Great Dane

I know what you’re thinking: This guy looks really European and tan. I bet he’s an actor or a European count who races on the side. Yes, he’s definitely royalty. You’re also thinking: Let me turn to the next page and see what he’s all about. Maybe he was in CHiPs or Falcon Crest. These Super Street fellas talk a lot about CHiPs. Um, no, he wasn’t in CHiPs. He must drive this car, whatever it is. What is it? What’s it doing in Super Street? These clowns have gone nuts. I’m canceling my subscription. They’ve never sent me my stickers anyway. I hate them all. I wish them ill.

Slow down, ace. Let me explain. For those of you only interested in Silvia conversions, drag racing, and chicks…I’m sorry, you are the victim of a sudden and drastic editorial whim. But truly, what would you have done in my shoes? What would you have done if one of the most accomplished drivers in the world—someone who has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice—offered your little magazine an exclusive interview? Consider this an opportunity to rub a golden egg in the fat face of a much more heralded sister publication called Motor Trend, and you should start to get what I’m talking about. So, friends again?

Meet Tom Kristensen. He’s Danish. His tan is of such even perfection that you actually respect the work that went into it. He gets it from living in a flat in the tax-free vacation mecca of Monaco, running in the same circles as F1 celebs. Tom is a competition jumkie who takes his tennis, racquetball, and just about every other sport very seriously. But he is most fiercly competitive at his day job where he drives one of the most technologically advanced race cars currently in existence: the Audi/Infineon R8 Le Mans Prototype car.

Le Mans Prototype cars are monocoque chassis race cars with full carbon-fiber body panels that are sculpted to create as much downforce as possible. When stationary, these cars look like space-age playground equipment. When in motion, it’s tough to make out any shape at all.

Last year, Kristensen won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Audi/Infineon R8. As you can probably guess by the sound of it, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is one of those crazy European events that have no basis in logic or reasoning, like Spain’s Running of the Bulls and France’s Bastille Day. Le Mans (as Kristensen calls it) is 24 straight hours of racing, and in the world of motorsports there is no single race universally acknowledged as more daunting and intimidating. Last year, General Motors spent the kind of money that only GM can on a Cadillac team that didn’t even come close to winning. Since the embarrassment, GM has spent an entire calendar year preparing one Cadillac solely for the race. That is how important Le Mans is to win and how difficult it is to accomplish that feat.

Kristensen has won it twice. In Denmark, Kristensen can’t go anywhere without being noticed and stopped for autographs. He is the country’s version of Michael Jordan. Here in America, he is like you and me, only with more expensive clothing and better hair. Kristensen was born on July 7, 1967, in the small town of Hobro, Denmark, because all towns in Denmark are pretty small. As with most European drivers, Kristensen started racing go-karts. After taking championships in the junior and professional levels, he left motorsports to pursue his education, in banking of all things.

But the thought of staying behind a desk didn’t thrill the Dane, and he returned to racing in 1991 as the works driver for Volkswagen in the German Formula 3 championship. That led to a ride in Japan’s Formula 3 series. He won the driver’s title in 1993 and stayed in Japan for the next few years competing in Touring car and Formula Nippon, Japan’s version of Formula 3000 (the training ground for F1). In 1994, he came in Second in the Touring car and equaled that feat in Formula Nippon the following year.

In 1996, he returned to Europe to race Formula 3000. In 1997, he signed on as one of the three drivers of the Team Joest Porsche Le Mans team, driving alongside former F1 pilot Michele Alboreto and fellow Scandinavian Stefan Johansson. They won. His second victory came last year with Audi Sport. In between Le Mans titles, Kristensen has spent time in the British Touring Car Championships and has been testing Formula One cars for Williams and Jaguar.