Allen going for back-to-back Le Mans victories

James Allen is gunning for back-to-back 24 Hours of Le Mans class victories this weekend, and the Aussie with a childhood Le Mans affinity is honoured to be present for its centennial edition.

The round the clock epic at Circuit de la Sarthe carries a bit of extra weight this year, as the world’s greatest race celebrates 100 years of a competition that has helped accelerate the drive for automotive excellence.

Whilst only four Australians have taken the outright in 100 years – ranking it 11th on the all-time country winners list – a decent handful have also taken out class victories.

James Allen and the AGP team improved to a class P5 in the second 24 Hours of le Mans test session ahead of this evenings qualifying

LMP2 driver James Allen was added to that list last year when he and his Algarve Pro Racing (APR) teammates took the chequered flag in the Pro-am class with American Steven Thomas and Rene Binder.

He also backed that up with an astounding photo finish victory at the Daytona 24 at the start of this year, and now tackles Le Mans with another American duo with APR, Colin Braun and George Kurtz (CEO of CrowdStrike).

Allen spoke track side about what it means to be involved in the centennial of an event he dreamt about as a kid.

“We won the LMP2 Pro Am last year with Steven and Rene, and the competition is definitely very tough this year so it’ll be hard, but I’d love to win it again,” Allen said.

Allen (R) will take on this years Le Mans with American pairing Colin Braun (L) and Crowdstrike CEO, George Kurtz (centre). Image: Gruppe C Photography

“Not everyone gets to race at the one hundredth anniversary of any race…so it’s definitely a huge thing for me. 

“I’d always wanted to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a kid, so to be here at the centennial is quite an amazing thing to experience.

On whether or not his round the clock Daytona victory can translate at de la Sarthe, Allen says the two races are entirely different propositions.

“Daytona and Le Mans are entirely two different races, Daytona is very much about keeping it on track and keeping it safe for most of the race, and you can even afford to lose a few laps here and there,” he explained.  

Aussie James Allen took out the LMP2 class win in a thrilling photo finish at his third Daytona 24

“Here you just have to be on it all the time for the whole 24 hours, so just cause I won Daytona, I certainly don’t expect to come here and win.

“I definitely want to win because it’s the only time you can get this particular one hundredth anniversary trophy…but you always want to win Le Mans anyway, so there’s no more pressure than usual in that regard.”

Allen (second from left) took out the 2022 LMP2 Pro Am class win at the 24 hours of Le Mans, living out a childhood dream

The test day started out slowly for Allen and the defending #45 ORECA APR team, with the Portuguese outfit running four seconds off the pace in the first session, but improved to a class P5 in the second.

Allen put down a 3min 38.264 to drag the team back to a +1.113 deficit to the class P1, with both the first official practice and qualifying coming in the same day (this evening in Australian time), with the top eight of each class to go through to a Hyperpole session the following day.

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