Although his name may be indelibly linked with Audi, Tom Kristensen did in fact compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with two other German constructors: BMW (1998-1999) and Porsche in 1997. That year, he discovered the circuit at the wheel of the Joest Porsche-TWR prototype which had taken Alex Wurz, Davy Jones and Manuel Reuter to victory twelve months earlier. Kristensen teamed up with the Italian Michele Alboreto and the Swede Stefan Johansson, who had already been team-mates for Ferrari in Formula One in the mid-eighties.

Competition from the prototypes (Ferrari 333 SP, Courage-Porsche and Kremer Porsche) and the GTs (Porsche 911 GT1, Nissan R390 and McLaren F1 GTR) was made all the more fierce by the fact that this Joest Porsche-TWR was the only one on the grid. Nonetheless Alboreto, Johansson and Kristensen won the race ahead of two McLaren F1 GTRs. For Alboreto and Johansson, already forty-somethings, this success was the crowning achievement of a long career. It was also to shape the sporting destiny of Kristensen, then just about to turn 30, who, eight years later, would go on to eclipse Jacky Ickx’s record number of wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. But he shared with Ickx the experience of having won with a Porsche engine!

Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO - English translation by David Goward

Photo (D.R. - ACO Archives): LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, 14–15 JUNE 1997, RACE. It was with Reinhold Joest and Porsche that Tom Kristensen, pictured here at the wheel, won his first 24 Hours in his debut appearance at Le Mans.