Brit teenager makes Le Mans history

Posted Jun 13th 2009 5:10PM by David Hobbs
Filed under: Sports/GTs, Motorsports, Racing cars

Just after 7.30pm on Saturday evening Nigel Moore drove into the pits after completing his first run in the Le Mans 24 Hours, making history in the process.

The 17-year-old, who is racing for Team LNT in a Ginetta Zytek, became the youngest British driver to compete at Le Mans and marked the latest stage in a remarkably meteoric rise in motorsport.

Three years ago Moore was racing in karts before winning a British Racing Drivers Club scholarship to compete in the Ginetta GT Junior series, which he won. He followed this with the Ginetta G50 Cup in 2008, winning 14 of the 20 races and also broke into the British GT4 Championships. Not bad work for someone born in 1992.

(Quick nostalgia check: what was happening in 1992 when Nigel Moore was born? John Major was elected Prime Minister and Nigel Mansell won the F1 Championship)

So, how was the younger Nigel's first taste of Le Mans?

"The car was really, good, realiable and consistent and I picked up a few places. I did an hour and half, which is about two stints."

"Before this weekend we'd not had much time in the car. We had a day at Silverstone when I got a couple of laps in to get a feel for it, but this is the first proper running and my first real session was during the night in practice from 10.30pm.

Gallery: Le Mans Girls

"We had some mechanical issues at the start but we've sorted them out. We've not really thought about final position but as long as we finish we should be on the first page or so!"

Team boss and team-mate Richard Dean said of Moore's stint: "Nigel did an amazing job, he was totally buzzing when he came off the first stint and to bring us up to 21st position is a real result for him.

"It was a challenging first two hours [for the team] but the initial problems with the alternator are completely fixed. we're confident going into the night shift and hope to be back into the top 20 soon."

Keep your eyes peeled for the #6 car, it could have a brigth future ahead of it.

Gallery: 24 hours Le Mans 2009 II