magny-Cours was the first time we could test at night and run our Le Mans aero which is naturally configured for the famous and long Mulsanne straights of the La Sarthe circuit, and as a three driver line-up we are fortunately closely matched and similar in our feedback. Doesn’t get much better than that. Our team are excellent, as I mentioned before I’ve seen how different teams operate and have a good idea what makes them succeed and fail, and the KCMG WEC team has the perfect balance of good humour (and by that I mean almost relentless inter-team abuse) complementing an intense work ethic. I can feel something pretty special is just around the corner…

Back to the driving at Magny-Cours, driving this circuit with the Le Mans setting was not ideal as it is very much a high downforce circuit, but we gathered a lot of data on setup and tires, with our engineer Greg cleverly rotating us regularly to keep continuity of feedback, and the car went from feeling unpleasantly nervous to being extremely good by the end of the first day. Given that the second day was all wet this could not have been a better situation. Having run on circuit from 9am until 8pm, the time came to venture out into the night. I wouldn’t say I was nervous as such, just aware I was heading into uncharted territory. My team-mates Alex and Ho-Pin have both experienced night driving albeit not in an open cockpit car, but regardless their reassurance was very comforting. No sooner had it started to go dark, we were greeted with an unwelcome downpour. Now I really was nervous! Tired and calibrated to dry running my instincts told me this was not a good idea, and I voiced this with the team. I was told politely to stop whining and get on with it, and I ventured out into the pitch black knowing it was wet, but other than the rain in the headlights, not being able to see any water on the circuit at all.

We had the pit straight lit and the rest of the circuit dark to simulate racing in and out of the lit/dark areas on the Le Mans circuit. As I accelerated out of the brightly lit pit lane I had the strangest feeling. I was in a racing car, noisy, powerful, grippy (even in the wet), and yet my brain could tell something was different. Peripheral vision is non-existent and with it, any sense of speed. Your eyes are drawn to the beam from your powerful headlights which gives a tunnel-vision effect, and I noticed my other senses seemed sharpened, I could feel the rain water working its way through my suit and was more aware of the wind noise than usual. After a lap I quickly started to get used to it, and when in consistent light, be it dark or bright your eyes adjust well. The real difficulty is going from bright to dark as for a moment you can’t see anything. The fact that at Magny-Cours this point was the 230km/h Turn 1 meant a few interesting moments, and feeling aquaplaning (when the tire tread fills up and you float) but not seeing it is something I doubt you can ever get used to. However, ‘slow down, you’re too fast’ was the message over the radio, and given how seriously fast my team-mates had been in these conditions this was excellent news for us all!

With night testing completed, the second day was more of the same but in wet conditions, and once again the car and team are looking extremely good. Next up is Le Mans itself and we are under no illusions. This is going to be tough. There are 22 LMP2s entered this year, experienced teams with ex-F1, current Indycar and GP2 drivers amongst others, and importantly with many year of Le Mans experience. We are as well prepared as we can be however, and have more than enough youth and burning motivation to help make up for our inexperience. Lorenzo vs. Rossi or Vettel vs. Schumacher in recent years gives you an indication of the value of youthful motivation against pure experience. Thanks to my personal trainer Anthony Helme at Virgin Active in Preston I’m in the best physical condition of my career, thanks to Brian at 1st-ticket my family and friends are all set up to form my first ever fan club at Le Mans, and thanks to Craig at Nippy Designs I will be proudly displaying my colours at the biggest motor sport race in the world. Fortunately we will also have the excellent Simon Fitchett and Tony Carr from GTA Global and the Nismo lab looking after us physically and mentally during one of the most gruelling events in racing.

The first official test takes place on Sunday the 9th of June where each driver has to complete 10 laps of the circuit to ‘qualify’ for the race, so that will be our priority. I am hugely lucky to be in this whole situation, and doing it with two great guys and fierce competitors like Alex Imperatori and Ho-Pin Tung, and with a team of such talented personnel as we have at KCMG is making the prospect of achieving something truly exceptional a reality. Next up is a photo shoot with car and drivers at the foot of the Eiffel Tower (oh yes, right under it), an absolute once in a lifetime prospect. You might think I’m like a child on Christmas eve? No. More like a teenager on Christmas eve, which also happens to be his birthday, and whereby Christmas day is to be spent in a jacuzzi with the entire Victoria Secret model portfolio, followed by a trolley dash in a Ferrari dealership and a night out with Kimi Raikkonen. Yep, now you’re somewhere near where I am right now…..

Source : Matt Howson